The Canvas for Community Engagement

Anne Carroll has been a consultant and trainer in public involvement and strategic planning for many years, serving primarily the public sector in both the USA and Canada. She focuses on designing and implementing inclusive and meaningful community engagement on important public issues, reaching out to and engaging diverse groups of people and perspectives, and tackling complex and multi-stakeholder environments. She served for 16 years as an elected member of the citywide St. Paul (Minnesota, USA) Board of Education, and has served as a board member or committee chair with the International Association for Public Participation USA and the Minnesota Chapter, Minnesota Education Equity Partnership, and E-Democracy.org.

Kristin N. Williams is a sociologist, former professor, and researcher whose work spans academia, consulting, and community engagement. As Founder and Principal Consultant of NineteenEleven, she helps local governments, nonprofits, and advocacy organizations design surveys, engagement processes, and listening strategies that produce information that is meaningful, actionable, and defensible.

Kristin's focus is bridging the social sciences and community engagement — bringing evidence-based methods into practice while keeping research grounded in the realities practitioners face every day. A recipient of the 2021 Marvin Collins Planning Engagement Award (APA–North Carolina), she holds IAP2, GARE, and Racial Equity Institute training. Her perspective helps ensure CE Canvas strengthens the quality of the information behind engagement decisions, and that AI creates more space for human judgement rather than replacing it.

Andrea Gebhart, AICP, is a community engagement and planning professional with more than a decade of experience helping communities navigate complex projects and decisions. She leads Planning & Engagement at JEO Consulting Group, a multidisciplinary engineering, architecture, and planning firm serving communities across the Midwest. Andrea brings expertise in public participation, community planning, qualitative research, and communication to the CE Canvas Engagement Practice Advisory Team.

Hilary Farson is an expert facilitator, engagement practitioner and storyteller who believes impactful engagement means including — and genuinely making space for — diverse experiences and perspectives. As Principal and Co-founder of Spur Communication in Vancouver, she has a knack for designing thought-provoking campaigns and facilitating constructive community dialogue, especially when the stakes are high.

A multi-award-winning strategist with more than a decade of industry experience, Hilary specializes in public sector projects and has worked with all levels of government across the health, education, infrastructure and transportation sectors. She serves on the national board of IAP2 Canada and takes an intersectional and anti-colonial approach to facilitation and project design, with a deep commitment to making public engagement more equitable and accessible.