Knowledge Broker Diary: Day 167

The following is a guest blog posting from David Yetman, Manager of Knowledge Mobilization at the Leslie Harris Centre with Memorial University in St. Johns, NL. Visit their web site at www.mun.ca/harriscentre

I am a part-time PhD student and a full-time knowledge broker. And today I feel like Sisyphus. You never heard of him, hey? He was the poor Greek son of a… king who took pleasure in killing and was sentenced to a life’s struggle of pushing a boulder up a hill, only to reach the top with the curse of it falling down the hill again. Never (never!) to reach the top. Sounds a bit like positioning academic research to contribute to society. You think the change is happening… and then… before you know it, you are back to the base of the hill.

The graduate student gives me hope. I have no background in pedagogy or theories of learning. I have no need to fulfill tenure requirements. But I do have an inkling that graduate students could be the most important human resource in our modern society.

What makes graduate students so very different? Their post-modern view of the world? Their affinity for drinking copious amounts of European beer? (OK, different, but not unique) Not at all. Graduate students are unique human beings because they have a passion for knowledge and they want to share that knowledge for the betterment of the world around them. Is that unique you ask? Everyone carries knowledge and wants to change the world (existentialists exit here). But graduate students do it with a special thrilling insight into how knowledge can change society. And they have special knowledge.

I make no apologies for saying that, in my humble opinion, academic knowledge is the peak of the highest learning mountain. It is the supreme athlete of the learning arena.  The peer-to-peer battle over ideas gives knowledge its strength. Peers beat the pulp out of knowledge for a reason; so it can stand on its own merits. And graduate students take that torch with vigour. They are interested, focused and committed. At Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada this year, there is a record number of graduate students. 2758 full and part-timers. 2758. That’s ten times the amount of people than the small community I grew up in. That’s 250 times the size of the average municipal council in Newfoundland and Labrador. That’s a lot of changing power.

I was reading on old University Affairs article the other day and it said only 51% of graduate students will go on to be academics. The other 49% will work in the public sector, not-for-profits, or start their own businesses. I’m not great at math, but that’s half. Half of all graduate students will choose not to be academics. I was shocked at that statistic, and enthused.

Imagine. Half of graduate students will be future academic researchers, half of them policy-makers. For the knowledge broker (able to leap silos in a single bound) it’s a future match made in Heaven. It is an infiltration of like-minded people who believe in the power of research. Who want to change the evidence-free decision-making culture in our system. 2758 (to infinity) pushing the boulder simultaneously, with a passion to push it over the top.

Married to a Mobilizer

As a York University graduate, a volunteer at York’s KM Unit, and the husband of the Director of the Office of Research Services & Knowledge Exchange at York, I have become quite familiar with the world of knowledge mobilization. David and I have been together for over fourteen years, and I’ve seen him grow personally and professionally from a post-doc research fellow to managing the business side of science, innovation and knowledge transfer at the university level.

More importantly, I’m proud and inspired to have witnessed the initiative of my husband in helping build the KM Unit at York (along with a great KM team), developing ResearchImpact – Canada’s knowledge mobilization network. David’s keen interest and involvement has taken KM from an early “pet project” of interest several years ago to participating and contributing today at both the national and international levels of knowledge brokering and policy making.

It was David’s initial, personal conversations we shared about KM that sparked my own interests in the variety of methods in which research and knowledge is exchanged, co-produced and practically applied between researchers and research-users. In fact, before graduating, one of my own research projects focused on the extent to which York University’s Department of Psychology has embodied KM.

I am a graduate of York’s Department of Psychology. After graduation – as a continuation of my own interest in knowledge mobilization – I began providing volunteer support at York’s KM Unit. To avoid any scrutiny of favouritism or conflict of interest, David placed me under the excellent and professional supervision of KM Unit Manager, Michael Johnny (I challenge you to try and find a clear profile headshot of him on the internet anywhere – either not wearing sunglasses or blinking!)

I am exclusively reporting to him as a volunteer. I have helped with the successful development and delivery of the annual KM Expo following the excellent lead of Knowledge Mobilization Officer Krista Jensen.

This is where some of you might remember me from the KM Expo last year, or from attending some of the KTE Communities of Practice meetings. I’ve also provided some support around key areas of data analysis for the ResearchImpact project. It was an enjoyable opportunity to join the KM Unit for a business trip to the University of Victoria earlier this year and present data at a ResearchImpact meeting (read the blog post here).

It’s a great privilege to have met such esteemed international and local mobilizers – from both university and community sectors – such as Angie Hart and Kim Aumann from the University of Brighton’s Community University Partnership Program; Stan Shapson, York’s Vice-President of Research & Innovation; Jane Gibson, Director of Knowledge Transfer and Exchange at the Institute for Work & Health; and Daniele Zanotti, CEO of United Way of York Region.

I’m looking forward to volunteering and participating in KM Expo 2010, hoping to see many of you again while networking with many more people within the KM community.

And remember; keep talking to your husband, wife, partner, girlfriend or boyfriend about KM because – sometimes when you marry a mobilizer, you can become a mobilizer too!

KM into My Future

The following is a guest blog posting from YorkU 4th year undergraduate student Andrei Sedoff. Andrei has worked in the YorkU KM Unit for the past 2 summers and throughout the academic year and has worked on the development of our clear language research summaries, which can be found on our web site here.

Andrei Sedoff

Being part of the KM Unit at York has been a profound learning experience for me. I have many important lessons from KM to take with me into the working world. KM is much more than just an acronym that you find difficult to describe to friends and family (a common question from friends is: “you do what to knowledge?”). It is a powerful toolkit for engaging knowledge in today’s plugged-in workplace. KM creates the space where we can pause and reflect on the meaning of all the information we are constantly bombarded with. This adds value to all the volume. I look forward to applying the concepts I learned from my work with the KM Unit after graduating. It is still unclear to me exactly where I want to build my career, but I aspire to work in international affairs. I feel that the multifaceted nature of KM is a good fit with wanting to have the world as your workplace. I think that any job that deals with international matters embodies the values practiced in KM, especially the focus on collaboration.

No global task may be successfully tackled by any one individual. Seeing problems through the KM lens has always encouraged me to partner with as many people as possible when tackling a challenge. I also think that my experience with KM’s unyielding desire to find innovative solutions will carry over into my future career. I want to apply the KM mindset to look at a problem from multiple angles and be unafraid to try a new approach. Most importantly, I feel that the KM approach has really helped me be able to simply pause and reflect. With the modern supercharged pace of any workplace, reflection is a precious luxury. I hope that I can preserve this feature in my future jobs. I am also really excited to have the opportunity to promote KM outside of York. While working for the KM Unit at York, I have met many of our community, research, and government partners. Virtually everyone I have met has been an enthusiastic ambassador for the KM model. I am excited to promote this model to colleagues in any future workplace.

Meet a Mobilizer – Laura Milne, University of Victoria

My name is Laura Milne. I grew up in Calgary Alberta, but moved to BC 10 years ago to go to the University of Victoria. After graduating in 2003 with a double major in Sociology and Anthropology, I worked a research assistant in Social Psychology for a while, waitressed on the weekends, and then somewhat spontaneously moved to Xi’an, China in 2006 to spend a year teaching at an English College. Upon returning to Canada in 2007, I stumbled upon the fascinating world of Knowledge Mobilization and Community Based Research, and was offered a job as Coordinator of Knowledge Mobilization here at UVic. The best part of my job is the challenge of coordinating the research needs of various stakeholders and encouraging and supporting collaboration. I also get great satisfaction of seeing how the experiences of individuals and communities can both influence research as well as impact policy.

Outside of work, I enjoy cooking, gardening, reading, attempting to surf, travelling as much as possible, and good, strong coffee. When I am not in my office, I am rarely seen without my dog, Parker. Parker and I really enjoy the active lifestyle and mild climate here on beautiful Vancouver Island, and spend a lot of time hiking and camping with friends. I love music and collecting CDs and vinyl, and I can often be spotted with friends checking out live bands in Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle.

Laura and Parker

Laura Milne

Meet a Mobilizer – Krista Jensen, York University

Greetings! I’m Krista Jensen, the Knowledge Mobilization Officer at York University. I have been with the KM Unit here at York since April of 2006. Before that I was in the non-profit, special library world. I have a Master of Information Studies with a specialization in Library Studies from the University of Toronto and a BA in Religion and Culture from Wilfrid Laurier University. Moving from the library world into the world of KM has been a great opportunity for me to use my information services skills in new and innovative ways.

Some of my favourite things to do when I’m not mobilizing knowledge are- reading, I especially enjoy mysteries and graphic novels; listening to music, my partner Neil and I have well over 400 CDs from pretty much every musical genre; going to the ballet, opera, live theatre and concerts; and one of my biggest passions in life is traveling. Neil and I just got back from a 2 week stay in Italy, where we visited Venice (you can see us having a very expensive lunch on the Canale dei Greci below), Florence, Lucca, the Cinque Terre and Tuscany, where we stayed on a farm where they grew their own grapes and olives. Not sure where we’ll be going next but I enjoy the planning almost as much as the trip itself so I’ll have lots of fun dreaming of possibilities.

Neil and Krista in Venice

Krista Bowling

Meet a Mobilizer – Andrei Sedoff, York University

My name is Andrei Sedoff and I am a third year York University student pursuing an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Criminology. I had the great privilege to join the KM team through the RAY (Research at York) program in May of 2008 as a Research Translation Assistant. I spent this summer working closely with Jason Guriel to prepare research summaries of some of the finest social science research conducted at York. My career aspirations are to one day get my PhD and become a university Professor. It was hence a great privilege to become part of KM, where I experienced daily interaction with academics and analyzed their research on subjects as diverse as homelessness, immigration, and healthcare for marginalized populations. The RAY program gave me a fantastic opportunity to test-drive the world of social science research and helped sharpen my career goals. I am grateful to stay on as part of the KM team into the school year. KM has also been a unique social experience for me. It was great to always feel included in a team where I had the least experience and education. I think that the most important quality for knowledge mobilizers is to be a team player, since KM is about collaborating to make knowledge accessible and useful to all parties involved. I am grateful that my university experience has included KM and I look forward to continuing my work with the project.

Andrei Sedoff

Andrei Sedoff

meet a mobilizer – Jason Guriel, York University

My name is Jason Guriel, and I’m a Ph.D. Candidate in English at York University, with an interest in contemporary American poetry. I’m a published poet and critic, but for the last few summers, I’ve also helped to craft research summaries for the Knowledge Mobilization (KM) Unit at York University. Some of my professors would probably be scared of the vaguely militaristic term, “Knowledge Mobilization,” but they have nothing to be afraid of! KM is about communication, and this job has been more than just a summer gig that pays the bills between teaching assignments; it certainly has involved more than just summarizing academic research. The KM Unit has given me the chance to not only learn about the very best of York research but to help make some of it more accessible to a wider audience. The KM Unit is also a fun group to work with, and not a bad bunch of bowlers!

meet a mobilizer – michael johnny, york university

Hi. I am Michael Johnny, a knowledge broker at York University. It is what I do and what I enjoy. But it is not who I am. But then who ever grows up aspiring to be a knowledge broker (yet)? My mother told me I wanted to be the person that cleaned street lights. My healthy respect (OK, fear) of heights meant that dream is now a distant memory.

I prefer to introduce myself as a father. My daughter’s name is Meghan. For almost seven years now, Meghan and I have enjoyed an annual trip to Algonquin Park with good friends from Turkey (below from left to right, Didem, Meghan and I). The trip north allows us some quality time together, as well as a chance for me to recharge the batteries! I still argue an Algonquin is one of life’s pleasures that can’t be beat.

When I am not mobilizing knowledge or canoeing in the north, I enjoy spending time with my finacée. We met at our high school reunion (for real)!

Golf, cooking, red wine, walking my dog Charlie, and a recent introduction to the bass guitar are hobbies that keep me happy and healthy!

Meet a Mobilizer – David Phipps, York University

David never wanted to be a knowledge broker.  David wanted to be a veterinarian but along the way discovered research (PhD Immunology, Queen’s University, 1991) and subsequently moved into technology transfer at U of T when he identified a novel marker of HIV infection.  Moving from doing research to managing research started a career that continually spanned the boundaries between researchers and research users (companies, government agencies, community organizations).  By connecting researchers with researcher users to help move research into practice or policy, David became a knowledge broker. In his current role as Director of York’s Office of Research Services David leads tradition research services (research grants and contracts) as well as technology commercialization and knowledge mobilization as a service to York faculty and graduate students.  He is the PI on three knowledge mobilization institutional grants (two tri-council IM grants and one SSHRC KIS grant) and one knowledge mobilization research grant.

 

While wanting to be a veterinarian and subsequently geeking out in a lab David also nurtured a bohemian side as a flute player while also dancing ballet for 20 years (he took a summer off his PhD to dance at Canada’s Wonderland!).  He currently sings in Counterpoint Chorale, a Toronto-based chamber choir but apparently fails to impress either gargoyles or cats….