Joanna Ochocki, Ph.D.
Joanna has led community engaged research (CBR) and knowledge mobilization activities for almost 20 years. She sees research as a catalyst for social innovation, for public policy improvements and for promoting knowledge democracy in which local knowledge is valued in building local solutions. She has worked with many not-for-profit organizations, academic institutions, government funders, philanthropic foundations, and community groups on a variety of social issues. and people has been at the heart of many of these activities.
Since 1996, Joanna has been Director of the Centre for Community Based Research (CCBR) overseeing over 300 research projects and managing research staff and students. She is adjunct associate professor at both University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University being an active academic teacher, and supervisor. Joanna teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses. In 2005 she won WLU Award for Teaching Excellence. Joanna has authored over 50 academic articles and co-authored a book. She has presented at over 120 conferences.
Nationally, Joanna is one of the leaders of community-university engagement. She is vice-chair of Community Based Research Canada (CBRC), board member of Community Based Research Ethics Board (CREB) and plays a secretariat role for the CUEXpo movement, the country’s major venue for community-campus research capacity. This November she led a SSHRC-funded National Summit for over 60 scholars to establish indicators of excellence in collaborative community campus research in Canada.
Internationally, Joanna is an active member of the Global Alliance on Community Based Research (GACER). She gave a plenary workshop at the 6th Global University Network for Innovation (GUNi) Conference in Barcelona, Spain 2013 and presented at the Living Knowledge Conferences in Germany, UK and Northern Ireland. She led an evaluation of the Canadian Immigration Integration Project in China, India and the Philippines. Recently Joanna has provided CBR training and engagement to academics and government officials in Indonesia.