WINCan

wincan support team

Tom Carey

Blake Melnick

Anahita Baregheh

Yemisi Iyilade

Peter Totterdill

Tyrenny Anderson

Kyla Lewis

Victoria Abboud

Natasha Lopes

Adam Frye

Janet Zlotnik

Tom Carey describes himself as a “Serial Intrapreneur within Higher Education”. In addition to his WINCan role, Tom is currently Executive-in-Residence for Teaching and Learning Innovation at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) and Research Professor Emeritus at San Diego State University. Tom’s past leadership roles in Canada include Associate Vice President at the University of Waterloo, Senior Research Director for the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, and Executive-in-Residence for the B.C. Association of Institutes and Universities.

In the U.S., Tom’s leadership roles have included Chief Learning Officer for a network of 18 U.S. higher education public systems hosted by the California State University Chancellor’s Office (Long Beach, CA), Visiting Scholar for the  California Community Colleges Success Network (Los Angeles, CA) and Senior Partner for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Palo Alto, CA). 

In his faculty appointments in Canada (Guelph, Waterloo) and the U.S. (San Diego State), Tom’s work received awards for excellence in teaching and learning, research on user experience design and interactive technologies, collaboration across academic institutions and industry-university cooperative projects . He was also co-leader of the Research Theme on Workplace Learning in Canada’s national Network of Centres of Excellence for Online Learning and collaborated with international research teams in the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Brazil and Australia,

Blake is one of Canada’s foremost experts in the field of Knowledge Management. He is currently the CEO and Chief Knowledge Officer  for the Knowledge Management Institute of Canada. Blake leads Knowledge Management training and certification for Fortune 500 companies around the world.

Blake has held executive positions in a variety of organizations over the past 20 years and has worked closely with Government, Business, Education, and Not for Profit organizations to help them improve their knowledge processes strategies.

Anahita is an Associate Professor at Nipissing University’s School of Business. Her research focuses on innovation management (process and orientation), decision-making, and leadership. Anahita leads a research project on innovation decision-making among SMEs in the manufacturing sector. Her past research includes multidisciplinary typologies and mapping tools for innovation project types.

Yemisi is a project management professional (PMP) and Leadership coach. She has helped to build more effective and engaged teams across Healthcare, Non-profit, Information Technology, and Education sectors.  As a project manager and coach, Yemisi helps team leaders and project managers to align their processes with organizational strategy and objectives. Currently, she has a special interest in Co-Design project management and the incorporation of new perspectives into project management (e.g., intersectional and trauma lenses, and enhanced capabilities to lead innovation projects).

Peter Totterdill is a Founding Director of Workplace Innovation Europe and one of the co-creators of the concept of workplace innovation and of the EU's Workplace Innovation Network of researchers and leading-edge organizations. He is working with our WINCan Research Team on adapting research insights and exemplary practices from Europe into our Canadian contexts.

Peter’s career has focused on building bridges between academic knowledge and practice, and his principal area of interest and expertise lies in organisational practices that combine high performance and high quality of working life. Peter has led successful innovation and change initiatives in a wide range of private and public sector organisations. He has also worked closely with policymakers in several countries, and in the European Commission where he has been a consistent advocate for workplace innovation.

Dr. Totterdill was previously a Professor and Director of The Work Institute at Nottingham Trent University in the U.K. and is currently a Visiting Professor at Kingston University in London.

Tyrenny currently leads an initiative to test WINCan workplace resources and insights within academic institutions. She also heads the WINCan’s Knowledge Synthesis on Intrapreneurship Capability. As a professional coach and business advisor, Tyrenny designs and facilitates workshops on Human-Centred Design and Design Thinking. She also currently teaches in Innovation skills courses for the Masters of Managing Innovation program at UTM and is an Entrepreneur Coach for TMU’s Social Venture Zone.

In Tyrenny’s past roles, she served as Managing Director of VUKA Innovation, regional Director of Operations for one of Canada’s leading companies in the Health and Wellness sector and as a Consultant with Rotman Nexus Consulting.

Gillian is an English Upgrading Instructor in the Faculty of Academic and Career Preparation and Educational Consultant (Instructional Design and ePortfolio Advancement) at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Kyla Lewis is an undergrad student in McMaster University's Integrated Science (ISci) program who worked as WINCan's part-time student Research Intern in summer 2024. Kyla is working toward a career path that blends biological sciences and urbanism; she can also be seen at McMaster teams' home games as part of the very athletic Cheer Squad energizing the crowd's support.  

Vicki is a Lecturer and Researcher in the University of Windsor’s Department of Communication, Media and Film and the Tech Talent Strategist for WEtech Alliance, the Ontario Regional Innovation Centre for Windsor-Essex. An educator for two decades and the founder of The Spirited Academic, she was previously the national Director of Changemaker Education for Ashoka Canada where she worked with Canadian colleges and universities in the Ashoka U Network of institutions “creating a culture of changemaking as the new norm in higher education.”

Victoria’s past roles also include Program Manager, Senior Leadership Training, for MaRS Discovery District as well as teaching and leadership positions with academic institutions in Alberta, B.C., Ontario, Michigan, and Brazil. Her current research is focused on developing professional efficacy through systems thinking, social impact, and effective communication for international students in STEM fields.

Natasha Castela Lopes worked with our WINCan team as a student research assistant in B.C. and then completed a Master's degree in the Graduate School for Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. Her Master's research project focused on service delivery, social mobilizations, long term policy analysis and economic planning. Natasha is trilingual, having worked in English, French and Portuguese. She believes "innovation can bring everyone into the future, leaving no one behind."

Adam Frye is currently a Business Development Manager at ViRTUS. a management and leadership consulting firm with a home base in Whistler B.C. Previously, Adam was Director of Operations and Partnerships for the WEtech Alliance regional innovation centre in Windsor ON and the leader of their Innovation Catalysts program. Adam also has successful entrepreneurial experience with a start-up in the not-for-profit sector.

Janet Zlotnik is a Project Lead in Academic Support Planning at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. She previously was a faculty member and department head in English at Vancouver Community College, a Language Consultant for two B.C. professional associations and an instructor at universities in Canada and China.