Donald G. Lenihan
Vice-President, Engagement, the Public Policy Forum.
Last Contribution:
Shifting Identities
Contributor Biography
Dr. Lenihan – Ph.D, MA, BA – is is Vice-President, Engagement, at the Public Policy Forum in Ottawa, where he leads a number of national projects on public engagement and governance. His most recent paper, “Rethinking the Public Policy Process: A Framework for Public Engagement,” was developed with the help of a working group of officials from nine provinces and territories.
In March 2008, he completed a one-year term as Advisor to the Government of New Brunswick on public engagement. In that role, at the request of Premier Shawn Graham, he led a series of pilot projects and developed a new model of public engagement for the provincial government. The final report from this project, titled "It’s More Than Talk," is available at ppforum.ca.
Before going to New Brunswick, he was President and CEO of the Crossing Boundaries National Council – a non-partisan, multi-stakeholder network from across Canada, whose mission was to act as a champion for the transformation of government and governance in Canada through the responsible use of information and communications technologies.
He has over 20 years of experience as a writer, analyst, facilitator, and speaker in areas ranging from electronic-government to citizenship and diversity. Before assuming his role at Crossing Boundaries, he founded the Centre for Collaborative Government, a not-for-profit think tank on public policy and governance issues. He served for five years as the Director of Research at the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) and, prior to that, worked for The Network on the Constitution as Director of Research and Editor of The Network/Le Réseau, a national publication on national unity and constitutional issues.
Throughout his career, he has developed and led dozens of national research and consultation projects involving senior public servants, academics, elected officials, journalists, and members of the private and third sectors from across the country. He has been the principal writer on many of these projects, including, most recently, Progressive Governance for Canadians: What You Need to Know, a book-length study on governance. He is the author of numerous books, articles, studies, and a former columnist with the Hill Times newspaper in Ottawa and the magazine CIO Government Review.
