Jennifer Chen Email & Phone Number

I help run Balsa Research, a small 501(c)(3) thinktank dedicated to human flourishing through evidence-based interventions and innovative research.My work is split 50/50 between operations (compliance, bookkeeping, fundraising, making sure the website is functional) and policy (interviewing experts, doing lit reviews, writing reports and blog posts).

Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

The Working Centre is actually a dozen different community services in a trenchcoat. I help make sure that none of the various appendages inside the trenchcoat accidentally smack each other.I deal with background logistics, leading short-term projects, database management, reports to various funding bodies, keeping the public updated on opening times and what we're up to, and the occasional bout of long term strategy and sensemaking.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I anticipated and mitigated the regular snafus that emerge at the food bank, developed strategies to make the food bank a welcome, accessible, and inclusive space for everyone, and helped with day-to-day operations.

I researched and designed policy tools and solutions addressing key barriers in Canadian affordable housing development.

Ottawa, Canada Area

I assisted the service policy team in integrating new initiatives into strategic policy, operational policy, and service delivery across ESDC and Service Canada.

Ottawa, Canada Area

I helped design solutions for complicated issues that involve competing needs by different groups and/or inter-group conflict. Some examples include public service worker burnout, digitizing Canadian services without rendering it inaccessible to those without internet, and ways of identifying emerging societal shifts that ESDC will soon have to address.

Waterloo, Ontario

I helped study the linkages between the University of Waterloo, start-up firms that frequently hire the university students as co-ops, and the local economy. The conclusion was that sometimes these linkages were good but sometimes they were bad, and we should be more thoughtful about them.

Waterloo, Ontario

I assisted students with housing and transit issues, and worked regularly with transit officers, police officers, municipal workers, and councilors in order to have the municipality better address student needs.

Bachelor Of Environmental Studies, Graduated With Distinction

Planning, Honours, Co-operative Program Geography and Environmental Management Minor

Ontario Secondary School Diploma, High School/Secondary Diplomas And Certificates