Rachel Barton Email and Phone Number

Led activities for Congregational Life including weekly community and pastoral engagement, visitation with congregants, weekly worship planning and execution, committee meetings and other congregational care activities.Regularly preached and provided ministerial leadership at Hancock’s contemplative evening worship service.Co-led and developed Hancock’s Lay Minister Program, training and commissioning seven lay leaders within the congregation to provide pastoral care, prayer, and communion to more vulnerable congregants.Developed and executed “Our Weekly Bread,” an intergenerational, family-friendly mid-week worship service for Lent 2023.

Provided advice, administrative and operational support as well as financial coordination services to the Program Director.Liaised with Executives, faculty, students and operations staff to plan and deliver programming for students across the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium throughout the year, including two annual retreats, School of Theology student group circles, and two BTI Certificate Colloquia.

Led digital and data policy development for the Business Intelligence and Practice Division of MCCSS, the division responsible for using data-driven practices to transform the delivery of human and social services in the Province of Ontario. Developed ministry-wide strategies and action plans, including MCCSS’ 2020/21 Strategic Data Plan and the ministry’s contribution to Ontario’s Digital and Data Action Plan. I developed and launched a multi-year plan for Ontario’s first Human Services and Learning Statistics Hub.Collaborated to help build new pathways for delivery, such as MCCSS’ inter-ministerial data integration framework, a service that lets ministries to share personal information securely, and use data for service design and outcomes measurement.Mentored, guided, and helped support the careers of my team members, supporting their performance and skills development. Regularly briefed and negotiated with executives from several ministries, and ensured products met stakeholders’ and users’ needs.

Co-led the development of the Simpler, Faster, Better Services Act, as well as the province’s Digital First Strategy and ensured effective public sector data management is enshrined in law in Ontario, empowering my executive leadership to redesign public services and data management throughout the public sector. Led cross-disciplinary teams to deliver excellent products on tight timelines. We solved user, technical and business problems together, quickly building solutions that met our users’ needs. Facilitated negotiations between executives and across teams, finding consensus and balancing competing business interests in urgent and complex situations.Coached people of all disciplines - policy, analysts and technology experts - on policy and strategy development, negotiation and communication.

Led the implementation of the Ontario Government’s three point plan for Open Information, sharing government policies and directives freely and publicly to increase transparency and public accountability. Led a government-wide inventory of Ontario Government Publications, developing and delivering training on licensing, open government, and metadata, and building toolkits and communications tools to support thirty ministry Open Information Leads.Developed a toolkit that supported and equipped stakeholders to brief the Secretary of Cabinet directly on issues impacting their livelihoods, bringing users and their needs to decision-makers.

Led collaboration across four ministries to create policy that allowed the Ontario Government to apply open licences to government records.Led IPA’s partnerships with Open Government, the Ontario Digital Service, the Ministries of Finance, Community Services, and Health and Long-Term Care, coordinating work plans, briefing executives, and negotiating with team members to achieve timely outcomes.Led three Data Summits that brought the Ontario Government together with their oversight body, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, to develop a framework for trustworthy and effective data sharing across ministries.

Developed of options and strategies to enable the transformation of records management in the Ontario Public Service through projects, working groups, policies and guidelinesApplied and interpreted the Archives and Recordkeeping Act, 2006 to advise on products created across the division.Analyzed ministry proposals to identify Information Management implicationsConducted jurisdictional research to identify and evaluate emerging issues and trends in Information management and IT that impact government policy

Led transformative culture change by consulting with stakeholders and developing and implementing an Employee Engagement Strategy for IPA.Managed sensitive issues involving external stakeholders, creates recommendations and communications pieces and follows approval processes and procedures.Negotiated with donors, including Premiers, professionals and individuals donating family records to ensure the easy, smooth and legal transfer of archival records from creators to the Archives.Developed and established business processes that facilitate the efficient transfer and disposition of paper and electronic records under approved records schedules.Led and oversaw archivists and assistant archivists to rehouse, arrange and describe archival records in accordance with archival best practices and Archives of Ontario’s descriptive standards.Planned, managed and coordinated the transfer of records from Ministries, Agencies and other public bodies of the Government of Ontario in accordance with approved records management theory and practice.Undertook research and analysis to identify government business functions and activities, analyse their significance, and create products that enable the Archivist of Ontario to fulfill his legislative obligations to preserve and make available Ontario’s archival records.Delivered presentations to a broad range of stakeholders, including members of the public, professional associations, and OPS stakeholder groups. Developed and established work instructions for processes that ensure the efficient transfer of paper and electronic records, consistent reference support, and smooth deaccessioning of records. Led project teams to process, maintain and make available historical records in all forms to preserve institutional memory and heritage.Contributed to the development of training materials to assist staff with understanding and applying records management principles and practices.