Staff – Siena Consulting

Leadership

Gayle Farrell

Gayle, a community engagement and investment specialist, is the President of Siena Consulting. She brings to her clients expertise in multi-stakeholder facilitation, strategic and operational planning, cross-sectoral partnership development and relationship management. With experience in the social profit, public and private sectors, Gayle uses Siena Consulting’s mission-based model to create plans and programs that invest in community-focused priorities. She is highly regarded for her ability to bring divergent groups together to build consensus on sensitive issues and to work collaboratively.

Gayle has worked with national organizations to structure and lead Canada-wide consultations to support the development of strategies, plans and campaigns that were successful nationally, provincially and locally. She has also facilitated consultations involving public, private and social profit sector representatives supporting the re-imagination of primary health care in BC and of social programs nationally. Gayle has a B.A. and M.A. in the social sciences from McGill University as well as a Graduate Certificate in Managerial Leadership from City University (WA).
Bohdan Zajcew

Bohdan, Managing Partner with Siena Consulting, is a highly skilled facilitator, communicator, project manager and strategic planner with extensive experience in both the public and private sectors. His expertise is concentrated in the areas of communications, strategic management, social policy development and research, public education, and community and partnership development. Bohdan is proficient in all facets of strategic planning, environmental scanning, needs analysis, asset mapping, capacity building and leveraging resources. He has a B.A. in political science from University of Manitoba, an M.A. in Communications from Simon Fraser University and a Graduate Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Associates

Deborah Leach

Based in Ottawa, Deborah is a highly skilled team leader with more than 25 years experience managing complex projects for government and not-for-profit organizations in the health and social services. Deborah offers extensive experience and expertise in policy, program and strategic planning; facilitation and consultation; and, program evaluation and organizational review. She has experience with a range of service sectors including child welfare, community mental health, violence against women, supportive housing and HIV/AIDS.
Kate Spezowka

Kate is a skilled researcher and writer. For the past decade she has provided research, copywriting, editing, and proofing services to a diverse client base, including high-tech, health, automotive, and educational organizations. An avid researcher, Kate brings critical thinking, patience, and rigour to the drill-down process, distilling meaningful insights in a digestible way for successful deployment in the marketplace. With expertise in technical writing and publishing, Kate delivers polished documents designed for optimal readability and focus, helping organizations stay effective and on message.
Kerry Elfstrom

Kerry is a strategic analyst, organizational designer, trainer and facilitator who has worked with a wide variety of organizations and individuals in all sectors.With a background in learning and performance improvement he is Siena’s lead on organizational development.Kerry has a B.Ed. and M.A. in Educational Media, Communications and Technology from University of British Columbia as well as a Master Trainer Certificate (Specialist Level, TELUS Communications). He is a senior performance technologist, training consultant and instructional technologist with over 40 years experience.

He has helped organizations in education, business and industry in both the private and social profit sectors of B.C., Alberta and the USA build curricula and train instructors and developers in the principles of the design and management of competency based education programs. Kerry has developed expertise in instructor training which integrates principles of holistic, accelerated, whole brain and multi-sensory learning which he includes in any curricula he builds for customers. He also has extensive experience designing and developing competency based, modular, workplace learning interventions for face-to-face, eLearning and blended delivery. He built, obtained university accreditation and delivers The Master Training Program©, a multi-level professional training program that assists vocational & technical and subject matter experts obtain the skills and knowledge necessary to design competency based training programs and deliver them to adult learners in the workplace.

Kerry also has expertise in governance and organizational restructuring which he uses to help leaders understand the pivotal role they play in framing an organization around its core business, aligning programs, products and services with its mission and core values and clarifying strategic and competitive uniqueness. He helps organizations’ leadership teams and boards operate in a governance role with a clear sense of direction, well-articulated governance, administrative and program policies thereby releasing senior executives to implement programs with clear expectations and appropriate accountability measures. Kerry also helps restructure organizations for efficient operation.
Margery Leach

Based in Ottawa, Margery is a strategy, communications and research expert. She assists public, private and not-for-profit sector organizations to define, communicate, achieve and measure their strategic, transformational and tactical goals while building their capacity to manage and sustain positive change. She has expertise in assessing needs; collaborative vision and strategy development; business planning; research and analysis; performance management / measurement; organizational review and transformation; program review and evaluation; marketing; and program and project leadership. She is also a creative communications professional with specializing in professional writing, editing and document design; as well as presentation, facilitation, consultation and liaison. A cornerstone of her career has been the successful planning, leadership and implementation of international development and cooperation projects. She brings to bear in all of her work this experience.

People