Dave Shorey (BA ’06 and MEd ’14) was recently appointed the Innovation Officer at Municipal Innovation Council in Bruce County. What does an innovation officer do? And how did his Master’s in Education lead him to this new field? We caught up with the well-known Laurier alum to find out.


Question: What does your new role as an innovation officer entail?

Answer: The Municipal Innovation Council (MIC) was launched in early 2020 by municipalities in Bruce County to build smarter, stronger, and more resilient rural communities. As the Innovation Officer for the MIC, I seek to understand how issues impact people and catalyse the development of shared solutions to common problems. I actively engage community members, councillors, and municipal staff in discovery work to better understand the emergent issues in our communities and I facilitate collaborative processes to co-develop and co-source solutions.

I continue to build a broad network of innovators and problem solvers that includes industry partners, elected leaders and their staff teams, other regions doing innovation work in municipalities, and professionals in other sectors. The MIC model, with multiple municipalities collaborating on identify and working to solve shared problems, is a unique model in Canada. I have been focussed on building and curating a strategic framework that provides just enough structure to keep us focussed while being able to adapt as I learn more about the needs in our communities.

The role of Innovation Officer is dynamic and the opportunities for innovation are plentiful. I am managing multiple projects right now that focus on a range of local issues including flood risk mapping, enhanced broadband and cell connectivity, affordable and attainable housing, waste management, youth engagement, procurement, organizational development, municipal service mapping, and digital government. Each project’s output improves the lives of people across member municipalities.


Question: How did your MEd help lead you to this new opportunity?

Answer: I was enrolled in Laurier’s MEd program when there were 10 courses to complete. I loved it. I actually took 11 courses which allowed me to complete four courses in other graduate programs at Laurier. Through an MSW course I was able to learn a great deal about mixed methods research and completed three courses focused on organizational behaviour, leadership, and change in the MBA program. The opportunity to integrate content from faculties outside education into my MEd course work enriched my graduate experience because it exposed me to diverse thinking in multiple fields and prepared me well for working with professionals from diverse disciplines.

Education at its core is focused on supporting the development of people and communities. That value is shared in the work that I am doing now, and I find much of my time and energy is dedicated to building capacity in the communities I serve. The broad range of competencies built or strengthened in Laurier’s MEd has helped me provide leadership in multiple communities that want to explore possible futures together.


Question: What is it about working in innovation that inspires/excites you?

Answer: The word innovation takes on a different meaning depending on sectors and people that I work with. I have come to define innovation as being able to identify and solve the right problems in collaborative ways that lead to improvements to the quality of life. When innovation work is done well, everyone that is impacted by the problem is engaged in the solution. Building a culture of innovation is in many ways harder than doing innovation work. It requires sustained investment in building the capacities needed to collaborate, investigate, ideate, operationalise, and implement solutions to problems. Building the culture of innovation, seeking out subject expertise, and locating resources to enhance problem solving in our communities is the best part of the work. If I can support someone or a group in developing a solution that works for them, then we have done innovation well.


Question: If you could only offer one piece of advice to a fellow Masters of Education graduate, what would it be?

Answer: In my experience, the Faculty of Education (and education in the broadest sense) espouses the principles of human development and capacity building. These guiding principles are more universally applicable and desired than we may realize. People are looking for better futures and safe professional homes regardless of industry or community. Promote the core values of education wherever you are because there are ways that you can positively influence the space you are in and the people around you.