Description
You are cordially invited to the launch of the inaugural Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue Professorship on Public Policy, held by Professor Isabelle Bourgeois. Professor Bourgeois is recognized for her numerous contributions to evaluation in public and community-based organizations. Her leadership in the field has been acknowledged through multiple national awards, including the Canadian Evaluation Society’s Contribution to Evaluation Award (2024) and the University of Ottawa’s Excellence in Knowledge Mobilization Award (2025).
To mark the launch of the Professorship, the event will feature a guest lecture by Kathy L. Brock, PhD, Professor in the School of Policy Studies and the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University. A leading voice in Canadian governance, federalism, and public administration, Professor Brock has published extensively on non-profit and voluntary organizations, intergovernmental relations, Indigenous governance, and public sector ethics. Her current research examines the Canadian federal system and the role of senior public servants in shaping policy and administration.
In her lecture, Professor Brock will explore how intergovernmental relations influence the integration of evidence in the policy process. Drawing on her extensive research and experience, she will examine the opportunities and constraints created by Canada’s multi-level governance system, and what this means for policymakers, public servants, and researchers committed to strengthening evidence-informed decision making.
This lunch event offers a unique opportunity for faculty members, students, and practitioners to engage with leading scholars in public policy, governance, and evaluation, and to reflect on the evolving relationship between evidence and policymaking in Canada.
Limited places. Lunch will be provided.
Please note that this event will be held in English with the possibility of asking questions in French.
Isabelle Bourgeois
Host, Professor at the Faculty of Education
Isabelle Bourgeois, Ph.D., holds the positions of Full Professor at the Faculty of Education and is the inaugural holder of the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue Professorship in Public Policy, University of Ottawa. Her ongoing research work focuses on measuring and building organizational evaluation capacity (EC) in the public and community sectors. Her main contributions in this field include an organizational framework of evaluation capacity, an online organizational EC assessment instrument and an integrative review of the literature on evaluation capacity spanning a period of 20 years. Professor Bourgeois was the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation from 2017 to 2022. She has received multiple awards for her work, including the Karl-Boudreault Award for Leadership in Evaluation from the National Capital Chapter of the Canadian Evaluation Society (2017), the Parenteau award from Canadian Public Administration for best French-language article (2021), the Contribution to Evaluation Award from the Canadian Evaluation Society (2025), and the University of Ottawa’s Knowledge Mobilization Award (2025).
Kathy L. Brock
Guest Lecturer, Professor at Queen’s University
Kathy L. Brock, PhD, is a Professor, at the School of Policy Studies and cross-appointed to the Department of Political Studies, Queen’s University, current Past-President of the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration, and past National Research Chair for the Institute of Programs in Public Administration.
She has published books, academic articles, and reports on non-profit and voluntary organizations, Canadian and comparative politics and government, federalism and constitutional matters, and Aboriginal governance and issues. She is currently working on a manuscript on the operation of the Canadian federal system, and articles on the views of DMs and CAOs regarding the current state of the public service medically assisted dying (suicide) policy, public sector ethics, Aboriginal policy, and Indigenous governance. She has commenced a new study called “Riding the Trump-Trudeau Wave”.
Active in public affairs, she has served as a non-partisan advisor to the federal. provincial and territorial governments, political parties, an Aboriginal organization, non-profit organizations, and on a number of national and local boards, including her current work with the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration, Research Committee of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, and Board member of the Limestone Learning Foundation. She is a frequent commentator in the national and local media on Canadian public affairs.
A dedicated professor, she received the 2008 Pierre De Celles IPAC Award for Teaching Excellence in Public Administration and the 2009 Frank Knox Award (Queen’s University) for Teaching Excellence (Queen’s).