Welcome to the Campbell Collaboration 2008 Colloquium 'Program Highlights'. We are very pleased to provide you with this introduction to the Colloquium Keynote Speakers.

Please continue to visit this page as it will be updated regularly as new speakers, presentation topics, and sessions are added.

Plenary Keynote Speakers

Darryl Plecas, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.

Presentation: “Speaking Truth to Power: Evidence for Decision-Making in Criminal Justice – The Case of British Columbia’s Marijuana Grow-Ops.”

Dr. Plecas holds the RCMP University Research Chair in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) where he has worked for 29 years (serving as Chair of the School for various terms over 14 of those years).  He is a recipient of UFV’s Teaching Excellence Award and in 2003 received an Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology Award at the Fourteenth International Conference on College Teaching and Learning. He has served as an Associate of the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy at the University of British Columbia, as an Expert Observer to the 10th United Nations Congress on the Prevention and Treatment of Offenders, and on three occasions as an invited participant at the annual meetings of the United Nations Scientific and Professional Advisory Committee. He also served for three years as a member of the Correctional Service of Canada’s Audit Team on National Programs Accreditation, and in 2003 was appointed an Independent Chairperson for the Pacific Region. In 2006 he was appointed to the Board of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. He is the book review editor for Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, and served as Chair of the planning committee for the 2004 International Police Executive Symposium. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 research reports, international journal articles, and other publications addressing a broad range of public safety issues. In 2005 he received the British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Public Safety. He holds two degrees in criminology from Simon Fraser University, and a doctorate in Higher Education from the University of British Columbia.  In the summer of 1995 he completed the Management Development Program in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. In 2006 he received the Order of Abbotsford for his work on public safety. Most recently he participated as an attendee and speaker at the 2008 Oxford Roundtable on Substance Abuse at Oxford University, England.

Sarah Evans, M.A. Adult Education

Presentation: “Insight on Insite (North America's first legal supervised injection site) – Research in Context for Vancouver’s Downtown East Side.”

Sarah Evans is Acting Manager, HIV-AIDS and Harm Reduction Programs, Vancouver Community. Sarah has been working for North America's only "supervised injection site" - InSite. Opened in 2003, InSite is currently awaiting the results of research examining the efficacy of supervised injection sites. These findings will assist with the decision regarding the renewal of an exemption that allows the use of illegal drugs inside the facility. Sarah will be sharing evidence and context about InSite.

Sarah also works for InSite's supported-living arm OnSite and has been working with the Transitional Care Team for over five years. Prior to this, she has worked for many years in community development, adult education and project management in the Downtown Eastside and other areas.

Benjamin Levin, B.A., Ed.M., Ph.D.

Presentation: “Speaking Truth to Power: Evidence for decision-making in education.”

Dr. Ben Levin is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto.

Ben Levin’s career has been in academia and in government. He is a native of Winnipeg who holds a B.A. (Honours) from the University of Manitoba, an Ed.M. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/ University of Toronto. His career in education extends over many years, starting with his efforts while in high school to organize a city-wide high school students' union and his election as a school trustee in Seven Oaks School Division at the age of 19. Since then he has worked with private research organizations, school divisions, provincial governments, and national and international agencies, as well as building an academic and research career in education.

Ben Levin has held leadership positions in a wide variety of organizations in the public and non-profit sectors. From late 2004 until early 2007, he was Deputy Minister of Education for the Province of Ontario. From 1999 through 2002, he was Deputy Minister of Advanced Education and Deputy Minister of Education, Training and Youth for Manitoba. He is widely known for his work in educational reform, educational change, educational policy and politics. His work has been international in scope, including projects in a dozen countries and with several international agencies.

Jerry Lee Lecture Series Guest Lecturer – Mark Lipsey, Ph.D.

Presentation: "Evidence for evidence-based practice: Research and reality in juvenile justice."

Dr. Lipsey is the Director of the Center for Evaluation Research and Methodology, and a Senior Research Associate, at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies (Ph.D. in Psychology from The Johns Hopkins University in 1972). His professional interests are in the areas of public policy, program evaluation research, social intervention, field research methodology, and research synthesis (meta-analysis). The topics of his recent research have been risk and intervention for juvenile delinquency and substance use, early childhood education programs, and issues of methodological quality in program evaluation research. Professor Lipsey serves on the editorial boards of Evaluation and Program Planning, Psychological Bulletin, the Journal of Experimental Criminology, and the American Journal of Community Psychology, and boards or committees of, among others, the National Research Council, the Department of Education What Works Clearinghouse, the Campbell Collaboration, and Blueprints for Violence Prevention. He is a recipient of the American Evaluation Association's Paul Lazarsfeld Award, the Society of Prevention Research's Nan Tobler Award, a Fellow of the American Psychological Society, and co-author of the program evaluation textbook, “Evaluation: A Systematic Approach” and the meta-analysis primer, “Practical Meta-Analysis”.

Stefan C. Wolter, Ph.D.

Presentation: “Speaking Truth to Power: Evidence for Decisions in Education in Switzerland”

Prof. Dr. Stefan C. Wolter (1966) is Managing Director of the Swiss Coordination Centre for Research in Education. He is a trained economist and teaches economics of education at the University of Bern, where he is also the head of the Centre for Research in Economics of Education. He is President of the council of the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET). The SFIVET is the federal institution that is responsible for teacher education in the field of VET-schools. Prior to his work for the CSRE he was working as a staff-economist for the CEO of Union Bank of Switzerland and later as Chief Economist of the Federal Office for Industry and Labour of the Swiss Government.

Stefan Wolter represents Switzerland in the Governing Board of the Centre for Educational Research and innovation (CERI) of the OECD and also in the Education Policy Committee of the OECD. He is a research fellow of two research institutes in Germany, the CESifo (Munich) and IZA (Bonn) and also advisor to the European Expert Network on Economics of Education of the European Commission. He has been expert on national reviews and exams for the OECD in Austria (Teacher Education, 2003), England (R&D in Education, 2000), Poland (Adult Education, 2004) and Sweden (Vocational Education, 2007).

Past mandates include the presidency of the Swiss Society for Research in Education and membership in international and national commissions, such as the Federal Economic Council, the Expert Commission on National Accounting, the Expert Commission on Statistics of Higher Education, and the Industry and the Labour Affairs Committee of the OECD.

Stefan Wolter has published some two dozen articles in international refereed journals, several books and book contributions. He is currently chief editor of the newly established journal Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training and member of the editorial advisory board of Education & Training.
 
Le professeur. Stefan C. Wolter (1966) est directeur du Centre suisse de coordination pour la recherche en éducation. Économiste de formation, il enseigne l'économie de l'éducation à l'Université de Berne, où il dirige aussi le Centre de recherche sur l'économie de l'éducation. Il est président du conseil de l'Institut fédéral des hautes études en formation professionnelle (IFFP). L'IFFP est l'organisme fédéral responsable de la formation des enseignants destinés à travailler dans le secteur de la formation professionnelle. Avant de se joindre au CSRE, il travailla comme économiste pour le PDG de la Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), puis comme économiste en chef pour l'Office fédéral de l'industrie et du travail du gouvernement suisse.

Stefan Wolter est le représentant de la Suisse au Comité Directeur du Centre pour la recherche et l'innovation dans l'enseignement (CERI) de l'OCDE, ainsi qu'au Comité des politiques sur l'éducation de l'OCDE. Il est chercheur associé auprès de deux instituts de recherche en Allemagne, soit le CESifo (Munich) et l'Institut pour l'étude du travail, ou l'IZA (Bonn). Il est de plus conseiller pour le Réseau européen des experts en économie de l'éducation de la Commission européenne. Il a agit pour l'OCDE à titre d'expert pour divers revues et examens nationaux en Autriche (formation des enseignants, 2003), en Angleterre (recherche et développement en éducation, 2000), en Pologne (éducation chez les adultes, 2004) et en Suède (formation professionnelle, 2007).

Ces responsabilités passées incluent la présidence de la Société suisse de recherche en éducation ainsi que la participation à diverses commissions nationales et internationales, tel que le Conseil économique fédéral, la commission des experts sur la comptabilité nationale, la commission des experts sur les statistiques en éducation supérieure, ainsi que le comité sur l'industrie et le comité sur le travail de l'OCDE.

Jean-Pierre Voyer, B.Sc., M.A.

Presentation: “Speaking Truth to Power: Evidence for decision-making in social welfare.”

Jean-Pierre Voyer is Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC, www.srdc.org), a non-profit organization that specializes in the design, implementation, and evaluation of large-scale demonstration projects. From 2002 to 2006, Mr. Voyer was the Executive Director of the Policy Research Initiative, an organization responsible for conducting research on cross-cutting social, economic, and environmental issues in support of the Government of Canada’s medium-term policy agenda. From 1994 to 2000 he was Director General of the Applied Research Branch at Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), which covered a wide spectrum of labour market and social policies. During his career, Mr. Voyer also held positions at Finance Canada, the Privy Council Office, the National Union of Provincial Government Employees, and the Economic Council of Canada.

Mr. Voyer has represented Canada on numerous occasions at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and at other international meetings. He was Chairman of the OECD Education, Labour and Social Affairs Committee from 1998 to 2000. He currently sits on the research advisory committees of several research projects and organizations, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Standing Committee on Research Support. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Queen’s University and an undergraduate degree in Economics from Université de Montréal.

Jean-Pierre Voyer est directeur exécutif et chef de la direction de la Société de recherche sociale appliquée (SRSA, www.srdc.org), une société à but non lucratif spécialisée dans la mise en œuvre et l’évaluation de projets de démonstration à grande échelle. De 2002 à 2006, M. Voyer était le directeur exécutif du Projet de recherche sur les politiques, un organisme chargé de mener des projets de recherche sur des questions horizontales émergentes dans les domaines économique, social et environnemental en vue d’appuyer le programme politique à moyen terme du gouvernement du Canada. Il fut en charge de la Direction générale de la recherche appliquée à Développement des ressources humaines Canada (DRHC) de 1994 à 2000, qui touchait un large éventail de questions de politiques relatives au marché du travail et à la politique sociale. Au cours de sa carrière, M. Voyer a aussi occupé des postes au ministère des Finances Canada, au Bureau du Conseil privé, au Syndicat national de la fonction publique et au Conseil économique du Canada.

M. Voyer a représenté le Canada à maintes reprises à l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE) et lors d’autres rencontres internationales. De 1998 à 2000, il a présidé le Comité de l’emploi, du travail et des affaires sociales de l’OCDE. Il siège au sein de plusieurs comités consultatifs portant sur la recherche, dont celui du Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada.

M. Voyer détient une maîtrise en économie de l’Université Queen’s et un baccalauréat en sciences économiques de l’Université de Montréal.