Meghan Hellstern
Independent consultant, facilitator and teacher
Toronto, Canada
Meghan is a human-centered designer, strategist and facilitator with more than 12 years of experience drawing on a broad toolkit to gather insights that drive impact and change in support of the public good. Prior to her most recent role as a Senior Project Designer at the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship (BII+E), Meghan worked as the lead design strategist at the City of Toronto’s Civic Innovation Office, a Bloomberg Philanthropies-funded innovation team (i- team) dedicated to using human-centered design and data-informed decision-making to improve residents’ lives. She has also worked with organizations like Code for Canada, Laurier University’s Social Innovation and Venture Creation (SIVC), Samara Canada and MaRS Solutions Lab, not to mention spending years working with the Government of Canada on a wide range of files from electoral reform and veterans affairs to digital government and indigenous affairs. Meghan contributes to her community in many ways, including teaching at organizations like Ryerson University, the Institute on Governance and Civic Hall Toronto, designing and delivering the Ontario Digital Inclusion Summit, one of Ontario’s first conferences on the topic, co-founding Canada’s biggest civic tech community Civic Tech Toronto and sitting on the advisory board of the Digital Justice Lab. In her spare time, she can be found organizing personal development retreats for her community, sharpening her mindfulness practice, spending time with her cat Mochi, and DJing in her home in The Junction area of Toronto.