Lisa Elford

Lisa Elford is a Principal Researcher and Co-founder of Habitus Collective.  She has over 20 years of international and Canadian experience in research, evaluation, and strategic advisory roles for non-profit organizations. Holding an MA in International Relations, she has specialized in leading principles-based and developmental evaluations, developing comprehensive evaluation frameworks, and designing effective data collection methods, including the creation of SMART success metrics. She has extensive experience building sustainability into community projects and community-based research by applying her expertise in community engagement, strategic planning, governance, and program activation, participating in all aspects of the programming cycle.

At Habitus Consulting Collective, Lisa has led principles-based and developmental evaluations for a range of projects including large-scale community engagement with the City of Calgary, marginalized communities across multiple sites in Alberta, and creative pilot projects addressing scarcity and poverty. Recent work includes the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre evaluation framework, Calgary Homeless Foundation's Triveri House Program Evaluation, and the City of Calgary's One City, One Journey Anti-Racism Action Strategy.
Prior to Habitus, Lisa managed an international research grant with Monash University and Oxfam Australia and consulted to the International Organization for Migration on cross-border migration research in South Africa. She leads in the development of creative methodologies (such as journey mapping), knowledge mobilization tactics (dashboards, presentations, community engagement), skills building (peer research training, community data skills development), and academic research partnerships.