Vijay R. Bhashyakarla
Chair, GoverNEXT, Government of Nova Scotia

Vijay Bhashyakarla is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Department of Health, Nova Scotia. Vijay is also the new Chair of GoverNEXT and one of its founding members. Currently, Vijay is involved in multi year business planning for GoverNEXT. This year the focus will be on ‘Building Bridges’ and the focus for the next two years will be ‘Leadership and ‘Planning for Growth’. Apart from this Vijay is also the Membership Chair for Canadian Evaluation Society, Halifax Chapter. Vijay’s education includes a Masters in Public Administration and a Diploma in Health Administration from Dalhousie University. Vijay also has Bachelors in Physiotherapy.

Karla Kreamer
Co-Chair, Saskatchewan New Professionals' Network, Government of Saskatchewan

Karla Kreamer is the co-chair of the New Professionals’ Network (NPN) in Saskatchewan and Head of Communications of the joint IPAC/TOPS New Professionals’ conference, “Mind the Gap: The Changing Face of the Public Service.” Karla began volunteering in October 2003 and became co-chair in June 2005. The NPN has offered a variety of events including: The Fundamentals of Project Management; two roundtable discussions – Ethics and Values in the Public Service and Networking; and several “Lunch and Learn” sessions including “An Interactive Discussion of the Role of the Public Servant”.

The NPN was created to assist new professionals as they enter the public service workforce. The vision of the network is to strive to be widely known as an organization supporting new public service employees in their professional role through discussion forums, learning events and networking opportunities. The NPN membership continues to grow and includes members from both executive government and crown corporations.

Karla graduated from the University of Alberta with a BA in Political Science, and is currently working with the Student Financial Assistance Branch (in non government lingo – Student Loans), Advanced Education and Employment as a Research Analyst.

Heather Orr
Director of Programming, Victoria New Professionals, Government of British Columbia

Heather Orr is the Director of Events for the Victoria New Professionals and the Chair of the joint TOPS/IPAC new professionals’ conference, “Mind the Gap: The Changing Face of the Public Service.”   Heather began volunteering with the Victoria New Professionals group in 2005, and since then has been a key member in delivering events such as : The Art and Science of Networking, Cookies for a Cause, Team Players: Leaders in the Making, Mentoring the Leaders of Tomorrow, and Corporate Courtesies.

Victoria New Professionals an organization that was created by new and young professionals associated with the IPAC Victoria regional group.  The mission of Victoria New Professionals is to develop and support a new professionals’ community in Victoria, to enable new professionals to achieve their personal and professional potential by providing networking, leadership and development opportunities. Victoria New Professionals’ membership is growing rapidly, and currently has 300 members.

Heather graduated from Oxford University with an MSc in Environmental Policy, and is currently working with the Environmental Assessment Office in the BC Public Service.

Gabriel Sékaly (Moderator)
Executive Director, Institute of Public Administration of Canada.

Gabriel was appointed Executive Director of IPAC in August 2006.  Founded in 1947, IPAC is an association of public servants, academics and others interested in public administration.  IPAC’s mission is to promote excellence in public service and IPAC strives to advance the theory and practice of public management and governance.  (www.ipac.ca)

Prior to becoming the Executive Director of IPAC, Gabriel was an Adjunct Professor and Amethyst Fellow at School of Policy Studies of Queen’s University.  As the Amethyst Fellow for 2005-2006, Gabriel conducted research in the field of public policy, specifically on accountability, transparency and modern controllership in the public service.  As Adjunct Professor he taught Risk Management to the MPA students enrolled in the School of Policy Studies.
Gabriel served the Ontario Government for over 16 years in a variety of senior executive –financial, operational and policy positions. 

Between 2000 and mid-2005, latterly as Associate Deputy Minister of Finance, initially as Assistant Deputy Minister, Fiscal & Financial Policy Division of the Ministry of Finance with the Province of Ontario, Gabriel provided the Minister of Finance and the Government with advice and assistance on all aspects of fiscal and financial policy, fiscal planning, expenditure management and reporting, and overall stewardship of the financial resources of the province.  He was also responsible for all of the financial reports produced by the Province of Ontario including Public Accounts.

Before joining the OPS, Gabriel was the Executive Director of a province-wide not for profit association dealing with post secondary issues.  Gabriel has a commerce degree from the University of Ottawa, where he was also elected President of the Students’ Federation. He also has a science degree from McGill University, where he studied biology with a specialization in human genetics.  In this previous career, Gabriel has published scientific articles, including one entitled “the effect of long-term non-traumatic immobilization on metaphyseal spongiosa in young adult and older beagle dogs”.

Tabatha Soltay
Vice-Chair, Environment Canada Youth Network

Tabatha Soltay is the National Vice-Chair of Environment Canada’s Action Network (ECAN), an organisation providing opportunities for new and young employees to develop their career, learn more about the department and meet like-minded employees. She brings much of her excitement and knowledge to ECAN from TOPS, Tomorrow’s Ontario Public Service, where she was a founding executive member.

After an MSc in Environmental Change and Management, Tabatha joined the OPS where her appetite for public service was whetted. She is now based in Canada’s Capital Region where her day-job is as a Science & Technology Policy Analyst at Environment Canada. She is currently responsible for developing mechanisms to strengthen science management and is working on federal science infrastructure. She was also part of the team that developed Environment Canada’s first ever “Science Plan”.

Jennifer Stewart
Executive Events Lead, Tomorrow's Ontario Public Service (TOPS), Ontario Ministry of Government Services

Jennifer Stewart is the Executive Events Lead for Tomorrow’s Ontario Public Service (TOPS).  TOPS is an organization that was created by new and young professionals from across the Ontario Public Service (OPS),  with the aim of providing networking, mentoring and learning opportunities.  TOPS currently has over 1800 members across Ontario. 

Jennifer began this volunteer role as the Executive Events Lead for TOPS in August 2006 and to date has lead and delivered many exciting TOPS events, such as: several Brown Bag “Lunch and Learn” sessions featuring inspiring senior leaders in the OPS,  a peer panel discussion featuring new and young managers across the organization who shared their experiences on “Managing up in the OPS”, and a webcast Dialogue with Tony Dean, the Secretary of Cabinet, to TOPS members in 11 cities in Ontario. Jennifer was also an enthusiastic contributor in planning this joint TOPS/IPAC new professionals conference today, “Mind the Gap: The Changing Face of the Public Service.”

Jennifer is also a Senior Talent Management Consultant, with the OPS Talent Management Implementation, in the Centre for Leadership and Learning, Ontario Ministry of Government Services.