Cathy Barr recently retired from a 35+ year career that spanned academia and the nonprofit sector. With a PhD in political science from York University, she spent several years as a faculty member at Wilfrid Laurier University, teaching courses in Canadian politics and government, political behaviour, research methods, and statistics. In 2002, she moved to the nonprofit sector. As Director and, later, Vice-President of Research at Imagine Canada, Cathy led dozens of data, research, and knowledge mobilization projects. She was also the founding Director of the Insurance & Liability Resource Centre for Nonprofits and led the creation of Imagine Canada’s Standards Program. In later years, she was involved in several national public policy and advocacy initiatives and chaired the Federal Nonprofit Data Coalition.
Cathy currently serves as Senior Advisor, Research & Data at Imagine Canada and as Treasurer of the Association of Nonprofit & Social Economy Research. She also continues her involvement in efforts to improve the nonprofit sector’s data infrastructure. Her research interests include the history of the nonprofit sector, public attitudes towards the sector, governance and leadership, public policy and advocacy, and community-university partnerships.