Gabrielle Donnelly, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Community Leadership & Social Change
Acadia University

Dr. Gabrielle Donnelly is a transdisciplinary scholar-practitioner of social creativity and social change. A collaborator with the social-purposed consulting companies Brave Space and The Outside, Gabrielle’s research and practice focus on theories and methods for meaningful dialogue, participatory leadership, equity and systems change including the Art of Hosting, Deep Democracy, and Developmental Evaluation.

Gabrielle is Assistant Professor of Community Leadership and Social Change at Acadia University and publishes in the areas of participatory leadership, systems change, social creativity, transdisciplinarity and futures studies. Gabrielle received a Ph.D. in Transformative Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She holds a Master’s degree in International Development from Dalhousie University and a B.A. from the University of Alberta.

Born in London, England and raised in the traditional territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Calgary, Alberta), Gabrielle spends her time between Halifax (K’jipuktuk) and the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. She’s British to the bone, Irish at heart, Albertan to the soles of her (cowgirl) boots, a guest in Mi’kma’ki, and an engaged global citizen.