COMMON IMPACT DATA STANDARD
Meet the members of Common Approach’s Technical Committee!
For the Common Approach standards to be truly community-driven, the substantive direction of each standard will be undertaken by technical committees of engaged users and people with expert knowledge.
The Technical Committee works to ensure that the Common Impact Data Standard and Common Form are driven by community and meet the needs of social purpose organizations, social financial institutions, and software organizations.
The individuals joining the technical committee were selected for their expertise and enthusiasm. Alongside the Pathfinder Pilot, they will help to formulate and test our processes of user input and participation.
Meet the Technical Committee Members
James Arruda
James Arruda is a data and evaluation specialist with a passion for decolonization and social justice. He has a master’s degree in economics, where he examined how Canadian economics education perpetuates settler-colonialism. He has also worked with various nonprofits, such as YMCA Canada and Canadian Roots Exchange, to analyze and communicate data using statistical and data visualization tools. He is fluent in French, English and Portuguese. James lives on Tiohtià:ke (Montréal), the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka people. He loves surfing, reading, dancing, and exploring the intersection of data science and the nonprofit sector. More about James Arruda.
Chantal Buard
Chantal Buard is the co-founder and CEO of Impact Atlas. More about Chantal Buard.
Sylvain Carle
Alex Castner
Alex Castner is the Chief Platform Architect of threshold.world, a social impact software company headquartered in Puerto Rico. The company is renowned for its innovative platform, b.world, which empowers nonprofit program teams to measure and amplify their impact through compelling storytelling. Alex Castner holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Computer Engineering with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. His commitment to the field is evident from his past role as a board member for the Industrial Advisors Board. As a seasoned technology leader and software engineer, Alex’s expertise spans various markets and encompasses all levels of the tech stack. His approach is hands-on, reflecting a deep understanding of the technological landscape. Residing in New England, Alex’s life outside of work includes spending time with his family, wife, and their dog “Bear”. More about Alex Castner.
Mark S. Fox
Dr. Mark Fox is a Distinguished Professor of Urban Systems Engineering, Professor of Industrial Engineering and Computer Science, Senior Advisor for the School of Cities, and Founding Director of the Centre for Social Services Engineering at the University of Toronto. Mark pioneered the field of Constraint-Directed Scheduling and the development of Ontologies for modelling Enterprises. He is currently investigating the application of Ontologies to the representation and utilization of urban knowledge, including social services, transportation and water & sanitation. Mark is also an entrepreneur having co-founded Carnegie Group Inc. in 1984, a software company that specialized in Artificial Intelligence-based systems, and co-founded and was CEO of Novator Systems Ltd., a pioneer in e-retail software and services. More about Mark Fox.
Bart Gajderowicz
Dr. Bart Gajderowicz is the Executive Director and a Research Associate at the Urban Data Centre, School of Cities, at the University of Toronto. His research goals focus on developing tools and methods for data-driven policymaking in the social service domain. He manages the Canadian Urban Data Catalogue proiect (CUDC), is a co-author of the Common Impact Data Standard (CIDS), is the lead researcher on SMILE, an explainable AI language model for measuring impact, and the development of tools for data translation, consolidation, and analysis. In 2019, he completed his Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the University of Toronto, creating a high-fidelity simulation environment (BRAMA) for emotion-based reasoning of social services clients and an ontology of social service needs (OSSN). He has held postdoctoral fellowships at Lakehead University, Tata Consultancy Services, and the University of Toronto. More about Bart Gajderowicz.
Murat Kantarcioglu
Dr. Murat Kantarcioglu holds the position of Ashbel Smith Professor in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Dallas, where he also serves as the Director of the Data Security and Privacy Lab. He earned his PhD in Computer Science from Purdue University in 2005, receiving the Purdue CERIAS Diamond Award for Academic Excellence. He is also a faculty associate at Harvard Data Privacy Lab and a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley Sky Labs. His contributions to data security and privacy have earned him several awards, including the AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) 2014 Homer R Warner Award and the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) ISI (Intelligence and Security Informatics) 2017 Technical Achievement Award. He is recognized as a fellow of both the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and IEEE, and a distinguished member of the ACM. More about Murat Kantarcioglu.
Art Law
Art Law serves as a Manager of Impact Strategy and Measurement at TAS, an impact real estate firm. In this role, he bridges strategy and operations by using business transformation, data, technology, and storytelling to measure, report, and scale impact. Art brings deep experience in economic development with a policy focus on social innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship innovation ecosystems. Other past experiences included roles in consulting and education. Art’s perspective is enriched by having lived and worked in 9 countries across 4 continents. Art earned a MSc in Management and Governance (LSE) and a BA in International Relations (UBC). When not at work, he is a foodie, itinerant, and recreational warrior. More about Art Law.
Alexandra Pittman
Alexandra Pittman, PhD is a leading expert in impact management and sustainability assessments, recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as an ‘innovative tech founder’. She is the Founder and CEO of ImpactMapper, a tool that helps donors, corporates, and impact investors track, visualize, and optimize their social impact activities and direct capital to the most effective changemakers and solutions. Alexandra has been working with UN agencies, foundations, and nonprofits for the past 19 years, supporting the development of their monitoring, evaluation, and learning frameworks and processes and in translating research and data analysis needs into software products, learning communities, and trainings. Further promoting the sustainability of impact and its connection with wellness, Alexandra launched a retreat center in the Norwegian fjords, called Havn Hus in 2023. More about Alexandra Pittman.
Daniela Rosu
Daniela Rosu is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto. More about Daniela Rosu.
Liz Wilson
Together, we will continue to develop the Standards and work towards our goal of simplifying the sharing and analysis of impact data, including data from different sources, organizations, and software.
Thank you to the previous Technical Committee members for their contributions to Common Approach: Carly Bogen, Jaclene Roshan and Alex Goel.
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Updated on Sept 6, 2024
Published January 7, 2024
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