Dr. Jacqueline Koerner

REDEFINING PHILANTHROPY

Dr. Jacqueline Koerner is a Fellow in the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue where she is exploring philanthropy, specifically issues of power, trust, community and transparency. She is excited about teaching in the Semester in Dialogue, drawing on her academic and work experience with undergraduate students at UBC and in the not-for-profit sector.

Dr. Koerner has an extensive background in the non-profit sector and in philanthropy, both professional and voluntary, public and private. She is passionate about learning and community engagement, directed at building dignity and justice broadly. Dr. Koerner is a founder, and current Co-Chair, of Ecotrust Canada, a Vancouver-based enterprising charity that works with rural, remote, and Indigenous communities. 

Dr. Koerner’s doctoral research was carried out in Bangladesh with the world’s largest, non-profit organization, BRAC. She investigated its integrated charitable and social enterprise approach to poverty alleviation, framed in theories of resilience and place in a globalized economy.

Dr. Koerner is a Director of Foundations for Social Change, a Vancouver-based charitable organization that led North America’s first cash transfer to recently homeless persons. She is Vice-Chair of CIFAR, a Canadian-based, global research organization. As well, she is a director/trustee of three private foundations.