Hi. 👋
I’m Kevin
Van Lierop.

I’m a place enthusiast, community leader, and higher education professional located in the forest city—London, Canada. I am curious 🤔 about the locations where learning, leadership, and civic-life intersect.

A goal to enable individuals and communities to take greater ownership over their futures has led to the most rewarding work I have ever completed. Approaching my work as a servant-leader, my expertise is in designing platforms, strategies, and solutions which create engaging experiences in support of helping others achieve their goals.

These days, I work at Fanshawe College as an Academic Consultant. In my role, I analyze academic offerings and strategize ways our organization can engage, educate, and empower students to think critically and develop a sense of social responsibility and global citizenship. What this looks like day-to-day is a mixed bag of solving other people’s problems and finding answers to questions we shouldn’t be asking in the first place.

Before working at Fanshawe College, I led communities in transforming the way they see and inhabit both their neighbourhoods and cities. Although it is not a complete archive, I have collected together in one place the work I am most proud of 🖼️ which includes:

• The Localist—a weekly local publication I co-founded 📰
• Circumnavigating Lake Fanshawe—finding a temple in the woods 🏞️
• Block Party in a Box—a resource for planning & executing block parties 📦
• Walk London & 100 Ways—poster projects designed to converse & engage 📃
• For Community—a treatise on communities of identity, faith, and place 📢
• PARK(ing) Day—a re-imagination of parking spaces as public open space 🅿️
• Good City—the flag most of my place-based work flies 🏁

👉👉👉 Click here to view these works and others…

In 2020, after two decades of leading place based efforts, I took time to carefully investigate 🔍 what role place has in shaping the learning experiences most influential in fostering community leadership. Now, I use the knowledge I’ve gained through experience & research to advise and strategize with civic organizations on how they can encourage citizens to become more active & engaged in shaping the places they call home.

I hold a Master of Adult Education in Community Development—Community Leadership focus, from St. Francis Xavier University 🎓; a Diploma in Urban Planning from Fanshawe College, and a Bachelor of Education from Western University.

When not in the office, I can be found: (mostly 🔗) reading 📚, caring for aging family members, participating in small-scale urban homesteading 🌾, or sorting through 10 years of photos 📸 (1,000,000+ frames) I’ve taken of places and their inhabitants.

I’m Open to Remote Work 💻+👔

I am interested in and open to remote work opportunities across the areas of education, leadership, and community/civic development & engagement. If you would like discuss an opportunity where your organization’s purpose driven efforts align with my skills, knowledge, experience and expertise please email me.