Kelly Duggan is not only a supporter of Community Builders but also a satisfied customer. We sat down with Kelly and shared excerpts from our conversation:
Q: Why did you decide to join the Board of Community Builders?
A: My journey to the Board of Community Builders did not begin with a phone call or a formal invitation. It began in a classroom.
In 2017, I was teaching a course in Social Entrepreneurship at Georgian College, and I wanted my students to learn from someone who was actually living social innovation, not just theorizing about it. I invited Brandon Day, CEO of Community Builders, to speak to my class. What happened next I did not fully anticipate. Brandon’s authentic, mission-driven leadership and his genuine dedication to community transformation lit something up in that room. My students, many of whom had only ever imagined careers in traditional business, suddenly saw a whole new world of possibilities. You could feel the energy shift.
That spark led me to ask Brandon whether my students could go deeper, not just listen, but contribute. He did not hesitate. Over the following years, cohorts of my students developed strategic plans, business plans, and human resources frameworks for Community Builders. Some wanted to do their co-op placements there. Brandon welcomed everyone of them.
Watching that partnership unfold, and watching Community Builders’ impact grow in real time, I knew I wanted to be more than an occasional collaborator. Joining the Board felt like the natural and necessary next step.
Q: How do you aim to use your skills as a Director?
A: My background in business education, strategy, and organizational development means I come to this Board with both a strategic lens and a deep belief in the power of purposeful enterprise. I aim to use my expertise to help Community Builders tell its story more powerfully, strengthen its organizational foundations, and build partnerships with educational institutions, employers, and the broader business community that can fuel sustainable growth.
My specific goal is to ensure that as Community Builders scales, it never loses the heart-centred culture that makes it so extraordinary. Strategy without soul is just a document. Community Builders proves every day that the two can, and must, coexist.
Q: What has surprised you since joining the Board?
A: I thought I understood what Community Builders did. I did not, not really, until I experienced it firsthand.
At one point, I enlisted Community Builders to work on my own home. A crew came to do the renovations, and what I witnessed stopped me in my tracks. The training leads worked alongside the trainees with such patience and such gentleness, building skills, yes, but more than that, building confidence. I heard them offer quiet encouragement after every task. I watched people who had been told, explicitly or implicitly, that they did not belong, begin to stand a little taller.
I will be honest: it brought tears to my eyes. I had understood Community Builders intellectually. That day, I understood it in my bones. This is not just a job training program. It is a profound act of human dignity.
Q: What is your hope for the future of Community Builders?
A: My hope is that Community Builders becomes a model that other cities look to and say, “We need this!”
The construction industry is facing a generational labour shortage. At the same time, there are thousands of people in our communities who have the drive, the grit, and the potential to build remarkable careers. They simply need a door opened for them. Community Builders opens that door.
I, like many in our communities, could see the complex challenges associated with ensuring affordable housing for all. The innovative and impactful work of Community Builders is one way to contribute to this sizable problem.
I hope to see the organization deepen its employer partnerships, expand its reach, and continue to prove what Brandon has always known: that investing in people who have faced barriers is not charity. It is good business, good community, and good humanity.
I want to see the people who trained at Community Builders become the mentors of the next generation. That is when you know a mission has truly taken root.
Kelly Duggan, MA, is a strategic advisor, facilitator, and organizational development leader with 25 years of cross-sector experience spanning government, economic development, higher education, policing, nonprofits, and business.
Kelly spent 16 years at Georgian College, serving as both a Professor of Management, Leadership, Human Resources, and Global Business, and as Executive Director of Strategy, Innovation and Performance, where she also led the institution’s digital transformation as Digital Innovation Change Lead. Before Georgian College, she held strategic planning and organizational effectiveness roles with the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the City of Kingston.
Today, Kelly operates her own consultancy, ExecutiveLead Strategy Partners, providing fractional executive services as a Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Learning Officer, and Chief Organizational Development Officer. She is an award-winning facilitator and accomplished coach, with expertise in strategic planning and execution, organizational design, leadership development, facilitation, culture transformation, and human-centred design.
Her professional philosophy is simple: a better culture starts with better conversations. In an age of artificial intelligence, she believes the future is deeply human.
