Dr. Kim Speers
Associate teaching professor
Public Administration
- Contact:
- Office: HSD A354 kspeers@uvic.ca
- Credentials:
- PhD (Alberta), MA, MA, BA (Hons.)
- Area(s) of expertise:
- strategic planning and implementation, public engagement and communication, research methods, performance measurement, logic models, change management, local government, physician recruitment in municipalities, managing services in the public sector, project and program management, board governance, and policy analysis
About
Dr. Kimberly Speers is an Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Public Administration. She teaches courses on public sector governance, strategic planning and implementation, project and program management, public policy, communication and engagement, board governance, managing service delivery, research methods, and policy analysis. She has supervised over 200 students from the Master of Public Administration, PhD., and Master of Community Development programs. In 2020, she received the Faculty of Human & Social Development Award for Teaching Excellence and Educational Leadership.
She is currently the chair of Social Planning Cowichan. She is also a Rotarian (South Cowichan) and is the Canadian representative on the Rotary Pacific Northwest District’s Finance Committee. She is serving as an expert advisor on the performance measurement and evaluation committee with the BC Human Rights Commission. She also serves on the Saskatchewan Board of Revisions that is responsible for hearing property assessment appeals. Kim is also the Chair for a federal Electoral District Association in the Cowichan-Malahat-Langford riding. She is also working on two research projects with Mediate BC and is in the middle of taking a course on advanced mediation. She also manages the university-wide University Teaching Faculty Stream website. Kim also sits on the nomination committees for IAP2 (BC/Yukon and Canada).
She is currently the chair of Social Planning Cowichan. She is also a Rotarian (South Cowichan) and is the Canadian representative on the Rotary Pacific Northwest District’s Finance Committee. She is serving as an expert advisor on the performance measurement and evaluation committee with the BC Human Rights Commission. She also serves on the Saskatchewan Board of Revisions that is responsible for hearing property assessment appeals. Kim is also the Chair for a federal Electoral District Association in the Cowichan-Malahat-Langford riding. She is also working on two research projects with Mediate BC and is in the middle of taking a course on advanced mediation. She also manages the university-wide University Teaching Faculty Stream website. Kim also sits on the nomination committees for IAP2 (BC/Yukon and Canada).
Recently, she was also the Chair for the Institute of Public Administration (IPAC, 樱花影视 chapter) and the Secretary for the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration. She also taught in the University of Alberta's National Advanced Certificate in Local Authority Administration for 12 years.
Kim has taken numerous professional development courses over the years in the areas of AI, project management, strategic foresight, decision-making, problem-solving, conflict resolution, data analytics, and EDIJAB. She is a Prosci certified change management professional and has recently taken the Advanced Change Management Masterclass from the Association of Change Management Professionals. She also took the Certified Service Manager Program from the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service.
Prior to her arrival in BC, Kim was an Assistant Professor and the Graduate Chair in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba. She received an Outstanding Faculty Award in 2009 at the University of Manitoba and in 2008, she received a President's Committee Community Outreach Award.
She completed her PhD in Political Science at the University of Alberta and has a MA in Public Administration from Carleton University, a Master of Arts in History from Queen’s University and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Waterloo. She received a University Teaching Services Graduate Teaching Award while she was finishing her PhD.
Dr. Speers was also a management consultant with KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC Consulting, Praxis and IMI Strategics before moving to Manitoba. She has also worked as a government relations consultant and worked at the federal, provincial and local orders of government. She was the Director for Strategy and Policy with the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, Manager of Business Planning and Performance Measurement with Alberta Municipal Affairs and worked for a former Prime Minister to assist him with researching his memoirs.
She is a frequent media commentator at the national, provincial, and local levels and many years ago was actively involved in partisan and student politics. She is still involved in campaign management and loves elections!
Research interests
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project and program management
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public engagement and communication
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service delivery
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change management
- food policy and politics
- animal policy and politics
- business and strategic planning in government
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local government and administration
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physician recruitment by local governments
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mediation
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housing
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women in politics
Publications
Evaluator, Mediate BC Project Team, Sexual Harassment in the Trades, July 2025-current.
Project Manager and Lead Author, Mediate BC, UVIC Student/Faculty Project on Early Mediation in Child Protection in British Columbia, March 2021 – current.
Project Manager, Local Governments and Recruitment of Physicians in Ontario and BC. Working with Health Sciences student (Sydney Maylen) from Queens University, May 2025-current.
Speers, Kimberly and Lindquist, Evert (2023). From Vision to Results: Strategic Management, Planning, and Organizing. In . 5th edition. LexisNexus Canada.
Project Manager and Primary Author, Pacifica Housing, UVic Student/Faculty. Project on ‘Identifying the Needs and Preferences of Pacifica Housing Residents.’ November 2021 – December 2022.
Speers, Kimberly. (October 13, 2021). Annamie Paul: Lessons for the Green Party after ‘worst period in my life.’
Speers, Kimberly. (October 2021). An analysis of COVID-19 political fandom…and a lament.
Speers, Kimberly. (September 20, 2021). Canada’s status quo election: Trudeau returned with another minority, faces uncertain future.
Speers, Kimberly. (December 2020). Coping with the elephant’s twitches, grunts, and tweets.
Co-researcher, Assessment of 2019 Federal Election for the Green Party of Canada, May 2020-December 2020.
Speers, Kimberly & Corbett, Meghan. (May 2020). Literature Review for Vancouver Island Children’s Health Foundation: Children and Youth with Mental Health Issues. 樱花影视: Children’s Health Foundation.
Speers, Kimberly & Abdel-Malek, Amira. (May 2020). Literature Review for Vancouver Island Children’s Health Foundation: Children with Complex Needs. 樱花影视: Children’s Health Foundation.
Speers, Kimberly & Gale, Star. (May 2020). Literature Review for Vancouver Island Children’s Health Foundation: Early Childhood Development. 樱花影视: Children’s Health Foundation.
Speers, Kimberly. (2018). The Not-So Invisible Private Service: Consultants and Public Policy in Canada. Policy Analysis in Canada. L. Dobuzinskis, M. Howlett, eds. London: Policy Press. Part of International Library of Policy Analysis.
Speers, Kimberly. (2007). The Invisible Private Service: Consultants and Public Policy in Canada. Policy Analysis in Canada: The State of the Art. L. Dobuzinskis, M. Howlett, D. Laycock, eds. Toronto: Oxford University Press: pp. 399-421.
Speers, Kimberly. (2006). For Better or for Worse? How Political Consultants are Changing Elections in the United States [review of the book]. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 39: pp. 446-448.
Speers, Kimberly. (2005). Performance Measurement: Truth and Propaganda. Revue Governance, 1: pp. 58-76.
Speers, Kimberly. (2001). The Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada, 1967-1970: Liberal Feminism and Its Radical Implications. Framing Our Past: Canadian Women’s History in the Twentieth Century. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, pp. 250-256.
Conferences
· June 2023, Moderator and Organizer, “Local Government Accountability, Transparency, and Integrity.” IPAC 樱花影视 in partnership with IPAC Vancouver and the Local Governance Hub
· June 2023, Organizer, “Current and Future Challenges and Opportunities in Local Governments in BC,” IPAC 樱花影视 in partnership with IPAC Vancouver and the Local Governance Hub
· April 2023, Moderator and Organizer, “Visual Facilitation.” IPAC 樱花影视
· February 2023, Panelist, “” IPAC 樱花影视.
· June 2022, Moderator, “Are you Prepared for Career Success? An IPAC Panel for New Professionals.” IPAC 樱花影视
· November 2021, Presenter, “Advice About Grad School.” Department of Political Science, 樱花影视
· October 2021, Presenter, “Comments about the 2021 Federal Election,” Centre of Global Studies, 樱花影视
· August 2021, Presenter, UVic Let’s Talk about Teaching Annual Conference. Title of Presentation: Supporting Graduate Students Online: Orientation, 24/7 Resources, and Capstone Projects/Theses
· June 2021, Presenter, Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration Annual Conference. Title of Paper: The Wild West of Strategic Planning in BC Local Governments
· 2020, Webinar Speaker, “COVID-19: Trust in Government and Political Fandom.” School of Public Administration, 樱花影视 COVID-19 Webinar Series.
· 2019, Guest Speaker, “Electoral Reform in Canada.” Fall Webinar Series, School of Public Administration, 樱花影视
· Main organizer, cohost, and co-chat moderator. “Exploring Ideas and Practices Webinar Series.” Seventeen webinars. School of Public Administration, 樱花影视. (2019-2021)
· 2018, Presenter, Electoral Reform in British Columbia, School of Public Administration
· 2017 (March), Interviewer, Mock Interviews with PhD Job Candidate, Teaching and Learning Centre
· 2016, Panelist, “Implications of a Trump Presidency on Canada,” International Engagement Week, Student Affairs, 樱花影视
· 2016, Workshop speaker, “Creating and sustaining a dynamic and inclusive online experience for students: Teaching and capstone projects/theses,” Let’s Talk About Teaching 2016, 樱花影视
· 2016, Guest speaker, “Office politics: a public sector perspective.” Legislative Internship Program, Government of British Columbia.
· 2013, Guest speaker, “Consultants and Government Policy Capability: what we know, don’t know, and what we need to know and why,” School of Public Administration Public Policy and Governance Dialogue Series
· 2009, Presenter, “Thinking about Leadership in the 21st Century,” IPAC Speakers’ Series, Winnipeg, Manitoba
· 2009, Presenter, “Measuring Terrorism, Teenage Pregnancy, Food Safety, and Democracy in Government,” University of Manitoba High School Days, Winnipeg, Manitoba
· 2009, Presenter, “Thinking Strategically: Issue Management in the Department of Agriculture,” Government of Manitoba
Courses taught
- ADMN 411: Public Sector Project Management
- ADMN 422: Ethical Public Management
- ADMN 477: Strategic Planning and Implementation
- ADMN 502A: Research Design: Critical Appraisal of Information
- ADMN 504: Public Sector Governance
- ADMN 550: Strategic Communication and Engagement
- ADMN 577: Strategic Planning and Implementation
- ADMN 580: Qualitative Evaluation Methods
- ICDG 305: Indigenous Research Methods and Project Management
- POLI 321: Introduction to Research Methods in Politics
- POLI 339: The Empirical Analysis of Politics
- POLI 351: Public Policy and Analysis
- POLI 361: Parties and Press Groups in Canada
- POLI 364: Canadian Public Policy
- POLI 365: BC Political Economy
- POLI 433: Seminal Issues in Politics: Politics of Food
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ADMN Managing service delivery
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ADMN 582 Performance Measurement for Performance Improvement and Accountability,
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ADMN 556 Public Policy
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Directed readings: social media, board governance
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CD 512 Program and Project Design, Management and Evaluation
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CD 510 Leadership, Management and Governance within Organizations