Meet Sue Holdsworth, a municipal intrapreneur who has reoriented her career towards gaining the skills and capacities for systems change within large bureaucracies.
Current Title: Service Experience Specialist at the City of Edmonton
#wellbeing
#communityengagement
#city_government
Sue is drawn to complex, transformative projects that require seeing the big picture and listening deeply. Her path intersected with InWithForward’s when she joined the RECOVER Urban Wellbeing team at the City of Edmonton, just as we had been hired to do ethnography to better understand how Edmonton’s most marginalized experience wellbeing. Under her leadership, RECOVER created the conditions for deep experimentation and prototyping to bring to life a wellbeing framework centered on connection, balance, and acknowledging grief and loss. Sue continues to be an advocate within the City for systems thinking, social R&D methods, and a focus on wellbeing.
Earlier, Sue led Edmonton’s WinterCity Strategy, helping shift the city’s culture toward embracing the opportunities of winter through community engagement, innovative urban design, and cross-sector partnerships. She thrives in roles that blend planning, social innovation, and systems thinking to create meaningful, lasting change.
“Have only 5 minutes to solve a problem? Spend 4 of them understanding the problem and only 1 working on the solution. Too often we jump to solutions without understanding issues from the perspectives of people at the heart of them.” –Sue Holdsworth
Sue’s strengths
- Providing leadership & advocacy for social research and development (R&D) initiatives
- Persistence in the face of institutional obstacles
- Translating the systems change concepts and practices for a municipal audience
- Facilitating interdisciplinary teams on complex city-wide projects
Sue’s background
- Project Manager, RECOVER Urban Wellbeing, City of Edmonton
- Project Manager, WinterCity Strategy, City of Edmonton
- Professional planner with 20 years’ experience in three local governments and an NGO
- Expertise in social planning, land use and policy planning, public education, facilitation, and social marketing
