About Suzanne

Suzanne Hawkes is an equity-centered management consultant, leadership trainer, facilitator and coach. She has supported senior leadership teams with clients across the US and Canada for over 20 years. Her vision: a diverse cross-sectoral network of collaborative, service-oriented leaders working across difference to leverage shared power and achieve transformational change.

She is a principal with Convergence Strategies, based in Vancouver, Canada.  Suzanne is also a co-designer and instructor for Simon Fraser University’s Certificate Program in Executive Leadership and a Dialogue Associate with SFU’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue.  Suzanne is also the sole Canadian trainer with the Rockwood Leadership Institute, which supports equity-centered leadership training for community and civic leaders from around the world. She is also an associate of InPartnership Consulting, based in Oakland, California, with a focus on organizational effectiveness, racial equity and inclusion.

Suzanne supports clients from a range of sectors, including academia, health care, government, business, sustainability, social justice, and the arts.  Her past and current clients include The Government of British Columbia, Taku River Tlingit Nation, Indigenous Leadership Initiative,  Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity,  Simon Fraser University,  University of B.C., the Rennie Group, the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Yukon Energy Corporation, Vancouver Coastal Health, Change.org, the David Suzuki Foundation, Wilburforce Foundation, W.K. Kellog Foundation, Tides Foundation, Advancement Project and the Nature Conservancy. Suzanne’s work also focuses on civic engagement and governance. Clients include the   Town of Smithers; the City of Surrey, Vision Vancouver, and the former  Washington, DC-based Center for Progressive Leadership. 

Suzanne  is a certified Integral Facilitator, and also certified to lead the Interpersonal Leadership Styles inventory, the Intercultural Development Inventory, and the Diamond Power Index Leadership Assessment, all tools aimed at helping leaders collaborate effectively across difference. She is an equity-centered coach, certified with the International Coaching Federation through Blooming Willow Coaching. Suzanne has an Honour’s Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo, and a Master’s degree in Resource and Environmental Management from Simon Fraser University; both focused on Indigenous-led resource management. She has studied for several years with master Facilitator and leadership trainer Robert Gass (Social Transformation Project), and is an alumni with the Art of Transformational Consulting and Dr. Julie Diamond and Anima Leadership’s year-long intensive in Deep Democracy: Micro-skills of Leadership, Collaboration and Facilitating Collective Change, and the “Art of Public Dialogue: Hosting Conversations on Race and Identity.”

Before joining Convergence, Suzanne was a co-founder of IMPACS Communications Centre, the first non-profit communications training and services centre in Canada. There, she trained hundreds of emerging communication leaders across Canada and overseas, and led several re-branding initiatives with national organizations such as the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada and EcoJustice.

She sits on the Board of Animals of Distinction, a Montreal-based contemporary dance company, loves running – slowly – and is wildly enthusiastic about martial arts movies and science fiction.

She lives with her multi-generational, blended family on the unceded territories  of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú 7mesh (Squamish), and Səl ̓ ı́ lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, also known as Vancouver, Canada.

Suzanne is a proud member of Unifor’s Freelance Union.

She can be contacted at:  hawkes [at] convergecom.ca