Amaya Lessard

Amaya is the Manager of Impact and Research for the North American Business Unit at SecondMuse. In her role, she wears many hats. With internal teams, she drives forward the strategy, implementation, and utilization of research-backed findings to facilitate impact measurement and management for program teams across North America. In this capacity, she is dedicated to building understanding of how our work drives forward the company's commitments to improving wellbeing and climate impact through our programming. These findings are used both for internal understanding – which drives forward insights-based strategic planning – as well as for external reporting and publication.

In addition to her work across internal programs, Amaya is also an active manager on the consulting team, often stepping in as a research manager and strategist for client and partner projects. She specializes in taking complex data and problems and distilling them into accessible and digestible insights, which she then uses to drive forward strategy and solutions. Throughout all of her work-streams, Amaya is steadfastly committed to centering those SecondMuse, and its programs, seek to serve. She draws heavily on the principles and values of participatory action research, striving to involve participants at every step of the way - not only to give them a seat at the table, but to elevate their voices at that table, too. This commitment is fed by her passion for co-creating research-backed solutions with communities to drive impact forward, especially for youth and those in the education space.

Across all her projects, Amaya loves to play with data and uncover insights, seeing challenges as puzzles that need to be solved. Prior to SecondMuse, she worked in the research and education fields, focused on improving K-12 and higher education spaces for youth, educators, and families. She brings this background, and her commitment to collecting and utilizing data, to the table with every project she pursues.

Her education background includes a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's degree in Education Policy Analysis. When Amaya isn't at work, she can most likely be found out in nature, hiking, biking, kayaking, or camping. When she isn't enjoying the great outdoors, she's often pursuing her hobbies, including singing and songwriting, architectural design, gardening, cooking and baking, and conducting education research.