Charla Vall

Charla leads engagements that bring clarity, alignment and direction to organizations navigating impact in complex environments.

As Consulting Director at Junxion, she works across nonprofit and private sectors, ensuring the outputs reflect a broad range of voices, experiences, and evidence.

Her work primarily focuses on strategic planning, purpose, vision and values definition, theory of change and impact measurement. She also plays a key role in shaping and strengthening Junxion’s service quality and delivery.

Foundational Moments

Charla has always sought to understand the root causes of complex problems.

As a Senior Analyst with United Way of Calgary and Area, she helped steward nearly $10 million worth of investments and supported the organization’s strategic framework for poverty reduction. Her role was focused on research and policy-driven solutions. For example, her research revealed that low-income youth in Calgary were excluded from subsidized transit passes because of age-based policy gaps—some even paying more for transit than their parents. 

Charla approaches strategy development as a process that begins with building shared understanding—gained through evidence and multiple perspectives.

As part of Junxion’s work with Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Charla supported the development of a strategic plan informed by engaging Trustees, executives, staff, and stakeholders nationwide—ensuring it reflected a wide range of perspectives. With Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights and UBC’s School of Biomedical Engineering she led similarly participatory processes, engaging stakeholders through interviews, focus groups, and surveys to co-create a five-year strategy grounded in the realities of those most impacted by the work.

What’s Your “Why?”

This shift was driven by her belief that the private sector plays a critical role in addressing complex societal challenges, which led her to build her own consulting practice and deepen her expertise in sustainable business and purpose-led strategy prior to joining Junxion.

During this time, she developed a framework for defining corporate social purpose—now published by Junxion—and contributed thought leadership on topics such as social procurement and the distinction between ESG and purpose. Her first project with Junxion was to develop a purpose measurement framework for Coast Capital Savings, one of the first comprehensive approaches to assessing an organization’s progress toward its stated purpose. She has since delivered talks on this defining era of purpose to businesses, entrepreneurs and leaders across the country.

Across all her projects, Charla creates the conditions for honest dialogue, builds trust across diverse groups, and ensures what is heard shapes what comes next.

Unique Positioning

Charla’s experience in participatory action research, combined with an intersectional feminist lens, informs how she approaches dialogue and decision-making in every engagement.

Through her studies in Sociology and her Master’s degree in London, UK, Charla built a strong foundation in understanding how social systems shape inequality, belonging, and access. Early in her career, her research and advocacy efforts focused on healthcare access among refugee claimants, the Temporary Foreign Worker program, municipal integration policies, and collaboration among the immigrant-serving sector. She also led participatory action research exploring barriers to civic participation among immigrant communities and was a founding Board member of the Calgary Region Immigrant Employment Council. Her evidence-based, participatory approach to complex problems continues to underpin her work with clients today.

Active in Calgary’s community, she also serves as an Expert Advisor for Innovate Calgary and enjoys spending time in her garden with her partner and children.

Speaking & Writing

How to Get Started With Social Procurement – Network for Business Sustainability 

What Is Social Procurement? – Network for Business Sustainability 

How to Solve a Social/ Environmental Problem Facing Your Business  – Avetta

Purpose and ESG Are Not Interchangeable; You Need Both – Sustainable Brands

Covid-19: A Tipping Point for Gender Equality – Canadian Poverty Institute

Credentials

MA, Gender, Sexualities & Ethnic Studies – University of East London, UK

BA, Sociology – University of Regina, Saskatchewan

Certificate in Lean Data Approaches to Measure Social Impact, Acumen Academy

Certificate in Sustainable Business Strategy, Harvard Business School Online

NVivo Statistical Software Training, University of Calgary Mathematics and Statistics Department

Understanding and Interpreting Data, Statistics Canada Advisory Services, Calgary, Canada

Certificate in Public Policy, Max Bell Foundation’s Public Policy Training Institute

Innoweave Coach – Collective Impact, Policy Engagement, Scaling Impact

Founding Board Member, Calgary Region Immigrant Employment Council