Marilyn Hamilton

Biography

Marilyn Hamilton is a Canadian author, academic, activist and city evolutionist. Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, her early life in eight Canadian cities, was influenced by her father’s career as a museum developer, giving her a firsthand experience of indigenous and immigrant cultures, history, archeology, anthropology, geology and geography. She earned her B.A. (English Literature) from University of Toronto in 1969, followed by Diploma in Translation (English/French) 1973, and Certified General Accountancy Designations (CGA Ontario/Canada 1976 and CGA BC/Canada 1985). Marilyn completed her PhD in 1999, in a non-traditional distance program, studying how learning and leadership occur in self-organizing online community systems (Hamilton, 1999).

Marilyn began her career developing human systems, in 1969, holding various senior management positions, in computer services, financial management, operations and administration, for Reed Stenhouse, the Insurance Brokers (now Aon), Canadian Pacific Hotels and Champlain Power Products, during which time, she lived and worked in Canada, the Bahamas, Europe, and the UK. In 1982 Marilyn became a COO of Evergreen Software Development a subsidiary of Sydney Development Corp., Vancouver, BC during the early development of the micro-computer and the CD. She was a pioneer in the connections between Silicon Valley, BC and Seattle (in the early days of Microsoft). In 1984 she created The Dobson Group (TDG) as a "lifelong learning agency" which became known as: TDG Global Learning Connections (TDGGLC) the trade name of TDG Holdings Inc. From 1992 to 2001, Marilyn was President of Consulting Resource Group International Inc. (CRGI) www.crgleader.com a specialty publisher of leadership and learning assessments, tools and systems for team and organization development.

Integral City

In 2005, Marilyn created the website www.integralcity.com, and Integral City Meshworks Inc. in 2008, to explore human systems development at the scale of the city through the lenses of the integral framework, living systems and resilience.

Her Book "Integral City:Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive" was reviewed by Wood, R. (Kosmos Journal Fall/Winter 2008); MacLeod, J.(2008) Integral Leadership Review, Book Review); and referenced by Norton, L (2012), Metropolis, Integral Sustainable Design Review/Reference.

Her work has been cited by Ling, C., Dale, A., & Hanna, K. (2007) Integrated Community Sustainability Planning Tool; Esborn-Hargens & Zimmerman (2009 Integral Ecology); Rioux, Sean (2009). Integrated Community Sustainability Planning: A Guide; and DeKay, M. (2011) Integral Sustainable Design.

Publications and research

Her book, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences in the Human Hive was published by New Society Publishers in Fall 2008. Earlier Marilyn authored or co-authored four books (Hamilton, 1998a, 1998b, 1999; Hamilton & Stevenson, 2000). As a thought leader and city evolutionist, her research has focused on city culture and values assessment, generations, evolutionary leadership for women, homefulness, community learning, subjective and intersubjective indicators of wellbeing, and learning capacities in sustainable communities (Hamilton, 2003, 2005a, 2005b, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2007d, 2008a, 2008b, 2009, 2010a, 2010b, 2010c, 2010d, 2010e; Hamilton, 2011a; Hamilton, 2011a, 2011b; Hamilton, 2011b; Hamilton, 2011c; Hamilton & Beck, 2011; Hamilton, Beck, Fisher, & Marx Hubbard, 2011; Hamilton & MacLeod, 2009; Wills, Hamilton, & Islam, 2007a, 2007b).

Academia

Marilyn has been a faculty member of Royal Roads University since 1999, supervising MA research and teaching in the School of Leadership, MA Distance Learning, MBA and Sustainable Community Development Graduate Certificate. She also taught and/or supervised graduate courses and research at University of Victoria, California Institute of Integral Studies, Adizes Graduate School, University of Oslo, University of Wageningen, John F. Kennedy University, Simon Fraser University, University of BC, University of Alberta, The Banff Centre and University of the Fraser Valley.

Associations

Marilyn is the Canadian Leader for the Centre for Human Emergence, Canada; a Spiral Dynamics integral Trainer of Trainers; a founding member of the Integral Institute; member of the Institute of Noetic Sciences; and alumni of the Foundation for Community Encouragement.

Throughout her career Marilyn served a number of NFP and professional associations: Chair, Imagine Abbotsford; President, Abbotsford Community Foundation; Director of the Abbotsford Airport Authority; VP of Volunteers for the 1995 Western Canada Summer Games; Executive Director-at-Large of the BC Chamber of Commerce; President of the Abbotsford-Matsqui Chamber of Commerce; Co-Chair of the Healthy Community Project; and Co-Chair of the University College of the Fraser Valley's Future Now Funding Campaign.