OUR TEAM

David Canavan | Managing Director

David is the Managing Director of Canavan Associates. He has extensive experience in social services and technology. While David was working as an overnight counselor at a shelter he took advantage of the hours around 3AM to study relational databases. Eventually he worked his way up to running a large data collection system with high demands for availability, integrity, and confidentiality. He has developed a specialty in information security and presents regularly on the topics of security and social services at national conferences and periodically at international ones.

 

For more than 17 years, David has led the team at Canavan Associates on a diverse portfolio of projects.  Successfully completed projects include those sponsored by private philanthropic groups, state, and local government, in addition to contributions to HUD-funded technical assistance.  Through his work with the HUD Technical Assistance (TA) team David has contributed extensively to the development of Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) policy, supported hundreds of CoCs in the aftermath of major disasters, and assisted in the development and implementation of robust collaborations with the American Red Cross (ARC) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  David enjoys working in the field directly with senior community leaders, service providers, and service recipients to support practices that deliver the right support at the right time to effect change.

 

 

Jena Salon | Program Manager

For the last few years, Jena Salon has worked at Canavan Associates facilitating  collaborative, data-driven policy setting for local governments. She focused on working with them to integrate these policies at program level to ensure coherent approaches. Previously, she worked within the court system as a confidential victim advocate for adult and adolescent victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, trafficking. She developed and strengthened relationships between departments such as probation, the District Attorney’s office, the Clerk’s office, and Public Defenders in order to ensure victims’ needs were met. She has been involved in prevention education, self-defense, and boundary setting instruction. She has analyzed this specialized environment in order to facilitate victims’ navigation of the system in the midst of crisis.

 

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Lindsay Carpenter | Policy Analyst

Lindsay joined Canavan Associates in 2016 with a background in research and writing. Juggling contracts, drafting reports, and monitoring hurricanes, Lindsay is drawn to CA’s work with disaster response and the Equal Access Rule. Before arriving at CA, she conducted research for the Boston Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights and worked with Swarthmore University to discover and document cases of nonviolent action for the Global Nonviolent Action Database. Lindsay was trained in mediation by the Dispute Resolution Center of King County, where she also worked.