Meet Bissy.
Bissy L. Waariyo, M.A. is the Founder of Lansaa Consulting, where she co-designs inclusive, impact-driven solutions with clients through both "done with you" and "done for you" strategies.
With over 7+ years of experience, Bissy has worked across skills training, UX research, and evaluation, focusing on designing culturally responsive, trauma-informed upskilling programs for equity-deserving groups. Her journey from career practitioner to researcher and evaluator gives her unique insight into the needs and motivations of job-seekers and the systems they navigate to reach their career goals.
Currently, as Director, Strategy & Operations at Research Impact Canada (RIC), based at York University, Bissy leads knowledge mobilization for two major portfolios: RIC’s Pan-Canadian Network of 40+ institutions and the Future Skills Centre Community of Practice of 1,400+ national members. She oversaw knowledge mobilization efforts, including webinars, training, and impact reporting, and spearheaded the design of the FSC Community of Practice Refresh: Evaluation Framework and FSC Community of Practice Refresh: DEI Action Plan.
Career Counselling
Bissy began her career as a Career Counsellor at Youth Employment Services, helping youth develop digital skills for Canada’s evolving workforce. She worked on government and corporate programs, including Youth Job Connection, HSBC Career Accelerator Program, and This Way ONward. The curriculum developed for HSBC reached national audiences and to train agencies across Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver.
Community Outreach & Support
Additionally, Bissy contributed her time as a Residential Care Worker at Storey Homes, offering culturally relevant caret and co-created life-skills plans for youth transitioning out of the child welfare system. She also contributed thought leadership on equitable approaches for Black children in care, participating as a panelist for participating as a panelist for Exploring Anti-Black Racism & Children’s Rights, hosted by Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children.
Research and Evaluation
Transitioning to Research & Evaluation Associate at Blueprint ADE, Bissy contributed to projects for the Future Skills Centre and City of Toronto, focusing on building the evaluation capacity of grantees, practitioners, and community members to inform decision-making and scale impact. She helped launch the pilot year of the Future Skills Centre Practitioner Data Initiative (PDI) by conducting ecosystem scans and outreach to identify grantees for piloting and testing.
As Engagement Lead for the Canadian Tech Talent Accelerator (CTTA) project, she worked with NPower Canada, Microsoft Canada, and the Digital Technology Supercluster to design a strategic evaluation framework to test and validate the skills training initiative to scale nationally.
Bissy also served as Engagement Lead for the pilot year of the Youth Outcomes Framework for the City of Toronto, collaborating with 7 City Divisions and 17 programs to pilot a strategic approach to measuring performance across municipal youth development programs.
Mentorship
She also mentors through The Forum Mentor Program, presented by The Scotiabank Women Initiative with the mission of supporting over 2,500 entrepreneurs to feel empowered in their business journey. She provides 1:1 coaching to help women build their capacity to use readily available data (including their intuition) to design strategy and scale purpose-driven initiatives.
