Meet your dream team

Founder

Lara Hof

Lara (she/her) is a national leader in conflict resolution and student conduct administration, with extensive experience influencing institutional strategy and practice across university and college settings. Lara's expertise in organizing and operating behavioural intervention teams, leading student conduct administration programs, and designing human-centered policy development continues to shape successful practices across Canada. She specializes in program and policy reviews and hosts dynamic training opportunities to bridge theory with practice, highlighting the pros of conflict.
🗓️ Schedule time directly with Lara

Associate

Dion Fawcett

Dion (he/him) is a seasoned leader in higher education and case management with experience in both the post-secondary and social service sectors. Specializing in training and program development for behavioral intervention and risk assessment teams, Dion's expertise in student-focused practices and processes continues to shift how Canadian post-secondary institutions coordinate student care. Dion has developed and contributed to institutional and national publications and operational processes regarding student mental health, complex care coordination, and case management, contributing to shaping sector-wide successful practices and approaches.

associate

Danielle Gardiner Milln

Danielle (she/her) is a dedicated advocate for equity in higher education, leveraging over a decade of experience in student affairs, academic editing, and research. She focuses on crafting policies that prioritize learner needs while offering actionable guidance for practitioners. Her doctoral scholarship focuses on student affairs professionals' conceptualizations and approaches to reconciliation in their work, including the interplay of individual student-professional interactions with institutional, provincial, and national policy imperatives.

Associate

Kristin Lennan

Kristin (she/her) has expansive experience in post-secondary settings with a focus on restorative approaches, conflict resolution, and change management for student affairs leaders and practitioners. Drawing on her long-standing career in student housing and conduct administration, her doctoral work focused on the application of restorative approaches in student conduct administration and associated practices required to support organizational change.

Associate

Nicky Renault

Nicky (she/her) has over a decade of experience in higher education at institutions across the country and is an accomplished practitioner and leader in student conduct administration. She has experience in leading and designing both non-academic and academic student conduct programs, including scaffolding human-centered practices for gender-based violence support, and non-clinical case management. Currently, she is a doctoral scholar focused on exploring ethics of care within student conduct administration.

Our specialties

Areas of excellence

Authentic Equity Work

We are dedicated to continuous improvement and learning for ourselves. For others, we are are committed to human-centered approaches, dismantling barriers, and advocating for equitable outcomes.

Extensive Professional Experience

Our team has worked at multiple post-secondary institutions in roles related to conflict resolution, student conduct administration, case management, restorative practices, and threat assessment, in both academic and non-academic environments. We've also worked outside the sector!

Strategic Insight

We are committed to staying relevant. Alongside our academic pursuits, we track trends in the field, changes in legislation, and follow international practices. This allows us to emphasize Canadian specific content while contrasting, and strengthening our day-to-day practices and work.

Incident & Case Management

Collectively, we've managed and coordinated care for thousands of cases by serving in various roles including case manager, fact-finder, decision-maker, appeal board member and chair of behavioural intervention teams. We are practitioners!

Dynamic Speakers

Our team members have founded and designed sold-out national training institutes, led workshops and facilitated professional development sessions on a variety of topics, of all sizes, in all kinds of locations with rave reviews.

Policy and Program Development

We offer in-depth, hands-on expertise in developing and implementing higher education policies and practices that are dynamic, human-centered and responsive to unique institutional contexts.

Our values

Trust

Trust nurtures our relationships.

Honesty

Honesty cultivates our authenticity.

Integrity

Integrity guides our actions.

Disruption

Disruption sparks our innovation.

Collaboration

Collaboration fuels our progress.

As a team

Guiding Principles

Disruptive Advocacy

We're committed to fostering an environment that celebrates diversity, promotes equitable access, honours indigeneity, and champions justice for all, recognizing that inclusion and fairness are fundamental cornerstones of our operations and interactions.

Informed Foundation

We strive to build our strategies and actions upon a solid base of both established theory and relevant, accurate data, ensuring our decisions are well-informed and grounded in comprehensive understanding.

Tangible Impact

We're committed to crafting solutions that are not only theoretically sound but also immediately applicable and practicable in real-world scenarios, ensuring their effectiveness and tangible impact on desired outcomes.

Resource Sharing

We cultivate a culture of resource sharing, knowledge exchange and collaboration to build our collective capacity and success.

Collective Well-being

We prioritize the holistic well-being of every individual, fostering a culture where collective care and support are at the heart of our actions and decisions.

Our Approach to AI

At Hof & Associates, our work is driven by expertise, experience, and a commitment to thoughtful, human-centered solutions. Generative AI, like ChatGPT, is just one of many tools we use to validate accessibility, prioritize inclusivity, and ensure our content is clear and effective for multiple audiences. Occasionally, we also use it to test comprehension or refine learning materials.

That said, AI never creates our work. Everything we produce is shaped by human insight, reviewed with care, and guided by our professional expertise. AI is evolving fast, but our values remain the same: integrity, critical thinking, and human connection.

If you ever have questions about how we use AI, let’s talk - via a real human chat.