Our team.
MARK OTTER
MANAGING Partner
Mark founded Community Works Collective after 15 years leading Participate, where he pioneered the design of learning communities that transformed how organizations recognize and sustain collaborative learning. At Participate, Mark and his team issued hundreds of thousands of digital credentials across education, nonprofit, and industry sectors on every continent, proving that recognition systems can spark genuine engagement and belonging.
Mark brings deep expertise in community strategy, Open Badges and digital credentials, and platform design. He's worked with organizations ranging from family business centers to national foundations, always asking the same question: How do we turn periodic touchpoints into year-round engagement? His approach combines systems thinking with practical facilitation—believing that the best communities emerge when purpose meets practice.
Before Participate, Mark worked in educational technology and community organizing, always gravitating toward work that helps people learn and grow together. He's passionate about making learning visible, building networks that cross institutional boundaries, and designing recognition systems that honor the real work people do.
When he's not convening communities, Mark is probably playing hockey, herding kids, or working on his truck.
Areas of Expertise: Community strategy, digital credentials & Open Badges, platform selection & integration, facilitation design, systems convening.
JULIE KEANE PHD
Founding Partner
Julie brings a rare combination of rigorous learning science and pragmatic implementation experience to Community Works Collective. As Chief Learning Officer at Participate for over a decade, she designed learning frameworks and facilitation strategies that helped hundreds of organizations transform how they support professional growth and community engagement.
Julie's work is grounded in the belief that learning is transformation—not just information transfer. She designs with equity and belonging at the center, ensuring that communities create space for every voice to matter. Her expertise spans learning pathway design, micro-credentialing strategy, facilitator training, and assessment design. She's particularly skilled at helping organizations move from compliance-focused professional development to authentic communities of practice.
With a PhD in Education, Julie combines academic rigor with practitioner wisdom. She's worked across K-12, higher education, and nonprofit sectors, always bringing clarity and curiosity to complex challenges. Her superpower is helping teams articulate what they actually want their community to accomplish—and then designing the structures to make it happen.
Julie believes that the best communities are learning communities, and the best learning happens when people feel they belong.
Areas of Expertise: Learning design, communities of practice, facilitator development, micro-credentials, equity-centered design, assessment & evaluation
DON LABONTE
Founding Partner
Don has spent his career at the intersection of technology, communication, and community building. At Participate, he led content strategy, marketing, and partnership development—translating complex ideas about social learning into clear, compelling narratives that helped organizations understand why communities of practice matter and how to build them.
Don's approach is rooted in collaboration and integrity. He believes that communities thrive when organizations do what they say and say what they mean—which means his work focuses on authentic engagement, not marketing spin. He's developed webinars, thought leadership content, partnership proposals, and go-to-market strategies for community platforms across multiple sectors.
Don excels at helping organizations articulate their community strategy in ways that resonate with diverse stakeholders—from executive leadership to frontline practitioners. He's passionate about storytelling that serves learning, content that builds trust, and partnerships built on shared values.
Before focusing on community work, Don worked in research, strategy, and design, creating comprehensive learning solutions always drawn to projects that help people connect and collaborate more effectively.
Areas of Expertise: Content strategy, partnership development, community marketing, stakeholder engagement, thought leadership, communications
PATRICK JABERG
Founding Partner
Patrick brings technical depth and strategic perspective to Community Works Collective's work. At Participate, he led platform development, technology integration, and product strategy—ensuring that community platforms actually work for the people using them, not just in theory but in practice.
Patrick believes that technology should serve community, not the other way around. His work focuses on platform selection, integration architecture, user experience design, and the technical implementation that turns community strategy into functional digital spaces. He's particularly skilled at bridging the gap between what organizations want their community to do and what technology can realistically deliver.
With experience spanning software development, systems architecture, and educational technology, Patrick has worked with platforms including Circle, Slack, Teams, and custom solutions. He's passionate about Open Badges 3.0 implementation, learning record interoperability, and building technical systems that respect user privacy while enabling meaningful recognition and connection.
Patrick approaches every technical decision through the lens of care—asking not just "can we build this?" but "should we build this, and will it actually serve the community's purpose?"
Areas of Expertise: Platform strategy & implementation, technical architecture, Open Badges 3.0, learning record systems, integration design, BadgeFlow development