The Prairie Cluster is a partnership between The Centre for the Study of Co-operatives at the University of Saskatchewan, Credit Union Central of Saskatchewan, Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada, Affinity Credit Union and Advantage Credit Union. The Cluster is led by Dr. Lou Hammond Ketilson, director of the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.

The Prairie Cluster is currently pursuing two main projects, one on the impact of credit unions (P1) and the other on co-operative housing (P2).


P1- Measuring the impact of credit unions on wealth building in communities

Project Co-Leads:



Lou Hammond Ketilson is the Director and Fellow in Co-operative Management,  at the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives. She holds a faculty appointment in the  Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan. Her research interests include management in co-operatives and other democratic organizations, community development, women in co-operatives, Aboriginal co-op development, and diversity on co-op boards and governance bodies. She is also a co-lead on P1-Measuring the impact of credit unions on wealth building in communities.




Jessica Gordon Nembhard is the co-lead for P1-Measuring the impact of credit unions on wealth building in communities. Her work focuses on measuring the impact of the social economy on communities, wealth accumulation and asset building through co-operative and shared ownership, and a comparison between Aboriginal/First Nations co-operatives in Canada and African-American-owned co-operatives in the US. Dr. Gordon Nembhard is a political economist and an Associate Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College of the City University of New York (CUNY), as well as an affiliate of the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives at the University of Saskatchewan.

[Text and image source: Centre for the Study of Co-operatives]



Linda Moulin has recently become a co-lead working with Dr. Lou Hammond Ketilson for P1-Measuring the impact of credit unions on wealth building in communities. Linda is the Senior Vice President of Affinity Credit Union in Saskatoon, SK. At the Credit Union Executives Society meeting in Las Vegas in early November, Moulin was awarded the CUES Future Leader Award “for superior commitment to their CU, the movement and continuing education,” (CUES). Moulin served a pivotal role in the merger that grew Affinity to be among the top 10 largest credit unions in Canada.

Myrna Hewitt is also a co-lead on this project.  Myrna is the Senior VP Marketing and Research of Affinity Credit Union in Saskatoon, SK. Hewitt has worked before for SaskCentral as Manager in Marketing and Communication, Sasktel as Director of Marketing and Communication and for the Canadian Co-operative Association as Director of Corporate Affairs. Myrna has received the Saskatchewan Co-operative Merit Award. 

[Text and image source: Measuring the Co-operative Difference Research Network Newsletter, 2(3), Fall/Winter 2011]


P1 Research Partners:

Linzi Williamson


See P1 Research Partners for expanded bios.

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P2- The outcomes and impacts of co-operative housing

Project Lead:

Catherine Leviten-Reid is the lead researcher on P2-The outcomes and impacts of co-operative housing. She was a postdoctoral fellow with the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives from January of 2008 to June of 2009. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Shannon School of Business at Cape Breton University, where she teaches in the MBA in Community Economic Development program. Catherine's current research focus is on how co-operatives and other community-based enterprises may increase family and consumer well-being. She has studied child care organizations and home support agencies, and is currently doing research on health co-operatives as well as co-operative housing. Catherine has a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also worked as a research assistant at the Center for Cooperatives. She has served on the boards of the Saskatoon Community Clinic and the Ottawa Women's Credit Union, and is a past president of the Canadian Association for Studies in Co-operation (CASC).