About Me
I’m a curious thinker, innovator, leader, and mentor. For more than 25 years, I’ve worked across higher education, sustainability, social innovation by helping people and organizations turn ideas into action.
A big part of my work has always been about people. I’ve helped students find their confidence and voice, mentored emerging leaders, brought people together around shared challenges, and created the conditions for good ideas to become something real.
I’m a divergent thinker by nature. I like asking tough questions, connecting ideas that don’t always seem connected, and imagining what might be possible. I’m equally interested in what happens next. How do we take a big idea and actually put it into practice?
One of my favourite ways to work is through dialogue. A walking meeting, a coffee, a good question, a new perspective. I enjoy helping people get clear about what they’re trying to do, what might be getting in the way, and what a next step might look like.
My Story
I came to the west coast 25 years ago from Ontario and have made my home in Vancouver ever since. I live and work on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
The west coast has shaped both my work and my life. I spend a lot of time walking in the rainforest, exploring the coastal mountains, and finding ways to get out on the Salish Sea.
For 16 years, I was a faculty member at Simon Fraser University, teaching in the Semester in Dialogue. It was an experience that profoundly shaped how I think about education and learning. I also co-founded CityStudio Vancouver, an experiment in bringing students, universities, cities, and communities together to work on real-world challenges.
My work has always taken place beyond the walls of the university. I’m interested in what happens when learning is experiential, community based and focused on collaboration and problems that actually matter.
My family developed a net-zero duplex in Vancouver as a climate legacy project and to learn more deeply what it means to put our values into practice. As a mom of twins I also have learned a lot about juggling work, life and play.
Education
My academic path has been deliberately interdisciplinary.
I began with a BSc in Marine Biology at McGill University, where I developed a lifelong love of whales and intertidal zones. I went on to an MSc in Zoology/Ecology at UBC, where I discovered how much I loved teaching, hummingbirds, and the west coast.
My PhD at UBC started in the School of Community and Regional Planning and finished in the Faculty of Education. My work combined urban sustainability, systems thinking, feminist methodologies, transformative learning, and participatory approaches.
That combination continues to shape how I work. I’m interested in the connections between people, places, organizations, and the larger systems in which we live.
What I Care About
I’m passionate about new possibilities and about supporting people who are trying to create meaningful change.
I’m particularly interested in education, sustainability, transformative learning, social innovation, social entrepreneurship, organizational change, and the future of higher education. I also care deeply about the human side of change. Confidence, curiosity, relationships, leadership, well-being, and the ability to imagine something different all matter.
I’m still learning what it means to be a settler on the west coast of Canada, and that learning is part of my ongoing work. Outside of work, you’ll usually find me riding my bike, digging in the garden, spending time with family, or walking my dog Magic in the rainforest.
A Career Built Around Putting Ideas Into Practice
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work in many different roles and settings, including:
Simon Fraser University
Professor of Professional Practice, Semester in Dialogue
Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
University Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Environment
CityStudio Vancouver
Co-founder and Co-director
Board Chair, CityStudio Vancouver Society
Hey Neighbour Collective
Advisor
Georgia Strait Alliance
Interim Executive Director
UBC Farm & Centre for Sustainable Food Systems
Innovation and Research Curator
WalkingtheTalk
Director, BC Working Group on Sustainability Education
Learning City Research Collaborative
Postdoctoral Fellow
Georgia Basin Futures Project
Graduate Research Assistant
University of British Columbia, Biology
Lab Faculty, First Year Biology Program