Research Team

What We Are Our research is dedicated to building civic literacy and useful knowledge for integrated decision-making around critical public policy issues, particularly, sustainable community development. We believe we have enough information, we know enough to act now and environmental issues such as climate change and biodiversity conservation affect all life. We are also committed to timely research dissemination, sharing our intellectual capital on the ground, and to creating novel e-communities of commitment, passion and excellence around sustainable community development.

Who We Are We have recruited a highly interdisciplinary team committed to the timely dissemination of research and ideally knowledge, and offer tools to enhance the decision-making capability of individuals and communities for their sustainable future development.

The team’s principal investigator is Ann Dale, Trudeau Fellow Alumna (2004), Canada Research Chair, Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability, Royal Roads University.



Professor Dale brings a wealth of public policy expertise to her academic work. Her research involves both place-based and virtual communities, in the belief that both are essential for bridging intellectual and social capital across communities. In addition to her Chair, Dr. Dale is currently leading five research projects on e-Dialogues,sustainable infrastructure,social capital, and most recently, agency and sustainable community development. Ann chairs the Canadian Consortium for Sustainable Development Research and has published a number of well-known books. Her book, At the Edge, received the 2001 Policy Research Initiative’s Outstanding Research Contribution.

You may be interested in participating in her blogs, the academic blog and/or her personal blog.

Other research sites include
Governance for Sustainable Development
Gender and Sustainable Development
 
 
Robert Newell has an undergraduate degree in Biology and Statistics from the University of Victoria and a Masters of Environment and Management from Royal Roads University. His graduate thesis focused on environmental education, and he has been involved in environmental education work over the last five years. Robert's work has taken him all over the world from the Africa to Asia to the South Pacific, and he has now settled back in Canada within Victoria. Robert is involved in the social media and communications aspects of the program.

Aliette Frank's expertise is in combining complex, technical scientific knowledge with creative storytelling. Dr. Frank is trained in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology and she has written and illustrated on issues of sustainability (biodiversity a core passion) for both academic and public audiences. Aliette has worked for The National Geographic Society, World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation and United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and she teaches in the School of Environment and Sustainability (RRU). Aliette is a former Outdoor Communicator of the Year (1999, Outdoor Writers Association of America) and for her interdisciplinary doctoral studies on science, sustainability and story, Aliette was named as a Trudeau Doctoral Scholar (2005). Visit Aliette's website for more details on her work and interests.

Rebecca Foon is an urban planner dedicated to integrating a holistic understanding of sustainability in growing healthy communities. She is an accomplished organizer and facilitator, sustainability management systems creator, sustainability assessment leader, and green building consultant. She has extensively researched water-related enviromental issues in North America and India in partnerhsip with the Indian Institute of Management. More recently, she worked as a sustainability/creative consultant for Planet Green's urban environment television series Wa$ted (Discovery Challen), and is the LEED coordingator for Proment Development's new residential development project targeting LEED gold in Montreal.
 
 
Yuill Herbert is a founding director with Sustainability Solutions Group (SSG). Yuill has worked on sustainability consulting projects in the spheres of community planning, sustainability assessments and green buildings. Major projects include the development of an open source model to evaluate the climate change impacts of municipal plans, the development of a carbon neutral course for Cascadia Green Building Council and a sustainability assessment for Concordia University. Yuill also helped introduce the LEED for Homes rating system in Canada. He has advised municipal, provincial and federal governments on policies related to sustainability and is active in sustainable development.