People

The ESRC is made up of individuals and organizations from around the world. Click on each membership category below to learn more about who’s involved.

ESRC Administration

DIRECTOR

Marilyne Carrey (Acting)
Email: mcarrey@brocku.ca

GRADUATE PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Jessica Blythe
Email: jblythe2@brocku.ca

CENTRE ADMINISTRATOR

Amanda Smits
Email: asmits@brocku.ca

COORDINATOR

Erin Daly
Email: edaly@brocku.ca

 

Inquiries about the Master of Sustainability program should be directed to ssas@brocku.ca

Inquiries about the PhD in Sustainability Science program should be directed to ssci@brocku.ca.

Inquiries about the Minor in Environmental Sustainability and Microcertificate in Sustainability should be directed to ensu@brocku.ca

Faculty

Julia Baird

E-mail: jbaird@brocku.ca
Twitter@juliambaird

CRC (Tier II) in Human Dimensions of Water Resources and Water Resilience
Associate Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre

Education
Ph.D. University of Saskatchewan (Environment and Sustainability)
M.Sc. University of Saskatchewan (Soil Science)
B.Sc. (Distinction) University of Alberta (Crop Science)

About Julia
Julia’s research focuses on the human dimensions of water resources. She is particularly interested in water resilience, improving outcomes of water governance by improving processes, and agricultural decision-making and its impacts on water.

Dr. Jessica Blythe

Jessica Blythe

E-mail: jblythe2@brocku.ca
Twitter: @_JessicaBlythe
Please find my Google Scholar profile here

Associate Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre
Graduate Program Director, Master of Sustainability Program and PhD in Sustainability Science

Education
Ph.D. University of Victoria (Geography)
M.A. York University (Geography)
B.Sc. (Honours) Memorial University (Marine Biology)

About Jessica
Jessica Blythe is an Assistant Professor at Brock University. Jessica’s research focuses on how communities experience environmental change and what explains their differential capacities for adaptation and transformation. She is particularly interested in building the resilience of local communities to climate change, securing sustainable small-scale fisheries, and equitable collaborative forms of marine resource governance.  Her empirical work has been based in Eastern Africa, Melanesia, Australia, and most recently in southern Ontario.

Marilyne Jollineau

Marilyne Carrey (Nee Jollineau)

Email: mcarrey@brocku.ca

Associate Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre
Acting Director, ESRC

Education:
Ph.D. University of Waterloo (Geography)
M.E.S. University of Waterloo (Geography)
B.A. Carleton University (Geography, Concentration in Geospatial Technologies)

About Marilyne:
Marilyne holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Waterloo. She is an Associate Professor in the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) where she currently serves as the Acting Director of the ESRC, the Graduate Program Director for the Master of Sustainability Program, and the Director of the Brock-Lincoln Living Lab. In the context of environmental sustainability, her research program is largely focused on the application and use of geospatial technologies to study wetland, grassland, agricultural and forested ecosystems and their change over time. She is committed to making her research relevant to the wider community by engaging with local communities through innovative community engagement partnerships, collaborations and other initiatives, such as the Brock-Lincoln Living Lab, the Resilience Collaborative and the Excellence in Environmental Stewardship Initiative.

Ryan Plummer

Ryan Plummer

Email: rplummer@brocku.ca

Director, ESRC, Brock University (on leave)
Adjunct Professor, Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo

Education
PhD, University of Guelph (Rural Studies)
MA, University of New Brunswick (Sport and Recreation Administration)
BOR (Hons), Lakehead University (Outdoor Recreation)
BA, Lakehead University (History)

About Ryan
Ryan’s multi-faceted program of research broadly concerns the governance of social-ecological systems. In striving to advance knowledge of collaboration and adaptation within complex systems, he has focused on the exploring their theoretical underpinnings and ethical implications, modeling their processes, examining the roles of social capital, and investigating the influences of social learning. Water resources are the context in which his research mainly occurs.

Findings from his research have been published in leading international journals such as Ecological Economics, Ecology and Society, Environmental Management, Frontiers in Ecology and Society, Global Environmental Change, Journal of Environmental Management, Society and Natural Resources and the UN journal, Natural Resources Forum. In addition, he is the author of Outdoor Recreation (Routledge, 2010), and co-editor of Adaptive Capacity and the Making of Environmental Governance (with D. Armitage, Springer, 2010) and Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems: the Role of Learning and Education (with M.E. Krasny and C. Lundholm, Routledge, 2011). He serves as a Subject Editor for Ecology and Society.

The scholarly quality of his research program was formally recognized in 2008 with the awarding of a Chancellor’s Chair for Research Excellence. In 2004 he received the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences Award for Teaching Excellence and in 2008 he was selected as one of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Excellence in Education Award winners for Promotion of Sustainable Practices.

Faculty Affiliates

Christine Daigle

Christine Daigle

E-mail: cdaigle@brocku.ca
Twitter: @cdaigle123

Director, Posthumanism Research Institute

Education
PhD Philosophy (Université de Montréal, 2001)
Doctoral Studies (Universität Salzburg)
MA Philosophy (Université de Montréal)
BA Western Society and Culture (Concordia University)
BA Political Science, History (Concordia University)

About Christine
Christine Daigle is Professor of Philosophy, Chancellor’s Chair for Research Excellence, and Director of the Posthumanism Research Institute. Her research has focused on Existentialism and Phenomenology, specifically the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir. Her current research focuses on critical posthumanism with a focus on material feminism as she investigates posthumanist vulnerability and its ethical potential. She is also researching environmental posthumanities, including a rethinking of the notion of sustainability (“Beyond Sustainability” research project). She is a member of the research team of the UNESCO Chair on Community Sustainability. She is also leading a research project on the cultural and philosophical representations of the Anthropocene and extinction.

Adam Dickinson

Adam Dickinson

Email: adickinson@brocku.ca

Education
PhD English (University of Alberta)
MA in English and Creative Writing (University of New Brunswick)
BA English (University of Ottawa)

About Adam
Adam Dickinson is a poet and a professor of poetry. His creative and academic writing has focused primarily on intersections between poetry and science as a way of exploring new ecocritical perspectives on the Anthropocene and alternative modes of poetic composition. His book, The Polymers, which combines the discourses, theories, and experimental methods of the science of plastic materials with the language and culture of plastic behaviour, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry. His current work uses biomonitoring and microbiome testing on his own body in order to develop an expanded notion of writing and writing practice that explores the metabolic processes of human bodies and their inextricable link to the global metabolism of energy and capital.

Diane Dupont

Email: diane.dupont@brocku.ca

Professor of Economics

About Diane
Professor Diane Dupont is a Professor in the Economics Department at Brock University where she held the Chancellor’s Chair for Research Excellence from 2006-2009. The Canadian Water Network, SSHRC, CIHR, Health Canada, Environment Canada, and the Donner Foundation have funded her work. She works with researchers in other fields, as well as researchers across Canada, in the United States, England, and Australia.

Her current research program concentrates upon examining ways to encourage more efficient and sustainable use of water resources both on the supply and demand side.

Xavier Fazio

Xavier Fazio

Email: xfazio@brocku.ca
Twitter@XFazio_BrockU

Professor, Department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Education

Education
EdD Curriculum and Instruction (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto)
MEd Curriculum (OISE), University of Toronto
BEd Biology and environmental science teacher (Ontario College of Teachers)
BSc (Hons) Biology and Chemistry (University of Toronto)

About Xavier
Dr. Xavier Fazio holds a EdD in Curriculum and Instruction (science education) from the University of Toronto. Currently, he’s an Associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Brock University. He has taught undergraduate courses in science teacher education and environmental education for secondary teacher candidates, and graduate courses in learning and cognition, along with science curriculum at Brock.

David Fennell

Email: dfennell@brocku.ca 

Professor, Geography and Tourism Studies

About David

David Fennell researches in the areas of ecotourism, the moral issues tied to the use of animals in the tourism industry, sustainable tourism, and tourism ethics. He has published widely in these areas and in all of the field’s top journals, and has written several books. Examples include Ecotourism (5th edition), Ecotourism Programme Planning, Tourism Ethics (2nd edition), Codes of Ethics in Tourism, Tourism and Animal Ethics, and a recent book entitled Sustainable Tourism (2020). A major thrust of his research involves the use of theory from other disciplines (e.g., biology, philosophy) to gain traction on many of tourism’s most persistent issues and problems. Fennell is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Ecotourism and is an active member on editorial boards of many academic journals. David is the editor of a book series by Routledge on tourism ethics, as well as the editor of two Routledge Handbooks on tourism: Tourism and the environment, and Ecotourism (forthcoming). He is Adjunct Professor at Auckland University of Technology.

Kiyoko Gotanda

Email: kgotanda@brocku.ca

Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences

About Kiyoko

My research lies at the intersection of ecology, evolution, and behaviour. I focus on two questions asking about the origins, evolution, and maintenance of biodiversity:
(i) What are the characteristics of selection?
(ii) Can we predict how organisms will adapt and evolve?

Organisms must rapidly adapt and evolve to these different selection pressures if they are to cope, persist, and survive. My research goal is to determine the importance and efficacy of this process of rapid adaptation to human made changes and use this information to reduce the unwanted consequences of human-caused selection changes, as well as to facilitate adaptive responses that could allow continued persistence of populations.

I am a former professional ballet dancer who is now a researcher in the fields of evolution, behaviour, and ecology. After dancing with ballet companies such as the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, I hung up my pointe shoes and went to McGill University for my BSc. I received my PhD from McGill University, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge and Université de Sherbrooke. I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Brock University. My third passion after science and dance is photography, which bridges the gap between my interests in art and science.

Todd Green

E-mail: tgreen@brocku.ca

Associate Professor, Marketing, International Business & Strategy

Education
PhD in Marketing, Simon Fraser University
MBA in Strategic Marketing, McMaster University
BSc., Finance, Seton Hall University

About Todd
Dr. Green’s research interests focuses primarily on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and includes both the consumer response to CSR and the role of CSR in marketing communications. He has also completed research examining the consumer response to environmentally friendly marketing.

He is currently engaged in research examining the role of CSR and Ethics in the Arts and Entertainment industries.

Sylvia Grewatsch

E-mail: sgrewatsch@brocku.ca

Assistant Professor, Marketing, International Business & Strategy

Education
PhD in Management, Aarhus University
MSc., Strategy, Organization, and Leadership, Aarhus University
BSc., Business Administration, University of Münster

About Sylvia
Dr. Sylvia Grewatsch has been an Assistant Professor of Strategy at the Goodman School of Business, Brock University. Her research interest lies at the intersection of sustainability, strategy, and innovation.

Dr. Grewatsch’s research work is motivated by the grand environmental and social challenges of the 21st century. She is interested in questions on how sustainability concerns affect organizational strategies and technology innovation, and reciprocally, how organizations and innovation affect the emergence and trajectories of such concerns.

Tim Heinmiller

Email: theinmiller@brocku.ca
Twitter@Policy_Prof

Associate Professor, specializing in Public Policy and Administration, Environmental Politics, and Research Methods

Education
PhD: McMaster University
MA, University of Guelph
BA, University of Guelph

Research Interests
The general focus of my research is environmental policy and natural resource management in developed countries.  Thus far, much of my research has focused on water policy in the Great Lakes and Prairie regions of North America and the Murray-Darling region of Australia.  Some of the publications derived from this research are listed below.

Magnus Hultman

Email: mhultman@brocku.ca

Associate Professor, Marketing, International Business & Strategy

Education:

PhD Industrial Marketing, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
MSc International Business and Economics, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
BSc International Business and Economics, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden

About Magnus:

Dr. Magnus Hultman joined Brock in 2021 and is the current Brock IPBS Research Scholar. Prior to his current position Dr. Hultman worked as an Associate Professor of Marketing at University of Leeds where he is still affiliated as a Senior Visiting Research Fellow.

Dr. Hultman is currently engaged in research examining green and sustainable marketing communications, internationalization of environmental marketing strategies, CSR in branding, motivations and consequences of brand activism, ecotourism communications, and eco-destination branding.

In addition to being a recurring reviewer for many of the top journals in his field, Dr. Hultman is also serves as Associate Editor of International Marketing Review and on the Editorial Review Board for Journal of International Marketing.

Garrett Hutson

Garrett Hutson

E-mail: ghutson@brocku.ca

Associate Professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies, Brock University

Education:
PhD (Health, Leisure, and Human Performance) Oklahoma State University
MS (Experiential Education) Minnesota State University
BA (Honours in Communication) University of Missouri

About Garrett
My research explores the complexities of person-environment relationships and their impacts on a variety of outdoor recreation contexts. Through much of my work, I aim to highlight the social-ecological significance of outdoor experiences to the study of sustainability and society through examining the ways outdoor educational programs and outdoor recreation communities of practice help or hinder relationships with natural outdoor environments. I am an affiliated faculty member with Brock’s environmental sustainability research centre, and I currently teach undergraduate courses on leadership, risk management, qualitative research, and environmental education.

Vaughn Mangal

E-mail: vmangal@brocku.ca

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

About Vaughn:
Dr. Mangal’s research interest broadly includes 1) characterizing and quantifying organic matter across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and 2) disentangling the role that these complex molecules play in contaminant transport, distribution, and biological uptake. A large part of Dr. Mangal’s research program focuses on identifying how anthropogenic and climatic driven disturbances change biogeochemical cycles and the implications for water quality.

Francine McCarthy

Francine Mccarthy

Email: fmccarthy@brocku.ca 

Professor and Graduate Program Director, Earth Sciences, Brock University
Acting Graduate Program Director, Sustainability Science and Society, Brock University
Core Member, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre
Associate Member, Biological Sciences, Brock University

About Francine
Francine McCarthy is a micropaleontologist who is interested in paleoenvironmental reconstruction, primarily using acid-resistant organic walled microfossils – pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs. Her research has spanned small lake to abyssal marine environments and everything in between, primarily at mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Her interdisciplinary research has been conducted in collaboration with several geologists, biologists, geographers, and archeologists from government, university, and the private sector. She has been on the executive of several organizations, including current membership on the board of the International Association for Great Lakes Research.

Tim O'Connell

Tim O’Connell

Email: tim.oconnell@brocku.ca

Professor – Applied Health Sciences, Recreation & Leisure Studies

Education:
PhD (Recreation Resource Management) New York University
MEd (Outdoor Recreation and Outdoor Education) University of Minnesota
BSEd (Recreation Education) SUNY Cortland

About Tim
Dr. Tim O’Connell is a Professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies who specializes in outdoor recreation, outdoor education and outdoor leadership. Tim’s research examines the topics of sense of community in groups of people engaged in outdoor activities, sense of place, mental health impacts of participation in outdoor pursuits and reflective practice (with a focus on reflective journaling). He is the co-founder of Brock Basecamp, an outdoor orientation program for incoming students.

Gary Pickering

Email: gpickering@brocku.ca

CCOVI Researcher
Professor of Biological Sciences and Psychology/Wine Science
Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Brock University

Education

  • BSc (Zoology), Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
  • Post-graduate Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology with distinction, Lincoln University, New Zealand
  • PhD (Wine Science), Lincoln University, New Zealand

About Gary
Gary is the recipient of a number of research awards, and is passionate about sustainability. He has been North American editor of the Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment and is a member of the Honorary Editorial Board for the International Journal of Wine Research. His research in sustainability science is focused on understanding the psychological barriers that impede people from engaging in pro-environmental behaviour, particularly climate change mitigation and adaptation. His lab also studies how best to communicate with the public on environmental issues, as well as climate change adaptation in the grape and wine industry.

MIchael Pisaric

Email: mpisaric@brocku.ca
Twitter@mpisaric

Associate Professor, Department of Geography

Education
PhD Queen’s University 2001
MSc McMaster University 1996
BSc Brock University 1994

About Michael
I am interested in the impacts of climate and environmental change on northern ecosystems. The geographic focus of my research is predominantly the boreal forest and treeline in particular.  My research also examines climate and environmental change across a variety of timescales, ranging from the past few decades to the Holocene epoch (past 10,000 years). I employ a number of paleoecological techniques to carry out my research, including lake-sediment analysis (fossil pollen, stomata and charcoal) and dendrochronology (analysis of tree growth records). I have carried out research in a number of regions throughout the world, including Siberia, western Canada and Montana (USA) and have ongoing research projects in Northwest Territories and southeast British Columbia.

Narongsak (Tek) Thongpapanl

Email: Tek@brocku.ca
LinkedIn

Professor, Marketing and Product Innovation

Education:
PhD in Management and MBA in Technological Entrepreneurship (The Lally School of Management and Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
BSc in Electrical Engineering–Magna Cum Laude (The School of Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

About Tek:
Prior to joining Brock University, he worked with Advanced Energy Conversion and helped successfully launch a number of technological applications for the automotive, industrial and renewable energy industries.

His main research and teaching expertise includes new product development, innovation and technology management, digital marketing, wine marketing and business management, strategic marketing management in high-tech environments, marketing knowledge creation and management in highly dynamic and multistakeholder settings, and the integration of marketing and technology competences in preservation and promotion of social, environmental, and economical advancement.

Dr. Thongpapanl’s work—funded by both internal and external grants, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC)—appears or is forthcoming in such leading management and business journals. In addition to reviewing for many respected journals in the field, he also currently serves as Associate Editor of Technovation (the International Journal of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology Management) and Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, and as Member of the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of International Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Wine Research.

Kevin Turner

Kevin Turner

Email: kturner2@brocku.ca
Twitter: @turner_kw

Associate Professor, Department of Geography

About Kevin
Kevin Turner is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Geography and Tourism Studies and Earth Science at Brock University. His research is focused on tracking climate induced landscape changes in northern Canada, including thermokarst lake drainage, shoreline thaw slumps, shrub proliferation, and fire, and the associated hydroecological impacts on lakes and rivers. This requires integration of multiple approaches including water isotope tracers, paleolimnology, dendrochronology, and remote sensing, including the use of remotely piloted aerial systems, to characterize hydrological and landscape change over multiple spatial and temporal scales. His findings are informing land management and community adaptation strategies as climate continues to change.

Liette Vasseur

Liette Vasseur

Email: lvasseur@brocku.ca
Twitter: @LietteVasseur

Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Brock University
Member, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, Brock University
UNESCO Chair, Community Sustainability: From Local to Global, Brock University

About Liette

Dr. Liette Vasseur is full professor in Biology and Environment Sciences at Brock University. Previously, she was the Vice-President, Research at Brock (2009-10, stepped down to focus on research), Associate Vice-President, Research at Laurentian University (2004-2008) and from 2001-2004, full professor at the University of Moncton where she held the K.C. Irving Research Chair in Sustainable Development.

Her research program is mainly in climate change, sustainable development, community-based ecosystem management (including ecological restoration and biodiversity assessment) and environmental health. Projects have been or are carried out in Canada or other countries such as China (where she is an adjunct professor at the Fujian University of Forestry and Agriculture), Vietnam, Cambodia, Panama, Brazil, and currently in Burkina Faso, in Africa.

Adjunct Professors

Amy Bowen

Email: amy.bowen@vinelandresearch.com

About Amy

Amy Bowen is the Director of Consumer, Sensory and Market Insights at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre. Her research uses sensory and consumer science to understand the drivers that impact consumer preference and choice for horticultural products to create value-added results. She leads a group of industry experts with extensive knowledge of horticultural products, value chains and consumer markets to support research and innovation by providing multidisciplinary solutions from concept design and testing to finished product evaluations for fresh, processed or packaged horticultural commodities and technologies.

Amy has a PhD in Biological Sciences with a specialization in Plant Science, Oenology and Viticulture from Brock University and BSc.H. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Guelph. She sits on the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology and the Innovation Working Group of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association.

Gillian Dale

Gillian Dale

Email: gdale@brocku.ca

Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University

About Gillian
Gillian is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the ESRC. She holds a Ph.D. in Behavioural Neuroscience (Cognitive Psychology) from Brock University, and previously held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her previous research explored individual difference factors (i.e., personality, affect, motivational intensity, etc.) that explain variations in cognitive performance and behaviour. She has extensive experience with research design, questionnaire development and validation, and advanced data analysis. Currently, she is interested in extending her line of research by applying her expertise in both human behaviour and advanced data analysis to real-world problems (e.g., water resilience; environmental stewardship).

Sherman Farhad

Email: sfarhad@brocku.ca
Please find my Google Scholar profile here
Please find my Research Gate profile here

Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University
Member of the Social and Participatory Action Research Group, Universidad Pablo de Olavide (Seville, Spain)

About Sherman
Sherman in interested in human-environment relationships from complex systems perspective. Her research focuses on environmental governance (specially on water governance) and social-ecological resilience. She is particularly interested in how people connect with the environment, how social systems perceive, interpret and deal with environmental changes and uncertainties, and how diverse stakeholders (resource users, government actors and researchers) can co-create knowledge and co-manage natural resources. Her empirical work has been based in Spain, Iran, and most recently in southern Ontario.

Jennifer Holzer

Email: jholzer@brocku.ca

About Jennifer

Jennifer Holzer holds a PhD from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Environmental Studies, an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University, and a BA from Swarthmore College. Her doctoral work evaluated the research-implementation gap in social-ecological research in Europe using case studies in Spain, Scotland, and Romania, and provided recommendation that fed directly into enhancing European research infrastructures. Previously, she was a project manager for climate change mitigation and energy efficiency programs in California and across the US. She is particularly interested in improving the effectiveness of transdisciplinary science, integrating social sciences research and practice for better environmental decision-making.

Jen joined the Water Resilience Lab in February 2020 as a Post-doctoral Fellow with the ResNet project.

Amy Lemay

E-mail: mlemay@brocku.ca

Adjunct Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University

Research Interests

I am a transdisciplinary scholar with training in the natural and social sciences.  My research draws on qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore the social-ecological dynamics of the development and adoption of sustainable agri-food innovations.  I also study the role of knowledge mobilization in the development and adoption of agri-food innovations and the implications for policy and governance.

I have a B.Sc.Agr. in environmental biology and M.Sc. in agricultural entomology from the University of Guelph and a PhD in science policy from the University of Toronto.  I am a graduate of the Rural Ontario Institute Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program and the former George Morris Centre Canadian Agri-food Executive Development Program.  I have served as the University of Guelph Agrologist in Residence.

I am a Research Fellow with the Niagara Community Observatory at Brock University and a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph.

Bradley May

E-mailbmay@brocku.ca
Twitter: @BradKMay

Adjunct Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University

Research Interests
Climate change adaptation, hazards and disaster management, teaching environmental management and sustainability, environmental law and, compliance theory
Keywords: governance, social-ecological systems, cross-scale dynanics

Darby McGrath

Darby McGrath

E-mail: darby.mcgrath@vinelandresearch.com
Twitter:@McGrathGreen

Adjunct Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University

Research Interests
Darby’s work integrates tree production research with ecological restoration principles to address challenges of urban tree establishment and longevity. Current work in her lab is concerned with improving soil structure and function for tree establishment. Developing tools for land managers to plan for and restore soils to grow the urban canopy are key outputs for her program.

Janani Sivarajah

Janani Sivarajah

E-mail: jsivarajah@brocku.ca 
Twitter: @JananiSivarajah

Post-Doctoral Fellow, ESRC, Brock University
Research Associate, Department of Architectural Science, Ryerson University

About Janani:
Janani Sivarajah is an urban ecology, urban greening, and plant biology researcher, educator, and consultant. Her transdisciplinary research explores the ecosystem services of urban trees and public green spaces, and finds greening solutions to improve the socio-ecological resilience of cities. She is particularly interested in building multifunctional landscapes and proposing nature-based solutions to global environmental challenges (e.g., climate change, increasing UV, heatwaves). Her work has found direct and relevant applications in both public health and environmental fields. She is a Registered Professional Forester in Training, President of the Ontario Urban Forest Council, and member of the Toronto Cancer Prevention Coalition, Shade Policy Steering Committee. She enjoys public engagement, science communication, and hiking through the woods.

Tim Smith

Tim Smith

Email: tsmith5@usc.edu.au 

Australian Research Council Fellow and Professor of Sustainability, Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
PhD (Geography), University of New South Wales, Australia
Grad Cert (Higher Ed), Griffith University, Australia
BAppSc Hons (Coastal Management), Southern Cross University, Australia
BAppSc (Conservation Technology), Southern Cross University, Australia
Graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors
Fellow, Institute of Australian Geographers

About Tim

Dr. Tim Smith is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow and Professor of Sustainability based at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), Australia. He is a human geographer focused on social-ecological change and adaptation. Prior to being awarded the ARC Fellowship, Dr. Smith held several senior leadership positions, including: (i) Executive Dean, Faculty of Arts, Business and Law; (ii) Research Coordinator, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering; and (iii) Inaugural Director, Sustainability Research Centre. Before joining USC, Prof Smith was a senior research scientist with the CSIRO. He has also led the social sciences and education portfolios of two national research centres (Coastal and Catchment Hydrology CRCs). Prof Smith has also worked at Griffith University and the University of New South Wales, for local and state government, and in the private sector.