Professor Ann Dale, Principal Investigator, held her university's first Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Community Development at Royal Roads University, School of Environment and Sustainability from 2004-2014. A former Trudeau Fellow Alumna (2004), she is a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Science, chairs the Canadian Consortium for Sustainable Development Research (CCSDR), a Board Member of the World Fisheries Trust. and the founder of the National Environmental Treasure (the NET). Current research interests include governance, social capital and agency, biodiversity conservation, place-based and virtual sustainable communities. She is a recipient of the 2001 Policy Research Initiative Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Policy for her book, At the edge: sustainable development in the 21st century. Professor Dale is actively experimenting with research dissemination and social media, and has recently launched HEADTalks.
Research Team
This project brings together researchers who have distinguished records in sustainability, planning theory, infrastructure, and community engagement. The team has the knowledge necessary to generate material for government, academic and non-government audiences. Each has developed networks with government and other organizations for collaboration and knowledge transfer.
Our research deals with environmental and community planning and sustainable infrastructure, where adaptation and resiliency are central issues, and the importance of community, nature and civic life guide our approaches and the questions we ask.
Kevin Hanna brings program and administration experience from academe and the Federal Public Service. Hanna’s research centres on impact assessment, integrated resource management, social capital and planning, and the role of local planning in community transition. His research has been supported by Infrastructure Canada, SSHRC, and CMHC. Most recently, he is the editor of books on impact assessment, integrated resource management, and parks and protected areas. Hanna has served as a policy advisor and analyst at Environment Canada and brings strong project management experience to the application, broad knowledge of community transitional planning, and good links to federal and provincial agencies.
Pierre Filion is a leading urban scholar. He has published widely on urban Canadian urban and planning issues. His recent work focuses is on how to create active and diversified urban settings where environmental quality is ever important. From a theory perspective Filion's work explores the relationship between changes in urban form and the evolution of society. He has examined patterns of development and redevelopment within Canadian metropolitan areas and conducted comprehensive surveys across North America. Pierre Filion's work has been funded by SSHRC, the National Secretariat on Homelessness, the Tri-Council Secretariat, CMHC and SSHRC-CURA. He brings experience in survey design and implementation, policy analysis, and theory development.
Mark Seasons worked for twenty years of professional planning practice as an inner-city community planner, long range planner, and regional planner. His practice has included work on local and regional economic development, strategic planning, policy analysis, program evaluation, and long-range regional planning. More recently, he has worked as a team member with colleagues from Waterloo on research and training activities to help build environmental planning capacity in three coastal cities in China. He is a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners (President: 2000-2001), the Ontario Professional Planners Institute, and the Canadian Evaluation Society. His research is widely published in planning and urban research journals. He is Chair of the Editorial Board for Plan Canada, and he is a member of the editorial board for the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation.