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About

Hi! I lead Esoterra Labs, where hearts and minds attempt to come together in learning and service. My background and training are in water quality and technology, intersecting with community and ecological health.

My Ph.D. was at UBC in Chemical/Biological engineering with RES’EAU WaterNet on drinking water in rural and Indigenous communities, where I was part of the interdisciplinary BRIDGE program and worked on environmental health in communities impacted by resource extraction. At UBC, I was a Liu Institute Scholar and the Director of Volunteers for Engineers Without Borders. I then started my own water consulting company for small water systems, Ecological Water, as well as working with Indigenous Services Canada and other government agencies.

I then worked as a consultant for Natural Resources Canada and Environment Canada, where I learned some of the nuances of sustainability policy. I was a visiting scholar at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with their “Arsenic-free Bangladesh” project, as well as a visiting associate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Sustainability Science Program.

My post-doc was at Stanford, on small-system wastewater energy, nutrient, and carbon resource recovery. At UVic, I hold the Canada Research Chair in Water Sustainability for Indigenous and Rural Communities. My lifelong passion is in working together to find just, sustainable and meaningful solutions in maintaining ecological health while achieving societal needs. As a non-Indigenous scholar committed to reconciliation, I have additional responsibility for training students in respectful, reciprocal, and just methodologies.

Research

We are a heart and spirit-led multidisciplinary research group at the ӣ��Ӱ��; a mix of social, natural and applied scientists interested in long-term and decolonial approaches to building an ecological civilization.

We research and advise on the following:

• Engagement and allyship with First Nations on water (pollution and hydrological) and environment (planning, nature-based solutions)
• Nature-based solutions planning and engagement
• Regenerative system planning, modeling, and financing
• Cumulative impact assessment
• Layering theories and models such as hydrological, infrastructure, climate, and industrial ecology
• Ecotechnology for water security
• Place-based community engagement

Publications

See my publications on .