about me

For as long as I can remember, protecting nature has been my driving force. And I can back that up. Tucked away in my closet somewhere is a time-capsule note that I wrote in grade school (*cough* in the 80’s) and in that note I apparently felt the need to write “I hope we learn to live in balance with nature.” That hope has guided me through a few university degrees in environmental studies and a career in environmental conservation and policy spanning over twenty years.

I have also always loved reading and writing. My mother told me that when I was an independent young lady who couldn’t quite read yet I would prefer to take a book and make up the stories for myself. When I eventually did learn to read, I would easily lose myself in a new book of mystery or fantasy (Robin Hobb’s Farseer series being my absolute favourite!).

At some point during the Covid pandemic, as I was searching for a new hobby and diving headfirst into a new fantasy novel, an idea for story came to me. It was a story about a world cut-off from nature and its magic and what might happen if, one day, someone had the audacity to reconnect. That single idea sparked my return to creative writing and I’ve been loving the journey ever since.

Through this page I will take you with me on that journey with the hope that something along the line might light an idea within another person that maybe, just maybe, nature might be the key to a better world. Not the only key, of course, but an important one.

Published Reports

• Investing in Canada’s Future: The Cost of Climate Adaptation at the Local Level (Feb 2020), editor/consultant manager, published by the FCM and the Insurance Bureau of Canada
• Opportunities to Fund Municipal Natural Asset Management Projects: An Overview of Six Federal Infrastructure Funding Programs (April 2019), co-author, published by Smart Prosperity Institute
• Municipal Natural Assets Initiative: Results from the First National Communities Cohort (Decision-maker Summary) (July 2018), lead author, published by Smart Prosperity Institute
• Municipal Natural Asset Initiative: Identifying Barriers and Opportunities within the Professional Planning Practice in Ontario (June 2018), lead reviewer/editor, published by Smart Prosperity Institute
• Towards a Collaborative Strategy for Municipal Natural Asset Management: Private Lands (February 2018), lead author, published by Smart Prosperity Institute
• Defining & Scoping Municipal Natural Assets (September 2017), lead author, published by Smart Prosperity Institute
• New Solutions for Sustainable Stormwater Management in Canada (2016), lead author, published by Sustainable Prosperity
• Pricing Works: How pricing of municipal services and infrastructure can lead to healthier and more efficient cities (2016), co-author, published by Metcalf Foundation
• Incenting the Nature of Cities (2016), co-author, published by Metcalf Foundation
• Community Energy Planning: The Value Proposition (2016), editor, published by QUEST

Media Articles

• A whole ecosystem approach to natural asset management, published in Municipal World, May 2018
• Municipal natural assets, published in Municipal World, January 2018
• Private landowner collaboration, published in Ontario Planning Journal, September/October 2018, vol. 33, no. 5
• Making nature count: Municipal natural asset management, published in Public Sector Digest, Winter 2017
• New solutions for sustainable stormwater management, published in Municipal World, January 2017