Our Team
Debra Davidson (Project Co-director)
Debra J. Davidson is Professor of Environmental Sociology in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology at the University of Alberta, having received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998. Her key areas of teaching and research include impacts and adaptation to climate change, social responses to environmental disruption, and crises and transitions in energy and agri-food systems. Dr. Davidson is President of the Research Committee on Environment and Society in the International Sociological Association, and she was a Lead Author in Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change’s 5th Assessment Report. Her work is featured in several journals, including Science, Nature, Global Environmental Change, British Journal of Sociology, and International Sociology, among others. She is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Energy and Society (2018) and Environment and Society: Concepts and Challenges (Palgrave 2018), and co-author of Challenging Legitimacy at the Precipice of Energy Calamity (Springer, 2011).
Ian Stewart (Project Co-director)
Ian G. Stewart is Associate Professor of Humanities at the University of King's College (https://ukings.ca/people/ian-stewart/), having received his PhD from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science in 1999 from Cambridge University. For most of his career of teaching and research he has focussed on the field of intellectual history of science from ancient to early modernity. His publications in that field have focussed on the evolving notion of the early modern scientific expert in different institutional settings, and have appeared in such journals as Isis, Early Science and Medicine, Annals of Science, History of Universities, Dionysius, and Theory in Biosciences. More contemporary contributions to the theoretical dimensions of social sciences field work have appeared as book chapters (Toward equity and inclusion in Canadian Cities, 2018; Designing and conducting research in social science, health and social care, 2019). His interest in Impact Assessment in contemporary environmental governance continue his long interest in STS (Science, Technology, and Society) perspectives on the boundaries between scientific expertise and other forms of knowledge. Publications include contributions to the application of the Precautionary Principle (Advances in Geoethics and Groundwater Management, 2021) and forthcoming work concerns Indigenous-led IAs (in review, Science, Technology and Human Values). He regularly contributes to Impact Assessment conferences and technical fora sponsored by government departments. He pursues practical dimensions of IA as a consulting Associate with Nexus Coastal Resource Management (http://www.nexuscoastal.com/)
Kelly Bronson (Ethnography lead)
Kelly Bronson is a Canada Research Chair in Science and Society at University of Ottawa. She is a social scientist studying science-society tensions that erupt around controversial technologies (GMOs, big data and big scale energy projects) and their governance. Her research aims to bring community values into conversation with technical knowledge in the production of evidence-informed decision-making. She has published her work in regional (Journal of New Brunswick Studies), national (Canadian Journal of Communication) and international journals (Journal of Responsible Innovation, Big Data and Society, Sustainability).
Kevin Jones (Ethnography Lead)
Dr. Jones is an interdisciplinary and engaged social scientist whose research explores pathways to transformative change focussing on processes of institutional and governance innovation. His research work is largely situated within the field of science and technology studies (STS) as it overlaps with the sociology of risk and the environment. A central element of this work involves the role of public expertise and citizenship engagement as essential resources for opening-up risk issues to more robust governance approaches. In addition, Dr. Jones maintains an active research interest in urban change and urban participation, with research exploring urban agriculture, community-based innovation strategies, and regional governance reform
Amber Fletcher (Policy Analysis Lead)
Dr. Amber Fletcher is Associate Professor of Sociology & Social Studies and Academic Director of the Community Engagement and Research Centre (CERC) at the University of Regina. Her research examines how gender and social inequality shape the lived experience of climate disasters (flooding, wildfire, and drought), focusing on rural and Indigenous communities in the Canadian Prairie region. Dr. Fletcher is currently Principal Investigator on a SSHRC-funded project that applies an intersectionality framework to disaster experiences. She has delivered 44 presentations in Canada and worldwide—including invited talks in Spain, England, Italy, Turkey, and the USA—and has also contributed to expert testimonies for two Standing Committees of the Parliament of Canada. Dr. Fletcher has served as an official delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and as a consultant to the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme, helping to develop data collection indicators for international survey instruments. She is a contributing author to a 2019 special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (gender section) and is former President of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW). Dr. Fletcher holds two medals from the Governor General of Canada for her research and advocacy on gender equality in Canada. In 2020 she was appointed as the Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
Gwendolyn Blue (Oil Sand Case Study Co-lead)
Gwendolyn Blue is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Calgary. Her research is rooted in the field of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) and focuses on public engagement with socio-environmental issues, including zoonotic infectious disease, climate change, and genomic-based approaches to climate change adaptation. Current research into impact assessment processes highlights environmental justice frameworks to enhance meaningful public engagement.
Cole Atlin (Policy Analysis)
Cole Atlin is an environmental consultant and scholar. Her work focuses upon the planning and assessment challenges that emerge in contentious resource development and how better approaches could be designed and implemented, particularly in the form of strategic environmental assessment, sustainability assessment and cumulative effects assessment. In late 2020, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Memorial University that considered the accountability and governance challenges related to the approval and construction of Muskrat Falls Hydro-Electric project and the implications that the project will have on Newfoundland in the future. Cole’s consulting work includes developing indigenous co-generated assessment approaches for the Ring of Fire with Eabametoong First Nation, the strategic environmental assessment of Wood Buffalo National Park and evaluation the risk of corruption in the Ontario mining sector assessments with Transparency International. She has been part of multiple SSHRC funded research undertakings on IA and has been an invited specialist in Federal IA forums. Cole has a PhD in Social and Ecological Sustainability from the University of Waterloo and worked under the supervision of Dr. Robert Gibson. Cole has received many scholarships including a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Doctoral Award and was awarded the 2017 Rita R. Hamm Impact Assessment Excellence Award from the International Association for Impact Assessment. She also has a Masters of Global Governance from the Balsillie School of International Affairs and a Masters in the Study of Law from the University of Western Ontario.
Lianne Lefsrud (Oil Sands Case Study Co-Lead)
Dr. Lianne Lefsrud, P.Eng. is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Safety and Risk Management at the University of Alberta. She collaborates to address industry issues and contribute to theories of risk management, quantitative and qualitative methods, and understudied empirical contexts Over the past five years, as a PI or co-PI, Dr. Lefsrud has received over $2.6 million from 35 research grants from federal agencies, provincial agencies, industry, and University. She has over 90 published articles, chapters, practice standards, and reports; 68 conference papers; 47 industry keynotes; and 30 interviews. She has received several international, national, provincial, and university awards for her research. And she provides policy advice to governments and industry associations. Before joining UofA, she was with the Erb Institute of Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan. She has her PhD in Strategic Management and Organization, MSc in Environmental Engineering and Sociology, and BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Alberta. For more, see: www.liannelefsrud.com