Profile

Ann Dale is both an academic, one of our country's foremost experts in sustainable development and an environmental activist, deeply committed to building capacity in the environmental movement. "I simply can't believe that as a species we would ever leave our children a legacy less than anything we had."

Currently she is leading three major research initiatives at Royal Roads University: a Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Community Development, an on-line research programme exploring the use of dialogue for literacy and informing the public policy community, and an exploration of the relationship between agency, social capital and sustainable community development. In addition, Ann Dale chairs the Canadian Consortium for Sustainable Development Research (CCSDR), is a member of the World Fisheries Trust, and the Working Party on Biotechnology, Sustainable Development and the Future of Canada's Economy. She is the 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.

Ann Dale has led the creation of a $30 million people's trust for the environment, called the National Environmental Treasure (NET). She chairs the organization and, with a small team, has been carefully building it over the last five years. The NET is devoted to the exclusive funding of Canadian environmental organizations for capacity building in critical areas such as environmental education, communications and infrastructure. She is also Executive Coordinator of the Research and Public Policy Office of the Canadian Biodiversity Institute.

"I strongly believe in Pierre Elliott Trudeau's vision of a just society, and I hope that my appointment as a Fellow will contribute to ensure that hope and faith in the future are not reserved for a minority of the world's population, but are available to all."

Trudeau Foundation Themes

People and their Natural Environment »