Our People

Ailsa is a natural storyteller and communicator whose work has focused on connecting people and industry with forward-thinking solutions within the environmental and energy sectors.

Ailsa’s interest in the intersection of energy and environment was sparked while doing communications and marketing for an environmental consulting firm specializing in remediation. She went on to hold marketing and communications leadership roles at a national, environmental non-profit organization. She brings her experience and enthusiasm for written and visual communications, problem-solving, strategy and planning, and community engagement into her role within the Energy Futures Lab.

Ailsa holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Calgary and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Marketing Strategy from Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Luis is the HR Ops Coordinator within the Management branch of TNS. He supports by improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the department. Luis has a diverse educational and professional background in Health & Business Administration.

His passion for sustainability and eagerness to learn about different fields within an organization drive his commitment to creating a positive impact in the workplace. Luis hopes to continue making significant contributions and leave a positive footprint wherever he goes.

Beyond my academic pursuits, I have actively advocated for LGBTTTIQ+ rights and ventured into independent real estate and digital marketing advisory roles, demonstrating my versatility and innovative thinking. I’ve also held key roles in environmental and community-focused initiatives, serving as a UNICEF Ambassador for Plant for the Planet in Monterrey, Mexico.

Nicholas is a Research Associate at PLACE where he works on the skills and labour force needs of the future within the agricultural industry. Nicholas has a Masters of Public Policy from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and has previously worked for the TMU Diversity Institute; the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks; and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, with a personal focus in policy areas of sustainability, inequality, and innovation. Nicholas is an avid cook, vegetarian, and is involved in local community share agriculture and gardening.

Olivia is a Research Associate with the Smart Prosperity Institute. She holds a Master’s of Geography from the University of Guelph and a BA in International Development from Carleton University. Olivia is passionate about food system sustainability in Canada. Her research focuses on sustainable innovation in the food sector. In her spare time, Olivia enjoys gardening, cooking, swimming and knitting.

David Runnalls is a Senior Fellow and Steering Committee member at Smart Prosperity Institute, and a Visiting Professor at uOttawa.

He also serves as Distinguished Fellow with IISD. He is a member of the Board of the Institute of Advanced Studies of the United Nations University. He is a member of the Advisory Council for Export Development Canada; a member of the Council for Sustainable Development Technology Canada; and a member of the Ivey Business School Leadership Council. He also serves on the Inquiry Team for Tomorrow’s Global Company, the SAM/SPG Leadership award, the International Sustainability Innovation Council of Switzerland (ISIS), and the Shell Report External Review Committee.

He has served as Co-Chair of the China Council Task Force on WTO and Environment. Runnalls was the Leopold Fellow at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a member of the federal External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation (EACSR). He served as Chair of the Adjudication Panel for the ALCAN Prize for Sustainability.

Runnalls has served as Senior Advisor to the President of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa, Canada, and to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. He was Director of the Environment and Sustainable Development Programme at the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Ottawa. He worked with Barbara Ward to found the International Institute for Environment and Development and directed both its London and Washington offices.

Runnalls was the Canadian Board member of IUCN-the World Conservation Union for six years and the Chair of the Committee for the World Conservation Congress in 1996. He served as a member of the Boards of the World Environment Center (New York), IIED (London) and Pollution Probe (Toronto).

An occasional writer and broadcaster, he has served as environment columnist for the CBC radio program, As it Happens and for CTV’s Canada am. He was a member of the Discovery Channel’s regular environment panel and political columnist for the Earth Times, the paper of record for the United Nations Earth Summit in 1992.

In 2020, David was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, in recognition of his lifelong leadership in advancing sustainable development in Canada and globally.

Vasundhara is a Sustainability Management PhD student in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) at University of Waterloo. Her current research is focused on the growth of climate finance markets like the green bond and incentives for behaviour change in these markets. Vasundhara completed her Master of Environmental Studies (MES) in Sustainability Management in 2019 from the University of Waterloo and a B.A. (Hons) in Environmental Studies and minor in Economics from Carleton University in 2016.

Over the past few years, Vasundhara has also consulted on policy-related topics focused on climate change governance and the low-carbon economy. This has included working with various private sector organizations, NGOs, think-tanks as well as government agencies spanning across India, Indonesia and Canada, including the UN Office for REDD+ Coordination in Indonesia (UNORCID) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

Apart from her academic career, she likes to write on various topics related to climate change and has been published on The Conversation Canada, Huffington Post India, Fair Observer and the Times of India.

She has previously worked with Smart Prosperity Institute on policy and research projects, including a policy brief on clean tech called Accelerating Clean Innovation in Canada, released in April 2017.

More recently, Vasundhara worked on two research projects with SPI– the results of both were published as Clean Economy Working Papers: “Insurance in a Changing Climate: Clarifying the Sector’s Role in Supporting Sustainable Behaviour Change”, with Jason Thistlethwaite in 2019 and “Strategies and Policies for Integrating the Canadian Financial Sector into Financing the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy”, with Olaf Weber and Truzaar Dordi in 2020.

Currently, Vasu is providing research support for a project entitled: “Behavioural Finance and Green Bonds: Drivers and Barriers for Investors to Invest in the Green Bond Market”, under the supervision of Olaf Weber. This project identifies climate data challenges within the financial sector’s low-carbon transition.

Links:
https://theconversation.com/profiles/vasundhara-saravade-425135
https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/india/author/vasundhara-saravade/
https://www.fairobserver.com/author/Vasundhara%20Saravade/
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Vasundhara-Saravade-479232758.cms
https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/sites/default/files/acceleratingcleaninnovationincanada.pdf
https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/content/clean-economy-working-paper-series
https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/library/research/insurance-changing-climate-clarifying-sector-s-role-supporting-sustainable
https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/library/research/strategies-and-policies-integrating-canadian-financial-sector-financing-transition

As a skilled facilitator, Karen has a knack for bringing together diverse stakeholders in complex systems to tackle wicked problems. An expert in systems-thinking, Karen brings clarity and focus to strategic planning. With over 17 years of experience in the public and private sectors, Karen places relationships at the center of her work and prioritizes inclusivity and decolonization. She is results-driven and has supported organizations in a range of sustainability and wellbeing planning, evaluation, training, and engagement processes. Karen holds a Master’s of Science in Strategic Leadership toward Sustainability from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden. When she’s not working, you can find her in the forests of Cumberland with her husband and kids.

Signe is a dynamic communicator who had deep roots in community engagement and driving collaborative decision-making. Raised in Calgary, she has witnessed firsthand the transformation of this city into a global player of energy innovation and diversity. With over two decades of experience spanning across government, energy, and advocacy, Signe brings a unique blend of expertise and collaboration to her work. Her professional bedrock has been built on fostering inclusive dialogue, bringing people together, and exploring diverse perspectives.
Signe earned her BA with a double major in Economics and Political Science from the University of Calgary, giving her the foundation for her comprehensive understanding of complex economic dynamics.

Cara is a journalist who has spent her career creating educational content to help people understand the intersection of housing, affordability, and politics. She spent almost a decade as a producer on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, the flagship current affairs program on TVO, the Ontario public broadcaster. While at TVO, she created discussions on a wide variety of topics with a passion for housing debates. She also produced several political leadership debates.

She is a host of the Missing Middle podcast, where she has conversations with economist Mike Moffatt and guests related to the disappearing middle class in Canada.

She holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University, with minors in Sociology and History.

Sushant is a Research Associate at the Smart Prosperity Institute. He is a ‘green’ researcher with a passion to craft science-based solutions for nature conservation. While working with environmental nonprofits, he undertook applied research studies at the intersection of environment, sustainability and policy.

He has led projects on forestry, nature conservation, agroforestry and climate financing. He has published research papers in peer-reviewed journals, written policy briefs for federal government, and developed discussion papers to identify policy-practice gaps. Sushant completed his Masters and Fellowship (Doctorate) from the Indian Institute of Forest Management.

Sushant is based in Toronto and loves hiking and spending time in the woods.

Barb Swartzentruber is a strategist, catalyst, and connector, working with government and communities to respond to urgent social, economic, and environmental challenges through civic innovation, regenerative practices, and circular economy strategies. She is committed to the power of a shared vision and mission-driven collective action to create regenerative local economies and communities that are inclusive and thriving in harmony with nature.

As a global leader in place-based innovation, system change and community capacity building, she convened and led a collaboration of local governments, business, academic and community leaders to win Canada’s Smart City Challenge. Built on a shared vision and goals, and a distributed leadership and governance model, they co-produced a portfolio of over 60 system change projects for re-imagining a circular, sustainable regional food system. Successfully attracting over $25M in investments, mobilizing national and international collaborations, this work has created new innovation platforms including the Circular Opportunity Innovation Launchpad (COIL), Climate and Circularity Hub, Zero Waste Economic Innovation Lab, and Regenerative Agriculture Program that are testing and deepening regenerative social, economic, environmental practices.

As a system innovator with I&IT expertise, Barb led the federal negotiations, design and implementation of the Ontario Government’s first rural and remote broadband strategy, and the province’s initial open government and open data strategies.

Barb has taught public policy, intergovernmental relations, community development, and system change at several Canadian universities. She was appointed to the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on the Circular Economy in Canada in 2020 which co-produced the Turning Point Report. She acts as an expert advisor to the Canadian Circular Cities and Regions initiative supporting local governments across Canada to develop circular economy strategies.

Kelley is driven by a passion for enabling simpler solutions, new learnings, and courageous expression in support of resilient human connection and striving to make everyday life healthier, more authentic, and more sustainable. Her personal and professional experience has enriched her life with a great diversity of perspectives and continues to offer ways to evolve her skills in heart-centred action, engagement, and holistic ways of thinking and being. She prioritizes being sensitive and adaptive to changes in needs and priorities, while seeking opportunities to understand, empathize, unlearn, and problem-solve.

Kelley deeply believes that by actively committing to co-creating meaningful and authentic spaces, we can continue to build our systems so that they evolve beyond our collective limiting beliefs into an abundant, purpose-driven, and equitable future.

Ryan is a Senior Research Associate working as part of SPI’s Land Use Team. Ryan completed his M.Sc in Environmental Sustainability at the University of Ottawa and studied Human Resource Management and Psychology at Trent University. His main interest is working to improve the sustainability of Canada’s food system and his research is focused on promoting clean growth and innovation in the agriculture sector.

Ryan’s work with SPI has centred around identifying the barriers that prevent farmers from adopting environmentally beneficial management practices and the policies that can be used to motivate practice adoption.

Marena has over a decade of experience moving the needle on sustainability policy in Canada. She led the programming of the 2021 World Circular Economy Forum on behalf of the Government of Canada and now leads the creation of new research projects and partnerships at Smart Prosperity Institute.

Leveraging her experience working with all orders of government, including Indigenous, she focuses on bringing about real-world changes that benefit people and planet.

Kaleigh Wisman (she/her)
Kaleigh is a dynamic leader and strategic communicator with over ten years of experience spanning the non-profit, public and private sectors. Through the development of accessible communications strategies, she works with purpose-led organizations to tell their stories, engage stakeholders and drive long-term positive change.
A storyteller at heart, Kaleigh holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and is a life-long believer in the transformative impact that well-told narratives can have on individuals, their communities and society at large.
When she’s not story-telling at work, you can probably find her story-reading at home with her young family.

Trudi is the Senior Manager of Operations at The Natural Step Canada, where she works collaboratively to create and maintain the systems, processes, and relationships that keep our work running smoothly behind the scenes. She holds a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic and an MA in Geography from the University of Guelph, where she focused on the international politics of food, agriculture, and climate change. She loves thinking about the interaction between large- and small-scale systems, and finds it rewarding to help changemakers get creative with their internal operations to maximize their impact on the external world.

Trudi calls Guelph, Ontario, home, but has roots on the West and East coasts of Canada. When not at her desk, she can be found running with her rescue dog Odo, immersing in a new creative medium, or binging reality television.