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Voices from Piikani Youth – Draven’s Story

Mentored by award-winning Blackfoot Artist Adrian Stimson, several youth from the Piikani Nation in southern Alberta explored what it means to be resilient in the face of a warming planet.    These are excerpts from Draven Morning Bull’s Story of Resilience, where he reflects on the changing climate of the Piikani reserve lands and the growing […]

Climate Week NYC coincides with the annual UNGA

Climate Week NYC, the largest climate-related gathering in the world after the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP), and the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) coincided this past September, both taking place in New York City.   Guided by this year’s theme of peace, development, and human rights, delegates at the […]

Canada’s Clean50 Top Project of the Year

The Resilience Institute is honoured to announce that they have been named Canada’s Clean50 Top Project of the Year (https://clean50.com) for their collaboration with the Piikani Lands Department on their “Seeding our Future with Sweetgrass” initiative.   The Clean50 Award annually recognizes projects from across Canada that have made exceptional contributions to advancing climate sustainability. Projects […]

Roots for Resilience Coastal Communities 

As part of Roots for Resilience, a new pan-Canadian program in partnership with the Canadian Red Cross, we are working with two communities in the Bay St. George area in southwestern Newfoundland. Staff from The Resilience Institute (TRI) and the Canadian Red Cross were invited last October to attend a two-day conference on food security […]

Climate News – Brazil Announces Ambitious and Inspiring Goals for COP30

This year, Brazil will host the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). We welcome the inspiring words shared by COP30’s president-designate, His Excellency Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, Secretary for Climate, Energy, and Environment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Federative […]

Stories of Resilience – Voices from Jasper

Stories of Resilience – Voices from Jasper is a new installment of one of TRI’s signature programs, Stories of Resilience, designed to explore resilience in its many forms – personal, collective, and environmental. Phase I of Stories of Resilience – Voices from Jasper is creating a space for Jasper residents from diverse backgrounds to reflect […]

Laura Stewart

Board Member

Laura Stewart is the Community Wildfire Resilience Coordinator with Forsite Fire, supporting communities across Canada with wildfire risk assessments, mitigation planning, and program delivery. She has more than a decade of experience advancing wildfire resilience at Indigenous, municipal, provincial/territorial, and national levels. Previously, Laura served nearly eleven years as Alberta’s Provincial FireSmart Specialist, leading community, WUI, neighbourhood, and Home Ignition Zone programs, coordinating funding, and partnering with communities and fire services across the province. She has also served as Board Chair with both the Partners in Protection Association (FireSmart Canada) and the Community Wildfire Resilience Association of Alberta.

 

Sara Walsh, PhD

Board Member

Sara Walsh, PhD, is a disaster risk reduction and climate resilience specialist with more than 15 years of experience spanning Canada, Nepal, the Middle East, and North Africa. Until November 2025, she served as Thematic Lead for Climate and Resilience with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), where she supported Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to strengthen their climate and risk reduction work across the region. Sara currently works for Greenpeace International. Her work emphasizes anticipatory action, equity, and bridging research with practice to shape more resilient and sustainable futures.

Alison Criscitiello

Board Member

Alison Criscitiello, PhD, is an ice core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer who explores the history of climate and sea ice in polar and high-alpine regions using ice core chemistry. Alison’s work also focuses on environmental contaminant histories in ice cores from the Canadian high Arctic and the water towers of the Canadian Rockies. In 2010, she led the first all-women’s ascent of Lingsarmo, a 22,818-foot peak in the Indian Himalaya. Alison has earned three American Alpine Club (AAC) climbing awards, the John Lauchlan and Mugs Stump alpine climbing awards, as well as the first Ph.D. in Glaciology ever conferred by MIT. She is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta. She is the co-founder of Girls on Ice Canada.