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Building Climate Resilience & Adaptation in the Kainai First Nation – Phase I Capacity Building

Initiative Overview

Location:

Kainai First Nation, Southern Alberta, Canada

Duration:

4 years 2014-2018

Major Supporters:

Calgary Foundation, Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, Alberta Government

Over 100 community members from the Kainai First Nation participated in this initiative including Elders, council members, directors, technicians, managers in multiple departments and emergency services. To help facilitate the initiative, a new in-tribe climate change coordinator position was created.

The four main activities were:

  1. Delivery of education sessions and dialogues on perceived risks.
  2. Engagement of youth and Elders in a learning journey about climate change from western scientific and Blackfoot perspectives that led to the art installation Through the Eyes of Kainai Youth – Art of Climate Change. Their work was chosen for a major exhibition at the Cave & Basin Historical Site in Banff National Park, Alberta that over 70,000 people from around the world will see.
  3. Development of a Traditional Plants Database to help the community collect and store invaluable traditional ecological knowledge for future land-use decisions.
  4. Creation of a Local Early Action Plan to determine the most pressing threats to the community in context of climate change and early traditional and new actions that can be taken to adapt.

This initiative led to meaningful change and inspired the community to engage in Phase II – from planning to implementation

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 as a freelance consultant with the United Nations, governments, and humanitarian organizations on recovery, risk governance, and community-based resilience. She teaches at a Canadian university and holds a PhD in Disaster Risk Reduction. 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.