Jennifer Garard, PhD, is the Deputy Director of Sustainability in the Digital Age and Future Earth Canada and an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University. Her work focuses on bringing people together from different communities and research domains to cultivate mutual understanding and to create collaborative work environments where global challenges are tackled collectively. Her areas of expertise include stakeholder engagement at the interface of digital technologies and environmental sustainability and addressing divergent viewpoints through collective foresight and intelligence. Jennifer is also the North America Regional Facilitator for the United Nations Environment Programme and sits on the Board for the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of AI and Digital Technology (OBVIA).
Previously, Jennifer was a researcher with the working group Scientific Assessments, Ethics, and Public Policy at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, and an intern with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity Health and Biodiversity Cross-Cutting Initiative. She holds a BSc in Environmental Science from McGill University (2008), a Master of Environmental Assessment from Concordia University (2013), and a PhD from the Technische Universität Berlin (“Stakeholder Engagement at the Science-Policy Interface,” 2018).
What Jennifer likes to study
- Global Risk Perception Gaps Between Scientists and Business Leaders
- Global environmental assessments
- Earth System Governance
- Multi-stakeholder engagement and divergent viewpoints
- Digital disruptions for a climate-safe and equitable world
- Collective foresight and intelligence for sustainability
- Digital surveillance and climate change
For a full list of research and publications, please see ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8746-9992
What Jennifer recommends
The following are some interesting items you might want to check out:
[Work/studies-related]
Donella Meadows (1999). Leverage points: Places to intervene in a system. Available online: https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
Elinor Ostrom (2009). A polycentric approach for coping with climate change. Policy Research Working Paper 5095. Background Paper to the 2010 World Development Report. Available online: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1494833
Kate Raworth (2018). A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow (Ted Talk). Available online: https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_raworth_a_healthy_economy_should_be_designed_to_thrive_not_grow
[Non-work related]
Michael Pollan (2006). The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The Penguin Press.
Simon Sinek (2009). How great leaders inspire action (Ted Talk). Available online: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en
Anna Winger (June 1, 2016). What makes Berlin a playground paradise. The New York Times. Available online: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/travel/berlin-family-holidays.html