Welcome to Esoterra Labs

I am a specialist in water quality and technology, intersecting with community and ecological health. My Ph.D. was at UBC in Chemical/Biological engineering with RES’EAU WaterNet on drinking water in rural and Indigenous communities, where I was part of the interdisciplinary BRIDGE program and worked on environmental health in communities impacted by resource extraction. At UBC, I was a Liu Institute Scholar and the Director of Volunteers for Engineers Without Borders. I then started my own water consulting company for small water systems, Ecological Water, as well as working with Indigenous Services Canada and other government agencies. I then worked as a consultant in the Public Sector and Sustainability practices for McKinsey & Company, with Natural Resources Canada and Environment Canada, where I learned some of the nuances of sustainability policy. I was a visiting scholar at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with their “Arsenic-free Bangladesh” project, as well as a visiting associate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Sustainability Science Program. My post-doc was at Stanford, on small-system wastewater energy, nutrient, and carbon resource recovery. At UVic, I lead the Community Water Innovation Lab and hold the Canada Research Chair in Water Sustainability for Indigenous and Rural Communities. My lifelong passion is in working together to find just, sustainable, fun, and meaningful solutions in maintaining ecological health while accomplishing societal goals. As a non-Indigenous scholar committed to reconciliation, I have additional responsibility for training students in respectful, reciprocal, and just methodologies.