Students and Student Resources
Current Graduate Students
Past Graduate Students
Undergraduate Students Report Supervision
Current Research Assistants
Past Undergraduate and Graduate Research Assistants
Research Practicum Student Supervision
Student Training Resources
Student Research Support
Current Graduate Students
Masters of Arts Degree - Supervisor
Davi Florêncio de Lima
In progress
Topic: Public policies for an aging population in a small resource-based community
Erin Nevison
In progress
Topic: Policy and the decarbonization of energy in British Columbia
Sheri Sarrami
In progress
Masters of Arts Degree – Member of Supervisory Committee
J. Clarkson
In Progress (University of British Columbia-Okanagan)
Topic: The Yukon and immigration
E. Layton
In Progress
Topic: Stakeholder engagement in BC’s oil and gas sector
C. McHarg
In Progress
Topic: Place-based, outdoors focused, high school pilot program
D. Stokes
In Progress (University of British Columbia)
Topic: Cumulative social impacts
J. Whitehead
In Progress
Topic: Climate adaptation in small towns
Yihang Zhang
In Progress
Topic: Virtual tourism in Tumbler Ridge
PhD Degree – Member of Supervisory Committee
Stephan Nieweler
In Progress (Simon Fraser University)
Topic: Kitimat’s industrial transformation
Past Graduate Students
Masters of Arts Degree - Supervisor
Christine Creyke
Completed 2011
Topic: Communication and development planning - Mining and First Nations’ communities
Richard Darko
Completed 2022
Topic: Economic restructuring in resource-dependent communities in the aftermath of mill / mine closure: A comparative case study of Valemount and Tumbler Ridge in northern British Columbia
Kelly Giesbrecht
Completed 2003
Topic: Public participation in the Bulkley Valley Community Resources Board
Megan Gordon
Completed 2021
Topic: Achieving a just transition for forestry-dependent workers and communities in northern British Columbia
Jen Herkes
Completed 2009
Topic: Town planning and community cohesion in Kitimat, BC
Anne Hogan
Completed 2009
Topic: Housing and aging issues in Prince George, BC
Eric Kopetski
Completed 2013
Topic: Topic: Bioenergy and community economic development
Kyle Kusch
Completed 2009
Topic: Historic migration patterns in the Upper Fraser region, BC
Jenny Lo
Completed 2004
Topic: Small town social service provision
Som Pun
Completed 2014
Topic: The potential of timber and range policy agreements to assist First Nations with community and economic development
Laura Ryser
Completed 2002
Topic: Institutional barriers to climate responsive design in commercial redevelopment in Prince George, BC
Tashi Sherpa
Completed 2019
Topic: The importance of land and water to the culture of the Xeni Gwet'in First Nation: An analysis of statements presented at environmental impact assessment hearings
Brian Stauffer
Completed 2001
Topic: Changing historical geography of BC's coastal salmon canning industry
Marc Steynen
Completed 2010
Topic: The consequences of forestry-dependence for the socioeconomic development of Houston, BC
Lana Sullivan
Completed 2002
Topic: Community capacity and economic renewal - The case of Tumbler Ridge, BC.
Chelan Zirul
Completed 2010
Topic: Regional governance in the Cariboo-Chilcotin area
Masters of Business Administration - Supervisor
Patrick Barrette
Completed 2007
Topic: The role of quality of life: economic development and employee recruitment and retention in Prince George, BC
Therese Jean
Completed 2008
Topic: Is the provincial fair share funding for the northeast region communities in BC fair or not?
Kwabena Owusu-Nyamekye
Completed in 2007
Topic: Privatization of Crown Corporations and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Canada: Goals and aspirations of government and participating businesses
Masters in Environmental Studies – Co-Supervisor
Elizabeth Andersen
Completed 2015 (York University)
Masters of Business Administration - Supervisory Committee
W. Rogers
Completed 2010
Topic: Financing community economic development
C. Sterritt
Completed 2012
Topic: Training development for Aboriginal self government
PhD Degree - Supervisor
Richard Darko
In Progress
A. Martin
Completed 2012
Topic: The role of companies in northern resource-based towns
Masters of Arts Degree - Supervisory Committee
T. Baerg
Completed 2016
Topic: Impacts of ending appurtenancy on northern BC
K. Best
Completed 2016
Topic: Highway development and nature-based tourism
Jessica Blewett
Completed 2012
Topic: Accessibility and mobility in Prince George
Karla Bloomfield
Completed 2017
Topic: The lived experiences of camp wives in northwestern BC
Cindy Bryant
Completed 2003 (Concordia University)
Topic: Canadian rural in-migration between 1991 and 1996
Rachael Clasby
Completed 2007
Topic: Aging-in-place in a remote northern resource town
A. Dunbrack
Completed 2015
Topic: Recreational access to private forest lands
Brooke Eschuk
Completed 2013
Topic: Social and spatial barriers affecting children’s play
Neil Godbout
Completed 2004
Topic: Wooded horse: Information sources for newspaper coverage of the Canada US softwood lumber debate
S. Hartman
Completed 2013
Topic: Tourism development option for the Fraser Lake region of central BC
Y. Kanaoka
Completed 2001
Topic: Are protected areas a supporter of cultural survival? Modern protected areas and westernization
Courtney LeBourdais
Completed 2013
Topic: Marriage migration in northern British Columbia: Place and identity among foreign brides
Phil Morris
Completed 1999
Topic: Historical geography of First Nations land base
M. Oster
Completed 1997
Topic: Community attitudes towards air quality
Erin Palmer
Completed 2005
Topic: Exploring options for the use of experiential knowledge in resource and environmental planning and management in north-eastern British Columbia.
S. Rison
Completed 1997
Topic: Community control of natural resource industries as a tool for rural community development
T. Ritchie
Completed 2020
Topic: Unfulfilled promise: How and why citizen initiative was created in British Columbia
E. Robinson
Completed 2007
Topic: Community partnerships and sustainable resource use: The Xatsu¹ll Likely Community Forest
Bruce Simard
Completed 2001
Topic: Barriers to strategic growth management planning in a rural, resource dependent region
I. Tanaka
Completed 2016
Topic: Winter city recreational park use
R. Urquhart
Completed 2009
Topic: Resource community consultation in the Yukon
Laura Way
Completed 2005
Topic: Recruitment and retention challenges or a resource-dependent regional centre: The case study of Prince George, BC
H. Whalen
Completed 2013
Topic: Women’s experiences at home with long distance labour commuting
M. Worfolk
Completed 2002
Topic: Support structures for women in resource-based communities
PhD Degree - Supervisory Committee
S. Appiah Takyi
Completed 2016
Topic: The relationship between urbanization and park planning in Vancouver
Titi Kunkel
Completed 2014
Topic: Aboriginal values, sacred landscapes, and resource development in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region
Masters of Arts Degree - External Examiner
L. Dalton
Completed 2006
Topic: The place of women: Exploring the role of place in shaping self-employment as a livelihood strategy for women in the resource dependent community of Gold River, BC
University of Victoria, BC
J. Foster
Completed 2012
Topic: Of cycles and disturbances, English
University of Northern British Columbia
C. Greenard-Smith
Completed 2002
Topic: Women escaping abuse in northern British Columbia
L. Hawkins
Completed 1999
Topic: Two models of public involvement in land use planning
L. MacDonald
Completed 2010
Topic: The experience of presenteeism: Acute care nurses working in northern health
S. Pcholkina
Completed 2005
Topic: Construction and disruption of cottage idylls: Kushog Lake case study
Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario
S. Perry
Completed 2007
Topic: Mental health of children from divided families
C. Rockandel
Completed 2005
Topic: The road from resource dependency to community sustainability: The case of Kimberley, BC: 1966-2001
Simon Fraser University
B. Young
Completed 2009
Topic: BC resource communities: Assessing restructuring processes and local responses
Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University
PhD Degree - External Examiner
J. Affolderbach
Completed 2008
Topic: A comparative study of environmental NGOs in BC and New Zealand
Simon Fraser University
L. DeMiglio
Completed 2012
Topic: Sustaining palliative care teams that provide home-based care in a shared care model
McMaster University
R. Koster
Completed 2004
Topic: Jumping on the Bandwagon: An examination of mural-based tourism as a strategy for community economic development in rural areas
University of Saskatchewan.
N. Luka
Completed 2005
Topic: Placing the ‘natural’ edges of a metropolitan region through multiple residency: Landscape and urban form in Toronto's ‘cottage country’
University of Toronto
Sean Markey
Completed 2003
Topic: Facing uncertainty: Building local development institutions in rural British Columbia
Simon Fraser University
Ben L. Moffat
Completed 2000
Topic: Traditional places and modernist spaces: Regional geography and northwestern landscapes of power in Canada 1850-1990
University of Saskatchewan
L. Neelin
Completed 2012
Topic: The role of particularity in community resilience: The importance of being Shawville
School of Canadian Studies at Carleton University
T. Walters
Completed 2014
Topic: Beach, Bach and beyond: A critical longitudinal study of the luxury in and of second home ownership in New Zealand
Post-Doctoral Supervision
Chris Buse
2016-2017
Topic: Cumulative impacts of resource development
Michael Lait
2017-2019
Topic: Affordable housing in northern British Columbia
Sean Markey
2005
Topic: Building local development institutions in rural British Columbia
Alex Martin
2012-2013
Topic: Long distance labour commuting in northern British Columbia
Deborah Thien
2005-2006
Topic: Issues of gender in the new rural economy
Undergraduate Students Report Supervision
Rurik Muenter
Completed 2011
Forestry Program
Peter Kerckhoff
Completed 2007
Forestry Program
Current Research Assistants
TBD
Past Undergraduate and Graduate Research Assistants
Tobi Araki
Post-employment placement: RCMP Constable
Daniel Bell
Post-employment placement: Music and Events Promoter, Prince George
Jessica Blewett
Post-employment placement: Strategic HR Advisor, BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development
Marli Bodhi
Post-employment placement: Advisor, First Nations Relations, BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development
Lila Bonnardel
Post-employment placement: Willet Peak Organics
Onkar Buttar
Post-employment placement: Planner, City of Richmond
Kourtney Cook
Post-employment placement: Coordinator, First Nations and Community Relations, Gibraltar Mine, Taseko
Jennifer Crain
Post-employment placement: Research and Data Manager, Injury Epidemiology, Public Health Agency of Canada
Christine Creyke
Post-employment placement: Lands Director, Tahltan Central Government
Mollie Cudmore
Post-employment placement: Behavioral Health Emergency Services Clinician at Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation
Rosalynd Curry
Post-employment placement: Midwife, Mighty Oak Midwifery Care
Maya de Vos
Post-employment placement: UBC Medical Program
Joanne Doddridge
Post-employment placement: Director of Economic Development and Planning, 100 Mile House
Shiloh Durkee
Post-employment placement: Assistant, Petroglyph Animal Hospital, Nanaimo, BC
Catherine Fraser
Post-employment placement: Chief Development Officer, Healing Hands of Joy
Kelly Geisbrecht
Post-employment placement: Regional Manager, Retention and Recruitment, Medical Affairs at Northern Health
Amy Gondak
Julia Good
Post-employment placement: Research Associate, UNBC’s Community Development Institute
Rebecca Goodenough
Post-employment placement: Municipal Heritage, Government of Alberta
Jennifer Herkes
Post-employment placement: Owner, Two Crow Consulting
Anne Hogan
Post-employment placement: Advisor, Office of the Seniors Advocate BC
Priscilla Johnson
Post-employment placement: BC Northern Real Estate Board
Ashley Kearns
Post-employment placement: Specialist, Financial Solutions, Affordable Housing Investment and Lending – Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation
Nora King
Post-employment placement: Teacher, Reynolds High School, Victoria, BC
Eric Kopetski
Post-employment placement: Wildfire Technician, Cariboo Fire Centre
Kyle Kusch
Post-employment placement: Arrow Lakes Historical Society
Courtney LeBourdais
Post-employment placement: Employer Advisor, Ministry of Jobs, Tourism, and Skills Training and Responsible for Labour
Alishia Lindsey
Post-employment placement: Records Manager, BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations
Jenny Lo
Post-employment placement: Service Canada
Erin MacQuarrie
Post-employment placement: Office Manager, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of New Brunswick
Parmeet Mangat
Post-employment placement: Pursuing medical field education at UBC
Alex Martin
Post-employment placement: Manager of Immigration Policy, Labour Force Policy and Strategies, Government of Alberta
Allison Matte
Post-employment placement: Teacher, Prince George Secondary School
Colin McLeod
Post-employment placement: Director-at-Large, Wetzin’kwa Community Forest Corporation
Liz O’Connor
Paul Pan
Post-employment placement: Executive Director, University of Lethbridge International
Danielle Patterson
Post-employment placement: Planning intern, Peace River Regional District
Gerald Pinchbeck
Post-employment placement: Chief Administrative Officer, District of Houston
Virginia Pow
Post-employment placement: Librarian, University of Alberta
Alika Rajput
Post-employment placement: IT Support Specialist, College of New Caledonia, Prince George
Jessica Rayner
Post-employment placement: Manager, Slocan District Chamber of Commerce
Devon Roy
Post-employment placement: Pursuing education degree at UNBC
Carla Seguin
Post-employment placement: Economic Development Officer, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
Brian Stauffer
Marc Steynen
Post-employment placement: Manager, Society for Ecosystem Restoration in Northern BC
Pam Tobin
Post-employment placement: Director, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Strategy Implementation at the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer
Laurel Van de Keere
Post-employment placement: Manager, Strategic Policy Services, Government of Alberta
Krista Voogd Ramsay
Post-employment placement: Former Researcher, Kitsumkalum Band Office (maternity leave)
Rachael Wells
Post-employment placement: Manager, Health Research Institute
Michelle White
Anisa Zehtab-Martin
Post-employment placement: Senior Policy Analyst, Government of Alberta
Chelan Zirul
Post-employment placement: Regional Manager, Health Communities and Schools, Northern Health
Research Practicum Student Supervision
Jorge Kelly, UNBC Social Work Program
Completed 2005
Jack Kinnear, UNBC Social Work Program
Completed 2005
Katherine Field, McMaster University Occupational Therapy Program
Completed 2006
Christie Cooper, UNBC Social Work Program
Completed 2006
Lynne Boutcher, UNBC Social Work Program
Completed 2006
Tammy Percival, UNBC Social Work Program
Completed 2006
Dawn Sather, UNBC Social Work Program
Completed 2007
Sheri-Lynne Bishop, UNBC Social Work Program
Completed 2007
Student Training Resources
Mentoring
Our team routinely supports the research and professional development experiences of students at the graduate and undergraduate level, as well as the development of various community partners. Whether you are someone who is looking to develop a new career in rural development, or someone who is looking to learn more about successful initiatives that have been used in other communities, our team is always ready to provide advice, to broker relationships, to explore best practices, and to share lessons learned in a variety of policy and community development contexts.
Our research team has provided mentoring supports through international internship programs, conferences, courses, research assistantships, and community-based research projects.
Materials
In addition to mentoring supports, a compilation of resources below can inform students’ decisions as they plan and develop their research and professional careers.
Doing Community-Based Research: Perspectives from the Field
Greg Halseth, Sean Markey, Laura Ryser, and Don Manson
Doing Community-Based Research offers useful insights into the challenges associated with conducting research and ensuring that it generates both excellent scholarship and positive impacts in the communities where the research takes place. This depends on two important variables: the capacity of CBR to generate good information, and the extent to which CBR is understood and constructed as a two-way relationship that includes a set of responsibilities for both researchers and communities.
Offering advice on the crucial relationship between communities and researchers, the authors outline the main stages of the CBR process to guide researchers and practitioners. They discuss the reasons for conducting CBR, provide tips on how to design research, and detail how researchers and communities should get to know one another, as well as how best to work in the field and how to turn fieldwork into research that counts. By focusing on the lessons learned from the use of CBR, the authors make the messages, lessons, and practices applicable to a variety of research settings.
Drawing collectively from decades of community-based research experience and including vignettes from researchers from around the world who share their CBR experiences, this book is essential for scholars, students, and community development practitioners.
For more information, or to order, please visit: https://www.mqup.ca/doing-community-based-research-products-9780773547285.php
Developing the Next Generation of Community-Based Researchers: A Student Workshop
Laura Ryser, Greg Halseth, and Sean Markey
The quality and effectiveness of student research experiences will have longstanding impacts on their future research careers, as well as repercussions pertaining to the community experience with the research process. This presentation provides students with information about how to get the most out of their research experience. Key topics to be addressed include finding community research opportunities, identifying what you should know and what you should ask before engaging with a research team, how to obtain a breadth of research skills and experiences, researcher etiquette and demeanor in the community, budgeting, time management, and developing future research and employment prospects. Even if you are not planning to have an academic career, this presentation touches upon several key lessons that can help students to be better consumers of research and other information in their professional careers.
More details are available through the following publication:
Ryser, L., Markey, S., and Halseth, G. 2013. Developing the Next Generation of Community-Based Researchers: Tips for Undergraduate Students. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 37(1): 11-27.
Safety Guide for Conducting Community-Based Research
In 2013, the UNBC Field Safety Committee developed the first draft of the Safety Guide for Conducting Community-Based Research. This guide contains a compilation of basic safety issues for working alone and for working in communities. The guide also contains a number of sample checklists for planning, monitoring, and reviewing safe community-based research practices.
To access the guide, please visit: https://www.unbc.ca/sites/default/files/sections/safety/safetyguideforconductingcommunitybasedresearchdecember312013.pdf
Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans
Research ethics protocols have been guided since 1998 with the publication of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (ISRE 2014). Since its original publication, the Tri-Council Policy has been amended and modified as a result of experience, practice, and debate. After an extensive consultation, the Interagency Secretariat on Research Ethics released in 2014 a new edition of the Tri-Council Policy Statement (ISRE 2014). While the core principles of a concern for welfare, justice, and respect for all persons remain, existing provisions for research involving women, vulnerable persons, those who lack the capacity to consent to research participation, Aboriginal peoples, and others have been confirmed, augmented, and expanded.
To access the full document, please visit: https://ethics.gc.ca/eng/policy-politique_tcps2-eptc2_2018.html
Preparing for the Next Field Season: Methodology Lessons for Engaging in Labour Mobility Research in Mining and Tourism
Laura Ryser, Greg Halseth, Angèle Smith, and Sean Markey
On the Move: Webinar Series
Social, economic, and political restructuring since the early 1980s has transformed the nature of work and community relationships in Canada’s rural landscape. The increasingly mobile nature of the workforce, however, presents challenges to using traditional approaches to engage with research participants in these places. The purpose of this presentation is to explore the lessons learned from conducting community-based research in mining and tourism communities that have mobile workforces. After a brief introduction to community-based research, we will describe the fieldwork that was completed by the BC Team. We then highlight a series of issues, such as training, monitoring fieldwork, safety, recruitment of participants, developing relationships, and additional challenges that can be used to inform future research practices with mobile workforces and strengthen foundations for community-based research with their respective communities and regions.
Preparing for the Next Field Season: Methodology Lessons for Engaging with Mobile Workforces
Constraints and Opportunities to Building the Capacity of Small Places to be Consumers of Research
Laura Ryser and Greg Halseth
Knowledge in Motion Conference, Memorial University in Newfoundland, 2008.
The last decade has witnessed a rise in interest in how to more effectively put research knowledge to use in society. Service learning and ‘the engaged campus’ are now well entrenched in the university and college classroom, and our national funding agencies have made ‘impact’ and ‘connectivity’ key themes in their mandates. But the new movements and attention to knowledge mobilization build upon a much longer engagement between research, knowledge, and their use in affecting social, economic, environmental, and political change. This presentation explores constraints and opportunities to building the capacity of small places to be consumers of research.
Developing Community Capacity to be Consumers of Research
Strategies and intervening factors influencing student social interaction and experiential learning in an interdisciplinary research team
Laura Ryser, Greg Halseth, and Deborah Thien
Faculty have long incorporated students into interdisciplinary research projects to meet increasingly common demands for collaborative research by federal funding agencies. Despite the critical role of experiential learning in building student research skills and capacity, few have explored social interaction mechanisms used to facilitate student experiential learning in an interdisciplinary research team. Drawing upon the New Rural Economy project as a case study, interviews with students from eight Canadian universities were conducted to explore these social interaction mechanisms. While findings revealed an array of social interaction mechanisms used to develop student learning networks, the quality of these mechanisms were mixed; thereby influencing the utilization of these networks for guidance and feedback. As faculty organize social interaction mechanisms, they should consider factors such as previous experience, student and faculty relationships, finances, language, gender, ethnicity, and other issues, that will have an impact on student engagement with experiential learning.
More details are available through the following publication:
Ryser, L., Halseth, G., & Thien, D. (2009). Strategies and intervening factors influencing student social interaction and experiential learning in an interdisciplinary research team. Research in Higher Education, 50(3), 248-267.
Building Student Research Capacity: Faculty Perceptions about Institutional Barriers in Canadian Universities
As part of a long tradition, university faculty have been incorporating students into their work to meet the increasing demands for collaborative research. However, some educational institutions in Canada lack appropriate policies and infrastructure to support the pedagogical aspects of student research training and development. Drawing upon experiences with the New Rural Economy project, we explore faculty perceptions of institutional barriers to building student research capacity through a Canadian multi-university research project. Findings indicate that pressures associated with tenure and promotion, and the unintended consequences of policies that guide research operations, do not support student research training and development during a student’s period of enrollment or during transition periods between their research degrees. Faculty also perceive limited mechanisms for sharing resources across educational institutions to facilitate student research engagement across multiple universities.
More details are available through the following publication:
Ryser, L. and Halseth, G. 2009. Building student research capacity: Faculty perceptions about institutional barriers in Canada universities. Research Management Review 17(1): 1-19.
https://www.ncura.edu/Portals/0/Docs/RMR/v17n1.pdf
Linking University and Community Capacities in a Transitioning Rural and Small Town Economy
Marc von der Gonna, Laura Ryser, and Greg Halseth
Taking the Next Steps: Sustainability Planning, Policy, and Participation for Rural Canadian Communities, October 21-23, 2010
Pressures limiting community development and community economic development in rural and small town places include challenges around human resources, infrastructure, industrial capacity, policy supports, environmental assets, and others. Addressing these pressures and challenges often means accessing information and research capacity. Building community-university partnerships is one way by which small places can access needed information and research. This presentation examines opportunities for enhancing community-university research partnerships in the context of the McBride Community Forest. After setting a context for contemporary rural and small town places, we examine the fundamentals of developing community-university research partnerships including the key issue of open and willing communication. Following this introduction, the presentation examines a range of specific information and research needs of the McBride Community Forest including that related to forestry, energy, non-timber forest products, marketing, and community development topics.
Linking Community and University Capacities to Support Community Transition
Student Research Support
Intake: Ongoing
Our team is engaged in several research projects at UNBC that are seeking talented students who would like to undertake Masters and Doctoral graduate research. More information about these opportunities can be found by looking at our current research projects.
The Office of Research provides information about several additional internal and external funding sources to support undergraduate and graduate student research experiences.
General Information
At UNBC, graduate degrees for geography students include:
- MA (Natural Resources and Environmental Studies - Geography),
- MA Interdisciplinary Studies,
- MSc (Natural Resources and Environmental Studies- Geography),
- a project based Masters of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, and
- an inter-disciplinary PhD degree.
We have had many students who have used their research experiences as an important foundation to develop their careers. Former research assistants have obtained internships with the Northern Development Initiative Trust or have obtained employment with industry (i.e. Taseko), Northern Health, and various other provincial government positions.
