Heather Hall

Heather Hall is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Master of Economic Development and Innovation (MEDI) program in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development at the University of Waterloo. She received a PhD. in Geography from Queen’s University, an M.A. in Planning from the University of Waterloo, and a B.A. in Geography from Laurentian University.

Heather grew up in Northern Ontario and has a professional and personal interest in researching issues that are important to rural and Northern communities, including: innovation and economic development policy, planning and practice; the impacts of new technologies on the future of work; and the community impacts of mobile work and large-scale industrial projects. Her work has been recognized nationally and internationally, and has informed government policy in Canada, Northern Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, Sweden and Spain.

Heather is currently leading a project called Remote Controlled, exploring the impacts of new technologies in the mining sector and she is a co-lead with the Marine Biomass Innovation Project. Heather is also a member of the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation and a former member of the Board.  She is the co-author of Planning Canadian Regions, 2nd Edition and a co-editor of the forthcoming book Extraction: The Community Impacts of Mobile Work in Canada's Natural Resources Sector.