Reflections, gratitude, and hope: a holiday message from the Dean of Environment

As the year comes to an end, I want to take a moment to reflect on 2024 and express my heartfelt gratitude to our incredible community here in the Faculty of Environment. We have accomplished so much this year, and we have so much to look forward to in 2025. Despite the challenges the university is facing, we must remember what we can achieve when we come together.  

This year has been remarkable for our Faculty, filled with accomplishments and inspiring initiatives that demonstrate the resilience of our faculty, staff, students and the broader community. I want to highlight a few defining moments from 2024: 

• Launching Environment 2035: Our north star for the next decade, which celebrates and draws on this Faculty’s strengths to build a brighter future for our local and global communities. 

• Welcoming Amanda St. Marie: As the Faculty’s first Environment Indigenous Initiatives Manager, this role marks a pivotal step in our commitment to reconciliation, embedding Indigenous perspectives and initiatives into the heart of our community and work. 

• The Future Cities Institute Founded by CAIVAN: A groundbreaking $10 million donation from Caivan Group enabled us to launch this interdisciplinary institute and accelerate progress on urban sustainability challenges.   

• Transformative field schools: From tackling climate change and challenges facing fishing communities in India to empowering communities in Algonquin Park, our students had transformative learning experiences in and outside the classroom. Spanning oceans, canals, and beyond, our students gained real-world skills and insights into critical environmental issues. 

• Interdisciplinary Graduate Diploma in Climate Change: We led the development of a first-of-its-kind graduate diploma open to graduate students from all faculties to equip future leaders with the tools to combat one of our most pressing global challenges.  

I was also pleased to see so many of you at our termly community gatherings. Through building connections and supporting one another, we will continue to thrive. 

Speaking of support, I would like to extend my deepest thanks to Dr. Johanna Wandel for her exemplary leadership as acting dean during my leave. Her dedication and passion have been instrumental in maintaining the Faculty’s momentum and advancing our shared goals. Please join me in thanking her for her outstanding stewardship this term.  

With the end of term, it is time to take some well-deserved time to relax and recharge.  Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Year’s, or simply catch up on activities and with people that bring you joy, it is time to reconnect and reflect before the start of a new year. For me, the holidays are a meaningful time to reconnect with family and relive traditions from my home in South Africa. As you will appreciate, South Africa is in the Southern Hemisphere and so it’s mid-summer at this time of the year. Typically, we would get together with family and friends and enjoy a festive ‘braai’ (South African version of a barbeque), but one that lasts all day and often well into the night. While holidays in South Africa were quite a contrast to those in Waterloo, I have come to appreciate the coziness that the snow brings at this special time of year. 

As we prepare to welcome 2025, I feel an immense sense of hope and optimism for all that we can accomplish together. Every day, I am inspired by the resilience, creativity, and drive of our community to make the world a better place. Let’s carry this spirit forward into the new year as we work toward a more sustainable and equitable future. 

Wishing you all a joyful, restful holiday season and a bright and fulfilling new year ahead.