Waterloo alum brings a decade of student experience to her innovation work
Stephanie Whitney's (BASc ’04, MEB ’13, PhD ’19) Waterloo experience has been a marathon, not a sprint.
When Whitney enrolled at the University of Waterloo in 1998 to study environmental and chemical engineering and management science, she pictured herself acing her classes, building professional connections in co-op, and then moving forward to a career in industry. She did not realize that her career would bring her back to campus repeatedly — first for a master’s degree, then a PhD, and finally last summer to take on the role of director for research and innovation partnerships in the Faculty of Mathematics.
Before all those achievements, however, she had to learn how to fail.
Although Whitney had excelled in high school, her first year of university was a big adjustment. Despite acing some of her classes, she failed her first semester by 0.5 per cent. “That failure shook me to my core,” she recalled. “I had to accept it in order to learn how to succeed.”
Twelve students in her cohort failed that semester and only four returned. Whitney was one of the four.
“Failure is just a learning experience,” she said. “It’s not something to shy away from. It’s better to be ambitious and fail than to always play it safe.” Whitney threw herself into her work, building connections with classmates and mentors. Although her first co-op experience at a chemical distribution company was “nerve-wracking,” she loved learning on the job, eventually doing terms in Waterloo, Toronto and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“Failure is just a learning experience,” she said. “It’s not something to shy away from. It’s better to be ambitious and fail than to always play it safe.”
Stephanie Whitney (BASC ’04, MEB v13, PHD ’19)
Whitney also discovered the passion that would sustain her throughout her career: long-distance running. She volunteer-taught “learn to run” courses at the Running Room and realized she loved to support learning.
After six years in industry, Whitney found herself back at Waterloo again, in a new master’s program focused on helping industry partners address sustainability challenges. She built enduring relationships: with Amelia Clarke, who has served as the inaugural director of the Master of Environment and Business program and the associate dean of research for the Faculty of Environment, and with Ian Rowlands, associate vice-president of Waterloo International.
A few years later, while pregnant with her second child, Whitney enrolled in a PhD program in Social and Ecological Sustainability. She gave birth two weeks into the first term and brought her daughter to class so she could keep learning. When she graduated, her advisor urged her to consider the more conventional route of the professoriate. But she knew what she wanted to do: help build those relationships that had shaped her research and career.
Last year, Whitney accepted a position as director for research and innovation partnerships in the Faculty of Mathematics. She helps faculty engage existing and prospective partners in the research process, from program design to co-creating outputs and impact. She also uses her experience and connections as a student, researcher and practitioner to help build mutually beneficial relationships with industry.
“Her broad background in science and engineering makes her ideally suited to connect researchers with partners outside the traditional tech industry, including partners in finance and partners addressing the climate emergency,” said Charles Clarke (MMath ’90, PhD ’96), associate dean for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “With her deep knowledge of real-world problems, she magnifies the research efforts of professors and graduate students in the Faculty of Math.”
Whitney is bringing the lessons she learned in her long journey at Waterloo to her innovation work. Experience is a lens, helping her envision the best way forward for the next leg of this race.
Photo credit: Joe Petrik
