John Lewis, PhD

Dr. John Lewis has over twenty years of research and professional practice experience in environmental and community planning and has published research that explores the history of landscape change prior to and during British Columbia’s colonization, the use of interactive visualization technologies to support community engagement in environmental planning and landscape management, and the design of inclusive communities for older adults and people with impairments. He is currently an associate professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo where he teaches courses in environmental design and visual communication and is the Associate Vice-President (Interim), Indigenous Relations in the Office of Indigenous Relations. He spends much of his free time from research, teaching and administration in his family’s home community in northern Québec and in northern Ontario fishing or hunting with his wife and two young adult children.

• Landscape Planning and Design

• Forest Resources Management

• Indigneous Planning and Resouce Management

• Environmental Visualization

• Age-Friendly Community Planning

I am currently leading the Indigenous Futures Circle, a project supported by the University of Waterloo's Global Futures Office. The Indigenous Futures Circle is a university-wide, trans-disciplinary initiative that enables and supports Indigenous community-initiated research and teaching opportunities at the University of Waterloo. It is best understood as a partnership platform through which Indigenous communities can approach the University to make their own research needs known, define issues and questions that reflect their priorities, define images of the future and reach out to/invite researchers across the University to identify impactful pathways for communities to realize those futures. The IFC is not a conventional research or teaching centre housed in one faculty, nor a temporary pilot that depends on a small number of champions. It is a cross-institutional capability intended to persist and mature over decades and is, at its core, a response to a common barrier that is voiced by Indigenous communities - i.e. that universities can be hard to navigate, slow to respond, and inconsistent in how they treat Indigenous knowledge, data, and authority. The IFC reduces that burden by providing a stable ‘front door,’ a set of pathways that are clear and responsive, and internal coordination that avoids asking communities to repeatedly explain their priorities to disconnected units. The IFC also supports Waterloo researchers and instructors by providing guidance, relationship-based protocols, and facilitation that strengthens partnership quality and reduces risk.

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia, 2001 - 2006

• Master of Science (M.Sc.) Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia, 1998 - 2001

• Master of Urban and Regional Planning (M.Pl.), Queen’s University, 1994 - 1996

• Bachelor of Arts (B.A. Hons) Political Studies and Economics, Queen’s University, 1986 - 1990

• 2026- Associate Vice-President (Interim), Indigenous Relations

• 2024- Campus Plan Steering Committee and Implementation Working Group

• 2024- President's Advisory Committee on Design

• 2024- Indigenous Research Council

• 2024- President's Advisory Committee on Sustainability

• 2023-2025 Director, Indigenous Faculty Relations

• GEOG 319 - Economic Analyses for Regional Planning
  • Taught in 2022
• PLAN 110 - Visual Approaches to Design and Communication
  • Taught in 2021, 2023
• PLAN 309 - Site Planning and Design Studio
  • Taught in 2021
• PLAN 320 - Economic Analyses for Regional Planning
  • Taught in 2022
• PLAN 409 - Urban Design Studio
  • Taught in 2023, 2025
• PLAN 646 - Site Planning and Design Studio
  • Taught in 2021
• PLAN 720 - Introductory Planning Project Studio
  • Taught in 2021

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.