Julie Bernard

Julie Bernard's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jubernard/

Julie Bernard's Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=48AGl7AAAAAJ&hl=fr

Julie Bernard's ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Julie-Bernard-2

Dr. Julie Bernard is an Assistant Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Bernard's research examines how financial and governance systems can be redesigned—and held accountable—to advance climate and environmental goals, spanning innovative conservation finance instruments like the Conservation Impact Bond, ESG and proxy voting in capital markets, and the weaving of Indigenous and Western knowledge into sustainability research and practice

From September 2022 to 2024, she worked on the CIB's second pilot as a postdoctoral scholar with the Sustainable Finance Lab at the Ivey Business School, and continues to contribute to the initiative today as an Adjunct Professor, now working on the bond's third pilot.Her research focuses on understanding and facilitating the replication and scaling of the Conservation Impact Bond (CIB), a highly innovative Canadian financial product designed to leverage finance for nature-based carbon mitigation.

Dr. Bernard also works on economic reconciliation. Through collaboration with Indigenous nations, she aims to support the weaving of Indigenous and Western knowledge into academic practice, developing innovative approaches to research and teaching.

She currently holds a SSHRC Insight Development Grant for her project, Climate Accountability in the Age of Anti-ESG through a Proxy Voting Lens in Canada and the U.S. The research examines the rising anti-ESG movement and its impact on organizational decision-making within capital markets, using a mixed-methods approach to investigate how this political backlash against ESG considerations is reshaping dynamics between key market actors in the United States and Canada. Because the anti-ESG movement is such a recent development, scholarly literature has had minimal opportunity to examine it — Dr. Bernard's work addresses this gap, offering insights for practitioners navigating a polarized environment and for scholars studying how external pressures shape corporate governance in contemporary capital markets.

Dr. Bernard holds a PhD in Administrative Sciences from Université Laval. She teaches courses on stakeholder engagement and sustainability management, including ENBUS 410 (Engaging Stakeholders), ENBUS 642 (Stakeholder Engagement, Collaborations and Partnerships), and SUSM 603/702 (Research Methods for Sustainable Management), and in 2025 received the ASAC Past Presidents' Research Award.

• Conservation finance

• Conservation Impact Bond

• Climate accountability

• ESG

• Proxy voting

• Corporate governance

• Sustainable finance

• Economic reconciliation,

• Two-Eyed Seeing

• PhD - Administrative Sciences, Université Laval

• MAP - École nationale d’administration publique

• BScSoc - University of Ottawa

• 2025 ASAC Past Presidents' Research Award

• ENBUS 410 - Engaging Stakeholders
  • Taught in 2025, 2026
• ENBUS 642 - Stakeholder Engagement, Collaborations and Partnerships
  • Taught in 2025, 2026
• SFM 311 - Social Regulation and Policy
  • Taught in 2025
• SUSM 603 - Research Methods for Sustainable Management
  • Taught in 2026
• SUSM 702 - Methods of Sustainability Management
  • Taught in 2026

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

• Bernard, J., Ceulemans, K., Boiral, O., & Brotherton, M.-C. (2026) From disclosure to democracy: A content analysis of stakeholder engagement processes in sustainability reports. Organization & Environment special issue "Accelerating Sustainability Mainstreaming: Exploring Challenges and Opportunities." https://doi.org/10.1177/10860266261446871

• Arjaliès, D.-L., Bernard, J., Whiteye, S., & Banerjee, B. (2026) Braiding Indigenous and Western Sciences: A Two-Eyed Seeing Methodological Approach. Organization Studies special issue” The Future of Qualitative Research in Management and Organization Studies” https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406261459086

• Cho, C., Pimentel, E., Bernard, J., Ghio, A., Keddie, L. & Bothello, J. (2026) Engaging with practitioners: The case of the Accounting for Impact diversity event. Accounting Perspectives (AP). https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3838.70029

• Bernard, J., Boiral, O., Guillaumie, L., & Brotherton, M.-C. (2023). Does proxy voting really promote corporate sustainability? Corporate Governance: An International Review, 31(3), 445–463. https://doi.org/10.1111/corg.12464

• Boiral, O., Heras, I., Brotherton, M.-C., & Bernard, J. (2019). Ethical issues in the assurance of sustainability reports: Perspectives from assurance providers. Journal of Business Ethics, 159(4), 1111–1125. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3840-3