Chloé St. Amand (she/her)
[CLO-ee]
Greetings, Shads! Are you excited for July yet? The possibilities are endless! As a Shad alum myself (Dalhousie 2013), I am very excited to be coming back for my 8th year with Shad Waterloo, and my 3rd year as design faculty.
In the non-Shad months, I’m a policy analyst working on Indigenous Inclusion in energy policy development, charting a path towards net-zero carbon emissions. I hold a Bachelor of Knowledge Integration and a Master’s in Social and Ecological Sustainability, both from the University of Waterloo. My studies in both of these interdisciplinary degrees focused on water systems and how humans interact with them. This started as a more science-based pursuit in my undergrad, where I took courses in limnology, geochemistry, and hydrogeology. However, I realized that in order to really understand how water interacted with the world as a system, I also had to understand the social and political aspects of water. This eventually led me to my master’s research, where I looked at the role of grassroots activism in wastewater policy and municipal infrastructure development.
In my spare time I’m a writer. My current projects include a research article about how to teach transdisciplinary research skills to undergraduate and graduate students, and I recently started a blog about design thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and facilitation called Parking lot Pickup. I also love circus arts and train in contortion, aerial silks, and pole dance. I’d love to chat with you more about any of these things. I can’t wait to live, learn, create, connect, reach, and reflect with each of you soon!