Melanie Goodchild

Melanie Goodchild, Senior Indigenous Research Fellow and Ambassador, Suncor Fellow, The Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR)

Melanie Goodchild is Anishinaabe, moose clan, a member of the Biigtigong Nishnawbeg in northwestern Ontario. Melanie has a Master of Arts Degree in Sociology and is currently completing her PhD in Social and Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. She is a Research Fellow and Indigenous Ambasssador with the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR). She is Senior Counsel, Indigenous Relations at National Office for the Canadian Red Cross (CRC). Melanie was selected as one of 35 women from around the world to participate in the International Women’s Forum (IWF) Leadership Foundation’s 2015-2016 Fellows Program that includes Harvard Executive Education Training at Harvard Business School in Cambridge, MA, and the Women Leading Global Change program at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. She was also one of 28 Canadians selected by the Peter Lougheed Leadership Institute to participate in the first ever Getting to Maybe: A Social Innovation Residency for 28 days at the Banff Centre, in Alberta, in June 2015 and returned to Banff in 2016 as an Alumni Mentor. Melanie sits on the national boards of the Canadian Risks and Hazards Network (CRHNet) and Rhizome Institute for the Future of  Food (RIFF). Melanie is an Advisor for the Nourish: The Future of Food in Healthcare program of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation. She is also a member of the IBA – the Iron Butt Association, riding her Harley-Davidson 1000 miles in 24 hours earning her the badge of “one of the world’s toughest riders”!