Professor Leslie King
Visiting Professor
Professor in Environment and Sustainability, Royal Roads University
Contact details:
Royal Roads University, 2005 Sooke Road, Victoria, BC V9B 5Y2, Canada
T: 250.391.2511
Biography
Professor Leslie King’s life has been dedicated to environmental education and inspiring and empowering people to enter and excel in the environmental field, solving local to global environmental problems. She designed and implemented new, innovative, applied environmental programs, departments and faculties in Canadian, US, and African Universities.
Leslie has degrees from the University of British Columbia, York University, University of Toronto and the London School of Economics. Most recently she was the founding Chair of Environment at UNBC, Founding Dean of the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth and Resources at the University of Manitoba and the Vice President Academic at Vancouver Island University. She has served as Adjunct Professor and external examiner at Universities of Vermont, Dartmouth, Manitoba, Montreal, Victoria and Vancouver Island. She is currently Professor in the School of Environment and Sustainability at Royal Roads University in Victoria, Canada. She directs the Canadian Centre for Environmental Education and is program head of the Masters in Environmental Practice and Bachelors in Environmental Practice programs.
Leslie conducts collaborative, interdisciplinary research into local and international problems, connecting decision makers, communities and academia to address complex environmental problems. Her research sites are primarily in Africa (where she has lived and worked for many years including as a Fulbright fellow to Zimbabwe) and the Arctic as well as First Nations and local communities in North America, but she has also worked in Asia on Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. She has focused on helping local and First Nations communities address linked environmental and social issues in their communities and was adopted by Kitselas and Nisga’a Nations. She has supervised scores of Masters and PhD thesis students and takes delight in connecting her students to real world problems and opportunities, involving her students in her trans-disciplinary, applied research and bringing research findings into the classroom and into decision making at all levels. Recent research projects include Protected Areas and Poverty Reduction: a Canada/Africa Research and Learning Alliance, (International Community-University Research Alliance –IDRC/SSHRC funded) Meeting the Climate Change Challenge (MC3) with Dale et al, Arctic Climate Modeling: Pathways to Sustainable Arctic Societies, (ARCPATH) (A Nordforsk Centre of Excellence) Northern Knowledge for Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Change in the Coastal Communities and Eco-cultural Restoration of Clam Gardens in Coastal BC: She serves on the boards of several environmental, humanitarian, and arts organizations. Leslie participated in the Paris COP 21 Climate talks in Paris, France and has recently been engaging communities in addressing the challenge of the Paris agreement. She has just launched a Graduate Certificate in Science and Policy of Climate Change at Royal Roads University.