Scholar Spotlight: Brent Steel, Fulbright Chair 2023
June 08, 2023
On August 1, Dr. Brent Steel of Oregon State University will join UVic as the inaugural 2023 Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Healthy People and Planet. Steel is a University Distinguished Professor in OSU’s School of Public Policy.
While he’s on campus during the four months of the position, he’ll examine plans, policies or programs in rural local governments in the "Cascadia" region of Canada and the U.S. that promote institutional, social, ecological and economic sustainability. He’ll look at correlates of policy adoption, including cultural, demographic, economic, and political factors.
“I want to expand and continue my research in the western U.S. and Canada,” says Steel, “with an emphasis on supporting the 2016 Pacific Coast Climate Leadership Action Plan signed by British Columbia, California, Washington, and Oregon. With the increasing and dramatic effects of climate change on the west coast and the willingness of provincial and state and governments to collaborate in cutting greenhouse emissions, developing renewable energy sources, and developing sustainable regional economic trade, BC is the perfect location for my research and with the University of Victoria in the capital city, I will have access to policymakers leading these efforts.”
Dr. Steel has already connected with several researchers at UVic, including Tamara Krawchenko and Deborah Curran as collaborators on a US grant proposal for a project that will explore “Food, Energy, Water and Sovereignty for Indigenous and Rural Communities in Times of Changing Climate.”