Climate Champions: Royal Roads alumni lead climate actions

Learn more about the Master of Arts in Climate Action Leadership. 

The inaugural graduating class of Royal Roads University’s Master of Arts in Climate Action Leadership received their diplomas at spring 2024 convocation. Already theyare demonstrating the defining concept  of the degree: action.  

Coming from different places, jobs and backgrounds, MACAL alumni now work for a variety of organizations, from governments to non-profits to post-secondary institutions.  

The members of the inaugural grad class we spoke with said  they found the program expanded their thinking about climate solutions and how they could make a difference in their work, their communities and their country. 

In most cases, participating in the MACAL — the first such program in Canada — was the latest step in a lifelong journey dedicated to climate and environmental issues. In some, it was also the impetus to create a job or an organization. They all share a motivation to create an impact. 

We’re excited to introduce you to just some of the MACAL alumni creating positive impacts with their climate action. 

Amy Spark 

Climate specialist, Bow Valley College, Alberta 

“What I was seeking when I found the Royal Roads program was a program specifically about climate change and climate solutions,” says Amy Spark. “For practitioners, what are the skills, competencies and knowledge that we need in order to enact change? The case has been made that we need to transition our economy, that we need to prepare for the worst impacts of climate change, but how does one go about doing that? And I felt like that’s what I was seeking.”  

A fifth-generation Calgarian with an undergrad degree in environmental science and a master’s in environment, culture and society, Spark says she was looking for practical knowledge about climate action in the MACAL program. 

“The solutions are out there,” she says, “but what’s the day-to-day work of making sure those solutions get implemented and doing so in a way that’s fair and budget-conscious? The more you dig into this work, the more work that can be done.” 

In her own work — in a role she defined based on her RRU learning — she’s looking at longer-term projects, such as a power purchase agreement for the college to reduce emissions associated with its electricity use over the next 15 years. 

“I think what I fundamentally enjoy about this work is that it is problem solving.”   

Ali Greenslade 

Climate engagement coordinator and policy analyst, Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation of Alberta  

Ali Greenslade worked in bars and restaurants before the COVID pandemic closed their doors and gave her time to think about her future. That’s when she decided she wanted to pursue a career in the climate space, which led to RRU, with the goal of bypassing entry level jobs in, say, oil and gas reclamation projects and working in policy. 

The MACAL program shifted her perspective, she says, noting, “It’s more than just an environmental issue, it’s more than just the technical or a science piece. It’s about how we approach things differently.” 

She says two things stand out from her time in the program: the attention paid to reconciliation and Indigenous ways of knowing and science, which she finds helpful for a non-Indigenous person working in an Indigenous organization; and learning from classmates with decades of experience in the environmental sector. 

“There was a hundred per cent overlap” between the program and her job with Métis Nation of Alberta, she says, noting she’s working on a project now to better understand climate risk to the Nation 

“At first, I just wanted a job, which I got,” Greenslade says. “But I think that what I love about this work is there is no roadmap, and it constantly forces you to be creative.”  

Tony Cecchetti 

Lead climate consultant, Stewards of Sc’ianew, BC 

“I didn’t know where my path would take me until I came across this program,” says Tony Cecchetti. “When I first read the course description, I thought, ‘This is my life, this is my belief system, this is what I’ve done my whole life.’ Before, I just didn’t think it was taking me anywhere.” 

Cecchetti grew up in northern California and came to BC to do an undergraduate degree in land and food systems, then studied permaculture and regenerative farming. He worked on large projects in Africa and ran a small salmon hatchery in Squamish, BC  

After co-foundingthe IndigeMind Climate Action Program at the Victoria Native Friendship Centre while in the MACAL program, he’s now working with Stewards of Sc'ianew, a First Nations non-profit society in Sooke, BC  

“We really need to collectively prioritize taking care of our land,” he says, noting the organization is working on projects such as removing invasive species and re-introducing native plants, and training members of Sc’ianew First Nation in environmental monitoring techniques while encouraging younger members to pursue education in climate action. 

“I was able to create… a future career path for myself that I think is just taking off now,” he says. “And I attribute a lot of that to the MACAL program, and particularly [program head] Robin Cox, who encouraged me.”  

Jen Lash 

Senior advisor, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ontario and BC 

Jen Lash is a veteran of the environmental movement from long before climate change was widely discussed. She worked in ocean conservation and later ran a small NGO that supported communities and organizations working on climate issues.  

“I had been working in the climate movement for a long time and it was always about fighting for very specific positions or policies, which is what a movement does,” she says. “But I wanted to step back and be in an environment where it was more academic, where there was more debating and exploring new ways of doing things.”  

She says that while her past was spent on federal mitigation issues, she did her thesis at RRU on municipal adaptation planning, noting that while the power to advance mitigation measures rests with senior orders of government, the impacts of climate change often hit Indigenous and municipal governments hardest.  

Lash works for the federal government, as an advisor to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, and, thanks to her time in the MACAL program, she brings to her job a deeper understanding that both adaptation and mitigation are required to deal with climate change.   

She also brings an appreciation of the Indigenous worldview, and that fighting climate change goes beyond how many emissions can be reduced to include consideration of how any policy affects people — “and a lot of that knowledge I learned at Royal Roads.”  

Kerra Chomlak 

Executive director, ClimateWest, Alberta 

Kerra Chomlak grew up in a small town in Alberta and worked summers for an oil and gas company as a student. But one day, a physics professor showed a graph of CO2 in the atmosphere rising and, she says, “I’ve been thinking about that ever since.”  

She earned a degree in environmental physical sciences and worked for the Clean Air Strategic Alliance for a decade, then the City of Leduc, near Edmonton, for 12 years, dealing with climate mitigation and adaptation. 

But even with all that experience, she says, in the MACAL program, “I got an understanding of the complexity of the issue and the solutions. And I had a whole new understanding of colonialism and Indigenous worldview, and the need to prioritize and respect the Indigenous worldview as a solution to the climate crisis.”  

Chomlak says she used her MACAL education right away on the job, noting, “I got to finish the last half of my degree while I was working at ClimateWest.” 

“Climate is such a complex and interconnected issue that it applies to everyone,” she says. “Our job is to take what we learned in theory and put it into our own worlds because it has to be addressed in all different sectors and fields.” 

Learn more about the Master of Arts in Climate Action Leadership.