Professor Ann Dale joined Royal Roads University in August 2000 and was awarded its first Canada Research Chair (Sustainable Community Development) in 2004. She has a B.A. in psychology and an M.A. in public administration from Carleton University and a doctorate in natural resource sciences from McGill University. She chairs the Canadian Consortium for Sustainable Development Research, is a Board member of the World Fisheries Trust, a member of the World Academy of Arts and Science and a Trudeau Alumna (2004). She was recently awarded the 2009 Bissett Alumni Award for Distinctive Contributions to the Public Sector and in 2001, the Policy Research Initiative Award for Outstanding Research Contribution to Public Policy.

Dr. Dale’s research focuses on sustainable communities, both virtual and place-based. She is deeply committed to novel research dissemination and developing tools and strategies designed to speed the exploitation of knowledge and research (www.crcresearch.org) in Canada. She and her research team have developed several innovative tools for Canadian communities—an integrated community sustainability planning template; real time on-line deliberative dialogue; and a unique on-line case study tool with a library of over 33 community implementation of leading-edge sustainable development implementation.

Her research interests center on the dynamic relationships between agency, social capital and sustainable community development, integrated sustainability community planning, sustainable development strategies and planning, and biodiversity. Dr. Dale is also interested in democracy and deliberative dialogue and has led over forty on-line real time e-Dialogues (www.e-Dialogues.ca) on critical public policy issues ranging from biotechnology, to sustainability indictors, integrated community sustainability planning, sustainable infrastructure, nuclear waste management, the economics of green buildings to climate change.

---

Most Recent Publications
Dale, A. & Sparkes, J. (in press). The ‘agency’ of sustainable community development. Community Development

Dale, A., Ling C. & Newman, L. (2010). Community vitality: the role of community-level resilience adaptation and innovation in sustainable development. Sustainability 2(1): 215-231, doi:10.3390/su2010215.

Dale, A. (submitted). Diversity: Why is the human species so bad at difference? Journal of Urban Planning.

Dale, A., Ling, C. & Newman, L. (2008). Does place matter? Sustainable community development in three Canadian communities. Ethics, Place, & Environment, doi:10.1080/13668790802559676.

Dale, A. (2008). Governance for sustainable development: As if it mattered? In G. Toner & J.Meadowcroft. (eds.). Innovation, Science and Environment 2009-2010. Special Edition—Charting Sustainable Development in Canada 1987-2007, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Dale, A. & Sparkes, J. (2008). Protecting ecosystems: Social capital and network structure. Community Development Journal 43(2):143-156, doi:10.1093/cdj/bsm007 (originally published online 2007).

Dale, A. 2007. Sustainable cities: Fact or fiction? Environments 35(1): 101-107.