Anita Lazurko

Scholar 2020
Alumni

Social and Ecological Sustainability

University of Waterloo

Anita Lazurko is completing a PhD in Social and Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo.

Engaged leaders are driven by a deep curiosity and care for the world and our common humanity. They ground their research in the communities that are most affected by the challenges of our time, knowing that powerful insights emerge from connections that are built across worldviews and disciplines. Engaged leaders are also willing to recognize their own positionality. They know when to step back from the role of “expert” to lift the voices of others and situate their work within a broader, longer-term trajectory of societal change.

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Anita Lazurko is completing a PhD in Social and Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. Her research explores transformation pathways in river basins attempting to build adaptivity and/or resilience to uncertain climatic and socio-economic futures. After her B.Sc. in Civil Engineering at the University of Calgary, Anita completed a joint Erasmus Mundus MSc in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management at the Central European University (Hungary), Lund University (Sweden), and the University of the Aegean (Greece). She has worked in Sri Lanka, Canada, the Netherlands and across southern Africa on various topics including transboundary strategic planning, decision making under deep uncertainty, and natural infrastructure for climate adaptation. Anita served on the Board of Directors of Engineers Without Borders Canada and was on the Young Scientific Programme Committee for World Water Week in 2018. In 2019, she received the Donella Meadows Fellowship, an award for young rising stars in sustainability.