Nancy Doubleday Profile

Dr. Nancy Doubleday holds the Hope Chair in Peace and Health at McMaster University. As well as having expertise in ecological sciences, Nancy holds an LLB from Osgoode Hall, was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1982, and is a member of the Law Society of Canada. In her career as a lawyer she has contributed to development of international and domestic law embracing human rights, health and the environment.

Examples of her experience include: early work to establish conservation easements, environmental impact assessment, and development of co-management under comprehensive claims; amending the Canadian Constitution; contributing to the establishment of the Northern Contaminants Program; linking Inuit interests with the international Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program; and participating in the University Consortium in Support of the Secretariat for the Convention on Biodiversity. She has also participated in the Working Group on Indigenous People(s) held in Geneva, the Conferences of the Parties to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in Costa Rica and in Ottawa, and the International Whaling Commission in New Zealand, and the U.S.A., as well as the Finnish Initiative leading to the signing of the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy and to the Arctic Council. She works at the interface of human rights and social justice, resilience and health to develop new syntheses and strategies for realizing peace and health, good governance and knowledge integration.

Currently she chairs the Cold Region Environments Commission of the International Geographical Union and has just completed a major International Polar Year research project addressing human experience of impacts of a changing tree line to better understand change and adaptive capacity in social-cultural-ecological systems. Professor Doubleday joined McMaster University in 2009.

Doubleday, Nancy C. "Justice and Governance: A Role for Adaptive Co-management" in: B.N. Ghosh, ed., Global Governance, Labour Market Dynamics and Social Change (Leeds: Wisdom House, 2010)