Collective Event
Opening Climate Conversations through Research Approaches
September 25, 2025, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Join the Climate Solutions Research Collective for its first Climate Conversation of the year, hosted with the Institute for Community Engaged Research.
At this event, researchers will share their experience in using different research approaches to advance climate conversations and action. Coffee, tea and light snacks provided.
Tim Paulson, Assistant Professor
History, Power, Conflict and Ideas, Sustainability (IGS)
Tim received a doctorate from the University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, USA), and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, Canada). He teaches undergraduate and graduate classes on environmental and economic history, such as Nature & Capitalism and Capitalism in Canada. He has published research articles in BC Studies, the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, and Enterprise & Society. He is an active member of the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH; USA, Canada), the Agricultural History Society (AHS; USA), the Business History Conference (BHC; USA), the Society for Range Management (SRM; USA, Canada), and the Canadian Historical Society (CHS; Canada). He is also a member of the North American working group to support and plan the United Nations International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, 2026.
Mary received her doctorate and post-doctorate from the University of Oxford. As an Adjunct Professor and Instructor in Human Geography, and as a community organizer, Mary has made addressing climate change her central concern. Recently, she spent a sabbatical year working for Climate Outreach, a leading UK-based climate communications organization, managing a project, the Climate Engagement Initiative, aimed at stepping up public engagement in climate action at the international and national government levels. Locally, she has acted in many climate-related roles, including as Co-Chair for the Climate Action Advisory Committee (CAAC) of the City of Vernon, co-founder of Climate Action Now! (CAN!) of the North Okanagan and facilitator for a climate ambassador program which provides training for community members. She is an active member of UBCO’s Institute for Community Engaged Research and is a mentor for this year’s cohort of Solutions Scholars, leading a project of community-oriented climate action.
Fabiola Melchior, PhD Student
Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies program
Fabiola (they/she) is a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies program at UBC Okanagan. They completed their MA degree with a focus on Community Engagement, Social Change, Equity in the summer of 2024. For their Master thesis, Fabiola worked with youth climate activists on how they conceptualize and enact climate justice in a place-specific way. Fabiola is now in the PhD in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies program at UBC Okanagan, with a focus on Sustainability. Besides being a student, Fabiola is a climate justice organizer who has been active with different initiatives in Germany, The Netherlands, California and so-called BC. Fabiola is furthermore active with the children and youth constituency (YOUNGO) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).