Colleagues,
I hope that this finds you all well as the academic year winds down and the summer season begins. It’s such a joy and a privilege to watch our students walk across the convocation stage, not to mention their beaming friends and families in the crowd. Thank you all – as always – for all of your hard work and dedication in getting our students there. And thank you to those who joined us onstage yesterday, and at the graduation event that was put on by our terrific Alumni Team. It meant a great deal to our students that we were there to wish them well as they enter into the next chapters of their lives.
In this spirit of growth and renewal, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our newest member to the Forestry family, Dr. Peter Wood.
Peter is joining us as a Lecturer in the Forest Resources Management Department, and will be responsible for coordinating our Master of International Forestry (MIF) Program. Peter has worked in the field of international forest policy, human rights and sustainability for over two decades in a variety of roles, including with non-governmental and intergovernmental organisations, such as Global Witness and the United Nations. He was a lead author on the Global Expert Panel on International Forest Governance (IUFRO), and has served on Forest Stewardship Council technical committees for the development of certification standards and policies. As a team leader and editor with the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Earth Negotiations Bulletin since 2005, he has reported on dozens of key international negotiations related to forests, biodiversity, and climate change. In 2022, he taught the integrative seminar for UBC’s Land One program as an Adjunct Professor. He holds a PhD from the University of Toronto, and wrote his dissertation on international influences in forest policy and management.
We have few other new academic appointments beginning in July – more on these later…
For now, please join me in welcoming Peter to the Faculty of Forestry community!
All the best,
Rob
Dr. Robert Kozak
Professor and Dean