M. A. (Peggy) Smith

Dr. Peggy Smith is Professor Emerita in the Faculty of Natural Resources Management at Lakehead University. In September 2016, she was appointed Lakehead University’s Interim Vice-Provost (Aboriginal Initiatives). Prior to this, she was Associate Professor in Lakehead’s Faculty of Natural Resources Management. She is a Registered Professional Forester (retired) with the Ontario Professional Foresters Association. She has taught Policy and Legislation in Natural Resources, Environmental Assessment, Indigenous Peoples and Natural Resources, and Natural Resources Development and Aboriginal Peoples in Lakehead’s Faculty of Law.

Her research interests have focussed on the social impacts of natural resources management, especially Indigenous peoples’ rights, community forestry, public participation, northern development, and forest certification. Peggy continues her longstanding affiliation as Senior Advisor with the National Aboriginal Forestry Association, an Indigenous-controlled non-profit organization, with the goal of increasing Indigenous participation in the forest sector. She is a Board member of the Rights and Resources Group that focuses on Indigenous land rights globally, a member of the Forest Stewardship’s Policy and Standards Committee responsible to the approval of FSC National Forest Stewardship Standards, and a member of FSC Canada’s Standards Development Group.

Peggy received her PhD from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Forestry in 2007. In 1999, she completed a traineeship in the International Forestry Resources and Institutions Program at the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University with Elinor Ostrom, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009. She graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science in Forestry from Lakehead University in 1991. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a secretary for close to 20 years.

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