Awards and recognition
Celebrating community-engaged researchers
By Diane Luckow
A new SFU academic at the threshold of her career, and a seasoned SFU professor emeritus renowned for his leading forestry research. Both have won Distinguished Academic Awards from The Confederation of University Faculty Associations BC (CUFA BC).
Dara Kelly, an assistant professor with SFU’s Beedie School of Business who presents around the world on the topic of Indigenous economics and business, received CUFA’s 2020 Early in Career Award.
Ken Lertzman, a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Environment, received the 2020 Paz Buttedahl Career Achievement Award for his decades-long research and commitment to understanding B.C.’s old-growth forests and forest ecosystems.
The annual CUFA B.C. Distinguished Academic Awards celebrate the contributions of academics who share their research and scholarly activity with the wider community.
Dara Kelly
CUFA’s Early in Career award recognizes Dara Kelly’s outstanding work on Indigenous business theory. She is developing the field’s theoretical framework in a bid to advance the study of Indigenous business, which has historically received limited attention from academia.
An avid speaker, she shares her knowledge of Indigenous economics worldwide with government, industry and the wider community, challenging conventional economic practices and informing positive change. She also serves as an advisor to the Indigenomics Institute, where she advises on emergent trends and advances in Indigenous business and economics research.
Kelly, a member of the Leq’á:mel First Nation, part of the Stó:lō Coast Salish, is also part of a global network of Indigenous scholars called Knowledge in Indigenous Networks (KIN), and co-chairs the Indigenous Caucus at the Academy of Management.
Kelly says CUFA’s recognition represents a powerful validation of her work.
“I care very deeply about the impact of my research and it's really important for me to connect with my community, which I see as being people who can actually use that knowledge right away,” she says.
Kelly joined the SFU Beedie School of Business in 2018 and teaches in the Executive MBA Program in Indigenous Business and Leadership.
Ken Lertzman
Forest ecology professor Ken Lertzman, who retired last fall, devoted his career to understanding forest ecosystem dynamics and improving forest conservation and management. Committed to translating his ground-breaking research into layman’s terms, he shared that information with forestry professionals, community groups, Indigenous communities—even daycare kids at SFU.
Working in partnership with coastal First Nations communities and others, he and his students identified new sustainability strategies that respect cultural traditions and satisfy communities’ diverse needs for ecosystem services, employment and forest products.
“In B.C. people really care about the forests,” says Lertzman. “They want to do a better job and want information they can use. That has been a very rewarding aspect of my career.”
He is proud of the work he did as a member of the Clayoquot Scientific Panel (1993-95), which recommended profound changes to how we think about forest management. Accepted by the B.C. government, these recommendations inspired ecosystem-based forest-management practices in the Great Bear Rainforest on B.C.’s Pacific coast, and around the world.
Yet Lertzman says his greatest contribution is the legacy of the more than 55 graduate students he supervised and mentored during his three decades at SFU.
“In the School or Resource and Environmental Management we’re very focussed on solving problems in the world and most of my students end up working out in communities, small and large, or for government,” he says. “There’s a huge multiplier effect of the impacts from these former students out doing good in the world.”