New executive director at ACAP
SYDNEY — ACAP Cape Breton has announced a new executive director, who will be starting at the beginning of May.
Kathleen Aikens, 36, will be taking over the helm at the environmental non-profit organization, which was first established in 1992.
“I am a big believer in the combination of both confidence and enthusiasm in getting things done with people. A lot of the time that's actually listening to what people are telling you about what their needs are, what their organization's needs are,” said Aikens.
FROM AUSTRALIA BACK TO CAPE BRETON
Aikens, who grew up in Leitches Creek, returned to Cape Breton from Melbourne, Australia, where she has been a postdoctoral fellow at Monash University. Before that, she completed a PhD in environmental and climate education at the University of Saskatchewan.
“I was recently working at the University of Monash in Melbourne, Australia for a research institution called Education Futures, which was about applying good research to bettering the education system in all its different ways,” said Aikens.
“My work … was about how do we get youth and students engaging more with environmental and climate change education? Education that matters a lot, in my opinion, for the future.”
Aikens said she's most excited about getting to work on ACAP Cape Breton's strategic plan, which was created in early 2020, and includes four pillars:
1. Engaged and informed municipal governments
2. People see themselves as part of their environment and act on that knowledge.
3. Island-wide entities are informed, engaged and making positive environmental changes within their own realm.
4. Strong relationships with Mi'kmaw communities and community members: we are learning from them continuously.
“It really is an excellent strategic plan and it's something that I'm really excited to put into action,” said Aikens. “Worldwide there's been, I think, in light of the pandemic but even prior to that, increasing recognition that we need to figure out what sustainability means.”
Aikens said this is also work she's excited to begin.
“ACAP is underpinned by a really enthusiastic board and excellent staff, they've done this work to draft a strategic plan that's really meaningful for [Cape Breton], and I'm really excited to work collaboratively to put it into action and help build those relationships and connections, and do that kind of work with the board and with the staff.”
CHANGE AT THE MUNICIPAL LEVEL
Aikens said that municipal levels of government can achieve “exciting” levels of change compared to upper levels, which can sometimes act slower and with more politics involved.
“I'm pretty excited to do that work here, as well as the board's directions for strong relationships with Mi'kmaw communities. I'm working on indigenizing some of the resources and bringing more connections there,” said Aikens.
“I think that in many ways Cape Breton has been, you know, a strong house of Indigenous leadership across all kinds of aspects, environmental through social and economic, pioneering concepts like two-eyed seeing, which marries scientific knowledge and Indigenous knowledge together as an integrated knowledge system.”
Joel Inglis, president of ACAP Cape Breton's board of directors, said they're very excited to have Aikens on board.
“She has a lot of experience in environmental advocacy work and also environmental research,” said Inglis. “So we're really excited for the direction that she's going to be able to take ACAP in the future, in terms of both advocacy and research.
“We are a science-based organization trying to provide science knowledge and science advocacy for environmental policy and we think that Kathleen is going to be an excellent person to steer the ship in years to come.”
Aikens said she's a big believer in working collaboratively and building on what's already been done.
“I care very much about the environment but about integrated visions of sustainability, which are about the social elements, which are about sustainable livelihoods for people.”