ABOUT
Deborah Harford
I work at the intersection of climate resilience, governance, and systems change, translating complex risk into actionable strategy for decision-makers who need more than technical reports.
What I Do
At Simon Fraser University I built ACT (Action on Climate Team) into a nationally recognized centre for low carbon resilience research and practice over 17 years, and currently work as a senior expert supporting Climate Innovation, a pan-institutional research platform spanning nine faculties. The platform has catalyzed over $16M in awarded research and engages partners across government, industry, NGOs, and academic institutions nationally and internationally. My focus is building researcher capacity across developing areas including AI and climate, bioregional planning, conservation finance, and Indigenous climate leadership, and securing SFU's legacy as a leader in climate research and practice.
In the corporate sector I worked in the Canadian technology industry, serving in senior roles spanning partnerships and corporate social responsibility. This included negotiating and managing partnerships with major international and multinational organizations across entertainment, automotive, and publishing sectors. I led organizational commitment to the UN Global Compact and developed sustainability governance frameworks, deepening my applied understanding of corporate accountability structures and ESG reporting. I have trained in context-based sustainability and multi-capital accounting through UNRISD, grounding my advisory work in the frameworks that matter to investors, regulators, and international institutions.
My advisory work is informed by specialized training in AI and Ethics (London School of Economics) and bioregional planning, alongside decades of applied experience in climate governance and systems change.
Creative Work
I am a lifelong poet, photographer, and filmmaker whose creative practice is rooted in relationship with the natural world. My poems have appeared in Slippery Elm, The Future Fire, the St. Katherine Review, and other publications.
My experimental short film Window Frame: A Year of Poems to a Tree was an Official Selection of the 2024 Second Poetic Cinema Festival and won a Bronze Award at the 2024 Women's International Film Festival.
I am a graduate of the SFU Writers Studio and the MEd in Contemplative Inquiry at Simon Fraser University, and a member of the Rural Writing Institute founded by best-selling nature authors James Rebanks and Katharine Aalto.