Donner Civic Leadership Fund Fellowship
Sierra Club

Kristen CourtneyKristen's principal project involved producing a report on the regulation of the environmental effects of oil sands development.  Kristen's time was split between researching the oil sands industry, the applicable legislation and the approvals process and drafting her final report.  Kristen also attended several conferences and events over the course of the summer.  Her work has already been used by the Sierra Club in their submissions to the Alberta government's Oil Sands Consultation Committee and will be of ongoing assistance to them in their Tar Nation Campaign.

Kristen writes:  "Thanks to the Donner Fellowship, I had the privilege to spend the summer working for one of Canada's most prominent environmental organizations, the Sierra Club of Canada.  While my main task was a research project and report on the environmental laws pertaining to the Alberta oil sands industry, I gained so much more over the course of my four months there.  I had the opportunity to meet several of the greatest figures in the Canadian and international environmental movements while also truly feeling that I was contributing to work being done on one of the most important issues facing the Canadian environment today."