Fletcher to receive Outstanding Young Alumni Award

Posted: August 22, 2013 3:30 p.m.

Amber Fletcher, PhD candidate at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy Photo: U of R Photography

In 2012, Amber Fletcher had the thrill of sharing her research on how changes in farm policy and climate impact farm women with the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Fletcher, a PhD candidate at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Regina, says her interviews with farm-based women and her participation in the discussions at the United Nations stand out as highlights of her academic career.

Fletcher is the 2013 recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award, which recognizes an alumna or alumnus under the age of 35 who is making a significant contribution, is an emerging leader and is setting an example for future young alumni to follow.

Fletcher graduated from the University of Regina with a Bachelor of Arts in Women's Studies (High Honours) in 2006 and earned a Master of Arts in Women's Studies from York University in Toronto in 2008. When it came time to choose a university for PhD studies, she found the University of Regina offered the unique combination of interdisciplinary opportunities and expertise she sought.

Her work is focussed on learning how major changes in both agricultural policy and climate change affect the daily lives of prairie food producers, especially farm women, and it's her hope that what she learns will have an impact on future policy and even on the work of community organizations.

"I am most interested in how people adapt to climate change," she says. "The work is increasingly important because individual daily adaptations to climate change will become more pronounced as our climate becomes increasingly extreme."
 
Along with her academic work, she puts priority on involvement in community organizations, some of which she started herself such as the Women's Information Network of Saskatchewan and the Campus Feminist Action Network. She credits the University of Regina with helping her realize she could play a role in bringing about change.

"The strong sense of community here in Saskatchewan was instrumental in developing my own community engagement," she says.  "There is a unique sense of community here that makes it possible to connect and cooperate in ways that are often not possible elsewhere."

Fletcher will be one of five distinguished alumni recognized at the ninth Annual Alumni Crowning Achievement Awards Gala on September 20.

To purchase tickets and for more information visit: www.uregina.ca/alumni.