Stephanie Cairns is PICS’ Director of Strategic Policy and Analysis and has nearly three decades of experience working with leading non-governmental organizations, policy institutes, and expert panels.

Cairns was a founding staff member with the Pembina Institute and Smart Prosperity Institute, where she directed programs on circular economy, sustainable communities, and carbon pricing. She most recently worked with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and helped establish the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative, an award-winning program that equips local governments to manage green infrastructure.

Cairns has advised leaders at every level of Canadian jurisdiction. She has been named the University of Guelph’s visiting Kinross Chair in Environmental Governance, and to the Canadian Council of Academies’ Expert Panel on Circular Economy, Alberta’s Climate Change Advisory Panel, and Canadian Heritage’s Panel on Ecological Integrity of National Parks.

Cairns serves as Chair of the Galiano Conservancy Association and is on the board of the IISD-Experimental Lakes Area. She was the first woman appointed as National President of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Cairns holds a Master of Science in Corporate Environmental Management (1998) from the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University, Sweden, and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies, Political Science, and Economics (1986) from the University of Toronto.