Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has appointed David V.J. Bell, environmental studies professor and founding director of the York Centre for Applied Sustainability (YCAS), to the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. Chrétien announced the appointment May 29.
The round table is an independent advisory body that provides advice on promoting sustainable development to decision makers, opinion leaders and the Canadian public. It brings together distinguished Canadians from all sectors of society – government, industry, labour, academia, environmental organizations and aboriginal groups – dedicated to the promotion of sustainable development in Canada.
A political scientist by training, Bell (right) served as dean of Graduate Studies from 1981 to 1987 and as dean of York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies from 1992 to 1996. He was a member of the Ontario Round Table on the Environment and Economy until it was dissolved in 1995, after which YCAS assumed its resources and equipment.
Bell advises governments at all levels in Canada. He is a member of the Toronto Sustainability Round Table; Chair of Parc-Downsview-Park; editor of the sustainable development theme of the Encyclopedia of the Life Support Systems; a core faculty member of the Sustainable Enterprise Academy; and co-chair of Learning for a Sustainable Future. Bell wrote and hosted 12 one-hour radio shows in the series, “Sustainability: Canadian and Global Perspectives,” which aired in Canada and internationally. He earned a bachelor of arts from York University and a PhD from Harvard University. Bell is listed in Who’s Who in Canada and Who’s Who in Black Canada.
For more about Bell, see www.yorku.ca/fes/faculty/bell/index.asp.
Article submitted by Maxwell Brem, external relations director, Faculty of Environmental Studies.