We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Emily Davis, this year’s ECO Impact Environmental Professional in-training (EPt) winner. We are happy to feature her in this spotlight and discuss her career journey so far.
Emily is an environmental scientist and project manager working for Dillion Consulting Limited in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Emily’s career began during her time at Dalhousie University for a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and later a Master of Environmental Studies. Growing up along the Nova Scotian waters sparked Emily’s passion for the marine environment and relationship that exists between humans and the ocean.
“I always knew I was interested in the marine environment. In 2019, there was an opportunity to begin working on a project that was focused on coastal and marine spatial planning. That really opened the door to this amazing new focus area specific to the marine environment that I hadn’t been involved with before […] this lit the fire in terms of knowing the type of work I wanted to focus on as part of my career.”
The nature of Emily’s work lies in a consistently evolving field and often requires unique solutions and problem-solving skills to address various challenges and support the marine environment.
Emily has been an EPt since 2019 and became aware of the EP program through her graduate supervisor at Dalhousie University, Dr. Tony Walker, an EP himself. Dr. Walker explained the program to Emily, making the decision to pursue a designation for herself that much easier.
For Emily, her day-to-day as an environmental consultant involves contributing to various projects that seek to identify solutions for clients. Many of the projects that Emily has worked on in her position have been very different from one another, and no two days are ever the same.
“I love the excitement and energy that comes from developing innovative and unique solutions!”
One of her most memorable projects to date was the coastal and marine spatial planning project, which began in 2019. Since this was a large project, Emily was exposed to many different elements of the project, including technical components and stakeholder engagement, which helped her develop new skills early on in her career. The project ultimately led to the development of five coastal and marine spatial plans for countries in the Eastern Caribbean and meant she had the opportunity to work and learn from various people across many different teams and areas of expertise.
“I really enjoyed working as part of the large interdisciplinary team involved with this project. I am very grateful for all that I was able to learn from our project partners and experts. It was a very positive experience as a starting point for my career and I learned many valuable lessons and skills which I will take with me as I continue in my career.”
When we asked how being an EPt has helped Emily in her career, she mentioned that the number of resources and networking groups available to EPts is significant, especially being new to an industry. All the resources that are offered to EPts have been invaluable for her.
“I’ve promoted ECO Canada resources to my colleagues that are interested in becoming EPt or an EP. It is a valuable designation to have and from my perspective, being an EPt has helped to support a focus on continuous development as an early career professional.”
We look forward to seeing where Emily takes her career and are excited to see her graduate to an EP!
