Scholars and Explorers - Trafalgar School for Girls

Diana Leblanc-Ross Allen 1982Attended Trafalgar: 1976-1982Education: BSc Honours (Geology and Physics), MSc (Earth Sciences); PhD (Hydrogeology): Carleton UniversityGeoscientist/ProfessorDiana Allen is a professor inthe Department of EarthSciences – Hydrogeology, atSimon Fraser University. An expertin the assessment of groundwaterresources and the pressures ofhuman use and climate change onthose resources, she is involved in aUNESCO program called GRAPHICon climate change and ground water,and a member of the GroundwaterAdvisory Committee that makesrecommendations on regulationsto the Province of British Columbia.Diana’s career includes geothermalstudies and projects in the NorthwestTerritories, Yukon and for a varietyof projects in Ottawa and BritishColumbia for Natural ResourcesCanada, Environment Canada,Agriculture Canada, the GeologicalSurvey and various engineeringcompanies, in addition to teachingat Carleton and Simon Fraseruniversities. She is currently involvedin research on rock aquifers. Aquiferthermal energy storage is usedaround the world for the seasonalstorage of heat and cold energy forheating and cooling buildings. Dianahas been actively involved in twoValerie Marcel 1987Attended Trafalgar: 1984-1987Education: BA, Université de Montréal; MA, McGill University;PhD (Political Science), Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po)Advisor/Researcher/AuthorValerie Marcel is a leadinginternational expert onnational oil companies (NOCs),petroleum sector governance andstrategic issues affecting the energyindustry. She has worked aroundthe world as a recognized speaker,television news commentator, privatesector consultant, researcher andauthor on oil and natural gas issues.Valerie has worked for the Londonbasedthink tank Chatham House forthe past decade as a lead researcher,author and advisor. She is currentlyan Associate Fellow, specializingin energy issues in the Middle Eastand elsewhere. Valerie’s role as aconsultant to the private sector hasled her to work on diverse areas,S c i e n c eCanadian systems, at Agassiz, BC,and at Carleton University. In additionto her role as a mentor for herstudents, Diana is proud of her workin Mali, Africa, where she trainedgroundwater technicians to installinstrumentation to support water“I became the woman I am today because of my time at Traf.”such as advising African governmentson restructuring their national oilcompanies for KPMG International,researching and writing a paperfor the Revenue Watch Instituteinvestigating the optimal role ofnational oil companies in sub-SaharanAfrica, and consulting the Norwegiangovernment on its oil investmentinterests in East Timor. She haslectured at Sciences Po in Paris,the University of Cairo and OxfordUniversity, and has been a guestcommentator on the BBC, CNN andCTV, among others. Her proudestprofessional achievement, however,was travelling to Saudi Arabia, Iran,Abu Dhabi, Algeria and Kuwaitto personally interview over 120sustainability initiatives. For her roleas a leader in the field of science andin particular hydrogeology, Diana hasbeen chosen one of our 125 Womenof Trafalgar.“Her proudest professionalachievement... travellingto Saudi Arabia, Iran,Abu Dhabi, Algeria and Kuwaitto personally interview over 120executives from the world’s largeststate-owned oil companies.”executives from the world’s largeststate-owned oil companies. Herresearch was published as a seminalbook on NOCs called Oil Titans;National Oil Companies in the MiddleEast (The Brookings Institution,Chatham House, 2006). Valerie nowlives in Toronto. For following herintellectual curiosity down a lesstravelledpath to become a leadinginternational expert in a complexmale-dominated field, Valerie hasbeen chosen as one of our 125Women of Trafalgar.Lola Sheppard 1988Attended Trafalgar: 1983-1988Education: BSc (Arch), BArch: McGill University; MArch, Harvard UniversityArchitect/Assistant ProfessorAcclaimed architect, writerand educator Lola Sheppardstudied architecture at McGill,then spent five years practisingin Europe, completing a Master’sfrom Harvard along the way. Sheoversaw the construction of a sciencemuseum in Paris, designed a largescalehousing project in Rotterdamand was project architect for theBBC headquarters entry buildingin London. In 2003, Lola relocatedto Toronto as a founding partner inthe Lateral Office, an experimentaldesign-research studio. She cofoundedthe research collectiveInfraNet Lab and is an editor ofThe Bracket Journal. She is alsoAssistant Professor at the Universityof Waterloo School of Architectureand has been an invited critic at theUniversity of Toronto, Michigan,Yale and McGill. Her many awards“Trafalgar imbued me (and I think all of us) with a confidencethat you could take on anything, have any profession, aspireto any goals, and that none of these ambitions were unreasonable,either because you were a woman or from a particular cultural,social or economic background.”include the Young Architects ForumAward from the Architectural Leagueof New York (2005), the CanadaCouncil for the Arts ProfessionalPrix de Rome (awarded to youngarchitects who show exceptionalartistic potential, 2010) and theRoyal Architecture Institute YoungArchitects Award (2012). Lolaand her firm received funding topursue an ongoing investigationinto cold-climate settlement forms,issues and innovations in Nunavut,Yukon, the Northwest Territories,Alaska and Greenland. “Trafalgarimbued me (and I think all of us)with a confidence that you could takeon anything, have any profession,aspire to any goals, and that none ofthese ambitions were unreasonable,either because you were a woman orfrom a particular cultural, social oreconomic background. To have somany teachers who were passionateabout what they taught – totallycommitted, engaged and interesting– implicitly gave us a model forourselves being engaged andpassionate about whatever we woulddo.” For putting her unique stampon architectural projects both urbanand remote around the world, forbeing recognized internationally andfor literally building a better futurethrough innovation and research,Lola has been chosen one of our 125Women of Trafalgar.36 | 125 Women of Trafalgar