Jodi Gustafson

Jodi Gustafson was born and raised in what is today known as the Yukon, Canada. That upbringing and later life experiences instilled a profound respect for and curiosity about the natural world, and how we relate to it. Jodi is a settler with ancestry from Scotland, Ireland, England, Sweden and Labrador. She has worked on environmental management projects with organizations including the International Whaling Commission, the Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee, and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs. Aotearoa/ New Zealand has been her second home since 2007. In 2017, Jodi joined the inaugural cohort of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship. She gratefully lives between Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa and Whakatōhea lands in Aotearoa, and Southern Tutchone lands in the Yukon where she was born and raised. Jodi's role in her work revolves around supporting communities in efforts to fulfil ancestral stewardship responsibilities, and in this capacity she was humbled to support the Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship with development of the Reconnection Vision from 2021-2023. Jodi continues collective work to evolve governance, education, conservation and economic models beyond colonial frameworks in her role coordinating the Illuminating Worldviews offering in partnership with the Northern Council for Global Cooperation. She has a Masters in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge where she studied as a Gates Cambridge scholar.