The Ottawa Climate Action Fund is thrilled to announce that urban and housing policy influencer Cherise Burda will become the organization’s next executive director on May 26.
Burda, former executive director of Toronto Metropolitan University’s City Building Institute, has directly shaped housing, city-building, and local climate and energy policy in Ontario and British Columbia over a 25-year career. Beginning in 2012, she worked to bring concepts like missing middle housing, gentle density and transit-oriented development from the margins to the mainstream as an author, researcher and strategic communicator. More recently, Burda is known for her efforts to advance solutions for climate and housing affordability, including as an active member of the Affordability Action Council and the Task Force for Housing and Climate.
“We have a new federal government committed to nation-building with an investment focus on energy and housing. OCAF is in a great position to help drive that agenda and demonstrate innovations in practice at the local level – a think-National, act-Neighbourhood approach,” Burda said. “OCAF is acting strategically to facilitate sustainable and affordable housing and urban form, and building Ottawa into a local clean energy superpower.”
“Cherise brings unparalleled knowledge and experience as a recognized city-builder who gets things done,” said OCAF Board Co-Chair Rebecca Aird. “She joins us at an amazing moment of possibility for advancing our vision of a prosperous, low-carbon community that leaves no one behind. This is so exciting for OCAF, and so exciting for Ottawa.”
“OCAF has hired a recognized leader with a powerful track record in housing and urban policy,” said OCAF’s founding executive director Steve Winkelman. “She backs up her research and advocacy by cultivating the unlikely, strategic partnerships that will help OCAF mobilize resources and move its agenda forward.”