Tamara Lorincz

Peace Activist and Scholar, Canada

PhD Candidate

Wilfrid Laurier University

BA, BCom, MA, MBA, LLB

Rotary Peace Fellow 2013-2014

Web site: https://www.balsillieschool.ca/tamara-lorincz/

Tamara has been involved in the Canadian peace and environmental movement for more than twenty years. She is a member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and served on its Board of Directors for ten years. She is also a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-Canada section. She was appointed as the representative on the Women, Peace and Security-Network Canada and to the Canadian Pugwash Group. She co-founded the Vancouver Island Peace and Disarmament Network (now World Beyond War-Victoria) and the Canadian Peace & Justice Network. Tamara was invited to serve and currently sits on the advisory council of World Beyond War, the council of the International Peace Bureau, and on the international board of Global Network Against Nuclear Power and Weapons in Space. She has been awarded the Peace in Space award in New York in 2005 and the Rotary International World Peace Fellowship in 2013 for her commitment and work on peace and disarmament issues over many years.

Tamara has organized many national campaigns related to peace, disarmament, nonviolence and the Women, Peace & Security (WPS) agenda and related to environment and climate justice across Canada. She has published widely on these issues in newspapers across the country and in popular publications such as Peace Magazine. In 2016, Tamara’s chapter entitled “A Brief History of the Power of Nonviolence in Canada,” was published in the book, Advancing Nonviolence and Social Transformation, edited by Dr. Heather Eaton and Dr. Lauren Levesque. As well, Tamara has given many community and conference presentations. She also given many guest lectures related to peace and environmental issues at various universities including the University of Victoria, University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, Dalhousie University and University of New Brunswick among others.

Currently, Tamara is a PhD candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs (Wilfrid Laurier University) in the Conflict & Security stream. Her doctoral research explores the connection between climate change and militarism and how peace could help with decarbonization. She has received scholarships for her research. Previously, with the Rotary International World Peace Fellowship, she was able to graduate with an MA in International Politics & Security Studies from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom and work as a senior researcher for the International Peace Bureau in Switzerland from 2013 to 2015.

Tamara also has demonstrated passionate leadership on the environment. She graduated with an LLB/JD and MBA specializing in environmental law and management from Dalhousie University in 2003. At the university, she founded and led the Corporate Environmental and Social Responsibility (CESR) group and won the national Corporate Knights award for her leadership. After graduation, she was the Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Environmental Network from 2005 to 2010. She co-founded the East Coast Environmental Law Association and the Sustainability Education in Nova Scotia for Everyone (SENSE) initiative. For several years she was on the national board of Ecojustice Canada and the Nova Scotia Minister’s Round Table on Environment and Sustainable Prosperity. From 2009-2013, she led a successful school greening program in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which became the subject of a short film “A Greening Story: École Burton Ettinger School.” She successfully fundraised to build three outdoor classrooms and install vegetable beds, a mini-Acadian forest, a school orchard, bike rack and benches for an elementary school. She helped run outdoor education and nature-based learning for youth and teachers in the province. Tamara has inspired Canadians across the country to care about peace and the environment.