You can reach Anne at anne_st_clair@sfu.ca.

Anne is an avalanche educator, forecaster, and social science researcher who supports projects that strengthen knowledge, communication, and governance systems for natural hazards. She has 15 years of combined experience working as a backcountry ski and mountain bike guide, avalanche course instructor, and public avalanche forecaster, which she combines with academic expertise in Anthropology, Sociology, and Resource and Environmental Management. She currently works as a Pro and Instructor trainer for the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) and as a visiting professor for Alaska Pacific University’s Outdoor Studies program.

Anne started working with SARP in the fall of 2017 as a master’s student in the Resource and Environmental Management program. For her master’s research, she examined differences in how backcountry recreationists incorporate avalanche forecast information into their trip planning decisions.

Anne is continuing her research with the SARP program as a PhD student. For her doctoral studies, she aims to better understand the risk management challenges faced by mountain communities impacted by avalanche hazard, particularly in remote, under-served areas that are at greater risk to the effects of climate change. Anne values the insights and innovations that are possible when Indigenous Knowledge and communities are the driving force in avalanche risk reduction. Through community-led research collaborations, she is eager to support an improved collective understanding of mountain knowledge systems and to move towards more targeted, equitable, and effective risk governance approaches and communication and education strategies.

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