Leanna Butters was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. She completed her B.A. (Hons) at the University of Toronto with a double major in Architectural Studies (Design) and History. She completed her M.A in Environmental Policy in 2018 under the supervision of Dr. Kelly Vodden.
Leanna’s M.A. research was community-based and conducted collaboratively with the Town of Deer Lake. Her work identified Deer Lake as a source-hub community, being home to fly-in/fly-out mobile workers and seeing mobile workers from outside Deer Lake use the local airport to get to and from their place of work. She found that mobile workers were one driver of built space change in the community between 2000-2016. This included the growth of residential housing/ property developments and transportation infrastructure. It also included socio-economic and environmental impacts, like changes in community dynamics.
Leanna completed her internship with the Town of Deer Lake. She assisted the Town Planner with research related to the development of a new multi-use trail including the investigation and inventory of wildlife in local stewardship areas and along the new trail path.
Since completing her M.A., Leanna has worked as a Research Associate with the Community Development Institute (University of Northern British Columbia) and as a Grants Facilitation Officer at Grenfell Campus. She is currently a Ph.D. student in Grenfell’s Transdisciplinary Sustainability Program, co-supervised by Dr. Kelly Vodden and Prof. Cameron Forbes (School of Fine Arts).