Dr. Tamara Krawchenko

Dr. Tamara Krawchenko is an internationally recognized scholar, policy expert, and institution-builder whose work spans comparative public policy, regional development, and sustainability transitions. Her interdisciplinary research connects public administration, political economy, economic geography, planning, and energy systems research to examine how institutions govern economic and environmental change—and how the benefits and burdens of that change are distributed across communities and regions. Her expertise centres on how governance and public institutions shape everyday life, with particular attention to rural, remote, resource-dependent, and Indigenous communities and the territorial politics of decarbonization.

She leads the Developing Regions Lab, which advances place-based approaches to economic development and sustainability transitions in Canada and internationally. Her current research portfolio includes several major interdisciplinary collaborations: Power for People: Community Energy for Northern British Columbia, the Pan-Canadian Analysis of Community Energy Policy, and the Collaborative Transdisciplinary PhD Cohort in Energy Transition at UBC, all part of the CFREF-funded Accelerating Community Energy Transformation initiative; the SSHRC-funded Municipal Net-Zero Action Research Partnership; and the NSERC-funded Coastal Climate Solutions Leaders program.

She serves as a Strategic Research Lead with the CFREF-funded Accelerating Community Energy Transformation initiative, Associate Director of the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems, and Chair of UVic’s Local Governance Hub. She is also an expert member of the Canadian Climate Institute’s Clean Growth Panel, a member of the Coastal Climate Solutions Leaders Management Committee, and a board member of Ecotrust Canada.

Dr. Krawchenko has led major research programs in more than a dozen countries on regional development, sustainability transitions, Indigenous economic development, industrial policy, and land-use governance. Her research has informed national and subnational strategies in Canada, Europe, and beyond. She regularly advises governments and international organisations, including the Council of Europe, the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. She has contributed to more than 20 OECD studies spanning rural innovation, regional governance, land use, decentralization, resource development, and Indigenous economic participation.

Dr. Krawchenko holds a PhD in Public Policy and Political Economy from Carleton University, an MPA, and a bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science from Dalhousie University. Across her career, she has worked to integrate academic research with policy design and implementation to strengthen community well-being and support more just, sustainable, and resilient regional futures.