Craig Gerlach

Position: Professor, and Academic Lead, Sustainability Studies 

Department: School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Calgary

Dr. Craig Gerlach is a professor in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, and is the academic lead for the Sustainability Certificate and the Academic Sustainability Studies Program at the University of Calgary. His research examines traditional and innovative food systems and climate change in northern Indigenous communities, with most of this work in Alaska and Yukon Territory. Rural community issues are complex and require an interdisciplinary approach to address the difficulties northern communities face getting affordable and reliable access to nutritious food. Gerlach is working to connect different disciplines to design culturally appropriate village-based and regional solutions that address the problems of food insecurity. Gerlach formerly worked in a similar role as a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and transitioned to the University of Calgary in 2013.  At the University of Alaska, Craig developed the interdisciplinary graduate program in Cross Cultural and Indigenous Studies, the graduate Resilience and Adaptation Program, the undergraduate certificate program in ethnobotany for Alaska Native students from rural communities, and an Elders in Residence Program. Gerlach is responsible for developing a variety of new interdisciplinary programming initiatives in sustainability studies at the University of Calgary, in combination with the design of new approaches to cross-disciplinary teaching, research and experiential learning.