Bio

She is a Master of Science in the Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainability, supervised by Dr. Kai Ostwald in the Department of Political Science and the School of Public Policy & Global Affairs. Her research explores connections between organizational culture and agency for sustainability in corporate organizations. More specifically, her research uncovers the importance of organizational culture in driving corporate sustainability. She seeks to unfold cultural factors such as structures and processes, customs, values, attitudes and taken-for-granted beliefs and assumptions that uphold sustainability agents’ sense of agency for sustainability who often sit in a contradictory space and are pressured to challenge the dominant discourse of economic growth. She also anticipates using a cultural lens to make sense of the acts, behaviour and decisions towards sustainability issues that we often find incomprehensible in our organizational life.

Carmen completed her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science at the University of Nottingham. After graduation, she gained experience as a professional sustainability analyst and project manager for a low-cost airline company in Malaysia and an agribusiness giant in Singapore. Carmen is passionate about community climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as behavioural change for sustainability in private organizations. This had led her to initiate various sustainability projects tackling social and environmental issues in energy, waste, ocean pollution, climate change, climate disasters and sustainable development for rural communities throughout her professional career in private organizations.

Carmen is also the Climate Action Projects Coordinator at the UBC Centre for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL), a centre that catalyzes, designs, and implements opportunities for students to apply their knowledge and skills to help address social and environmental issues by collaborating with diverse university and community partners and stakeholders.