Spotlight on Erin Flanagan: Finding her voice at EWB
Erin credits much of what it took to reach her current role as Director of Policy at the Office of the Minister of Natural Resources Canada to her experience with EWB. Erin was introduced to federal policy as a Social Change Fellow with EWB in 2011, where she worked as part of a small team focused on implementing the International Aid Transparency Initiative—a voluntary, multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to improve the transparency of humanitarian resources in order to increase their effectiveness in tackling poverty.
“This role helped me better understand Canada’s political system and, eventually, led me to an internship on Parliament Hill,” Erin says.
“My time at EWB — as a chapter member, Junior Fellow in Ghana and Social Change Fellow in the Advocacy program — helped me build competencies around policy reform, public finance, and international relations. EWB also helped create a line of sight between my interests in policy reform and opportunities to advance career outside of the traditional engineering sector.”
Today, Erin draws on knowledge and skills gained through these experiences to advocate for stronger policies in Ottawa. Previously, she worked with the Pembina Institute focused on enabling Canada to do its fair share to combat climate change, including through improving domestic natural resource extraction practices and through international climate diplomacy.
