CHANGE Planting seeds of

Alumna inspiring culture of diversity, equity and inclusion in forestry industry

Seven years ago, when Dana Collins, then the new executive director and CEO of the Canadian Institute of Forestry (CIF), found herself sitting around the boardroom table at ministerial conferences of high-ranking officials gathered to shape the future of forest management in this country, it became clear that something was, um, out of balance.

If there were any doubt about that, it vanished the moment one of the guys thought she was a server and asked her to bring him a coffee. (Stopping just short, one imagines, of calling her “hon.”)

As the first woman to head the CIF – and at age 27 by far the youngest – Collins was often the only female at that table in those meetings. That’s just how the logs rolled back then. Canada’s forest industry was an old boys’ club – actually, an old white boys’ club – with just five per cent of the C-suites occupied by women. And it wasn’t exactly eager to change.

But it has changed, in no small part due to the equity and diversity initiatives pushed through by Collins, who was named one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women of 2021 by the Women’s Executive Network. She essentially marched into what McKinsey and Co. called one of the least diverse of any TSX-listed industry (at the board level) and helped turn it around.

Clues to how she pulled this off trace back to her time at the University of Toronto.

Collins did her undergrad in forest ecology and evolutionary biology, and then went on to a Master of Forest Conservation. (Transitioning, you might say, from a micro perspective to a macro one – which would ultimately help her seed a productive working culture in what has traditionally been a fractious sector.)

But as she reflects on her U of T years today, from her perch in Comox, British Columbia, where she heads up a consultancy she started called The Juniper Collective (to move the needle on diversity, equity and inclusion in the industry), one of the first things that jumps to her mind is her time spent on the squeaky, sweaty court of the Athletic Centre as a key cog on the Varsity Blues women’s volleyball team.

“That,” she says, “was one of the most transformational pieces of my life.” Not just because, as setter, she was quarterback out there, calling the plays, communicating through subtle signals, helping parlay well-oiled teamwork into multiple winning seasons. It was learning to lead from the best.

“I was lucky to have Kristine Drakich as my coach,” Collins says of the legendary Varsity Blues maestra now in her 34th season behind the bench. “She pioneered so many initiatives to promote equality in Canadian sport,” from groundbreaking work fighting for parity in beach volleyball prize money to the little things that make life easier for women in sport. “It was inspiring to watch her work. I remember her running into practice from a meeting one day, having just pushed tooth-and-nail to get free menstrual products in the women’s locker rooms.

“When you’re around that kind of energy and determination every day, it kind of subconsciously shores you up and gives you these tools: how to advocate for change. How to respectfully challenge the status quo – which comes down to really listening to what people are saying, what they value and where they’re coming from.

“You see someone doing that – facing adversity head-on and rising up the ranks – and you soon start believing you can do it yourself.” — Bruce Grierson