Alison Blay-Palmer named Laurier’s 2025-26 University Research Professor

April 8, 2025

Alison Blay-Palmer, the UNESCO Chair on Food, Biodiversity and Sustainability Studies, has been named Wilfrid Laurier University’s University Research Professor (URP) for 2025-26. The annual internal award recognizes excellence and leadership in research and provides time and funding for the winner to complete a major research project.

“Dr. Blay-Palmer is unique in her ability to envision change on a global scale and build the necessary partnerships to bring it to life,” says Jonathan Newman, vice-president: research. “The renewal of her UNESCO Chair in 2024 affirms her standing as an international leader in sustainable food systems research. Our students are fortunate to learn from her.”

Blay-Palmer is a professor in Laurier’s Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. She is the founding director of the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems and a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars.

“It is an honour to be recognized for the work I have been doing since joining Laurier in 2007,” says Blay-Palmer. “Research on sustainable food systems addresses some of the key issues we face, including climate change, ensuring everyone has enough healthy food, and enabling farmers to make a fair living while working as stewards of the environment.”

In her role as UNESCO Chair, Blay-Palmer collaborates with academics and practitioners across Canada and around the world, including in Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa and the United States. In recognition of her effective stewardship, she has twice been nominated for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Partnership Impact Award. Blay-Palmer is currently leading the Food Learning and Growing (FLOW) Partnership along with 35 partner organizations across four continents. Over the next six years, FLOW research will map and monitor specific practices that are driving sustainability on a regional level and amplify them to influence meaningful, long-term policy decisions globally.

Blay-Palmer has written six books and 50 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. Her work has attracted more than $12 million in research funding. Blay-Palmer is regularly consulted regarding matters of global policy, including as an expert advisor to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN) and on the Building Back Better Task Force with the Secretary General of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At Laurier, Blay-Palmer mentors graduate students and co-developed a Sustainability Option for undergraduate students, inviting them to study issues related to environmental resilience and community well-being. Last fall, she supported the launch of the Undergraduate Certificate in Food and Sustainability, a five-course credential to help students build the skills needed to become changemakers in the field.

Blay-Palmer was recently selected to lead the drafting committee for the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition, a delegation of the UN’s Committee on World Food Security (CFS). Her URP research grant will enable her to continue working on a report about building resilient food systems, which will be presented at the 53rd plenary session of the CFS in October 2025.

“This process will help to define resilient food system transformation for policy-makers and countries around the world in the years to come,” says Blay-Palmer. “By putting equity at the centre of resilience transformation, we hope to make healthy, culturally appropriate, affordable food available to all people and ensure that everyone working in the food system is paid and treated fairly.”