R2R24 Keynote – Dr. S. Ashleigh Weeden

Dr. Weeden is an award-winning rural futurist who splits her time between Ontario’s Bruce and Wellington Counties. She is currently working as an independent researcher and consultant and serves as a Research Associate with the Ontario Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. She is a long-time advocate for the power of participatory and place-based approaches as critical mechanisms for creating effective public policy. Her recently completed doctoral research focused on the role of stories in shaping rural policy and realities, using the nuclear energy sector as an entry-point for examining the relationships between place, power, and policy. Prior to becoming ‘Dr. Weeden’, Ashleigh spent the first half of her career working in public administration for a number of municipalities across Ontario, working on transformative projects related to community engagement, infrastructure, and economic development.

Dr. Weeden is recognized as a thought leader on rural renewal, policy foresight, infrastructure planning, public sector leadership, and ‘the right to be rural.’ She has developed a reputation for ‘speaking truth to power’ and has provided expert commentary to outlets and organizations like Buzzfeed News, the Ryerson Review of Journalism, the David Hume Institute (Scotland), the Scottish Government, CBC News, and CTV News, as well as several podcasts and community news outlets.

Dr. Weeden has published widely in both academic and popular press and her work can be read in publications like The Conversation Canada, the Journal of Rural and Community Development, the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, the Annals of Regional Science, IRPP Policy Options, the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation, Rural Policy Learning Commons, CIGI Online, and Municipal World.