Jennifer Otoadese

Biography

I arrived in the UK in 2005 and spent my first two years working with an inspiring team at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at LSE, helping to run the research centre. I am currently managing the UKERC Meeting Place at the Environmental Change Institute in Oxford, where I develop, facilitate and report on interdisciplinary sustainable energy events and research collaborations.
As a Canadian, the environment is a strong foundation of my identity and has subsequently steered my choices in work and study. In the early 90s, I worked and volunteered in outdoor education with children; snowshoeing in the mountains of North Vancouver, dip-netting in the wetlands of the prairies and teaching winter survival and forest conservation in Canadian boreal forests. A move to the Canadian arctic introduced me to co-management and indigenous self-government; the lessons I learned from community leaders and Elders have proven invaluable and personally transformational. At UNEP Nairobi, I supported a participatory publication with children and youth to convey young peoples’ feelings of their environment. It was here that I was mentored by a supervisor whose impact has driven my current leadership style. I continued with environmental engagement at IISD,
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where I managed an international climate change knowledge network and a participatory research project that documented the impacts of climate change on the Inuvialuit community of Sachs Harbour. In 2002 I jumped at the opportunity to work with a small NGO – One Sky – which had a holistic approach to community development and human security. I was based in Nigeria for close to 3 years and coordinated an environmental capacity development project with local NGOs in Cross River State.
A strong interest of mine has been to understand the behaviours and motivations for transformation at the individual and collective levels. I have researched, trained and practiced in group intervention techniques, most notably appreciative inquiry. The appreciative approach – doing more of what works well – is a common sense, generative approach which I have had a keen interest in applying in my personal life and in my work life. More recently, I have researched the Integral Approach to international development and leadership and continue to learn how this approach can guide my thinking and practice.
I am married to Victor and we have two beautiful little boys: Iredia and Ikhide.

This biography was last updated on August 19, 2009