Dan Burns
Dan Burns has more than 25 years of experience in developing and teaching interdisciplinary post-secondary educational programs. With a master’s in environmental science and a bachelor’s in psychology and biology, Dan’s education prepared him well for addressing complexity within management and education systems.
He started his career as operations manager with B.C. Packers where he utilized environmental and production modelling to drive decisions and innovation. Following this experience, he served for 18 years within First Nations post-secondary education. During this time, Dan helped prepare the next generation of Aboriginal environmental leaders by initiating the development of the first U.S. degree program that deeply integrated social and natural sciences with Indigenous worldviews. As science director for the U.S. consortium of 37 tribal colleges, he worked closely with tribal leaders, faculty and administrators on design and implementation of educational programs that supported economic and cultural revitalization.
Returning to Canada, he joined SFU’s Faculty of Environment where he led the development of the Bachelor of Environment credential and its three interdisciplinary majors, including a joint major in sustainable business.
Recently, Dan has focused on post-secondary program/course development in the fields of business and sustainability and was one of the UN Environment Programme’s North American regional facilitators. He serves Academics without Borders projects in Africa and CUSO International projects in Dominica. Dan has taught in SFU’s Executive Leadership program each year since 2017.