Mike Soron

Mike entered the master’s program with a B.A. in political science. He sustained his commitment to politics and public policy throughout his studies – and continues to do so in the rest of his career.

Mike had previously worked in government relations and as a freelance writer. Soon after he graduated with his master’s, he became executive director of Sustainable SFU, a campus-based independent nonprofit environmental organization. He served in that position for three years and later became a climate organizer with Leadnow and then as a provincial organizer with with Dogwood BC, which is another environmental nonprofit. The two common threads woven through all these positions are the need to understand and analyze policy and to help urban communities adapt to environmental change. Mike says his urban studies education has been a key asset in each case. “My interests were in theory and policy more than traditional planning, so SFU Urban Studies was a perfect fit. The multi-disciplinary design and diverse faculty appealed to me, as did studying and working in Vancouver’s downtown core.”