Kowan O'Keefe (Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation).

By Aaron Schulze

Kowan O'Keefe

Kamloops-born doctoral researcher one of 15 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholars

Jun 1, 2021 | 10:41 AM

KAMLOOPS — Fifteen leading doctoral researchers from across Canada and around the world have been selected for the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation’s leadership program as 2021 Scholars.

One of the recipients is born and raised in Kamloops.

Kowan O’Keefe is currently a second-year PhD student in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. O’Keefe studies climate change policy and is particularly interested in the social, political and ethical challenges of using carbon dioxide removal strategies to achieve net-zero emissions goals.

“The Foundation’s leadership program will be an invaluable complement to my doctor studies because it will expose me to a diversity of new perspectives and allow me to pursue and ambitious and impactful dissertation agenda,” O’Keefe stated.

O’Keefe attended Minot State University in North Dakota on a golf scholarship and was a two-time NCAA Division II Academic All-American and a finalist for the NCAA Division II Male Scholar Athlete of the Year Award. He became the first person in his family to graduate from university, earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and mathematics. He then earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Toronto.

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O’Keefe twice attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference representing the American Chemical Society and has written three chapters for a series of collaborative books on climate change literacy and education. He’s also a member of an interdisciplinary team at the University of Maryland’s Center for Global Sustainability that focuses on climate change and energy policy projects.

The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation received 643 applications, interviewed 102 semi-finalists and invited 36 finalists for individual interviews. O’Keefe and the other 14 Scholars were chosen based on their academic excellence, leadership and engagement, willingness to engage with a plurality of perspectives, and their agility and resilience.

Over the next three years, in addition to leadership training, the Foundation will provide O’Keefe and the other Scholars with financial support, academic resources, mentorship opportunities and personalized leadership training designed to help them effect positive change in their communities and academic institutions.