Cory Zyla (M.Sc. 2010)
Cory Zyla is currently working as a Technical Advisor with the Nunavut Water Board in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut. The Nunavut Water Board (NWB) is responsible for the management and regulation of freshwater across Nunavut. Cory’s role with the NWB requires that he regularly utilizes his knowledge of disciplines that are integral to the IWRM process, such as freshwater sciences and water policy. He finds the work particularly interesting due to the numerous opportunities he is provided with to work alongside a wide range of project stakeholders, including Inuit groups, concerned citizens, project proponents, municipalities, and federal and territorial government agencies concerned with freshwater resources in the Arctic.
McGill’s IWRM Program developed many skill-sets that have proven incredibly useful to both Cory and the various organizations he has had the privilege of working for since graduation. For his summer internship, Cory worked with a county in the United States to implement large water quality monitoring programs and management efforts. Since graduating from the IWRM program in 2010, Cory has collaborated with a non-governmental organization in El Salvador to implement a large watershed data collection effort, co-wrote a book on integrated and adaptive water resources management with McGill University, researched the environmental and socio-economic impacts of regional drought responses with the University of British Columbia, and coordinated the environmental impact assessments of several small hydropower projects in British Columbia with an environmental consulting firm. Cory attributes many of his current skill-sets to the McGill University IWRM Program that provided him with the strong integrated and dynamic knowledge that is needed to handle contemporary water resources management problems