Growing up in the seaside town of St. Margaret’s Bay in Nova Scotia, Allison Surrette has always had a bond with the natural world. Her family has a history of sailing, and she sailed competitively up until a few years ago with the Canadian National Team and on the World Cup circuit.
Allison Surrette, Environmental Scientist.
From early on, Allison says she “wanted to do something that could better our use of the environment or help find ways to remediate pieces of the environment.” She didn’t know what that would be until she started an undergraduate degree in engineering.
“I liked the problem-solving aspect of it,” Allison says. “When I had to decide what I wanted to do, I was drawn to geological engineering because of the hands-on fieldwork and lab work experience. I really like the idea of being able to learn by being out in the field and doing real experiments.”
Today, she works as our Environmental Scientist, doing exactly that.
Where one day could see her in the office, the next she could be out collecting samples, taking measurements, or helping other experts. While you may not think there’s an obvious connection between sailing and working on mine sites, for Allison it comes down to the adventure. “I love going to places like mine sites that very few people get to go.”
Allison in the field with our Environmental Scientist, Duncan McDonald.
On joining Ecometrix, Allison says, “I was keen on finding a company that had good female representation in senior leadership roles. On the engineering side, it felt like a lot of the recruitment I had experienced had good female to male ratios, but at senior levels, it always seemed to fall off. Ecometrix was a big draw for me because there was a lot of female representation.”
For those looking to pursue a career in environmental consulting, Allison says to “be open to any project. I’m keen to try anything that comes my way. Even if it’s not something I imagined myself working on, you can gain so much experience. Especially for someone like me, who’s newer to the industry, you get to figure out what you like.”
When Allison isn’t busy working in the field, she loves cooking, reading, and still pursues her love of sailing by getting out on the water as much as she can.
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