Lucie Edwards '73 - Volunteer profile

For Lucie Edwards, her work with the Trent University Board of Governors is her way of paying her good fortune forward and engaging the skills she developed thanks to her education and her career experience.

“I went to Trent on a scholarship,” she says. “I was the first person in my family to go to university and it was the doorway to a wonderful, adventurous life. I can’t thank the people who paid for me to go to Trent, but I can try to help the next generation of students, especially those, like me, whose lives can be transformed by the opportunity.”

What a career she has had.

After graduating in 1976, Lucie worked for the Canadian Foreign Service for 34 years and then worked as a development consultant in more than 15 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. She served as Canadian High Commissioner to Kenya, South Africa, and India, and Ambassador to the UN Environment Program. In Ottawa, she served as Director-General for Global Issues and Assistant Deputy Minister for Corporate Services in the Department of Foreign Affairs. Her last assignment in the Canadian Foreign Service was as Chief Strategist, integrating the department’s policy and operations.

She takes those skills from her field experience and applies them to her volunteer roles as well.

“I am a good strategist, interested in building for the long term, which is a useful skill in the not-for-profit arena, where we tend to be consumed by short-term challenges. I am quite a passionate advocate for causes I believe in,” Lucie says.

She began volunteering while still at Trent. As she studied towards a degree in history and economics, she served on the University Senate for Peter Robinson College. She also founded and led the first World University Services Canada chapter at Trent. She returned to campus to speak to Development Studies students whenever she was back in Canada from her overseas assignments.

“The key moment when I became very involved was when I came to Trent as the Ashley Fellow in 2012,” Lucie says. “That led to applying for a seat on the Board of Governors and speaking at the 50th-anniversary celebrations."

After six years on the Board of Governors, she cites her most pride-worthy projects as the Trent Student Centre (which builds on Trent’s outstanding architectural legacy), the expansion of the Trent Durham campus (which builds on the outreach to students in the GTA); and the Trent Lands plan (which builds on the university’s strengths in environmental and indigenous studies). She is inspired by the prospect for the expansion of Trent through more colleges and special programs.

“Trent is building for the future while protecting those qualities of the community that made it so special for me,” she says. “The great thing about volunteering with Trent is that you get to work in an excellent team, with deep technical skills and a big vision for the future.”

She is accustomed to setting the bar high and rising to meet her lofty expectations. In her career, Lucie has received the Public Service Award of Excellence for her humanitarian work during the genocide in Rwanda; a merit award for her human rights work combatting apartheid at the Canadian Embassy in Pretoria, from 1986 to 1989; and the Lifetime Achievement Award of Excellence by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

In addition to her volunteer work at Trent, she sits on the Board of Trustees of CUSO International and of the Bhutan Canada Foundation, two organizations working in the field of international development. This taps into her expertise in global public health and agriculture and her interest in the uses of science for development, introducing innovative techniques to strengthen the capacity of communities to manage their own resources and generate their own leaders.

“We have learned through the pandemic that an injury to one is an injury to all, because viruses don’t recognize state borders,” Lucie says. “But the suffering falls disproportionately on the poor and the most vulnerable.”

She quotes Matthew 25:29: “For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance; whoever does not have, even the little they have will be taken from them.”

“That has proven too prophetic in the current pandemic. We need to turn that right around and help the most vulnerable first,” she adds.

Her goal is to make the not-for-profit sector as healthy as possible, so that it can continue to support the crucial needs of communities, beginning with strong governance and effective fundraising. She notes that a resilient organization is one that attracts and keeps happy volunteers.

“I have always said that I am ambitious to, rather than ambitious for. I am ambitious to make a difference in the world,” Lucie says. “I have received more than my fair share of the world’s honours, especially as an ambassador, but that is not nearly as important as getting things done. I like to get things done.”