Zoë Wilkins, Climate Democracy Associate

London, United Kingdom

Zoë supports the participatory climate democracy work at People Powered. This includes the Climate Democracy Accelerator, which supports civil society and government to design together plans for climate action. Zoë is excited to share the tools of participatory democracy to increase accessibility of decision-making on how we navigate the climate emergency. 

Prior to joining People Powered, Zoë was a senior researcher at the Centre for Deliberative Research at NatCen, and before that, a senior researcher and engagement officer at the Institute for Community Studies and the Young Foundation, focusing on piloting new approaches at the intersection of participatory research and social action.

Most recently, she led the design and delivery of a citizens’ assembly on the future of the natural environment in Wales and a deliberation with stakeholders and central government in the UK on environmental policy. 

Before her time at the Young Foundation, Zoë was a McBurney Fellow at McGill University’s Institute for Health and Social Policy. In this role, she worked at a refuge for migrants at Mexico’s southern border, focusing on legal advocacy work and community building with the long-term residents at the shelter. She has also worked as a community researcher with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on the evaluation of a climate change mitigation program in rural Panama, as well as on other research and policy evaluation programmes across academia and the charity sector.

Zoë completed her bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy at McGill University. She also holds an master’s degree in international social and public policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research focused on the participation of refugees in international decision-making and governance.