Adrian Prado (he/him)

About me

I was born/grew up in: Montréal, Québec

I now live in:  Saint-Joseph-de-Madawaska, New Brunswick

I completed my training/education at: I have a Bachelor of Science (Biology), a Bachelor of Agriculture and Environmental Science and a Master of Science (Environmental Microbiology). These were all completed at McGill University.

What I do at work

Our organisation works with municipalities to help them better offer services to their citizens. My role is to help communities with issues related to climate change and sustainable development. My work has changed quite a bit since it began and varies quite a bit from day to day. I generally work on specific projects. These vary from day to day and year to year. I also spend some of my time networking and collaborating with partners that work with us on projects.

Much of my work requires working with other organisations and experts to move projects forward. Here are some examples of work I am currently involved in:

• Developing a regional (intermunicipal) climate change adaptation plan.
• Developing an online map tool to help communities understand the impacts of climate change using the R programming language and GIS software.
• Taking part in an interprovincial project to address invasive zebra mussels.
• Developing a watershed-scale natural asset management plan for the city of Edmundston, NB.
• Modelling of ecological connectivity of land-based animals in the three-border region (Northwest New Brunswick, Northern Maine, Témiscouata Québec).

As an employee of a public organisation that serves municipalities, my job also involves making recommendations to decisionmakers. Planners at our organisation also assist our municipalities with the development of their municipal plans. This lets us provide insight and advice to communities regarding sustainable practices.

I have been lucky to have had a varied and staggered academic path. This has allowed me to gain experience in a variety of fields. The different learning opportunities I have had have been useful in my day-to-day work. While my academic background is mostly in environmental sciences, I often use programming to analyse datasets and to automate workflows. I also use GIS software to explore data in a three-dimensional way. More recently, my background in biotechnology has been very useful with regards to dealing with invasive species and eDNA analysis. I think it would be difficult to identify which STEM skills that I have acquired over the years HAVEN’T been useful.

This sort of job requires a lot of creativity. Our region is very rural and has a small and aging population. These limitations are quite challenging. They require a lot of thinking outside the box to maximise resources and leverage partnerships.

My career path is

I actually had no idea what I wanted to do when I was in high school. I took a career aptitude test, and I was given inconclusive results. My career advisor simply suggested I do what I liked. Unfortunately, I had no idea what that was.

I knew I was interested by science, so I went on to CEGEP in natural sciences. I ended up going into electrical engineering simply because I had the grades to do so. I had hoped to eventually explore robotics and cybernetics as this combined my interests in technology and biology. Unfortunately, the teaching style I encountered didn't suit my own learning approach. I ended up transferring into biology. Again, this wasn't entirely suited to my interests even though I did graduate.

I worked for a bit in a totally unrelated field to what I had studied. After a while I decided that I wanted to have a career that would "make more of a difference". I ended up going back to school. I completed a second bachelor's degree in agriculture and environmental sciences with a focus on natural resource management. The courses were much more interesting to me, and I excelled. This helped me stand out and helped me make my way into a master’s program. My master’s degree was a bit of a mess for a variety of reasons. Still, I still value the learning experience and especially learning how to take on large and difficult projects.

I ended up taking time off afterwards and decided to hike across Québec. I made it from Montréal to Rivière-du-Loup before the snow came. I worked, volunteered, and learned to appreciate the small-town life. I eventually met my partner. I moved to my partner's even smaller community in New Brunswick. Here I saw a job posting for a 6-month position with my current employer. That position continued to be extended as I showed the value of my work. Today, I am a permanent employee there.

I am motivated by

I am always motivated by the work we do with our partners. The fact that the people we work with are also passionate about their work and hopeful about the future is encouraging. On a negative note, I also strongly motivated by environmental decline. As climate change is progressing, and biodiversity is being lost, it is becoming more and more important to work towards improving our situation.

How I affect peoples’ lives

This career is extremely challenging! However, the fact that our organisation and our partners have been able to develop our expertise and capacity so much over the past few years has been very rewarding. The projects we start can be directly applied to communities through their municipal plans. This makes our work that much more important.

Outside of work I

I have always been interested by games of all kinds. Lately I have been more and more interested in indie board games and miniatures. I also love to design and build things. This gives me many excuses to put my multiple 3D printers to work. I also really enjoy volunteering with my community. While I am not as active as I used to be, I enjoy hiking, camping, rock climbing and swimming.

My advice to others

My career has sort of come about because the communities I work with came to the realization that they needed someone like me. I think more and more "green" jobs like mine are popping up. This is because people are starting to realize that there is a need for a more a broader, more sustainable approach to address the effects of climate change. Keep your eyes open for unlikely opportunities. Don't worry about making "wrong" career choices. Every learning experience is useful.