Ren Thomas
Bio and CV
Amacon Beasley Student Award for Excellence in Urban Planning (2010), College for Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Award (2010), UBC Four Year Fellowship (2009-2011), SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (2008-2011), Coriolis Consulting Scholarship: Innovative Ideas for Improving Cities (2008), Transportation Association of Canada Provinces/Territories Scholarship (2007), UBC Graduate Entrance Scholarship (2007)
Ren has worked in a number of research settings in both the housing and transportation fields. She currently works at Dalhousie University, and has also worked at the University of Oregon and the University of Amsterdam. Shortly after completing her Ph.D., she worked as a research consultant on social enterprises in affordable housing (Housing Services Corporation, Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing) and program evaluation (Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, BC Non-Profit Housing Association). Between the Masters and Ph.D., Ren worked on the BCAA Travel Survey, Edmonton U-Pass Study, Greater Vancouver Goods Movement Study and the South of Fraser Area Transit Plan Follow-up Study for Mustel Group, a market research firm. During her Masters degree, Ren worked at Social Planning and Research Council of British Columbia (SPARC BC), disseminating research on housing affordability and homelessness and at the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority (TransLink), which contributed to her thesis on the travel patterns of youth and young adults in Vancouver and Surrey. From 2002-2005 she worked in the Research Division at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), on sustainable communities research and research dissemination.