Taylor Wellings & Jenn Burns

Taylor Wellings

Taylor Wellings is a second-year Master’s Candidate in the Rural Planning & Development Program at the University of Guelph. Prior to attending, she completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in Geography at Brock University. Taylor also spent a semester abroad in Southeast Asia, studying Sustainability and Sustainable Transportation Planning at the University of Burapha in Thailand. Taylor is the Guelph University Senior Representative on the OPPI Student Liaison Committee.
 
Taylor is passionate about building healthy communities through active transportation development, ecohealth, local food initiatives and on-farm diversification. For her Masters Research Paper, Taylor has explored how innovation and implementation of creative ‘forward thinking’ policies and tools can contribute to on-farm diversification and rural economic development.
 

Jenn Burns
 
Jenn Burns is a second year MSc. (Planning) Candidate in the Rural Planning & Development program at the University of Guelph. Jenn holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Environmental Governance. With over five years of experience working within the federal and provincial parks system, Jenn recognizes the importance of access to green spaces on public health and community development. Most recently, Jenn has been focusing on agricultural-related research projects in rural Ontario planning and development offices.

Jenn gets excited about planning for the diverse needs of agriculture in rural Ontario. Her current research involves looking at agricultural lot size policies and better understanding the needs of the Old-Order Mennonite and Amish Communities.
 
Currently, both Jenn and Taylor are working alongside Dr. Wayne Caldwell to transfer the ‘Healthy Rural Communities Tool Kit’ into conference presentations, success stories and workshops to be completed in 2017. 
 
The work undertaken by Taylor and Jenn is supervised by Wayne Caldwell, RPP. Wayne is currently the Interim Associate Vice-President Research, Strategic Partnerships at the University of Guelph and Professor in Rural Planning and Development. Dr. Caldwell is the project director for the Healthy Rural Communities Toolkit, and a past president of OPPI.