Brenda Heelan Powell

Brenda Heelan Powell is the Staff Counsel at the Environmental Law Centre where she combines her legal skills with her passion for a sustainable society – and hopes to contribute in some small way to ensuring her wonderful children are left with the same natural legacy she enjoyed as a child.

Brenda graduated from the University of Alberta with a BSc in 1993 and a LL.B. in 1996. After practising law with a Calgary law firm, Brenda left private practice to pursue a LL.M. at the University of British Columbia. During her studies at the University of British Columbia, Brenda concentrated on environmental and natural resources law courses. Since completion of her LL.M. in 1999, Brenda has worked at the Environmental Law Centre and the Alberta Energy & Utilities Board. Brenda re-joined the Environmental Law Centre as Staff Counsel based in Calgary in 2011.

Brenda has published articles and briefs on a variety of environmental law topics. She is author of Demystifying Forestry Law, An Alberta Analysis, 2nd. Ed. and A Model Environmental and Sustainability Assessment Law. Brenda is particularly interested in improving planning and other decision-making processes to achieve the goal of sustainability.