Honorary degree recipient
Honorary degree, recipient Camille Dow Baker is making waves at Mount Royal and abroad.
Dow Baker is co-founder and volunteer CEO of the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST), a Canadian nonprofit engineering consultancy. CAWST provides education, training and technical consulting in water and sanitation to organizations working with the poor in developing countries.
"Water and sanitation is such a huge need in every country that I've ever been to," says Dow Baker. "In some places you couldn't even drink the water out of the tap. This is something we know how to fix - it's not unfixable."
Dow Baker has more than 32 years experience as a professional engineer and executive in both the oil and gas and the water and sanitation industries globally. She was manager of Engineering and Operations at AEC International (now EnCana) and enjoyed a successful career in various managerial and leadership positions at Norcen Energy Resources Limited and Conwest Exploration Company Limited.
In 1998, Dow Baker left the oil and gas sector to earn a graduate degree in environmental design, focusing on water and sanitation in developing countries. She has been chair of the board of the Calgary YWCA and a member of the board of the Alberta Oil Sands Technical Research Authority.
Today, Dow Baker will add a Mount Royal University honorary Bachelor of Business Administration - Nonprofit Studies - to her resume.
"It's a great honour to receive an honorary degree from any university, but particularly Mount Royal, which has a long tradition in Calgary and is well known for its practical application of knowledge," says Dow Baker.
"And that's what CAWST is really all about - we're involved with the practical application of knowledge and how to make people's lives easier. Mount Royal University also does that in a practical and pragmatic way."
Not only is Dow Baker a strong advocate of Mount Royal, but through her work at CAWST, she has hired many graduates and interns from Mount Royal.
"I think you really have to live life with an attitude of gratitude and try to give back. The most rewarding part of my job is not only getting clean water and sanitation to people, but it's also helping individuals to feel empowered - providing them with information to help themselves."
- Jondrea De Ruyter