Ìýis currently completing a PhD with the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ’s School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability (SERS), whereby she delineates a regenerative sustainability paradigm as one of balancing among multilayered, social-ecological systems complexities, from local to planetary scales.
She is an interdisciplinary artist, systemic designer, and researcher, who integrates strategy, scholarship, participatory engagement, and creative practice, to facilitate processes of cross-scale systems transformation for global sustainability. With over twenty years of experience in her field, past projects have covered themes of (i) sustainable, low carbon, climate resilient, affordable, accessible, and Indigenous housing; (ii) urban, rural, community, and landscape planning; (iii) healthcare and Indigenous health; as well as, (iv) cultural and international development, working with diverse stakeholders in North, Central, and South America. Specialising in experiential, transformative social, and design-based learning, Ruttonsha has planned curricula for elementary, undergraduate, and graduate levels, along with community arts programming. Her practice also extends the role of the arts in social and environmental discourses, and comprises surrealist photography, graphic illustration, public installation, and poetry.
Throughout her career, Ruttonsha has collaborated with numerous organisations who are seeding cross-sectoral change for the wellbeing of people and planet. This has included prior roles with the Institute without Boundaries (IwB) at George Brown College; Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing at Toronto Metropolitan University; À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR); À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI); Systemic Design Association (SDA); Canadian Society for Ecological Economics (CANSEE); SHED (Strategic, Healthy, Ecological Design); Art City in St. James Town; and, Alternatives Journal. Related initiatives have been supported through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC); Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR); Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC); Ontario Arts Council (OAC); Toronto Arts Council (TAC); Region of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Arts Fund (RWAF); and, Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC).