Laura Kozak is a community-based designer, researcher and Assistant Professor in Emily Carr’s Faculty of Culture and Community. She works to practice relational, place-based ethics, asking how designers contribute to relationships with communities, land, water and ecological beings through decolonizing and anti-oppression practices.
Her research focuses on climate justice and the local food system. In 2023, she co-led a Climate Justice Field School for senior sustainability planners and policy-makers at the City of Vancouver in collaboration with a renowned group of cultural and social justice practitioners. She is currently part of an interdisciplinary team working on a project called Mapping swiya, which draws on shíshálh ways of knowing to re-envision stories of time and place. Laura was co-lead of the Circular Food Innovation Lab, in partnership with numerous food businesses, food rescue organizations, health authorities, food justice advocates, Squamish Nation and City of Vancouver Solid Waste Services.
Laura is an affiliate of the Emily Carr DESIS Lab. In 2021 she was honoured to receive the Ian Wallace Award for Teaching Excellence and recognized by Sierra Club BC for Exceptional Leadership in Climate Action. She has published and presented papers internationally at PDC2020 (Participatory Design Conference), PIVOT: A World of Many Centers, Cumulus, AICAD and ServDes. She holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Architecture from UBC. She lives with her family in Vancouver, BC – unceded xʷməθkʷəy̍əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories.
Publications
Towards Equity and Circularity in Vancouver’s Food System, ECU DESIS Lab and City of Vancouver Solid Waste Services, 2026, with Lily Raphael, Erin Nichols, Maria Azam, Frankie Fowle, Morgan Martino, Kinasih Utoro, Yuki Xiang
Tide Places, ECU Shumka Centre, 2025, with Lou Sheppard, Laura Pold, Jefferson Alade, Alison Boulier, Danya Gorodetsky, Liisa-Lota Jõeleht, Germaine Koh, Eknoor Matharoo, Elise Marie Olesk, Asmus Soodla, Sakeena Soni, Sonja Sutt, Aurelia Grace Talmon, Kail Timusk, Parumveer Walia, Brie Watson and Senaqwila Wyss
Sharing Power: Codifications and Collective Learnings from Vancouver’s Climate Justice Field School, ECU DESIS and City of Vancouver Sustainability Group, 2023, with Lily Raphael, Sky Sage and Lindsay Cole
Practicing Neighbourly Responsibility, Occasional Press, 2022, with Jean Chisholm, Meghna Mitra and Mickey Morgan
Place-Based Responsibility, ECU DESIS Lab, 2021, with Jean Chisholm
Micro-Care: Small Acts of Resilience for Living Within the Earth’s Carrying Capacity, ECU DESIS Lab, 2020, with Monique S. Carr, Jean Chisholm, Avi Farber, Oluwasola Olowo-Ake, Jacquie Shaw, Jess Sung and Julie Van Oyen
Satellite x DESIS Report and Archive, Emily Carr DESIS Lab, 2020, with Nura Ali, Naomi Boyd, Annie Canto, Jean Chisholm, Zara Huntley, Morgan Martino, Josh Singler, Garima Sood and Lauren Thu
Designing for Public Space Phase II Report, ECU Living Labs, 2020, with Charlotte Falk and Jean Chisholm
Designing for Public Space Phase I Report, ECU Living Labs, 2019, with Charlotte Falk
Writing
Cole, L., Kozak, L. Shifting and sharing power in urban climate justice work: experiments in transformative learning in Vancouver, Canada. npj Clim. Action 3, 118 (2024).
Higuchi M., Kozak L., Nichols E., Raphael L., Peeling Back the Layers: Prototyping Systemic Transformation through the Circular Food Innovation Lab, ServDes 2023: Entanglements and Flows, PUCRio, (2023)
Chisholm, J., Kozak, L., Shaw, J., and Van Oyen, J. Reinforcing Networks of Place-based Care and Resilience, Cumulus Roma 2021: Design Culture(s), Series 7, vol. 2 ISBN 978-952-64-9004-5 (2021)
Kozak, L., Chisholm J., and Falk C., Sticks, Ropes, Land: Confronting Colonial Practices
in Public Space Design, PDC2020: participation(s) otherwise, Universidad da Caldas, Manizales, Columbia (2020)
Events
Water Equity and Reconciliation Lab, with Adriana Laurent, Lauren Foote, Julie McManus and Holly Schmidt, City of Vancouver Engineering Services, June 19, 2026
Sensing and Situating Ourselves in Place, with Jean Chisholm, UBC Master of Education – Sustainability EDST 585 Workshop, June 13, 2026
Rising Waters Field School, with Robert Joe, Jessica Silvey, Raph Shay and Sadira Rodrigues, Sunshine Coast Arts Centre, March 26-27, 2026
Cultivating Seasonal Intelligences (Spring Gathering), When Strong Currents Meet, with Lindsay Cole and Alayna Paolini, March 26, 2026
Walking Iy̓el̓shn, led by Sierra Tasi-Baker, Water Equity and Reconciliation Lab, City of Vancouver, March 19, 2026
Indigenous Foodways Community Kitchen with Heat Laliberte, Adriana Purdie and Daina Warren, ECU Aboriginal Gathering Place, part of Sharing Foodways, March 13, 2026
Cooking for Change, Ayapacha, February 21, 2026
Environment and Climate Change Canada – Food Waste Webinar: A Recipe for Prevention and Diversion Waste, December 5, 2025, with Erin Nichols, December 5, 2026
Engaging a Climate-Friendly Food Sector with Vancouver, C40 Cities Webinar, with Erin Nichols, December 4, 2025
Graduate Supervision and Committees
Tian Peng: Chinese Diasporic Food Identity: How Food Connects the Chinese Diaspora in Vancouver, 2026
Julie McIntosh, MDes: Playful Knowings: Exploring Placemaking and Play in Fisher River Cree Nation, Manitoba, 2024 (Internal Reviewer; Supervisor: Manuhuia Barcham)
Sheyda Rashidi, MDes: Cultivating Reciprocity, 2023
Garima Sood, MDes: A Basket of Offerings: Propositional Tactics to Design with Emergence, 2022 (Co-Supervisor with Katherine Gillieson)
Marcia Higuchi, MDes: Wandering the gradient – Reflections on relational learning, 2022 (Internal Reviewer; Supervisor: Louise St. Pierre)