Nina-Marie Lister

PROF. NINA-MARIE E. LISTER, MCIP RPP Hon ASLA, Hon CSLA
Professor, Urban & Regional Planning; Director, Ecological Design Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University

Nina-Marie Lister is Professor in the School of Urban & Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University and Senior Fellow at Massey College in Toronto. From 2010-2014 and 2022-2025 she was Visiting Professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Awarded the Margolese National Design for Living Prize for her work in ecological design, Lister’s research, teaching and practice centre on landscape infrastructure, biodiversity and ecological processes through ecological design applications for biodiversity recovery, climate resilience, and more-than-human well-being. At TMU, Lister founded and directs the Ecological Design Lab to connect people with nature in cities.

Lister is co-editor of Projective Ecologies (with Chris Reed, published by Harvard University and ACTAR Press, 2014, 2020) and The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty, and Managing for Sustainability (with David Waltner-Toews and the late James Kay, Columbia University Press, 2008), and author of more than 150 scholarly research and professional practice publications. These include peer-reviewed articles in top-ranked journals (Ecology & Society, J. Restoration Ecology, Sustainability), notable contributions to Design With Nature Now (Lincoln Land Institute 2019), Nature & Cities: The Ecological Imperative in Urban Planning & Design (Lincoln 2016), Is Landscape…Essays on the Identity of Landscape (Routledge 2016), Ecological Urbanism (Harvard University with Lars Müller Publishers 2010), and Large Parks (Princeton Architectural Press 2008, winner of the J.B. Jackson Book Prize).

Her work has been featured in international critical, creative exhibitions, including the 2016 Venice Architectural Biennale with Canada’s entry, EXTRACTION. She advises the Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel, the international Biophilic Cities Network and North America’s Wildlife Crossing Fund. In recognition of her international leadership in ecological design, Lister has been awarded Honourary Membership in the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects and the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects. She has received a Canadian Green Building Council’s excellence and leadership award and was nominated among Planetizen’s Most Influential Urbanists.