As Executive Director of the Geological Survey of Canada’s Pacific Region, Thomas White leads national geoscience efforts that strengthen Canada’s resilience to a changing climate. He oversees the GSC’s Natural Hazards and Climate Change Geoscience Program, which provides critical evidence on how climate change is transforming permafrost, coastlines, glaciers, and natural hazards to support informed decision making across all levels of government and civil society. He directs the NRCan Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Program (2022–2027), a $39.5 million federal initiative that builds climate adaptation skills in professional communities and advances natural resource sector resilience. In addition, he is responsible for the Climate Resilient Coastal Communities Program (2023–2028), a $41 million national effort funding integrated, regional-scale pilot projects across Canada’s coasts to reduce climate risks, develop innovative adaptation actions, and strengthen the resilience of coastal and Indigenous communities in the face of rising seas, extreme weather, and other climate impacts.

Thomas joined the GSC from NRCan’s Canadian Forest Service, where he most recently served as Research Director for the Entomology and Phytosanitary Research Division at the Pacific Forestry Centre, in Victoria BC. His earlier career spans scientific, policy, and operational roles with both the federal government and the Province of British Columbia, working on issues ranging from forest carbon modelling and climate adaptation policy to groundwater, air and water quality monitoring, forest management, pests, and wildfires. Raised in Montreal and educated at McGill University and the University of Toronto, he now lives in Victoria.