Mary Louise McAllister is an adjunct professor and associate professor emerita at the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. In 2015, she received Waterloo's Distinguished Teacher Award in 2015. Her prior books include 2004's Governing Ourselves? The Politics of Canadian Communities, which won the Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title in 2005. McAllister resides in Waterloo, where she continues to sit on university graduate theses committees.