Board of Directors
Dr. Valerie Behan-Pelletier is a Research Scientist in Biodiversity in the Environment Program at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. She is an expert on systematics and biodiversity of soil mites in ecosystems globally, and has a broad research interest in biodivers
ity and ecology of arthropods in soil and canopy habitats. She is currently engaged in major research initiatives on ancient forest canopy biodiversity in British Columbia, on tall-grass prairie soil biodiversity in the USA, and on arthropod biodiversity of tropical rainforest in Costa Rica. Dr. Behan-Pelletier teaches on mites at the Acarology Summer Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and has recently advised Ph.D. and postdoctoral students from Canada, USA, Norway and China. She is a member of the UNEP Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) Soil and Sediment Subcommittee exploring the interrelationships and interdependence of soil, freshwater and marine sediments. She is a member of the Advisory Committee for the IBOY sponsored Global Litter Invertebrate Decomposition Experiment, comparing plant litter decomposition and the contribution of invertebrates to this process in 35 countries. Valerie has been a recipient of Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship, is a past member of NSERC’s GSC on Evolution and Ecology, and is a recent member of the Scientific Committee of the Biological Survey of Canada. She is a graduate of University College Dublin, Ireland and McGill University, Montreal.
Dr. Pille Bunnell is a systems ecologist who has specialised in the integration and explanation of complex concerns for domain specialists, policy makers, students, and the public. She acted as the Director of Environmental Literacy with an international consulting firm (ESSA Technologies Ltd.) where she conducted integrative projects on Adaptive Environmental Management with concerns ranging from fisheries, to land use management and climate change. Pille designed and co-authored the first State of Environment report for BC, and developed public school curricula on ecology. Over the last decade she has shifted her focus to cybernetics, and has been writing papers and books concerning the nature of complex systems and human cognition, and the practical applications of this to the multifaceted relations between humans and the biosphere. She has taught at the University of British Columbia and is currently teaching at Royal Roads. After six years as President and Past President of the American Society of Cybernetics, she remains active with the society in organizing conferences and acting as editor of Cybernetics and Human Knowing as well as Constructivist Foundations.
Leanne Cadden is a creator. As an entrepreneur, marketer and artist she creates businesses, branding and paintings. She started her study of entrepreneurship in 1999 eventually receiving a BCom from UVic majoring in Entrepreneurship and has spent the last 10 years creating business concepts, plans, marketing and branding communications for companies.
In 2003, she was First Finalist for Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce business awards for the start-up of her own art gallery at age 24. At 25 she spent 2 years on the start-up of Brentwood Bay Lodge & Spa and at 27, spent almost 4 years on the start-up private island development of James Island BC.
Now in her 30’s, she consults on numerous start-ups mainly in the hospitality industry and contracts out her creative marketing concepts and paintings from her home studio. www.leannarto.com
Laura Chapman is the President of Isuma Consulting Inc. The company's mission is to develop strategies for effective governance, policies and programs through its five business lines - knowledge transfer, community engagement, planning and development, communications and marketing, and organizational change.
Laura has thirty years of experience in policy and research in the Government of Canada, much of it as a senior official. As Executive Director, Policy Research Initiative (PRI) at the Privy Coucil Office, she created and led a unique organization to strenghthen Canada's policy research capacity. Under her leadership, the PRI examined emerging issues related to Sustainable Development, North American Linkages, and Social Cohesion and created a network of almost 10,000 people in Canada and internationally. Laura also conceived and published both a series of books on emerging policy trends edited by outstanding academics, and Canada's first policy research journal which included issues on, Sustainable Development, Social Capital, the New Economy, and North American Integration. She also created Canada's first policy research awards, involving leading Canadian journalists, researchers and community representatives.
C. Scott Findlay is Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa, Director of the University's Institute of Environment, and Research Associate at the Centre for Cancer Therapeutics at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. In April 2005, he was appointed to the Science Advisory Board of the International Joint Commission, and in May 2008 to the Challenge Advisory Panel under the federal Chemical Management Plan. His main research interests concern the quantification of risks posed to ecosystem structure and function by human activities, the notion of scientific weight of evidence in administrative decision-making generally and science-informed policy in particular, integration of traditional and western scientific knowledge, and the role of Darwinian evolution in tumourigenesis and the therapeutic response of cancer.
Christopher Henderson is Chief Executive Officer of The Delphi Group, Canada's leading strategic
consulting firm in the environment and clean energy sectors.
Prior to this, Chris worked as an administrator and executive in the health care field, most recently as chief operating officer with the Royal Ottawa Hospital. Chris lives life to the fullest with his wife Andrea and sons Isaac and Noah: enjoying Ottawa’s vibrant cultural community; skiing and canoeing around the Nation’s Capital; playing soccer and hockey at every opportunity. Chris is Chair of The Ottawa Partnership (TOP), Immediate Past-Chair of the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI), Immediate Past-Chair of the Canadian Environment Industry Association, Senior Advisor to the GLOBE Foundation of Canada, Advisor to Canada's Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development, and sits on the Boards of several private companies.
Yuill Herbert is originally from Salmon Arm, BC. He is currently involved in a community land trust in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. He writes for and serves on the Board of the Dominion, a grassroots national newspaper as well as serving on the Board of the Canadian Co-operative Association. Yuill is also a founding member of a BC-based worker's cooperative called Sustainability Solutions Group whose work involves sustainability assessments for universities and other institutions.
His personal research focuses on the relationship between trade and the environment and on the cultural and spiritual linkages between humans and nature.
Stephen Huddart is the Program Director of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation in Montreal. The Foundation's granting derives from a mandate to fund national initiatives thatengage people in building resilient communities – and among others includesprograms in environmental and arts-infused education, technical assistance for community economic development, university-based community service learning and community leadership.
Prior to joining the Foundation, he worked as an educator and program developer specializing inhuman/animal issues – including a food certification and labeling program,animal-assisted therapy, and humane education in schools. His private sector experience includes co-founding the Alma Street Café - a community-based natural foods restaurant and jazz venue in Vancouver, and running a triple-bottom-line music and publishing company in association with children's folksinger Raffi. He is married with three children, two cats and a dog, and has a Masters degree in management from McGill University.
Ela Kinowska was born and raised in Poland Ela immigrated to Canada in 1990. Since her arrival in Canada, she has focused her career on two paths: civil service and photography. As a civil servant she has dedicated her work to the environment and international development, Ela’s assignments included Environment Canada, Foreign Affairs Canada and currently Natural Resources Canada. Ela speaks seven languages and has lived in four countries; she traveled extensively across Europe, Latin America and Africa. As a photographer she has participated in 22 shows in Canada and Europe, her photography has a human focus aiming at documenting the challenges of the present, reflecting on the past and bringing hope for the future; a sample of her images can be viewed at www.elaphoto.com
Ela lives in Ottawa with her husband Ryszard and two children, Sonia and Alexander.
Jim MacNeill, O.C., D.Sc., LL.D. Until recently Chairman of the World Bank’s Independent Inspection Panel in Washington D.C, Dr. MacNeill is a member of the Caspian Development Advisory Panel and Chairman Emeritus of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in Winnipeg. He is a member of several boards including the Woods Hole Research Center, Woods Hole, Mass., and the Wuppertal Institute on Climate and Energy Policy in Germany, and founding member of the Jury for the Volvo Environment Prize. Earlier, he was the Secretary General of the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission), the Director of Environment for OECD, and the Canadian Ambassador and Commissioner General responsible for the UN Conference on Human Settlements. He was a founding member of the Japanese Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and the China Council. He served as a member of the High Level Advisory Group established by the Secretary General of OECD to advise on the future of that organization. He enjoys nearly four decades of experience as a policy advisor to leaders of governments, industry and international organizations in the fields of energy, natural resources, management, environment and sustainable development. He is an author, speaker, international negotiator, member of several boards, and recipient of many honors and distinctions, national and international.
