Submitted by jlmoore on Wed, 2009-04-22 20:09.
Change Agents - Short Biographies
The following is a list of backgrounds and thoughts from the change agents that will be present at the summit. These change agents will call upon their wisdom and expertise to help provoke thinking and dialogue throughout the day.
Siobhan Ashe is Visiting Faculty at the SFU Centre for Dialogue and instructor in the Department of Sociology at Douglas College. I research and teach from a community and activist academic stand point which is informed by environmental studies and the transformative nature of scholarship in sustainability education. I believe that creating opportunities for social change is a cultural process, and because education embodies core societal beliefs and ideas, it is an important site of social transformation.
Ryan Barfoot currently coordinates the Sustainability & Eco-Education programs for SD47. Ryan co-founded the Leadership Ecology Adventure Program (LEAP) and the Sustainability Toolbox and has worked domestically and abroad for numerous Governmental and Not for Profit organizations. He is guided by a passion for facilitating profound experiences for people in nature.
Maggie Baynham is the Project Manager for goBEYOND, a youth-created program that aims to cultivate climate action on college and university campuses across BC. I believe our post-secondary schools are in a unique position to be delivering curriculum that is engaging, community-oriented and creates climate change solutions. To do so, we need to build communities of support and practice among students, faculty, staff and other stakeholders.
Alex Boston, Director of Climate and Energy, HB Lanarc. I advance energy sustainability and climate protection through local governments and senior government agencies, utilities and other institutions helping communities achieve these goals. I do this because climate and energy cuts across and through our own lives and organizations horizontally and vertically and through this agenda we can cultivate a healthy economy and society that functions within our ecological limits. We need to get our heads out of the atmosphere looking for climate solutions and start looking in our streets, homes, neighborhoods, businesses, factories, fields and forests for core priorities that resonate with people in their everyday lives.
Matthew Carroll is a Climate Action Facilitator for Metro Vancouver. He holds a masters in atmospheric chemistry from University of Leeds and University of Toronto, and over eight years experience engaging youth in local, national and international decision making, including two years co-ordinating the Youth Caucus for the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development. He believes that climate change is the defining social justice issue of this generation, and that youth have a key leadership role to play in building a just transition to a low-carbon future.
Nadia Chaney is a free-lance arts empowerment facilitator. I work with complex issues in diverse groups because I believe that people need inspiration, courage and flexibility to truly be passionate about their contribution to community. I think that there should be more cross-sectoral interaction, and that people should be encouraged to look beyond their expertise and communities of expertise for innovative solutions to climate change issues.
Charlene Easton is the Director of Sustainability at UBC. She has a 25-year history in sustainability innovation and leadership in Canada and around the world. She has applied sustainability projects across a broad range of sectors including municipalities, corporations, communities, small businesses and educational institutions.
Duane Elverum is an Assistant Professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. What is university for, and who goes there? I'm interested in the millennial generation of students who populate our universities and their vastly, and reasonably, different expectations for learning, performance and respect. Lectures and exams can't prepare them for the world after graduation, but project-based learning combined with academic rigor can activate their learning at a time when we need the best educated generation we've ever produced.
Mary Ferguson works with BC Hydro's school programs, designing and developing energy education and sustainability education programs and learning resources for students in kindergarten to grade 12. I work with school district administration, facilities and operations, principals, teachers, parents, students and community groups. I believe that we will achieve a culture of sustainability by working together.
Bruce Ford is currently the K-12 Education Coordinator at Metro Vancouver (formerly the GVRD). We work to develop and deliver practical and locally-relevant K-12 teaching and learning resources and initiatives to support sustainability education in classrooms throughout the region.
Veronica Gaylie is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at UBC Okanagan. I am the founder of the Learning Garden on campus, a model school and community garden that serves several purposes related to environmental sustainability and community involvement. The garden brings together student teachers, school student and their teachers, graduate students and faculty/staff from across campus. I believe that such a cross section of involvement is vital to 'small s' Sustainability - small scale solutions that put planet first. I started the garden with my students because I believe that learning needs to move beyond the four walls of traditional academia; and I believe we learn best about the environment by being in the environment.
Tom Green:
I'm a PhD Student at the University of British Columbia, investigating how undergraduate student attitudes towards and knowledge of the environment are affected by studying first year economics. I'm studying this issue because standard economics as taught in most introductory economics classes across North America pays little attention to how economic activity is dependent upon and affects the environment. The 40% of undergraduate students who take an Econ101 course as part of their degree need a more realistic and relevant economics toolbox if they are to help society work towards sustainability.
Deborah Harford
As executive director of ACT (SFU's Adaptation to Climate Change Team), Deborah Harford is responsible for development of the initiative’s vision and its partnerships, as well as directing and producing ACT's pioneering policy recommendations for effective adaptation strategies at all levels of government, and communication and promotion of the program's outcomes. I work in this field because I feel it is essential to our social and economic safety yet has been largely overlooked in North America. For me, effective change will include building resilience as well as reducing our environmental impact.
Mark Holland
I am planner and strategist, focused on sustainable cities, and a cofounder of the Lanarc Consultants (www.hblanarc.ca), I serve both the public and private sector and am increasingly challenging many of the dogmatic assumptions the sustainability movement has gathered around, because they are not having much impact and in some cases are not realistic and therefore will never happen. I believe that sustainability is the challenge of ours and all future generations as we learn how to manage a planet and as the first big test, climate change is the challenge of our generation. I do what I do because I feel called to participate in making change and have found a way to do it while being involved in many of the things I feel passionate about and would be involved in even if change was not needed. The changes we need are many and run from deep paradigms to small daily behaviours. Because we cannot trust humans to make the changes needed within our daily lives, due to human nature, we need to use our civilizations’ government systems and economic systems to make the changes so our human nature does not get in the way of meeting our sustainability goals.
Paul Lukaszek is manager of the Green Schools Education Programs unit at the Ministry of Education. I work in this area because of the need to focus on students in bringing about the social change required to imbed sustainability into all aspects of our society. I believe that the K-12 education system must help students become sustainability leaders with a focus on environmental action projects.
Jean Marcus is Project Manager of the Working Group on Academic Programs of the President's Advisory Council on Sustainability at UBC. I work with the UBC community to develop new courses and programs on sustainability because I believe students should have the choice to learn about sustainability in varied, stimulating and engaging ways. Universities must move to meet student demand and lead the way in fostering creative solutions to the world's pressing challenges.
Kevin Millsip is the Executive Director of Check Your Head and Coordinator of Sustainability for the Vancouver Board of Education. I believe in the power of collective action and the importance of connecting the social and the environmental. I believe that we need to move, very quickly, from individually focused to large, society-wide efforts for social and environmental change.
Janet Moore is an Assistant Professor at the SFU Centre for Dialogue. I teach in the dialogue program because it is a place of possibility and creativity in the university. I believe that universities need to respond directly to the needs of community and that students, faculty and communities are hungry for creating classrooms that help change the world.
Graeme Mitchell
I am a teacher at Stelly’s Secondary School in Saanich, BC. I developed and launched Sustainable Development 11 in September 2008. The goal of the course is to shed light on models, tools, and ideas that already exist, and, that if widely adopted, would completely change our world for the better. This course not only tries to show what is already possible, but prompts students to imagine what might be – in their homes, their communities, and for the planet as a whole. By examining key issues like mass consumption, population growth, climate change, and deteriorating oil supplies, and focusing o n solutions like the transition to renewables, sustainable design and transportation, the curriculum looks at what is wrong and what can be done to solve it.
Patrick Robertson
Deeply involved in sustainability and environmental learning for over a decade, Patrick is a teacher, consultant and facilitator working with a range of partners in BC and Canada. He is also the past president and pro-d co-chair of the Environmental Educators' Provincial Specialist Association (EEPSA) of the BCTF and a director of various other community organizations focused on sustainability, social justice and the environment. Patrick strongly believes that learning is essential to enacting systems change, and that our educational institutions and communities are core sources of leadership for sustainability.
Yona Sipos is a PhD Candidate in the Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems program at UBC. I coordinate the UBC-based Community Food Assessment Project, connecting student learning, research and service with real-world food system issues across BC, because I believe that universities have a social responsibility to actively address community needs. I am a strong advocate for education based on a "community of learners" that includes students, faculty and community members, and that integrates the learners' Heads, Hands and Hearts.
Johan Stroman, BC Director of GreenLearning. This position allows a flexible and powerful point of connection between sustainability practices / effective learning approaches and interested teachers, youth and staff in schools and districts. I believe we need to provide opportunities for transformative experiences in sustainability by engaging students, teachers, and staff in educational settings to lead in their communities.
David Zandvliet is an Associate Professor with the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University and an Adjunct Research Fellow at Curtin University of Technology (Australia). As a former director of the Faculty's Centre for Educational Technology, he has considerable experience in the design and evaluation of classrooms and in the provision of teacher professional development. He has conducted research and development on learning environments in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.
