Mentor Bios

Amory Ngan is an Urban Forestry Coordinator at the City of Toronto where he manages street tree planting in hard surfaces and the urban forestry grants and incentives program which funds tree planting and stewardship on private land. He was previously an Area Forester with York Region and a Forester with the City of New York, where he’s been involved with development reviews, capital projects, street tree planting, tree maintenance, contract management, and policy development. Amory is a Registered Professional Forester, an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist, and holds a Master of Forest Conservation and an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto. He has been recognized as a True Professional of Arboriculture by the International Society of Arboriculture and is a recipient of the Award of Achievement from the Society of Municipal Arborists, and the Fernow Award from the Ontario Professional Foresters Association.

Arthur Tsai is the Head of Market Intelligence at Paper Excellence Group, monitoring competitors’ activities and developing corporate strategies for its rapidly expanding organization. Before joining Paper Excellence, he worked at Canfor Corporation for 24 years in various departments, including Corporate Finance, Communications and Lumber and Pulp Sale and Marketing. His involvement with the Faculty of Forestry includes as a Tri-Mentor, guest lecturer and Faculty representative on the UBC Alumni Advisory Council. In 2022, Arthur was awarded the Alumni Builder Award for his contribution and for enriching the lives of others at UBC.

Arthur graduated from UBC Faculty of Forestry with a BSF’95 and an MSc’12.

Ashish graduated from UBC’s Faculty of Forestry in 2009 and currently works as an Environment Program Analyst at The City of Edmonton.

After completing his Bachelor’s degree in Forest Science, he travelled to Scotland and completed a Master’s degree in Energy and Environmental Management. He soon found a niche in creating compelling communications for sustainable initiatives.

A few highlights from his career include:

1. Conducting forest pathology research funded by the BC Ministry of Forests
2. Supporting environmental legislation with the David Suzuki Foundation
3. Implementing the compost collection system with the City of Vancouver
4. Developing and managing a $30 million research center at UBC
5. Launching several rebate programs for homes, commercial buildings, and e-bikes

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohanashish

Ash leads the implementation of forest carbon projects in South America. She has over 5 years of industry experience in project management, sustainability consulting, and environmental analysis through her previous roles. Driven by the value of a green economy, Ash holds a BSc in Natural Resource Conservation from UBC and a Masters in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge.

Bev Ramey enjoyed a career as park planner with Greater Vancouver Regional District (now Metro Vancouver) for 15 years where she oversaw the creation of such regional parks as Minnekhada and Pacific Spirit.  Then for two decades she volunteered (as Board member and/or president) with nature education and conservation non-profit organizations: Nature Vancouver, BC Nature (Federation of British Columbia Naturalists), BC Naturalists’ Foundation and Pacific Spirit Park Society. Her focus activities include: wetlands, Fraser lowlands, and grasslands. She has contributed to park creation, local community awareness, and support for natural areas and for citizen science projects such as the Breeding Bird Atlas and iNaturalist. She volunteers as park host in a northern BC Provincial Park, as a Warden for the Fraser River Islands Ecological Reserve, and undertakes invasive species removal in Southern Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. During the past four years, with permit, she has collected alpine plants, pressed and mounted for Beaty Biodiversity Museum’s Herbarium.

Bob Smith began his career at Canfor in 2013 to lead SPF product and market development initiatives in both North American and Offshore markets.  In January 2019 Bob assumed responsibility for sales of all for North American SPF and DFL commodity and specialty lumber.  In October 2020, his role expanded to include responsibility for SYP lumber sales when he was appointed to his current role as Vice President, North American Sales.

Bob has an extensive career history working for two privately held forest industry family businesses.  Prior to joining Canfor Bob work in the specialty millwork sector for 10 years in both Production and General Manager roles, focusing extensively on new product and market development.  Previous to this Bob worked in the primary manufacturing sector in various business analytics, capital project and operational leadership positions in fibre procurement, softwood lumber and oriented strand board.  Bob’s varied background knowledge of fibre supply, operations and market development align well with Canfor’s strategic focus on customer centric market and product diversification.

Born and raised in Barriere, British Columbia, Bob comes from the 3rd generation of a forest industry family and has been around woodlands and sawmills since his early youth.  Bob obtained a MSc in Wood Science with a business management minor from the University of British Columbia in 1996.

Chazel Solamo graduated from the UBC Forest Operations program in 2020 with a specialization in Harvest Planning and Engineering. She is a Registered Professional Forester and an Engineer-in-Training. Over the last two years, she has been working at Onsite Engineering Ltd. as a Junior Engineer, dealing with bridges and roads within the forestry and mining sectors. Her job involves data collection, designing crossing locations, performing maintenance inspections, and supervising construction projects all over Northern BC. During her undergrad, she also worked as a Research and Outreach Coordinator for the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association and as a Forest Technician for BCTS Prince George. As a previous mentee for the Tri-Mentoring Program, she hopes to come full circle by sharing her experiences as a forestry student and the path that lead to a career that combines her love for the outdoors with her passion for engineering.

After graduating from the Natural Resources Conservation program, I worked for academic and governmental organizations across Asia conducting research in climate change, forestry and conservation. Now I work within the private sector developing nature-based projects that help protect forests, halt deforestation/forest degradation and reduce carbon emissions. As a project manager for international land use projects, I work on a variety of projects around the world, including the Philippines, the Republic of Congo, Jamaica and Nicaragua. My day-to-day includes geospatial analysis, land-use mapping, forest carbon quantification, researching and report writing. 

I completed my Degree in Natural Resources Science and management in 2021 and quickly joined the Industry as a forestry consultant working for IFS. Through IFS I was exposed to multiphase contract work where I completed various tasks ranging from Block Reconnaissance, boundary and road layout, stream assessment, silviculture prescriptions and ecotyping to timber cruising and Visual Impact Assessments. However despite all of this my current career path with IFS is becoming their Operational Forester and Lead biologist.

Clara is a Territory Manager for Weyerhaeuser Trus Joist Engineered Wood Products in British Columbia. Prior to entering sales, she worked on the manufacturing side as a Training Coordinator and Assistant Production Scheduler at Weyerhaeuser. She is a graduate of the Wood Products Processing Program in Forestry at UBC and is passionate about encouraging more women to enter the wood and building materials industries. In her spare time, she enjoys travelling, cooking, and seeing live music.

David J. Jones has a double honors BSc in Botany and Zoology with a geology (minor) followed by a Ph.D. supported by a Durham University Scholarship. He studied the effects of 300 years of industrial pollution on the subtidal ecology of kelp growing in the ocean along the east coast of County Durham and Northumberland, England’s North Eastern shores.

David completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Simon Fraser University followed by one year as a visiting Assistant Professor in the Biology Department. Upon completion he left the academic life to accept a position as an early entrant to a new field of enquiry as a Professional Environmental Consultant.

In 2021; David closed his environmental consulting company and retired after 50 years offering professional ecological and environmental science service to business companies.

Since retirement he revived scientific and literature studies first started at his birthplace in Wales. For example, one of his special interests is the Ecology of Religion.

I have five years of forestry experience in both BC and Alberta working for large forest licensees. My experience is in harvest planning, operations supervision, and GIS management. Throughout my career, I have volunteered with recreation management and search & rescue organizations. I am currently a Juris Doctor student at the Schulich School of Law in Halifax with a goal of becoming a lawyer specializing in Aboriginal and resource law.

Domenico Iannidinardo is a second generation forest worker and UBC graduate with degrees in forestry and business. He is also registered as a professional forester, biologist and engineer. As VP Forest & Logistics and Chief Forester for Mosaic Forest Management based on Vancouver Island, he regularly finds himself between competitions for not only various resources on a landscape, but perceptions about what is the best balance associated with those magnificent resources.

I am currently a PhD student in the Conservation Decisions Lab at UBC having returned to academia after six years working, first, for a non-profit in California and, most recently, for an environmental consultancy in British Columbia. My academic background and career have been interdisciplinary and combine my interests in ecology, history, and cartography. As an undergraduate, I double majored in environmental science and history and completed my honours thesis in European history. I then began a Masters program in geography which focused on mapping long-term trends of ecosystem service provisioning in Canada. After completing my degree, I worked as a historical ecologist with the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) for four years. I then accepted a position with Ecofish Research Ltd. as an ecologist and spatial analyst. After two years with Ecofish, I returned to academia and began my current research on the historical ecology of Garry oak ecosystems (GOE) in British Columbia. My research uses a combination of archival and field-based methods to map the historical extent of GOE and will be used to establish robust baselines for biodiversity conservation efforts.

Erin graduated from the UBC Faculty of Forestry in 2000 with a Forest Science specialty. Post-graduation, she realized that her interests and passions were centered on resource conservation and, to that end, she completed a Master of Forest Conservation at the University of Toronto. Once back in British Columbia, Erin discovered the relatively new and growing sector of Urban Forestry. She began as a consultant working with builders and developers to meet the requirements of municipal tree bylaws, and then transitioned into a municipal government role administering a tree bylaw and reviewing development plans. Erin has spent the majority of her career at the City of Coquitlam in various roles related to urban forestry and park operations. She is currently the Urban Forestry and Park Services Manager where she leads the team doing ecological site restoration, trail maintenance, tree bylaw administration, tree risk assessment and street tree management, as well as the municipal cemetery. Erin is passionate about urban forestry and parks and sharing knowledge about the social, economic and ecological benefits that trees, forests and parks provide to urban communities. Erin feels grateful to be a part of the tri-mentoring program; in her experience she has gained so much knowledge and perspective from the mentees and is thankful to play a role in helping them discover their own passions and drive.

I graduated from the Conservation program in 2009 and went on to obtain an M.Sc. in 2012 where I studied the ecological and socioeconomic implications of invasive lionfish on the Bahamian lobster fishery. I currently work for Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) where I lead the Species at Risk Program Salmon Team, implementing salmon-related responsibilities under the Species at Risk Act. I’ve previously held various other roles within DFO, for example as part of teams that conducted regulatory reviews of major projects, supported Indigenous group in cumulative effects research, and contributed to a national long-term aquaculture monitoring program. I also spent four years at Stantec Consulting Ltd. where I was involved in the assessment of major projects throughout the BC coast. Additionally, I am a Diver’s Certification Board of Canada-certified occupational (commercial) diver and a Registered Professional Biologist.

I am primarily a builder. I help build relationships, organizations, and processes tailored to the unique characteristics and needs of the groups that I am working with. My objective is to help create something that helps those groups better shape their futures. Over the last 40 years some of the things that I have been involved in creating include businesses, schools, various land management arrangements, public policies, foundations, working relationships, and governments. I am often sought out to help groups work through difficult situations in unknown territory. I use a variety of tools including negotiating, brokering, planning, facilitating, chairing, mediating, strategizing, managing, teaching or any other professional skill required for the situation.

Graeme Dick graduated with an MSc from the Faculty of Forestry in 2009 after completing the UBC, Wood Products Processing Co-op program in 2007. His work experience has ranged from optimization of strand-based products, to overseeing the technical performance and capabilities of operations, and managing adhesive development efforts for the forest products industry. Graeme has routinely transformed technical departments and laboratories into results-oriented organizations with an emphasis on collaboration within and between operations.

Graeme is currently the Manager, EWP Development and Quality for Tolko Industries Ltd.  He is responsible for leading EWP product and process development and improvement efforts, while ensuring that quality management systems are effectively deployed across the veneer- and strand-based businesses. He has been trained in, and practices, Six Sigma and is an active member of the ASQ. He has experience effectively interacting with all levels of an organization, driving change through indirect leadership, and employing systematic techniques to problem solving.

Jennifer Hong is a policy analyst for the Circular Bioeconomy and Supply Chain Economics team at the Canadian Forest Service. She is the current co-chair of the International Bioeconomy Forum — Forest Bioeconomy Working Group. As the co-chair, she is leading on the communications focus area implemented through a public survey for Canadians and Indigenous peoples on their perceptions of the forest bioeconomy. Jennifer is a recent graduate from the University of British Columbia holding a BSc Honours in Forest Sciences specializing in Forest Ecosystem Services. She has worked for the Parks Canada Agency developing community outreach programs for members of the public and has led a student team to complete environmental restoration activities for the City of Surrey’s Salmon Habitat Restoration Program. Previously, she has supported Natural Resource Canada employees in 19 different innovation-related projects and has international experience working for Singapore’s National Parks Board. In addition to this, Jennifer has experience analysing energy policy solutions and programming to implement the Pan-Canadian Framework for Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Joe has vast experience in the business, manufacturing, and pulp & paper industry. His previous roles include President and CEO of Catalyst Paper Ltd., Green Belt Renewable Energy, and Canfor, where he oversaw strategic visioning and the overall governance of some of the best-known companies in the business. He has additionally held sales, marketing and business, and production development roles with Canfor and Fletcher Challenge Canada Ltd. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Fortress Paper Ltd. in North Vancouver, where he makes significant contributions to strategic plan development. Joe has a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from UBC and an MBA from Western University.

Josh is an articling student at a leading Canadian business law firm. After earning his B.Sc. in Natural Resources Conservation (Science and Management Major, Co-op) from UBC Forestry in 2018, Josh worked as an environmental coordinator for a Vancouver-based renewable energy company. While pursuing his J.D. (Environmental and Natural Resources Law Specialization) at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, Josh continued to assist BC renewable energy developers as an independent environmental consultant. He also assisted faculty research into environmental assessment law, directed his own research project focused on environmental, Indigenous, and Aboriginal law, and completed a certificate in Indigenous Cultural Competency. His extra-curricular pursuits included Co-Presidency of the Allard Law and Business Society and External Relations Director of the UBC Environmental Law Group.

Josh’s professional interests center around sustainable infrastructure development, natural resource management, and renewable energy. His professional legal experience includes an internship with a large energy utilities company and a summer work term with his current law firm. He enjoys hiking, cycling, climbing, camping, live music, and playing with his cat.

Mikayla graduated from the UBC Faculty of Forestry in 2015 and subsequently moved to Chetwynd in northern BC to work for DWB Consulting Services, primarily performing pre-harvest field work. She then attended SFU’s Resource and Environmental Management program and worked on several projects with Metlakatla First Nation related to cumulative effects, port development, and treaty negotiations. Mikayla also took part in the BC Legislative Internship Program in 2016 and worked as a Community Planner for the Township of Langley. Recently, she worked for FLNRORD in the Crown Land Authorizations Branch as a member of the BC-shíshálh Nation Shared Decision Making Working Group. Currently, Mikayla is the Regional Agrologist for the Metro Vancouver Region with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Over the last six years, Mikayla has had a very diverse and fulfilling career drawing on many of the skills and knowledge that she learned at UBC.

Montana graduated from UBC in 2014 with a degree in Forest Resources Management, specialization in Community and Aboriginal Forestry. She was later inducted into the ABCFP as a Registered Professional Forester. Prior to UBC, Montana studied in Peru (with the University of Calgary) on the effects natural resource extraction had on the Indigenous population.

Her first summer work experiences were as a Research Assistant at the UBC Farm focused on agroforestry, followed by a summer working for Western Forest Products in silviculture. After graduation, she worked in forestry engineering in the west coast region before landing a role in the BC Public Service in 2016. Her first role, as a policy advisor with the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, centred around treaty policy and bi-lateral agreements with First Nations. She later moved to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development as a Senior First Nation Policy Forester with Indigenous Relations Branch.

Today, Montana works as Manager for Regional Operations on the West Coast with Ministry of Forests. Her primary role is the implementation of Ecosystem-based Management in the Great Bear Rainforest at the government-to-government table with Coastal First Nation and Nanwakolas member Nations.

Montana lives with her partner Tom and scruffy pooch Cooper on the territory of the Liǧʷiɫdax̌ʷ peoples: the Wei Wai Kum, We Wai Kai and Kwiakah First Nations recognizing that the Xwémalhkwu and K’ómoks Nations also have close connections to these lands we commonly call Campbell River. She volunteers as a board member with the Beaver Lodge Trust Society and GoByBike Week Committee and spends her time surfing, learning piano, and walking her dog.

Nancy is a sustainability and management consultant with 18 years of international leadership and operational experience. Her most recent role was as CEO and Executive Director at the Jane Goodall Institute Australia. She has also served as Non-Executive Director on several boards including Greenpeace Australia Pacific and worked as a management consultant at two of the “Big Four” professional services firms: Deloitte and EY.

Nancy is a graduate of the Natural Resources Conservation program in UBC’s Faculty of Forestry and also holds an MBA and MSc (Ecology). She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and trained as a Climate Reality Leader under Al Gore.

Nancy has recently happily relocated back to Vancouver from Sydney with her family.

When I graduated from the Cons program at UBC, my first job was with the Business Operations section of Surrey’s Parks Division. While I had always envisioned working in the field and getting my hands dirty, this role was almost entirely an office-based database and work management system administration role. It turns out I really enjoyed the work! The job provided me with valuable experience to build upon my formal education and also allowed me to stay connected with the ever-evolving realm of urban forestry in Surrey. I served as Surrey’s urban forestry manager for more than 4 years and now I am Surrey’s manager of parks. In this role, I oversee long-range planning and parkland acquisition; park design and construction; athletic field, structure, and landscape maintenance and operations; community enhancement and park partnerships; and urban forestry within Surrey’s parks division.

Nick is a Registered Professional Forester and Partner at Chartwell Resource Group Ltd. Since graduating from UBC, he has always had a keen interest in Ecosystems Based Management (EBM) in Coastal BC. Over his career he has gained an in-depth understanding of Ecosystems Based Management on Haida Gwaii and its application in operational forestry. Beyond EBM, Nick is passionate about emerging technologies and remote sensing. Part of his role at Chartwell, is researching the ways new technologies and devices can be used to improve productivity and deliver great services to his clients. Nick is also committed to mentoring the next generation of forest professionals and believes that the UBC Tri-Mentoring Program is a great program for students looking to navigate the next steps of their careers.

Noora is an environmental designer and urban planner at Diamond Head Consulting. They are a recent graduate of the Master of Landscape Architecture program, and hold a Bachelor of Urban Forestry from the University of British Columbia. During their time at UBC, Noora engaged in a variety of research projects focused on the use of digital sandbox models to evaluate the performance of urban greenspaces for projected neighbourhood growth scenarios. Meanwhile, their graduate research project articulated a design proposal towards land-based community healing through ecological remediation of Tsilhqot’in territories impacted by exploratory drilling. Noora is passionate about the visual representation of complex environmental data and spatial proposals towards informed stewardship of local landscapes.

Patrick Duffy is a 1955 UBC Forestry alumnus and a Varsity Outdoors Club and Thunderbird Ski Team alum, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry, a Masters from Yale and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. He is the founder of Vancouver-based international environmental consultancy, PJB Duffy and Associates.

Patrick’s first professional job involved solving local frost occurrence problems in Ontario, after which he moved to Alberta to research on lodgepole pine and white spruce productivity while managing a forest research team on land classification. Following his doctorate, Patrick spent a year in Australia and Papua-New Guinea on land classification, then moved to Ottawa to coordinate land classification across Canada and to manage the Canada Land Inventory, which involved teams from the provinces. Patrick has over 55 years of experience working in Canada and overseas in over 40 countries on projects which were for the United Nations, including the FAO and the World Bank, industrial and non-government organizations. He has served as a mentor at UBC Forestry since the program’s inception about 20 years ago. In his spare time, he has enjoyed trekking in the Canadian Rockies, ski racing, classical music, and is interested in international affairs, governance of Canada, and climate change.

https://pjduffy0.wixsite.com/home

Peter Ackhurst worked as a field forester for MacMillan Bloedel, Crown Zellerbach, Crestbrook Forest Industries, and Peace Wood Products. Since that time he has gone on to top managerial positions with the BC Ministry of Forests where he played an active part in forestry activities at regional and provincial levels. He has served as President of the Association of BC Professional Foresters and National President of the Canadian Institute of Forestry. He has also chaired the Tree Improvement Council and Forest Productivity Council. He possesses strong management and leadership capabilities, broad-based knowledge of British Columbia and Canadian forestry, and extensive international experience. Peter worked as a forest consultant with a large consulting firm and is presently an independent consultant to the forestry sector. He has been the forest manager of the Cheakamus Community Forest at Whistler for the past 5 years. He has additionally worked for 2 years in Tanzania with CUSO International, in Chile with the United Nations/FAO, and Malaysia for 3 years with CIDA. Peter is now happily retired and living in West Vancouver.

Ricardo Pelai has over five years of research experience applying insights and methods from the social sciences to better understand and address environmental problems. He currently works at the Canadian Climate Institute as a Research Associate working on climate change adaptation policy research. Ricardo previously worked as a Research Associate at the Council of Canadian Academies in Ottawa synthesizing evidence to inform federal public policy, and completed an internship with the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat in Montreal. At the University of British Columbia, Ricardo investigated how different types of expertise are included (or excluded) in developing forest policy in response to climate change, and the role of targets in governing biodiversity conservation. Ricardo holds a M.Sc. in Forestry and a B.Sc. (Hon.) in Natural Resources Conservation from the University of British Columbia.

Rob has over 10 years’ experience overseeing the management of parks and urban forestry in Surrey and Port Coquitlam. A Natural Resource Professional with the Association of BC Forest Professionals, his work Experience includes habitat restoration, forest health management, tree risk assessments and wildlife research. Rob has a Bachelor of Science (Natural Resource Conservation) from the University of British Columbia, is an ISA Certified Arborist and Qualified Tree Risk Assessor.

As a recent graduate from UBC, I am navigating the early stages of my career. When I was a student, my interest in environmental education led me to work for Geering Up (a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting STEM education for youth through hands on learning). I am currently working as Geering Up’s Indigenous Outreach Coordinator. I organize educational programming for youth in rural and Indigenous communities throughout British Columbia with a focus on land-based learning. A highlight from my first year of work was going on a fishing trip with an elder and students in Kwadacha, a community in Northern BC. 

Skicy started her university journey at the Faculty of Forestry, UBC in 2014, majoring in Natural Resources Conservation. She joined and completed the Co-op program with three internships: 1) Field Administrative Assistant at Shenyang Ministry of Forestry in 2016 summer; 2) Field Support Technician at Forsite, Prince George in 2017; and 3) Guest Service Representative at Grouse Mountain in 2018 summer. In 2019 Skicy continued her studies with a Master of International Forestry, UBC and graduated in 2020. She was the sole award recipient of the highly competitive and esteemed Binkley Family Graduate Scholarship from Class 2020. Right after graduation, Skicy joined a start-up indoor farming company as a field grower. Through a year of hard work, she was promoted to the Field/ Retail Brand Specialist position responsible for 23 retails stores in the Greater Vancouver area.

Throughout my high school and university career I worked for a number of Forest Companies as a field engineer in the summer seasons. After completing a degree in natural resource management from the University of Northern BC, and a GIS Advanced Technical Diploma from the College of New Caledonia in 2004, I landed a final co-op placement with the now defunct Land and Water British Columbia Inc. in Fort St. John. My eligibility for registration with the ABCFP allowed me to move into an officer position disposing of Crown land for various industrial, commercial and residential purposes. I then moved to the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and Arts responsible for land management of Adventure Tourism projects in the Peace region. In 2007 I was transferred to the South Coast region and based in Squamish to manage the adventure tourism industry here. With the restructuring of the natural resource ministries, I became the Natural Resource District Operations Manager and expanded the portfolio beyond tourism to include traditional forestry, land development, planning and biology. Since February 2022 I have been working with Emergency Management BC leading a team supporting flood impacted communities with recovery efforts. I will return to the Ministry of Forests at the end of December.

Shruti recently graduated from UBC’s Faculty of Forestry with a BSc in Natural Resources Conservation, specializing in Global Perspectives. She is currently working as a part-time consultant at York Consulting Group while pursuing a Master of Management degree at Schulich School of Business, York University. Her interests are in social innovation, global agri-food systems, corporate social responsibility, and ESG. As a student who participated in the Tri-mentorship program, she recognizes the value of the program in shaping students’ careers and hopes to contribute as a mentor this time.
Shruti’s experiences include:
   – Volunteered at Matang Wildlife Centre, Malaysia, where she assisted in the rehabilitation of orangutans and learned about the complexities of the palm oil industry from local communities
   – Developed a market-driven business solution to reduce global agriculture-related deforestation and minimize carbon footprints, as part of the Tech4Impact Social Innovation program
   – Interned at an environmental services start-up where she managed social media marketing and conducted market and product research to improve the company’s online presence.

With family working in the forest industry and a keen interest in the outdoors, enrolling in forestry at UBC was an easy decision. I graduated in 1985 under the Forest Resources Management Option – with a year as a visiting student at the University of New Brunswick.

Following the subject area of my bachelor thesis, my first job after graduating was assisting in research on deer habitat – forestry interaction. In the next few years I was employed with consultants, contractors, the provincial government and a community college. I had opportunity to be located across many regions in the province involved in diverse work areas including forest mensuration, silviculture prescription, stand tending operations, forest fire-fighting, forestry worker training and range inventory.    

In 1990 I started a long career with forest products company at their Terrace location, as well as a stint in Fraser Lake. I worked in silviculture operations, timber development, resource planning, and overall divisional woodlands management.  More recently I had opportunity to work with an environmental consulting company primarily in their partnerships with aboriginal business.

In my work throughout I had much opportunity to apply knowledge from my education in many technical areas and above all, in working with people and organizations with diverse backgrounds, interests and perspectives. After a transition period helping on a few forestry projects, I am now pretty committed to retirement; but ski full time in the winter along with training in the off season.

I am an Aquatic Biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), currently acting as the Pacific region program lead for the Aquaculture Monitoring Program. Though I am mainly marine science focused now, my career has involved multiple transitions between forest and ocean ecosystems, and between government, private sector and academia. I have a BSc in Environmental Science from UBC, and an MSc in Geography from McGill University. My Masters work was focused on biodiversity in agroforestry systems of southern India, and I was briefly situated as a visiting student in UBC Forestry. After completing my degree, I worked both in government and in environmental consulting before accepting a permanent position with DFO. Throughout my academic and professional career, I chose to specialize in GIS and spatial analyses, which has enabled me to more easily move between sectors and study areas. I hope to continue to gain experience in a variety of different work environments, particularly in program management.

I graduated the University of British Columbia (UBC) with a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources Conservation in 2020. During my time in UBC, I completed several Co-op terms with the Ministry of Forests and UBC’s Tree Ring Lab, gaining experience in the field of forestry, silviculture, and environmental management. I now work with Ecora helping forest companies, First Nations and community forests in B.C with strategic forest planning and trade-off/optimization of various forest management objectives within their land base. As an analyst, I use forest estate models to assess the impact of management decisions on timber supply and other values (wildlife, biodiversity, hydrology) and provide data to support informed decision-making. Recently, I have worked on carbon accounting projects to quantify forest carbon dynamics using regional carbon modelling tools and develop Nature Based Solution (NBS) forest carbon offset projects. I am currently working towards my Registered Professional Forester (RPF) designation working through the Applied Science Forester-in-Training (ASFIT) process.