Elin Kelsey, PhD, author of Hope Matters, is a leading spokesperson, scholar and educator in the area of evidence-based hope. Elin’s work focuses on the reciprocal relationship between humans and the rest of nature, particularly in relation to the emotional implications of the narrative of environmental doom and gloom on children and adults. Her influence can be seen in the hopeful, solutions-focus of her clients including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and other powerful institutions where she has served as a visiting fellow including the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Passionate about bringing science-based stories of hope and multi-species resilience to the public, Kelsey is a popular keynote speaker and media commentator. In 2014, she co-created #OceanOptimism, a twitter campaign to crowd-source marine conservation solutions which has reached more than 95 million shares to date. In 2019 she served as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University in the Graduate School of Education, bringing a critical emphasis on hope to an interdisciplinary think tank on environmental issues. As an Adjunct Faculty member of the University of Victoria School of Environmental Studies, she is spearheading the development of a solutions-oriented paradigm for educating environmental scientists and social scientists. She is a feature writer for Hakai Magazine and a best-selling Children’s Book Author. She enjoys serving as an author in residence in schools and leads environmental workshops for teachers, and kindergarten through university students, across North America and around the world.

Dr. Douw Steyn, PhD, ACM, FCMOS is a Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Science at The University of British Columbia, in the Department of Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, is member of the Institute for Applied Mathematics, the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, and the Liu Institute for Global Issues. He has served as Associate Dean (Research and Faculty Development) in the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Principal of the College for Interdisciplinary Studies. His professional, teaching and research activities are in the field of air pollution meteorology, boundary layer meteorology, mesoscale meteorology, environmental science and interdisciplinary science. His research involves measurement and modelling studies of regional air pollution, especially in regions with complex terrain. This work involves modelling of near-surface emissions of pollutants and their precursors, atmospheric flow and turbulence modelling, and modelling of chemical transformation of air pollutants. He has
worked extensively on the statistics of air pollution, air pollution monitoring and monitoring network design. He is winner of a UBC Killam Teaching Prize, the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Andrew Thompson Prize in Applied Meteorology, and the Canadian Federation for Earth Sciences Mentorship Medal. He has served as Chair of the scientific committee that leads the International Technical Meeting series on Air Pollution Modelling and its Application. He publishes regularly in the international peer reviewed literature, he is managing editor of the journal Atmosphere-Ocean. He is an Accredited Consulting Meteorologist, and has international consultancy experience in his areas of expertise, and has provided expert testimony in numerous court cases and appeal board hearings in British Columbia.

Jared Forman holds a Master of Public Policy from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) with a specialization in Social Policy and Social Innovation, and a Master of Global Affairs from the University of Toronto. Through his studies, Jared developed expertise on the intersection of social and climate policy, sustainable development, and environmental economics. Simultaneously, he became a staunch believer in the importance of equity and inclusion and evidence-based policymaking during his time in student politics. Jared currently works as a Research Associate with the Canadian Climate Institute. Recent papers of his include “Locking out Carbon” (Parts 1 & 2),  “Aligning Canada’s oil and gas sector with net zero”, and “Net Zero Workforce: The role of skills training in Canada’s climate transition”.

Judy Wu completed a Master of Public Health (MPH ‘21) at the School at Population and Public Health (SPPH) at UBC. During her MPH, she had the opportunity to combine her research interests in climate action and mental health by investigating the health effects of climate- and eco-anxiety on young people. During her degree, she also held a Sustainability Scholar internship through the UBC Sustainability program. In her role, she researched methods that address climate- and eco-anxiety within individuals, group settings, and among communities. The reports of her work can be found at: https://sustain.ubc.ca/about/resources/programs-and-interventions-address-climate-grief

Currently, Judy is a research team member of the Capturing Health and Resilience Trajectories (CHART) lab at Simon Fraser University. Her work with the lab is aimed at supporting and improving youth mental health, with specific focus on the potential impact of the climate crisis and eco-anxiety on BC high school students.

Dr. Elizabeth Moore is an experienced Executive Director with a demonstrated history of working in education management at every level – Head, Deputy, Assistant Head, and middle management. With an EdD focused on Management of Change and Assessment for Learning, Elizabeth is passionate about Professional Development and developing leadership skills in adults and students. She has served on the Executive of the Federation of Independent Schools, BC, for 11 years and is currently serving vice-president, Chair of the Independent Schools Teaching Standards Certification Committee and Advocacy committee .

Mr. Tom Harding is currently the Head of Science and Strategic Partnerships in Science at West Point Grey Academy in Vancouver.  His passion for engaging high school students in meaningful inquiry has developed over his 25 year career in British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Mexico.  He designed and implemented the West Vancouver School District’s Environmental Science Academy, a collaborative initiative with federal government researchers at the Pacific Science Enterprise Centre. He was recognized with the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (Certificate – 2017).

Sue Roppel has 20+ years experience in the post-secondary and not-for-profit sector designing and supporting innovation creation and experiential learning. She has developed innovative post-secondary programs at SFU, Mitacs and Canada’s first International Research Centre of Excellence, IC-IMPACTS. Sue began working with the Kimberley Foundation in 2017 to create new programming focused on experiential learning and inspiring action toward climate change mitigation and awareness raising by Canadian youth. Sue has long been passionate about sustainability commencing with a paper she co-authored in 2000 with Dr. Don Alexander, setting out a Strategy for Effective Ecological Development (SEED).