Lisa Maria Fox, Executive Director of Sustainability Resources

Resource Series Project Manager, Facilitator & Lead Curriculum Development Advisor

Lisa brings over 10 years of experience in sustainable community development, environmental project development and management, and multi-stakeholder engagement. Lisa has worked with all levels of government, resource management planning and advisory groups, and with the private sector to develop conservation programs, management plans, and environmental policies. Lisa also contributes her experience to several stewardship and civic capacity building projects, resource management partnerships and environmental advocacy groups. Lisa is an appointed Director on the Regional Advisory Council for the Southern Alberta Land Use Plan, she serves as Chair of the Bow River Basin Council's Legislation and Policy Review Committee, a Director on the Alberta Environmental Network, Alternat Director of the Alberta Water Council and is the Vice President of the Canadian Environmental Network.

Sustainable Community Resource Series Facilitator & Project Coordinator

For several years, Natalie served as the director and program facilitator of the Nature Awareness Institute. In this role she designed and delivered community based environmental education programs for all ages. Natalie has studied renewable resource management, strategies for sustainability management, and is currently a degree candidate at the Harvard University Extension School. Using the local community as the nexus for change, Natalie seeks to share her passion for systems thinking to empower organizations and the individuals who champion them to develop and achieve their sustainability goals. Natalie possesses a unique ability to bring people through complex systems processes. In addition to her several years of academic study, Natalie is an experienced facilitator, trained presenter, and certified Project Manager.

Sustainable Community Resource Series Partner & Facilitator

Shawn has extensive experience working with municipal land use policies and land development.  Through an appointment to the Calgary Planning Commission (CPC) as representative of the Federation of Calgary Communities (FCC), Shawn served as member of this approval authority and technical advisory panel to Calgary City Council on land use issues. Shawn contributed actively to the development of the new Calgary Land Use Bylaw (enacted June 2008). Shawn’s involvement in addressing land policy issues fostered a strong understanding of sustainable community development and planning for sustainability. In addition to bein a complex and creative community planning consultant in Alberta, Shawn also provides strategic advice and secures funding for various other real estate projects throughout North America.

Jennifer Yadlowski, Environmental Education Specialist

Water Management Resource Series Facilitator

Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Science in Land Use and Environmental Studies and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Saskatchewan and has worked for various government and non-profit organizations as a plant ecologist and environmental educator in Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta. Jennifer comes to Sustainability Resources with an extensive experience in education in both the formal high school setting, and the informal environmental education setting.  Jennifer helped to design the curriculum structure of the Water Management Resource Series.

Mark Anielski, Economist and Author

Sustainable Community Resource Module Partner – Geniune Wealth Module

 Mark is the author of the best-selling, award-winning book The Economics of Happiness: Building Genuine Wealth, which was published in June 2007 by New Society Publishers. Mark is a well-being economist, entrepreneur, professor and president of his family-owned corporation, Anielski Management Inc. which specializes in measuring the sustainable well-being of communities and nations. He has pioneered natural capital accounting in Canada and alternative measures of economic progress, including the US Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) and the Alberta GPI. For 14 years he served as senior economic policy advisor to the Alberta Government. He has served as an senior economic advisor to China  in their efforts to “green” their economic or GDP accounts. Mark is also a professor of corporate social responsibility and social entrepreneurship at the School of Business, University of Alberta and is a founding faculty member of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute (the first MBA program in sustainable business) located near Seattle. Mark is the past-President of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics, an associate with the International Institute for Sustainable Development and a Senior Fellow with the Oakland-based economic think-tank Redefining Progress. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with his family.

Don Hill, Adjunct Professor Banff Centre for Leadership

Sustainable Community Resource Series  - Curriculum Advisor, Facilitator & Media Liaison

Don Hill is adjunct-faculty at the Banff Centre's Leadership Development Program. His counsel as "thought leader" is part of a gathering of "leading edge thinkers from the areas of leadership, popular media and the voice and vocal arts." He's had a long association with the Centre in a variety of capacities and arts initiatives. He's also an associate-researcher at the Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario.
 Don’s company, Appropriate Entertainment Ltd. owns and licenses a catalogue of media content and intellectual properties, which have been acquired worldwide for over two decades. He is a filmmaker, a popular speaker and a long-standing member of the Writers Guild of Canada. A founding board member of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Don is also an accomplished musician. 

Don has partnered with the CKUA Radio Network to make Inspiring Leadership 2.0, a thirteen part series on the challenges of sustainability and environmental leadership in the 21st century.

Karen Kun, Executive Director of Waterlution & Publisher Corporate Knights Magazine

Co-Author Water Resource Management Curriculum Guide for Alberta

Karen Kun founded Waterlution in 2003, following involvement in the World Summit for Sustainable Development and piloting water-learning programs in South Africa. In 2005, Karen became Publisher of Corporate Knights magazine after a two-year publishing partnership with Waterlution. With extensive strategy and research capacities on environmental sustainability and corporate responsibility from CSR consulting work in the UK and field experience in Columbia, Costa Rica, Bolivia and South Africa with Oxfam-Quebec and CUSO, Karen is committed to creating spaces for dialogue.

Joel S. Den Haan, B.A., M.Div., Th.M.

Sustainable Community Resource Module Partner  & Facilitator - Community Visioning

In twenty-plus years of working with faith and volunteer groups as they engage significant change, Joel Den Haan has developed approaches that help participants achieve vision, focus, and direction.  More than that, however, Joel can help surface the hidden factors- deep-seated core values, emotional forces, symbols- that can make the difference between simply having a plan, and actually implementing it successfully.  For the past decade Joel has been serving as an in-house consultant for over 70 faith communities and 4 governing bodies (3 local, 1 provincial) affiliated with The United Church of Canada. In that time he has helped groups dealing with over $40 million in capital assets to succeed in implementing sustainable, visionary plans. Joel approaches complex questions with energy, clarity, and good humor.  His academic background includes degrees in Humanities from The University of Calgary, as well as graduate and post-graduate degrees with a focus on  spirituality, leadership, and organizational analysis from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

Rene Michalak, Coordinator of ReThink Red Deer and Pathways 2 Sustainability 2011

Sustainable Community Resource Module Facilitator Transition Towns Trainer & Module Partner

As the Coordinator for ReThink Red Deer, Rene has helped bring resilient community planning to the forefront of public dialogue in Central Alberta. He is presently studying resilience theory and exploring the dynamics of complex social-ecological systems in order to discover foundations for sustainability. He is a Marketing graduate of the Haskayne School of Business (UofC) and Red Deer's Leadership Centre, a certified Transition Towns trainer and aspiring permaculture designer. Rene is currently coordinating the Pathways 2 Sustainability conference as an opportunity to build capacity among a community of researchers, practitioners, stakeholders, and policy makers, through a variety of knowledge-sharing and network-development initiatives.

Greg Philliban, Professional Project Management Instructor Facilitator and Consultant 

Sustainable Community Resources / Project & Stakeholder Management Trainer & Curriculum Advisor

Greg has been offering project management certificate courses across Canada for resource managers, government department heads, and environmental groups. Greg's credentials include a instructor / facilitator certificate from Langevin Learning Services, a Certificate in Project Management (CPM) from Algonquin College of Applied Arts & Technology and Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from PMI.

Mr. Philliban currently teaches the "Human Factors in Project Management" course at Algonquin College, Ottawa and is a member of the Canadian Management Centre’s highly respected Ontario Public Sector Centre of Excellence cadre of faculty practitioners.

Vivienne Beisel, Environmental Law, Policy & Mediation 

Sustainable Community Resource Module Partner – First Nations & Resource Management 

Beisel Law Office works with Aboriginal communities and industrial developers to build strong business relationships by reviewing documents and policies for compliance with the law, assisting with negotiations, mediating disputes, developing or reviewing consultation plans, informing clients of best practices in consultation, developing community consultation and traditional ecological knowledge guides and handbooks. Vivienne has facilitated meetings between leading oil producers in Alberta and Aboriginal community stakeholders on environmental and Aboriginal legal issues.  She has successfully facilitated meetings and workshops conducting research. and developing reports are an integral part of her law practice.  She has conducted extensive literature reviews in her legal and academic career and published her Master’s on Aboriginal water rights in Treaty 7 territories and the duty to consult.  She currently sits on the Bow River Basin Legislation and Policy Committee, an advisory committee which considers and recommends municipal, provincial and federal water legislation and policies, and water management frameworks and plans to the BRBC, the Alberta Water Council, and the province.

Jon Fennell, Hydrogeologist & Project Director Worley Parsons

Sustainable Water Management Resource Module Partner – Hydrology 101

Dr. Fennell has over 23 years consulting experience in Alberta and Western Canada dealing with resource planning issues.  Much of his experience has been gained in the Southern Basins and various oil sands regions, where he has been one of the leading hydrogeology experts for groundwater management, protection, and remediation.  Over the past 6 years, Jon has been assessing the effects of climate change and land use on basin-scale hydrology, and has been working to develop effective management strategies for water resource sustainability including off-stream and underground storage.  Jon has been active in watershed planning both professionally and on a volunteer basis, and has been involved in a number of hydrogeological studies relating to the Town setting, including the Sheep River alluvial aquifer. Jon Fennell provides clients with risk assessment analysis and frameworks as well as triple bottom line feasibility assessment (ECOnomics).

Cat Shrier, International Water Policy Expert

Sustainable Water Management Module Partner – Water and Energy

Dr. Shrier is an internationally recognized expert on policy, permitting, planning, and public perception issues related to aquifer storage and conjunctive water management.  Dr. Shrier served on the National Academy of Sciences Study Committee on Managed Underground Storage of Recoverable Water (e.g. Aquifer Storage Recovery or [ASR] and recharge basins), which published its report in January 2008.  She has authored several publications on aquifer storage policy, planning, and permitting issues.