Canada

About Heather

Heather DeLagran (she/her) is an education producer for the National Film Board of Canada on a project called Ocean School—a free online environmental education resource that empowers students to create positive change. Heather’s work sits at the intersection of storytelling, education and science. She has helped produce over 118 pieces of media—short documentaries, 360 immersive experiences, AR/VR simulations and web-based interactives—that tell ocean stories from Canada's Pacific and Atlantic coasts, the Saint Lawrence River, Costa Rica and Raja Ampat Indonesia. Heather is a former geography teacher, human rights educator and author of the Burgundy Jazz educator guide. She brings experience and skills in environmental and outdoor education, curriculum design, educational technology, participatory action research and human rights education. 

About Heather’s Community Action Project

Ocean School makes free environmental education resources that engage learners in the world of ocean science. One of the main goals of Ocean School is for students to apply their knowledge to make change. This community action project aims to equip 15–20 middle school teachers with time, resources and tools to tackle a citizen science action project with their students. The pilot will bring together small groups of teachers in Canada and the US for a two-day workshop. During the workshop, teachers will work together to complete a citizen science action project that they can take back to their classrooms! They will then plan and develop a budget for the project. Small bursaries will be given to support the classroom projects. A virtual community of practice will be offered for continued support and community building. Heather hopes the pilot enables the creation of a scalable model for other organizations to train teachers on the action project process!

How are you using education to build more sustainable and equitable communities? Tell us about your EE work and impact.

I believe in people power and in making knowledge and information as accessible as possible to the public. As a community organizer and later as an educator in more formalized spaces in higher education, I realized that there is a lot of jargon and ineffective communication used when talking about critical environmental issues, and a need to make these conversations relatable. I started by doing in person programming and eventually found my groove in community engagement. I lead a rad team of folks at Embark Sustainability in making environmental, food, and climate justice an accessible topic through low-barrier programming and engagement strategies that support students in discovering their own personal relationships to these issues, motivating  them to take action for equitable and sustainable futures. My heart’s work is to center relationships, diversity of perspectives, educational equity and access, and lived experiences in environmental education. Together we know a lot!

Tell us about your journey to where you are today. What inspired you? What has your path been like?

I spent most of my childhood in a rapidly urbanizing coastal city where development was often done at the expense of people and nature so I have only ever known environmental protection and community work as two sides of the same coin. In seeking resilient and transformative solutions to the compounding environmental and social crisis we face, I’ve worn multiple hats working on multi stakeholder collaborations, policy, and research in all things food, biodiversity, and people through a diversity of roles as strategist, educator, community facilitator, and project manager. Shortly after completing my interdisciplinary degree at UBC, I went on to pursue a Master’s at the University of Oxford, where I looked at the role of ecosystem services in climate-smart agriculture programs. Grassroots and community work taught me that policy without people is not a sustainable solution which fueled my interest in knowledge sharing and mobilization. It was only through conversation with my mentors and peers that I began to view my work in deepening relationship and embedding reciprocity into true partnerships and capacity building as environmental education work! I will always be grateful and thankful to those who continue to pave the way before me and to those who inspire joy and hope on days where the world feels extra hard.

A Little More About Me

What (or who) keeps you hopeful for the future?

Intergenerational work! Learning from my elders and being challenged and inspired by my peers and youth.

If you could be any animal or plant, what would you be and why?

I’d like to be a coconut tree, it’s useful for so many things and they get to be in warm and sunny places year round

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Simple - I’d love to fly!

How do you unwind?

Long walks with my dog.

How are you using education to build more sustainable and equitable communities? Tell us about your EE work and impact.

I use environmental education to prepare Canadian physicians to care for patients increasingly impacted by the climate crisis. After taking part in a study that found that Canadian medical students are not receiving sufficient education at the nexus of climate change and health, I have developed planetary health medical education competencies and a set of Climate Wise slides to support their implementation into existing medical curricula as a past Co-Chair of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students Health and Environment Adaptive Response Taskforce. I have also founded a national community of practice that teaches medical students valuable skills in healthcare systems leadership and quality improvement by equipping them with the funding, mentorship, and knowledge to launch healthcare sustainability quality improvement projects across Canada as the founder and Co-Director of Project Green Healthcare/Projet Vert la Santé. I am also a healthcare sustainability researcher and have lectured healthcare trainees and professionals nationally about approaches to practice and advocate for high-value, low-carbon healthcare.

Tell us about your journey to where you are today. What inspired you? What has your path been like?

I started medical school after a spell of severe heat waves in Montreal and I started my residency training in internal medicine surrounded by smog from the raging wildfires in Quebec. While taking part in patient care in hospitals and clinics around Montreal, I have witnessed the health impacts of climate change, land degradation, and biodiversity loss on Canadians, and its disproportionate effects on structurally marginalized groups. This has driven me to take leadership to advance planetary health medical education and advocate for environmentally-sustainable healthcare systems. My path has taught me that long-lasting and impactful climate action requires multisectoral collaboration and transdisciplinary solutions. Tackling the issues of climate change and sustainability has allowed me to feel more fulfilled in my work as a physician-in-training, as I feel that I am preventing as well as treating illnesses by mitigating the upstream environmental causes that are making patients unwell.

A Little More About Me

What book, film, or art piece has had the greatest impact on you?

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World. The book cleverly combines tables and graphs with expert interpretation that had convinced a previously quite pessimistic me that I should be optimistic and hopeful about our world!

What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders?

We need you. Go change the world!

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Empathy. Being able to know, not just sense, how someone is feeling.

What are your hobbies?

Poetry writing, fencing, jogging, and watching the latest hit show on a streaming service!

Age: 28

Canada

Rosa (she/her) is an education professional dedicated to creating and delivering impactful programming with a focus on social and environmental sustainability and reconciliation.

How are you using education to build more sustainable and equitable communities?

One of the most valuable lessons I have learned during my time as program manager at Natural Curiosity (NC), a Canadian organization that advocates for the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in environmental and all education, is that education is more about the process of asking the right questions than it is about finding the “right answer.” In 2018, NC published its 2nd Edition: The Importance of Indigenous Perspectives in Children’s Environmental Inquiry, which is a groundbreaking rewrite of the first edition that had lacked the recognition of Indigenous perspectives and their importance to EE. Deepened by an Indigenous lens, NC 2nd Edition inspired thousands of educators to see their role and responsibility more clearly reflected in the reconciliation process and in connection to EE. While the work of NC advanced Canadian EE in significant ways, it also revealed new challenges—how do we support educators by bringing Indigenous perspectives into practice? How do we engage Indigenous partnership appropriately and in reciprocity?

Responding to these new questions, over time and in relationships with community partners, became the heart of my work at NC. We hosted an Indigenous Education Advisory meeting with key stakeholders, whose recommendations guided the creation of a new 3-year strategic plan. I dedicated the last two years to realizing the various commitments detailed in this roadmap, expanding our program portfolio, impact, and reach by threefold. None of our successes would have been possible without a commitment to continuously recognizing what we do not know, trying out new ideas, having brave conversations, and reaching out to community partners to take action and reflect. I believe that embracing this iterative and ongoing process of learning can add as much value to our collective journey towards a sustainable and equitable future for all as much as any other (product-oriented) environmental solutions of our time.

Tell us about your journey to where you are today.

I am a guest on Turtle Island with roots that stretch to my birthplace in Cheongju, Korea. I live and work in Toronto, in the traditional territories of the Wendat, Seneca, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. After my undergraduate studies in Environmental Science, Conservation, and Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto (UofT), I worked with various nonprofits, including Green Teacher and Learning for a Sustainable Future, where I developed a deep respect for education as a vehicle for healing our relationship to the earth. This awareness materialized into a real purpose in 2018 when I was hired as the Coordinator of NC, during a pivotal time when the organization was beginning to include an explicit commitment to reconciliation in all its programming. Over the last two years, I had the privilege of serving NC as its manager, providing transformative professional learning and resources for 20,000+ North American educators annually. I take immense pride in how NC’s intercultural, heart-based approaches to education transformation are inspiring thousands of educators and students to relate more deeply to the natural world in ways that are informed by Indigenous perspectives on learning and living in reciprocity with the land.

Today, I am serving as the program manager of Schulich ExecEd at York University, where I am committed to further developing and contributing my professional experience towards generating societal and environmental value for future generations.

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT ME

What makes you most excited to be an EE30U30 awardee?

My experience in EE so far has connected me with some of the kindest, most interesting, and inspiring people I have ever met in my life. It is clear that EE30U30 is a collective of trailblazers and lifelong learners with the skills, connections, and passion to embrace all that I have to offer, and take it to new heights—I am most honored and excited to be a part of this inspiring community.

What (or who) keeps you hopeful for the future?

What keeps me hopeful for the future is seeing environmentalism show up in different shapes and forms through diverse fields of work, disciplines, spaces, art, and all aspects of society. Caring for the earth is a responsibility that can and should be shared by everyone, no matter our personal or professional calling (not just “environmentalists”). I can really see that unfolding in creative ways with the new generation, and I think that is a beautiful shift.

What are you happiest doing?

I am happiest when I am simply being, somewhere out in the natural world, and in the company of my loved ones.

What book, film, or art piece has had the greatest impact on you?

In addition to must-read’s in Indigenous Literature like Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer or Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga, a poem I once received as a gift on a crumpled piece of paper from a dear friend comes to mind: “Emergence” by Joy Harjo, United States Poet Laureate. This poem always re-connects me to my “why,” and warms my heart with the familiar passion I have always had for the natural world.

Age: 22

Canada

Rae (they/them) is a passionate environmentalist and climate advocate who fosters community-driven change through civic engagement projects centered on environmental education and action!

How are you using education to build more sustainable and equitable communities? 

People can’t act on issues they don’t know about. Climate justice, environmental justice, and environmental education are all interconnected and to address them we first need to know more about them. When we identify an issue and learn about it, then we can create solutions for addressing it. This is where education is vital. 

I had always seen environmental organizations focused on one main cause for example ocean conservation, fast fashion, etc., but I had yet to run into any organization which showcased all these topics and more. So, one day I decided that I was going to start an organization that focused on interdisciplinary education on all these different environmental topics and their intersectionality with social and climate justice, and before long Create Change Collective was up and running. Each month I launch an awareness campaign around a different environmental topic, from food systems in Canada, fast fashion, ocean health, issues affecting pollinators, and so much more! Each month there are action items, reflections, activity kits, and ways that community members can become involved in addressing the cause or with other organizations that focus on it. This facilitates individual learning and action, as well as community action to make a positive impact. 

Tell us about your journey to where you are today. 

My love and passion for the environment started when I was just a little kid exploring the forest by my house. I found solace in nature, which drove me to pursue a BSc. in environmental science and my MSc. in physical geography. My curiosity of the natural environment and my love of sharing knowledge is what made me realize that environmental education was the path for me.

Nature has always inspired me, and I have always been fascinated by the ways in which our world works. I found that the more I learned about the environment the more magical it became, how nature could produce so many incredible feats, so calmly, chaotically, and so beautifully. I have had the privilege of being able to travel and see some of the most picturesque landscapes. At times it can be so daunting how small we humans are in comparison to trees, mountains, and rivers. But I also think that there’s something so incredibly wonderful about that.

My path has been challenging. I have spent so much of my academic career questioning what I really want to do, where I want to be, and how I can get there. One constant of my challenging path has remained the same; being outside in nature and exploring the natural world. Looking for every possible opportunity to connect with like-minded folks and to continue to push my own boundaries of what I thought was possible, and somehow it has landed me here, exactly where I am supposed to be doing the things I love. 

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT ME

What book, film, or art piece has had the greatest impact on you?

The film Anthropocene: The Human Epoch has had the biggest impact on me. It shows the effects that humans have had on the earth so artfully. I spent the entire film crying and in awe of the world. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

What are you happiest doing?

I am happiest when I get to play in the water, whether that be swimming, canoeing, kayaking, or rafting; really anything that gets me on the water I adore!

What (or who) keeps you hopeful for the future?

What keeps me hopeful for the future is the passionate environmentalists and activists I have met and connected with. Seeing their drive, passion, and the difference they’re making in the world is so inspiring!  

What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders?

The advice I would give to the next generation of leaders is to not be afraid of failure. So often we limit what we do because we are afraid of failing, we’re afraid to look silly or dumb. That fear minimizes what we do, and it’s only when we accept failure that we are able to push ourselves past our limits and achieve new heights. 

Jason facilitates environmental education workshops for intergenerational audiences on interconnections of economic systems, the environment, and human well-being.

How are you using education to build more sustainable and equitable communities? 

As the Youth Program Facilitator at Ecosource, I coordinate the Peel Environmental Youth Alliance (PEYA) project. I am responsible for the program development and delivery of events for the Peel community. I host monthly environmental education webinars aimed at youth and adults to increase intergenerational conservation related to the environment. Participants in our program learn from environmental experts and organizations to strengthen their climate change/environmental literacy and communicate those problems locally. Past webinars include plastic pollution, sustainable cities, COVID and climate, green careers, and environmental justice.

 As the Policy Specialist for the Community Climate Council, I work with the Research and Education team to develop and execute strategies to increase environmental awareness and climate literacy in the Peel Region. I am also one of the founders of Gradient Spaces, a space for 2SLGBTQIA+ people passionate about making tech a more equitable space. We gather passionate people with a wide range of perspectives and expertise who are ready to connect and share knowledge, resources, and opportunities to address the problems they see in the tech ecosystem.

Tell us about your journey to where you are today. 

I grew up in Toronto with very little green space up to Brampton, where my family lived by the protected Greenbelt area. I started to become aware of how race and class can affect access to green spaces and green infrastructure. This led me to study Business and Society at York University to learn how traditional and alternative business structures interact with different aspects of society, such as government, communities, and their effects on our ecosystem. 

In my final year as an undergraduate student, I learned about ecological economics and the issues of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) used as the primary measure of well-being; this piqued my interest to research it further in graduate school, where I am studying to obtain a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies at York University.

 I explore a socio-ecological approach to measure progress for Ontario's transition to a green economy. During this time, I also present environmental education materials through workshops and guest lectures. These opportunities highlight the importance of using other mediums to communicate environmental/sustainability issues among different demographics, recognizing that everyone interprets information differently.

What keeps you hopeful for the future?

 What keeps me hopeful is working with middle and high school students and seeing how they’re not only knowledgeable about climate change issues, but they take that understanding of climate change and become leaders to make a change in their communities.

Who do you look up to as inspiration? 

Dr. Cornel West has always been an inspiration to me since I was young; his conversations on race and class within our current societal system and the need to dismantle it was one of my main motivations to pursue a career in this space.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be? 

If I could have one superpower, it would be to control the weather like X-Men's Storm. She is one of my favorite comic book heroes.

Kevin joins the Fellowship from Calgary, Alberta. The skills he brings to the Fellowship are community partnership development and teacher education. Establishing partnerships between and within communities is a skill he intends to capitalize on throughout the duration of the Fellowship. 

Activities that energize Kevin include sea kayaking and canoeing, and skiing (telemark and skijoring). A place he’d like to visit is Glacier Bay, Alaska. 

Keepers of our Place: Community Environmental Monitoring Project

The Project
This community action project will include three distinct communities that neighbor each other in the southwest region of the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They are: Connect Charter School, Tsuut’ina First Nation Band Middle School, Mount Royal University-Department of Education. A recent developing major transportation route (‘ring road’), which intersects the 3 communities, has created a myriad of complex social, geographical, environmental, economic, and cultural issues. The implications of such a development are not yet understood. These communities are open to reconsidering their place as close “true” neighbours and community partners, as they share a geographical space and have comparable goals given the close nature of Place-based Education PBE and Land-based Education LBE.

Project Goals (for the community members)

• Connect to, and collaborate with, other community members around data related to snow/water bodies and weather [PBE/LBE Meetings and Field Studies and Data Collection]
• Connect to community, social and cultural issues, and provide possible solutions to those issues [Research findings, academic paper/journal, videos, conference presentation]
• Connect to the various observations and understandings of our “place” (PBE/LBE) as each community shares their understandings and ways of knowing. [Student Research Projects at the Student Research Symposium, community and academic presentations]

Project Objectives

• The 3 community groups are positively impacted through a renewed partnership: participants benefit from the initiatives to establish meaningful relationships, and have a shared desire to act as “keepers of our place”.
• That students/teachers continue to engage in PBE/LBE EE projects and incorporate meaningful and multi-disciplinary curriculum and pedagogy that has real-life meaning.
• That all participants develop a heightened responsibility of place as it applies to their local communities. That these diverse group of schools share a common focus on their understanding of place, where instruction and learning are grounded in the values, norms, knowledge, beliefs, practices and language that are the foundation of our distinct cultures. This approach investigates culture, geographical features, resource issues, economic challenges, opportunities and community governance. Learners become engaged in activities that serve the community.

Natasha (she/her) chases mountains—no plans, just her and the wildlife that live on them. She enjoys hiking and being with people who feel a connection to nature. It’s no surprise she’d travel to any forest path hidden in an urban landscape that has the sights, smells and sounds of being transported away—think any of the green spaces in Alberta, British Columbia, Texas, Indiana, New York or Washington. She’s also been spotted in rural paddy fields in Eastern India, among Zen gardens in Japan, ancient caves in New Zealand and even in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!

The Four Directions Healing Garden Project

The Project
This student-led project is to design and implement a sustainable garden/healing space with Alberta native plant species in consultation with traditional Indigenous Elders from our community. Medicines and sacred plants such as Cedar, Tobacco, Sage and Sweetgrass may be planted. This garden will commemorate Canada’s Residential School history and honor the survivors with intergenerational trauma who make up our student body. The Healing Garden will contain a ‘Prayer Tree’, to be decorated with names of deceased victims of trauma from Indian Residential schools. Students will work with me, their Social Studies teacher, and learn grant writing skills, about building partnerships in the community, with design experts and horticulturalists, to create a landscape that beautifies our school grounds sustainably.

Goal

Engage students to demonstrate their resilience, and to address immediate grief students are feeling considering the discoveries of thousands of unmarked graves at multiple Residential Schools. Working over the course of the school year will allow students to educate themselves and incorporate aspects of language and culture revitalization.

Long Term Goals
Longer term goals include giving students a chance to (re)connect to their unique culture, process grief, become experts in the native horticulture of our area, and beautify space in a sustainable way.

• First, a Healing Garden Advisory Committee will be formed in September with students and our resident Elder. This committee will meet once or twice weekly to discuss project planning and action steps that students will lead.
• Second, during October-March, research and selection of a landscaping company that has expertise to help us understand the space in which we want to put our Healing Garden. We will reach out to horticulturalists who could advise us how to use planters to create sustainable urban spaces with plants native to our area. Research into ways the Alberta Native Plants Council, The Edmonton Horticultural Society and Garden Clubs might help support us will also be conducted by students. Students will write posts for social media and grants and explore funding opportunities.
• Third, students will travel off site to visit and learn about traditional plants in October and April to visit a Healing Garden to gain knowledge, ideas and inspiration. Planting and preparation of soil will be undertaken before winter.
• Fourth, plants will be selected in the spring (perhaps winter) and planted with the help of our landscaping partner.
• Fifth, students will plan and lead a Community Celebration in May or June to reveal our Healing Garden and speak about the significance of the project.
   

Syracuse, NY, United States / Montreal, QC, Canada
Age: 26

Madeleine leads a consortium of academics leveraging the power of sport and making environmental research accessible to accelerate climate action.

How are you using education to build more sustainable and equitable communities? 

I believe that it’s always a good time to talk about climate change. Even at a sport event, on the ski hill, or during soccer practice. And because sport is so popular, it can serve as a cool platform to educate sport fans and the public about climate change. For the last few years, I’ve been working to accelerate climate action within the sport sector alongside my team at The Sport Ecology Group. We do this by working with sport organizations to help them reduce GHG emissions, waste, and water footprint, and by educating sport fans on how they can take action in their own lives. All that work is backed by academic research that our members do at their respective universities. My own research forecasts what the future of sport could look like under various climate scenarios, and how sport organizations can adapt.

I was very fortunate to take a gap year between degrees, and I spent that year in France working in the ski industry, then in Brazil working on the Olympics. I saw the impacts of climate change on sport firsthand: our home-mountain in France didn’t get snow until January (which is super weird) and because of that, morale was low, the local tourism economy suffered, and skiers couldn’t get on the mountain. Then, in Rio, I saw the gross effect of pollution and waste coming from a sport event. I walked away from those experiences thinking, “If sport and physical activity depend on good natural conditions, why doesn’t the industry take better care of it?” I spent the better part of my PhD working on that question, taking environmental equity and environmental science courses along the way, and then launched The Sport Ecology Group to address the problem in a more formal way.

What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders?

If you’re looking to solve big problems, start by doing whatever you enjoy. Do it as well as you can, as sustainably as you can, and as much as you can (meaning, work hard but take a break when you need one!). There’s no silver bullet to climate change, or any major societal problem for that matter, so we’re going to need team players working in every corner of the planet and in every sector. If you love music, go help the music world be better and inspire people through music. If you’re into food, learn about how food systems can be more sustainable and make that a part of your work. If you work in an office, question how your work can be greener and whether your office has a sustainability agenda. Don’t take on the whole world at once. That’s what teamwork is for.

Describe your work in a haiku.

Sports can be better
Green, equitable, and fun
The work must start now.

Who do you look up to as inspiration?

Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, Dr. Michael Mann, or Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Each has leveraged their research, expertise, and platform to bring more people into the climate conversation, and to encourage climate action. They have rare science communication talents that I envy and admire.