ESSA - Key Persons
Key skills: Fluvial geomorphology, ecohydraulics, spatial data analysis and modelling, remote sensing, assessment of watershed cumulative effects, research and technical writing, programming in R, data visualization, numerical modelling of hydrodynamics and sediment transport.
Aaron's work focuses on the interface between physical and biological processes in aquatic ecosystems. He is interested in data-driven assessments of river dynamics and how watersheds respond to environmental and land-use changes. Building off a broad background in physical geography and environmental science, Aaron is enthusiastic about the interdisciplinary nature of complex environmental management problems and strives to leverage his quantitative skills, knowledge of ecological processes, and strong systems mindset to put analytical results in context and provide interpretation that supports informed decision making.
Aaron holds a B.Sc. in Earth Systems Science from Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario) and a Ph.D. in Fluvial Geomorphology from University of British Columbia (Vancouver, British Columbia). During his graduate studies, Aaron focused on the geomorphic and aquatic habitat effects of large flood events on streams in the Canadian Rockies. This research involved integrating field work, drone-based remote sensing, and numerical modelling to evaluate how changes to a river's structure affect hydraulics and in-stream habitat. Aaron was also involved in a breadth of projects as a member of the NSERC HydroNet research network, which allowed him to work alongside academic, government, and industry partners in support of sustainable hydropower on rivers across Canada. After his Ph.D., Aaron joined BC Hydro for two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow, developing tools to apply multi-scale remote sensing to characterize the hydrogeomorphology of Peace River, British Columbia for long-term fish and aquatic habitat monitoring.
Aaron's time in consulting has allowed him to build on his geomorphology specialization and expand into a range of applied environmental assessment and monitoring projects. He has taken a leading role in watershed assessments in support of fish conservation and forest management in coastal and northern British Columbia, working closely with Indigenous groups to assess cumulative effects to aquatic systems from land-use change, natural disturbance, and climate change. Other projects have included technical assessment of sturgeon spawning enhancement opportunities on Columbia River, monitoring of geomorphic and habitat impacts from small run-of-river hydropower projects, reconstruction of forest harvest histories in relation to salmon population dynamics, assessments of fish stranding risk on regulated rivers, and spatial analyses of watershed pressures to support prioritization of fish habitat restoration actions. Aaron excels at synthesizing complex data sources and bridging gaps between analytical and conceptual project dimensions, and enjoys disseminating his work with strong technical writing and creative applications of interactive data visualization.
Key skills: knowledge synthesis, data synthesis and analysis, technical writing and editing, technical facilitation, research, the science-policy interface, aquatic ecology, limnology, plastic pollution.
Alex believes that we can address modern day environmental challenges by harnessing the power of science, people, and policy to inform decision making and sound environmental stewardship.
Alex is a dedicated environmental professional whose work focuses on bringing different people, ideas, perspectives, and skills together to tackle modern day environmental challenges. His uses a unique combination of scientific communication, research experience and policy expertise in his approach to finding optimal environmental solutions.
Alex holds a B.Sc. in Environmental Science, with a concentration in Biology from Carleton University, as well as a M.Sc. in Biology from McGill University. During his B.Sc., his honours thesis focused on assessing changes to the diatom community assembly in sediment cores from the rideau river watershed. For his M.Sc., his research focused on understanding the diversity, abundance, and distribution of microplastic pollution in the St. Lawrence River.
Alex's work focuses on bringing together systems thinking, an adaptive management mindset and technical facilitation to help groups work through complex problems associated with managing environmental resources.
Alex has skills in science synthesis, weight of evidence approaches, and systems analysis to understand how human activities influence natural systems, alongside strong skills in facilitation and stakeholder engagement. This experience spans a breadth of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems with a focus in western North America, and his recent work includes modeling potential changes in freshwater chemistry from increased cumulative impacts of industrial emissions in northwestern British Columbia; assisting in the redesign of monitoring strategies for evaluating wildlife impacts and reclamation in the oil sands of northern Alberta; supporting a Science Panel process to review management options for Oregon's State Forests; and designing and coordinating a multi-stakeholder, process to inform development of a strategic integrated plan for Chinook salmon in southern British Columbia.
He has led and assisted in the development, facilitation and technical reporting in support of a variety of technical workshops, especially those with expert science panels for organizations such as Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Fraser River Aboriginal Fisheries Secretariat, the Pacific Salmon Commission, NOAA Fisheries, the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative, the Columbia Basin Fish & Wildlife Foundation, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fisheries Commission, and the Cohen Commission. Alex has been a contributing author on many scientific manuscripts, technical reports, literature syntheses, and training materials on issues pertaining to freshwater acidification, oil sands reclamation, monitoring program design, species at risk, invasive species management, adaptive management, and state-and-transition modeling.
Alex holds a B.Sc. in Physical Geography with a Certificate in Spatial Information Systems and an M.Sc. in Resource and Environmental Management, all from Simon Fraser University. His thesis work used the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) to examine the medium-term greenhouse gas implications of burning post-harvest forest debris on Vancouver Island. Prior to graduate school, Alex had worked as a research assistant with Environment Canada (Meteorological Service, Vancouver), the Centre for Research on Inner City Health (Toronto), and the Geospatial Data Research Laboratory (SFU), applying data synthesis and analysis, GIS, literature review, and scientific writing skills to a diversity of research topics. During that time Alex published peer-reviewed analytical research in the fields of both climate change and population health.
Outside of work, Alex enjoys cycling in all its forms, from casual riding to century rides to touring, camping, downhill skiing, and playing lots of volleyball both on a court and on the beach.
Key skills: data analysis and visualization, statistical modelling, GIS, science communication, ecosystem resilience to wildfire, climate change adaptation, ecohydrology.
Alex is passionate about solving complex and interdisciplinary environmental problems and providing solutions that protect and enhance the resilience of ecosystems and human systems to climate change.
Alex's work focuses on integrating physical and ecological concepts to solve complex interdisciplinary environmental problems. She has a holistic, multidisciplinary background encompassing ecohydrology, botany, statistics and GIS. She has experience working in applied biology and environmental research, and has strong skills in scientific communication, data analysis and visualization, remote sensing and spatial analysis.
Alex holds a B.Sc. in Biology & Environmental Science, with a Minor in Geographic Information Systems, from McMaster University, and is completing a Master of Science degree in Ecohydrology at McMaster University. During her B.Sc., Alex conducted research on the genetic relatedness of invasive Phragmites australis populations along highway corridors in southern Ontario, and on the influence of peat depth on peatland vulnerability to wildfire in the Ontario Georgian Bay Biosphere. Her M.Sc. work focuses on the biophysical characteristics of peatland wildfire refugia in eastern Georgian Bay, Ontario, and the development of a statistical model to map potential fire refugia for applications in fire management and conservation planning.
Bea's work focusses on synthesizing information across knowledge systems and applying it to address complex socio-ecological problems. Her interdisciplinary research background and passion for conservation have helped her develop a broad skillset that ranges from experimental design and technical writing to minnow-trapping and plumbing recirculating fish-holding systems.
Bea holds an Honours B.Sc. in Animal Biology from the University of British Columbia, where she investigated the relationship dynamics between ants, bromeliads, and their host trees within the context of biological pest control in orange plantations in the Neotropics. She also holds an M.Sc. in Zoology from UBC and her graduate studies focussed on understanding the role of intraspecific variation and plasticity in responses to environmental change in the Atlantic killifish. During her academic career, Bea was the recipient of various awards including an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award and an NSERC Graduate Scholarship.
When out of the office, Bea enjoys the whole range of stereotypical Pacific Northwest Coast activities: hiking, climbing, mountain biking, skiing, fishing, and avoiding the rain.
Caitlin's work focuses on understanding, communicating, and engaging public interest in biogeographical sciences, as well as synthesizing broad spectrums of information into coherent and digestible concepts and applied management programs.
Her comprehensive experience in the Sciences, including her background in ecology, biogeography, climate change science, biology, and micrometeorology, enriched by her studies in the Arts have bolstered her ability to write eloquently, and effectively communicate high-level information to broad audiences. Her academic history and training as a technician has provided her with a strong background in research development, field and laboratory experimentation, statistical analysis, database management, analytical research and writing, and document mastering. Further, her broad-ranging understanding of the ecological and societal implications of a changing climate, including associated mitigation and adaptation strategies, allows her to critically assess and integrate management approaches to mutable environments.
Caitlin holds a B.A. in Geography from The University of British Columbia where she studied environmental sciences through integration of physical geography, climatology, meteorology, and biology, with sociocultural considerations. She also holds a M.Sc. in Physical Geography from UBC, where she characterized the interactions between urban areas and atmospheric processes through analysis of long-term flux tower measurements, detailed remotely-sensed imagery, and footprint modelling. Throughout her academic career, Caitlin has been the recipient of both an Arts Undergraduate Research Award, and an NSERC award, amounting to over $20,000.
Caitlin's scientific endeavors are driven by her passion for public scholarship and community engagement. This is demonstrated by her multidisciplinary academic background, her participation in local and international conferences, her volunteer work with local NGO's, and her experience engaging scientists and non-scientists alike with environmental issues through event organization and social media. Her belief that science should be accessible to everyone is portrayed through her communicative graphics and her art.
Carol is a Senior Partner who joined ESSA in 1988 and has since worked on more than 250 projects addressing a wide range of environmental and natural resource management challenges in ten countries, for a diverse mix of government, First Nations, NGO and private sector clients. Much of her career has been dedicated to providing sound science-based information to decision-makers. Adaptive management is a major focus of her work, applied in various contexts including industrial impact reduction, ecosystem restoration, and endangered species recovery. She is passionate about helping clients learn how to use rigorous adaptive management approaches to identify and reduce the scientific uncertainties that will most affect their management decisions and improve environmental outcomes. She has helped develop adaptive management plans for the Middle Rio Grande in New Mexico, the Kitimat Valley and Elk Valley in British Columbia, and the Missouri River; designed and delivered numerous adaptive management training workshops; and co-authored several book chapters and papers on adaptive management. She is also keen to help improve how decision-makers consider cumulative effects, and believes in the value of undertaking cumulative effects assessments that go beyond the single-project-based assessments required in most environmental assessment processes. She managed cumulative effects assessments in the Kitimat Valley and in Prince Rupert, which explored potential impacts of different combinations of emissions sources across multiple development projects to help regulatory decision-makers compare risks from alternative scenarios. She relishes working with clients who are facing difficult problems and are willing to be creative and visionary in solving them.
Carol is a Registered Professional Biologist in British Columbia and holds a B.Sc. in Biology (with Distinction) from McGill University and an M.Sc. in Zoology from the University of Toronto. While at U of T she was awarded the George Burwash Langford Prize, given annually to the student who best combines excellence in research in environmental studies and contributes to the work of what was then the Institute for Environmental Studies (now called the School of the Environment).
When not at work, Carol enjoys hiking, kayaking, fishing, wildlife-watching, romping with her dog, and taking far too many photographs in her remote coastal surroundings. She is an active citizen-science volunteer in her community, collecting and analyzing data for Bird Studies Canada's FeederWatch and NestWatch programs and BC's first Breeding Bird Atlas, and for the Quadra Island Salmon Enhancement Society.
David enjoys combining the technical tools of adaptive management with innovative methods of facilitation and team leadership to tackle complex environmental problems. In Haiku form,
David is an aquatic ecologist with 40 years of experience in predicting and assessing the potential impacts of human activities on ecosystems, and developing plans to rehabilitate damaged ecosystems and recover threatened biota. During his career he has led or contributed to multi-agency, interdisciplinary teams assessing the impacts of acidic deposition, pulp mills, forestry, hydro-electric dams, fish harvesting, power plants, climate change and urban/industrial pollution in North America, South America and Asia. Over the last two decades, his primary focus has been applying systematic approaches to recovering fish and wildlife species affected by dams and flow management in North America, and restoring the ecosystems that sustain these species. He has gained a broad perspective on the challenges involved in this domain, having worked at multiple spatial scales in California (Clear Creek, Trinity River, Russian River, Sacramento River), the Pacific Northwest (U.S. Columbia Basin), the American Southwest (Rio Grande), the U.S. Midwest (Platte River, Missouri River) and British Columbia (Cheakamus, Okanagan, Canadian Columbia Basin). His efforts have contributed significantly towards the development and implementation of creative, effective approaches for recovering fish and wildlife populations, evaluating alternatives using models and decision analysis, managing water to meet multiple objectives, restoring habitat, adaptive management and rigorous methods of monitoring and evaluation. Together with his colleagues at ESSA, he has developed approaches to combining environmental impact assessment with post-project monitoring and adaptive management.
Outside of work, David is an avid telemark skier, hiker and photographer, a past Board member of the Northwest Wilderness Society, the chair of a Technical Advisory Committee for the Nicholas Sonntag Marine Education Centre, a published poet, and a proud father of two talented sons.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- President - FIScH Engineering Engineer
Key skills: river engineering, hydraulics, hydrology, sediment transport technology, geomorphology, aquatic and riparian ecology, multi-objective optimization, decision support, adaptive management, cross-disciplinary modeling, model development, GIS/spatial data analysis, research, technical writing and editing, and team leadership
Craig's focus is on integrating engineering, ecology, and socioeconomics to address complex water resource problems.
Craig has over 40 years of experience as a researcher, practitioner, and educator focused on the restoration, conservation, and management of aquatic and riparian ecosystems. As the Principal Investigator for the USACE on ecosystem restoration, he developed an extensive array of models, tools, techniques, and guidance supporting the Corps' policies and practice for aquatic ecosystem restoration, fish passage, dam removal, environmental benefits assessment, and geomorphic and engineering analyses. He conducted more than 400 ecosystem restoration, habitat enhancement, streambank stabilization, flood control, and river engineering projects in several countries and most of the U.S. states. He led the coastal restoration efforts after Hurricane Katrina and was instrumental in the incorporation of green infrastructure into the Hurricane Sandy recovery. He is an adaptive management advocate and authored the Corps' AM Implementation Guidance. Recently, he has been engaged in resource evaluation and development designs in support of green energy initiatives. He has received international recognition for his work, is a frequent lecturer on related subjects, and has garnered numerous accolades, awards, and other recognition.
Craig earned his B.Sc in Civil Engineering and M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. During this time, he worked for the South Dakota Department of Fish and Game, where he designed and oversaw the construction of stream restoration, fisheries development, and recreation projects, including the fish imprint and spawning stations, boat ramps, roads, hydraulic structures, wastewater facilities, and other aspects of fisheries development for the Missouri River. After ten years working as a practitioner, Craig took a year off to earn his PhD in Hydraulic Engineering from Colorado State University. His dissertation involved developing equations of flow through vegetation, which addressed a critical need on hundreds of river systems with a need to balance flood mitigation with habitat requirements for several endangered species.
Mike Jones leaving ESSA for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in 1988, happily simulating a very large lake herring.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Systems Ecologist
Erica's work focuses on exploring the intricacies of ecological and social systems to inform environmental management and planning within coastal and marine environments. She seeks to improve decision-making processes through identifying and informing critical areas of uncertainty, with the ultimate aim of fostering better ecological outcomes. Her work includes evaluating and designing ecosystem monitoring programs, assessing impacts from human activities on ecological and cultural values, and developing decision-making and risk management frameworks. She is experienced in developing pathways of effects models and gathering and documenting knowledge related to developing strategies for assessing ecological condition, implementing marine plans, and adapting to climate change.
Much of Erica's work supports Indigenous communities in their environmental management initiatives, or supports collaborative initiatives by Indigenous communities with Canadian provincial and/or federal governments. On the coast of British Columbia, she has worked on multiple projects to support First Nation stewardship, marine planning, and marine plan implementation, including designing monitoring programs to ensure data informs decision-making needs, assessing cumulative effects on valued components, and developing management plans. In Australia and Canada, she has worked with Indigenous knowledge holders to document their knowledge and support them in braiding their knowledge with western science to inform conservation and management. She also currently represents Indigenous communities on technical and co-management boards.
Working with Canadian provincial and federal governments, and non-profit organizations, Erica has developed frameworks for assessing ecosystem condition as well as assessing ecological risk related to human uses. For example, she has developed an estuary characterization framework for the Bay of Fundy, a framework for assessing risk related to various uses within Canadian National Marine Conservation Areas, and ecosystem health indices for Burrard Inlet in British Columbia.
Erica is an experienced facilitator, having hosted many in-person and virtual workshops, including technical working groups with participants from multiple organizations and perspectives (e.g., governments, industry, non-profits, academia), as well as meetings with Indigenous Elders and land users to support Indigenous community-based initiatives. She is passionate about tackling challenging problems through bringing together people with unique perspectives and ways of knowing to improve the decisions that drive environmental outcomes.
Erica holds a B.Sc. in Natural Resources from Cornell University, where she investigated human impacts on spinner dolphins in Hawaii, and a M.Sc. in Resource Management from Simon Fraser University, where she combined satellite telemetry and traditional and local knowledge to comprehensively investigate male loggerhead sea turtle movements in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Erica currently lives on Nex̱wlélex̱wem/Bowen Island in British Columbia where she enjoys paddling, camping, playing the ukulele, and playing hockey.
Frank's focus is on implementing Decision Support Systems (DSS) for Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). He specialises in scaling the solution to match the size of the problem, using his experience working on projects ranging in scale from local (the Middle Vernon Creek Decision Support System), to regional (Okanagan Fish/Water Management Tool), and state-wide (the Sacramento River and San Francisco Delta Ecological Flows Tool).
Frank is a Systems Ecologist with over 16 years' of professional experience, of which half has been spent working in California. He considers himself a hybrid specialist because of his understanding both environmental and computer science, bringing a holistic approach to his projects. This ability is particularly useful when working with Decision Support Systems, which Frank has designed and implemented in partnership with multiple groups of water managers and biologists to achieve objectives in IWRM. He is currently applying the principles and lessons learned from the Okanagan Fish/Water Management Tool to the nearby Nicola Watershed in close cooperation with local stakeholders. Over the past eight years, he has developed multiple ecosystem models for the Sacramento River and the California Delta, including models for green sturgeon, bank swallows, delta smelt, longfin smelt and Large Woody Debris recruitment. Most recently, he analysed alternative fish-friendly flows for the California water system by looking at re-operating the full hydrological modeling suite from monthly planning models (CALSIM) to daily and sub-daily models of flow, stage, temperature and salinity for the Sacramento River (USRDOM and USRWQM) and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (DSM2) using artificial intelligence and multi-objective optimization. This approach is currently being considered as a backbone for developing an in-season decision support system and he is keen on continuing applying artificial intelligence (e.g. Particle Swarm Optimization and Pareto Frontiers) to environmental problems. Frank has also worked on multiple environmental impact assessments, including the Environmental Assessment of the Site C Clean Energy Hydroelectric Project for BC Hydro and the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project for Port Metro Vancouver. For both assessments, Frank's contribution was modeling impact to mainly aquatic systems using Ecopath with Ecosim. Frank has also been a lead developer/architect of two free GIS tools: The River Bathymetry Toolkit (RBT) and the Geomorphic Change Detection (GCD) software.
Frank earned his M.Sc. in Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark, where he split his coursework between environmental and computer science. For his thesis work, he developed a Numerical Model of longline Blue Mussel growth for the National Environmental Research Institute in Denmark. Mr. Poulsen's work experience includes fieldwork for Parks Canada, establishing his own consulting company, and working for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game where he analysed patterns of habitat use by Marbled Murrelets.
When Frank is not working he is typically busy with his 6-year old twins, hiking with his wife or kiteboarding. Frank lives in Squamish, B.C., and is passionately curious about his local environment, trying to learn as much as possible from both his own experience and interacting with the local environmental groups.
Key skills: Quantifying fish productivity, fish habitat, statistical analysis of ecological data, paleolimnology, limnology and aquatic ecology, acoustic telemetry, programming in R, research and manuscript preparation.
Graham's work focuses on identifying linkages between fish productivity and fish habitat in freshwater systems, and how they respond to stressors. In particular, he has interests in quantifying the impacts of climate change and climate variability, land-use change, and industrial development on oxythermal habitat, prey availability, littoral zone structural complexity, and trophic dynamics, and how they drive changes in the abundance, growth, survival, and reproduction of fishes. Graham also has an interest in applying flexible statistical models to acoustic telemetry data in order to identify spatial and temporal patterns in space use among species and individuals.
Prior to joining ESSA, Graham held a MITACS postdoctoral fellowship where he partnered with researchers from the IISD Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), government (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) and academia to develop new indicators of fish productivity. Here, he used several decades of fisheries and limnological monitoring data from lakes at the ELA to 1) quantify annual variability in the slope of the fish community size spectrum, 2) identify drivers of changes in fish community size structure over time, and 3) assess it's relationship with more traditional metrics of fish production. This work aimed to inform monitoring programs that wish to use size-based indicators to assess fish community health.
Graham holds a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario), and a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Biology from Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario). During his graduate research, Graham utilized paleolimnological techniques to investigate the impacts of a range of stressors on water quality. His Ph.D. investigated the relative roles of natural climate variability (ENSO, PDO) and recent changes in land and water use on nutrient and deepwater oxygen status in prized recreational fisheries lakes in British Columbia, while his M.Sc. investigated the impacts of enhanced nitrogen deposition on lakes in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region. Graham's training and previous work experiences have developed him into a quantitative-minded aquatic ecologist who can provide support in a wide range of areas, from study design development to appropriate statistical analysis and interpretation of resulting datasets.
Job Titles:
- Ecologist and Environmental Scientist
- Systems Architect
Hugh is an ecologist and environmental scientist with a background in software development and geospatial analysis. Hugh's work focuses on leveraging analytical methods and computation to improve ecological decision making, in particular around monitoring and restoration.
Hugh specializes in helping translate between different groups of people-scientists, knowledge holders, coders, community members-to facilitate meaningful collaboration to build tools and work on hard problems. He brings an adaptive approach to tool development and project coordination, focusing on iterative cycles of planning, doing, and learning, in order to discover and align goals and outcomes.
Hugh holds a BSc in Ecology from the University of Guelph and a Masters of Environmental Science (Environmental Informatics) from the University of Michigan. His graduate studies focused on the intersection of environmental science, remote sensing, and complex systems theory. His Masters thesis used aerial imagery and spatial pattern quantification to investigate self-organization of woody vegetation in the American drylands.
Hugh previously worked as a researcher in conservation GIS labs at the University of California, Davis, and the Smithsonian Institution. Prior to joining ESSA Hugh led a small freelance consultancy providing geoinformatics and web development capacity to coastal environmental and advocacy groups. He spent 8 summers planting over a million trees in clearcuts, mostly in Alberta.
Hugh grew up in Collingwood, Ontario, where he attended high school with his now-colleague Marc Nelitz (they have no memory of each other). Hugh now lives in East Vancouver. When not working Hugh enjoys outdoor travel, biking, novels, computer games, gardening, and history podcasts. He also likes flying kites but lives in a city with surprisingly little wind.
Job Titles:
- Accountant I and Office Administrator
Jessica's work focuses on fulfilling the administrative duties of the firm and assists in project accounting for project managers. From scheduling meetings to notetaking to assisting consulting staff with various project tasks and everything in between, Jessica enables the smooth functioning of our day-to-day work. Aside from her administrative duties, Jessica's work includes setting up accounting systems for project managers, and preparation of invoices.
Jessica graduated with a B.Sc in Psychology and a Minor in East Asian Cultural Studies from McGill University. She is currently in the process of obtaining her Diploma in Accounting and hopes to work towards a Chartered Professional Accounting designation after completing her program. Before arriving at ESSA, Jessica worked with Environmental Sustainability NGO's in the city of Ottawa where she helped organize workshops with local community members and drafted reports from these workshop meetings.
When not at work, Jessica spends most of her time practicing yoga, playing guitar, testing out new recipes, and tending to her many house plants.
Job Titles:
- Team Director
- International Team Director Climate Change Adaptation Lead
Key skills: knowledge synthesis, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), policy development and institutional strengthening, program design, climate change risk and vulnerability assessment, and facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes.
Jimena's work focuses on equipping individuals and organizations to understand and incorporate the implications of climate-related risks and vulnerabilities into plans and decisions that affect environmental and social outcomes. Jimena is a recognized adaptation expert in Canada and leads ESSA's climate change adaptation practice as well as its international division.
Between 2009 and 2012 Jimena led several high-profile adaptation projects of national relevance, including a widely-cited study on the costs of climate change for Canada and the first comprehensive Canadian initiative exploring business readiness to confront climate change risk. Advice she helped develop on adapting northern infrastructure to climate change in 2009 was adopted by the Government of Canada. Since 2013, Jimena has contributed to vulnerability assessments, climate-sensitivity screening and provided guidance and facilitation services to support the development of thematic (heat health and built infrastructure; agriculture; fisheries and oceans management), regional (Arctic Canada), and national adaptation strategies. She has helped professional associations tailor outreach to their membership to enhance engagement on adaptation and has contributed to national science assessments of climate change impacts and adaptation.
Jimena is increasingly applying her Canadian-based experience in integrating climate-related risks and resilience in policy, planning and practice to international contexts. For example, she has led or contributed to a number of international monitoring and evaluation (M&E) efforts in the past two years: the final evaluation of a major climate resilience program in the Caribbean, two evaluations of Plan International's child-centred climate change adaptation project in Southeast Asia, the final evaluation of CARE International's Adaptation Learning Program in Africa, and the establishment of M&E systems for national climate change programs and finance facilities in Ghana, Zambia and Ethiopia. With funding from the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, she is leading a multi-disciplinary team to contribute to the integration of climate change into the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process in El Salvador and to undertake a multi-hazard risk assessment of national infrastructure important for disaster response and recovery.
Jimena holds a B.Sc. in Geology from Georgia State University, an M.Sc. in Geology from Western University, and an M.Sc. in Resources Management from Simon Fraser University, where she combined survey methods and innovation diffusion theory to characterize Canadians' preferences for zero-emissions vehicles. She also holds a Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation from the University of Waterloo.
Jimena is committed to serving others, particularly communities considered to be "vulnerable". She is the current Vice President of the Canada Mathare Education Trust, a Canadian volunteer-run charity working in a Nairobi (Kenya) slum to increase youth access to high school and post-secondary education. She has volunteered with CMETrust since 2007 in several capacities, from event planning to policy development. She firmly believes in the power of people as an effective approach to capacity development and has volunteered with Cuso International in Peru and Nigeria in the past six years as a gender researcher and climate change adaptation advisor, respectively. In her spare time, Jimena likes to hike and canoe in the backcountry.
Job Titles:
- Director of HR, Administration & Facilities
Laurelle Santana's work focuses on enabling the ESSA team to succeed in their corporate mission. She leads recruitment campaigns, provides support and coordination to the executive team, office management, research and document preparation and project administrative support.
Her scientific background includes experience as a research assistant in the Crater Mountain Wildlife Management area of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Her particular research focused on the microhylid species, many of these species that are only found in the jungles of PNG. These species completely bypass the tadpole stage, with direct development from egg to frog. Other international experience includes her role as a Governance Specialist, integrating social aspects into Information and Communication Technology project design to meet the needs of a diverse range of stakeholders. Projects spanned a wide range of cultural settings: Bangladesh, Honduras, Mozambique and Tajikistan. In addition to her scientific background she has experience working in a small Vancouver based company specializing in custom branded sustainable products, providing exceptional customer service and being a collaborative team player with a strong commitment to ethical sourcing, worker rights and environmental responsibility.
Laurelle holds a B. Science from the University of New South Wales, Australia, a Post-baccalaureate Diploma in Environmental Science from Capilano University, and a Master of Arts in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix.
Beyond her executive coordinator role, Laurelle is also highly involved in affordable housing initiatives, in particular the housing co-operative model. She is an active member of the Charleston Terrace Housing Co-operative in Vancouver. She served as a member of the Board of Directors during a building remediation project and continues to lead the financial and operational activities of the co-operative. When not at work, Laurelle spends her time practicing yoga, travelling with friends and spending quality time with her husband and cat.
Since joining ESSA in 1982, Lorne's consulting practice has focused on developing evidence-based approaches to environmental management through support of Adaptive Management research designs, and environmental risk analysis. Ecological modeling is an essential component of this work. Much of Lorne's work has involved collaborative analysis with multi-disciplinary groups of scientists, resource managers, aboriginal participants and stakeholders. Lorne is a highly accomplished facilitator with 27 years of experience guiding multi-agency scientific meetings and workshops. His facilitation expertise is also applied in his work on environmental conflict resolution, and facilitation of public advisory groups. Examples of some of Lorne's experience include: a conceptual ecosystem model of the Lake Ontario fish community; a model based management approach to the Sea Lamprey control program in the Great Lakes; decision analyses for American eel in the Great Lakes; Pathways of Effects models for Fisheries and Oceans Canada; and advice to the Mackenzie Gas Project Joint Review Panel on matters related to cumulative impact assessment.
Job Titles:
- Director of Operations Adaptive Management Lead
Key skills: social-ecological systems, systems analysis, decision analysis, participatory engagement, workshop facilitation, technical writing, policy research and analysis, risk assessment and management, adaptive management
Marc's passion is to help organizations strengthen the effectiveness, impact, and durability of their actions so they can better prepare for a variety of changes in a noisy, interconnected, and complex world. He thrives when working with solutions-oriented clients and partners facing problems that are complex, high stakes, and contentious. We see many of these types of problems in the news: stories involving the impacts and disruptions of extreme events associated with climate change or headlines noting the increasing profile, stakes, and conflict underlying large human development projects.
His work involves combining people-centered skills, which include facilitation and participatory engagement, with a strong technical foundation in ecology and deep experience in systems analysis. In applying these skills he undertakes policy research, prepares management plans, develops behavioral and heuristic frameworks to support decision making, assesses environmental risks, identifies opportunities to mitigate or adapt to environmental risks, and facilitates priority setting within groups.
His strong technical skills and understanding have been developed by working in a diversity of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems across North America. He has enabled improvements in polar bear tourism along western Hudson Bay in the context of climate change and increasing pressures from the local community, served as the principal investigator as part of a federal judicial inquiry studying the influence of historic changes in freshwater ecosystems on declines in Fraser River sockeye salmon, assisted in the prioritization of biodiversity monitoring needs in the oil sands of northern Alberta, and supported development of an Adaptive Management plan to balance ecosystem and human needs for water on the Missouri River.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Decision Support System / Tool Developer
Matthew Bayly's work focuses on integrating information from various models, databases and real-time sensors into dynamic tools to support data visualizations and decision making. His broad background in environmental science and passion for ecological research fuels his interest in programming and web development as applied tools. Matthew enjoys the creative freedom and strategic design elements of programming. He also holds big visions for how all of this will revolutionize environmental management and decision-making writ large.
Prior to joining ESSA in June of 2020, Matthew worked as a spatial analyst and programmer for numerous research and monitoring programs within aquatic ecosystems. Matthew has an extensive programming background in R, and regularly works with other web-based frameworks and systems. Previous project applications have included linear network modelling to predict parameters such as stream flow or temperature for ungauged basins, cumulative effect assessments across large geographic regions, 2D hydrodynamic flow modelling of in-stream restoration projects, historical time series reconstruction of forest harvest and salmon populations, species distribution modelling and numerous other data-intensive endeavours that have required creatively synthesizing various pieces of information. Much of this work has revolved around fish or rare plant populations, stream ecosystems and their relationship with hydroelectric power operations, forestry, and adaptation strategies with climate change. Matthew's analytical expertise and relationship with these systems is also grounded in years of hands-on technical field work across British Columbia, Northwest Territories and parts of California and Oregon.
Matthew holds a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Victoria and a M.Sc. in Botany from the University of British Columbia. He is also a Registered Professional Biologist with the British Columbia College of Applied Biology.
Outside of work, Matthew enjoys sailing, making interactive art projects, back country ski trips, exploring, and repairing/up keeping old sailboats.
Job Titles:
- Systems Ecologist Science Communications Specialist
The three most important aspects of Nishanthan' s role is in full cycle project accounting function, setting up projects, preparing invoices, tracking project status, monitoring completion of project management checklist, closing accounting adjustments to projects; Assisting in preparing month-end and year-end working papers and financial statements and thirdly preparing various reconciliation and management reports and analyses.
Nishanthan joined ESSA with 5 years of experience in the accounting field. He worked as an Accountant in B B K Partnership (PVT) Limited Sri Lanka - UK base Company for three years with responsibilities for gathering and recording client's day-to-day transactions, preparing special financial reports by collecting, analyzing, and summarizing account information and trends, .as well as quarterly and yearly bank reconciliations and posting, payroll processing, accurate, timely, and relevant recording, reporting, and analysis of financial information. After relocating to Canada, he worked as a Junior Accountant (Tax Preparer/Bookkeeper) Liberty Tax Services where he prepared personal tax, GST/HST & PST fillings, bookkeeping and payroll preparation, bank reconciliation, accounts payable and receivable, supplier statement reconciliation, including preparation of sales invoices and credit control.
Nishanthan holds a BBA (Hons) specializing in Accounting from the University of Jaffna Sri Lanka and an MBA in Accounting and Finance from University Canada West.
In his spare time, Nishanthan enjoys travelling, playing cricket, watching movies, and hanging out with friends.
Job Titles:
- Business Development & Resource Allocation Coordinator
Noelle De Ocampo's work focuses on serving as a central hub for Business Development, Resource Allocation, Project Coordination and Strategic Planning Support across the company. She works to support and enable our Systems Ecologists and Project Managers by ensuring efficient and effective resource allocation decisions throughout all stages of project timelines.
Noelle holds a BSc in Natural Resources Conservation from the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Forestry. This multidisciplinary background has given her an understanding of biodiversity, sustainability, ecology, conservation biology, land-use planning, sociology, resource socio-economics and globalization. Her major in Global Perspectives allows her to examine renewable and non-renewable resource systems and its involved policy and planning, in the context of human communities and impacts.
She found passion in her degree because it integrated resource conservation and human development, striving to find balance between social, economic, and environmental goals.
Noelle brings a strong interdisciplinary approach to forestry conservation management combining an understanding of local community engagement, technical and economic aspects with national and global policy perspectives. She is a proficient researcher, comfortable with data management and social and policy research and has particular interest in Indigenous communities and developing mutually beneficial options for forestry programs and communities.
Her project management experience, stakeholder engagement and communications skills have been honed throughout years of student engagement at UBC, and retail management experience. She has planned and managed events for hundreds of people, enjoys presenting to large audiences and developing effective marketing and communications campaigns combining written, visual, video, and online elements.
Outside of work, she spends much of her time running or roller skating down the sea wall, chasing every sunset she can, creating community and cooking for her friends.
Sanket's work focuses on supporting financial duties at ESSA. His main responsibilities include setting up projects for Project Managers, full-cycle Accounts payable that includes matching vendors invoice, credit card statements and employee expense reports, maintaining Accounts payable subledger account & investigate discrepancies and collecting and verifying employee time sheets.
Prior to joining ESSA, Sanket worked as an intern for a Public Accounting Firm in Aldershot, U.K., and was responsible for helping clients with VAT returns, managing payroll, organizing financial filing system and ensured accuracy of financial statements.
Sanket holds a B.A(Hons) Accounting and Finance from University of West London, U.K. and Post-Baccalaureate in Accounting from Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops and pursuing ACCA
In his spare time, Sanket enjoys Photography and Outdoor activities (Canoeing, Bungee, Dirt Biking)
Shreya's work focuses on providing analytical and written support for projects spanning both environmental and social sciences. She has an interdisciplinary background in geography and her academic research involved the use of GIS to model spatial predictions of species, habitats, and diversity measures.
Professionally, she has supported various environmental projects including data management of multispecies fishery surveys, 3D delineation of a riparian corridor, digitization of historical census boundaries, and map visualizations of drainage areas in Canada.
When not at work, she enjoys being outdoors, whether it be canoeing, hiking, or a picnic.
Tanya's work focuses on providing corporate accounting support to the ESSA team. She works with project managers on managing the financial progress of the projects, and liaises with clients to ensure accurate billing and payment collection. She also provides support in financial reporting and internal accounting analysis to the executive team.
Tanya has eight years corporate accounting experience. Her previous experience includes the Accounting Assistant role in an IT company and an ESL school. In addition to her accounting background she has experience working as a Business Analyst in the IT department of a large Canadian supermarket chain, providing exceptional document preparation and project coordination to the IT specialists. She has also volunteered in a biology lab to participate in a plant tissue culture experiment, and achieved a plant survival rate that even surprised the scientists because of her diligence and attention to details!
Tanya holds a BBA in Accounting from Simon Fraser University. She is a CPA, CGA since July 2017. When not at work, Tanya likes jogging, travelling, trying out different cuisines with friends and spending time with her bunny.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Full Time Employees
Tim brings together a background in natural hazards risk assessment with practical experience in emergency management to develop tools and analyses for forecasting hazard consequences and assessing risk for emergency planners, policy makers, and responders. He is a software architect, systems analyst, simulation modeller, and emergency management professional with more than 30 years of experience designing, developing, and deploying advanced decision support tools. His work has focussed on providing mission critical information to managers and planners in the fields of emergency preparedness and response, natural resources, and environmental assessment and management. Tim has directed projects around the world and been the technical visionary and architect on a number of major systems projects in North America, the Middle East and Australia. His recent work has focussed on the development of tools for natural hazard damage forecasting and information management systems to fuse data from a wide range of different sources into actionable intelligence for emergency planners and responders.
In addition to his work in Disaster Risk Reduction Tim has worked extensively in the field of natural resource management including the application of ecological simulation modelling, analytical tools, and the techniques of Adaptive Management to a wide array of different real world management problems including watershed management, fisheries assessment and management, and forestry.
Tim is active in the volunteer community; he has been a search and rescue volunteer for more than fifteen years serving in the role of SAR Manager and also president of the Westcoast Inland Search and Rescue Society. Tim served as deputy Emergency Coordinator for the District of Tofino for a number of years and as director and co-chair on the board of the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust for six years.
Job Titles:
- Strategic Planning Analyst