Event

Octaviana V. Trujillo (Yaqui), Ph.D., is the 2023 chair of the CEC’s Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC), having been first appointed as a member of JPAC by US President Barack Obama in 2015. She is founding Chair and Professor Emerita in the Department of Applied Indigenous Studies at Northern Arizona University and the former chairwoman of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona. She has spent her career advocating for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and developing educational courses, initiatives, and programs to support Tribal Nation Building and Indigenous communities, especially with regard to sustaining Indigenous languages, cultures and lifeways, and working with Indigenous youth.

She is a current Soros Equality Fellow and the 2021 American Educational Research Association, Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Research awardee for outstanding scholarship. She is also an advisory board member to Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras, whose mission is to affirm the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including their right to self-determination, their collective human and civil rights, the rights of sovereignty and the protection of sacred sites, and their right to free and unrestricted movement across international borders. Trujillo also served as an active national member of the American Friends Service Committee and Farmworker Justice, working to foster community-based resources for promoting social justice.

Her extensive international experience as researcher, mediator, and advisor on the topics of human and Indigenous rights includes participation in the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and serving on the EPA Governmental Advisory Committee, which helps to shape US policies that are intended to improve environmental and health conditions in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and the Global Diversity Foundation, which promotes agricultural, biological, and cultural diversity around the world through research, training and social action.

Executive Director

Jorge Daniel Taillant is a seasoned global advocate for environmental justice and environmental protection. His career spans several decades, working with international development agencies, as an advisor to governments and with civil society organizations in Latin America and around the world promoting innovative approaches to environmental protection, fostering sustainability criteria in international development finance, and by working to promote greater corporate accountability in the area of sustainable development.

He has worked for the last decade to tackle the escalating climate emergency through aggressively reducing the rate of global warming in the short term by phasing out the most intense climate pollutants, such as methane, black carbon and HFCs, while building climate resilience and strengthening adaptive capacity in the most climate-vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.

Most recently, Mr. Taillant served as Climate Justice Policy Advisor at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) promoting more ambitious climate action targeting short-lived climate pollutants and worked closely with the UN’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition as an advisor on strategies to reduce methane and black carbon emissions.

Mr. Taillant brings to the CEC a breadth and depth of experience in sustainable development, environmental justice, and climate policy through community engagement and public participation.

Kathy L. Hodgson-Smith is a Saskatoon lawyer who practices criminal and Aboriginal law, as well as on behalf of the Métis Legal Research Education Foundation. She has litigated in all levels of court including the Provincial Court and Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatchewan, the Courts of Appeal in Saskatchewan and Alberta, the Federal Court of Appeal, and as co-counsel at the Supreme Court of Canada.

She has worked on various national policy initiatives for the Métis National Council (MNC), including the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Agreement Strategy, Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtables, the Kelowna Accord, and Post-Powley. She has also given evidence at the Canadian Aboriginal Affairs Standing Committee on the effects of McIvor decision on the Métis. She has researched and presented on Métis Aboriginal rights law and traditional knowledge at local, provincial, national, and international forums and conducted research for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Canadian Education Association and the Canada Council on Learning and conducts traditional land-use studies for the Métis.

Internationally, she also represents the MNC on the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Committee on the Protection of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources, and on the Canadian Delegation to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

She has chaired a number of committees, including the MNC National Research Strategy and Urban Aboriginal Strategy committee, National Environment Committee, in addition to the Canadian Standards Association Technical Committee, which established a national standard for the operation of Mètis Nation Registries.

Felicia Marcus is the William C. Landreth Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, an attorney, consultant, and member of the Water Policy Group. She most recently served as Chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, implementing laws regarding drinking water, water quality, and state’s water rights, hearing regional board water quality appeals, settling disputes, and providing financial assistance to communities to upgrade water infrastructure.

Before her appointment to the Water Board, Marcus served in positions in government, the nonprofit and private sector. In government, she served as the Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest Region. Preceding her work at the EPA, Marcus served as the President of the Board of Public Works for the City of Los Angeles.
In the non-profit world, she was the Western Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and prior to that the Executive Vice-president and Chief Operating Officer of the Trust for Public Land. Marcus also has an extensive background as a private sector and public interest lawyer.

In 2020 she was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies from Harvard College, and Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law and studied at Hong Kong University on a Rotary Fellowship.

President, The Resilience Institute – Canada

Laura is the co-founder, and president of the Resilience Institute. She  holds a master of law with distinction in climate change law & policy, her thesis was titled: Colonialism & Climate Change / Rights of Nature. She also has a master degree in intercultural and international communications.

Laura is a graduate of the Oxford Adaptation Academy and a Focal Point of the UNFCCC Nairobi Work Programme. She is a past recipient of the American Sociological Association’s Jane Goodall Fellowship for her work on perceptions on inclusion of large carnivores in communities. She is currently working towards a PhD focused on bringing together Indigenous and other knowledge systems to advance complex climate challenges.

Andy Carey is the executive director of the US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership (BPP), a position he has held since 2008. BPP is a binational membership organization based in San Diego, CA, that supports a network of nearly 400 organizations that build prosperity through leadership, collaboration, and philanthropy in the US-Mexico border region. Previously, Andy served for 15 years at Kiwanis International leading volunteer mobilization and fund development throughout the globe. Andy received his bachelor and master of arts degrees from Purdue University.

He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of San Diego in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences where he teaches post graduate courses on International nonprofit management. He was named 2017-18 Adjunct Faculty of the Year by the Dean of the School of Leadership and Education Sciences. Andy serves in many civic capacities, including as chairman of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Advisory Committee, on the US-Mexico Science Foundation Board of Directors, the University of San Diego Kroc School of Peace and Justice Advisory Board, the Independent Districting Commission in Escondido, CA., and on the Advisory Board of St. Mary Catholic School in Escondido. In 2018, Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Relations presented Andy with the Ohtli Award in recognition of his long-standing commitment and service to the needs and interests of the Mexican community residing in the United States of America.

Marina works as a senior environmental specialist in the Environmental Health Division, Barnstable County Department of Health, and the Environment and as an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Her areas of expertise are public and environmental health and emergency, risk, and safety management. In addition, she is interested in individualized genetic and environmental factors as they influence public health and environmental health exposures and outcomes. She has written and co-authored several articles on these subjects and has lectured and mentored throughout the New England states.

Brock has received several awards, including the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Excellence Award (2000) and the (Massachusetts) Governor’s Award for toxic use reduction in the design and implementation of an innovative initiative for pollution prevention (P2) in the public sector. Her work in this area has served as a template for a national focus on the safety of chemical management in schools. She was also nominated for the Harvard School of Government’s Innovations in Government Award for facilitating collaborative efforts between local, regional, state, and federal government agencies. She holds an undergraduate degree from Simmons College and an MS in occupational health and safety engineering and emergency management. In 2018 she began work on a Ph.D. in public health and emergency management policy.

The Director of Legal Affairs and Submissions on Enforcement Matters (SEM) at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Paolo Solano is a lawyer trained in Mexico with over 15 years of experience in the field of international environmental law. His responsibilities at the CEC pertain to the implementation of the SEM process under NAFTA/USMCA-CUSMA and also include advising on operational and legal matters of the CEC more generally.

Paolo obtained his law degree from the Faculty of Law at the National University of Mexico (UNAM), a master’s degree on environmental governance from University of Essex (awarded with honors); a diploma on US law from the Georgetown Law Center, and graduate studies on Business Management and Canadian Law at the University of Montreal.

Paolo has also been a visiting law professor in the United States and Mexico and has published academic articles and a book chapter. Since 2008 he has published the annual report for the Yearbook of International Environmental Law and, as of 2015, also reports on the development of environmental law in Mexico.

Octaviana V. Trujillo (Yaqui), Ph.D., is the 2023 chair of the CEC’s Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC), having been first appointed as a member of JPAC by US President Barack Obama in 2015. She is founding Chair and Professor Emerita in the Department of Applied Indigenous Studies at Northern Arizona University and the former chairwoman of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona. She has spent her career advocating for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and developing educational courses, initiatives, and programs to support Tribal Nation Building and Indigenous communities, especially with regard to sustaining Indigenous languages, cultures and lifeways, and working with Indigenous youth.

She is a current Soros Equality Fellow and the 2021 American Educational Research Association, Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Research awardee for outstanding scholarship. She is also an advisory board member to Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras, whose mission is to affirm the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including their right to self-determination, their collective human and civil rights, the rights of sovereignty and the protection of sacred sites, and their right to free and unrestricted movement across international borders. Trujillo also served as an active national member of the American Friends Service Committee and Farmworker Justice, working to foster community-based resources for promoting social justice.

Her extensive international experience as researcher, mediator, and advisor on the topics of human and Indigenous rights includes participation in the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and serving on the EPA Governmental Advisory Committee, which helps to shape US policies that are intended to improve environmental and health conditions in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and the Global Diversity Foundation, which promotes agricultural, biological, and cultural diversity around the world through research, training and social action.

Executive Director

Jorge Daniel Taillant is a seasoned global advocate for environmental justice and environmental protection. His career spans several decades, working with international development agencies, as an advisor to governments and with civil society organizations in Latin America and around the world promoting innovative approaches to environmental protection, fostering sustainability criteria in international development finance, and by working to promote greater corporate accountability in the area of sustainable development.

He has worked for the last decade to tackle the escalating climate emergency through aggressively reducing the rate of global warming in the short term by phasing out the most intense climate pollutants, such as methane, black carbon and HFCs, while building climate resilience and strengthening adaptive capacity in the most climate-vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.

Most recently, Mr. Taillant served as Climate Justice Policy Advisor at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) promoting more ambitious climate action targeting short-lived climate pollutants and worked closely with the UN’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition as an advisor on strategies to reduce methane and black carbon emissions.

Mr. Taillant brings to the CEC a breadth and depth of experience in sustainable development, environmental justice, and climate policy through community engagement and public participation.

Executive Director

Jorge Daniel Taillant is a seasoned global advocate for environmental justice and environmental protection. His career spans several decades, working with international development agencies, as an advisor to governments and with civil society organizations in Latin America and around the world promoting innovative approaches to environmental protection, fostering sustainability criteria in international development finance, and by working to promote greater corporate accountability in the area of sustainable development.

He has worked for the last decade to tackle the escalating climate emergency through aggressively reducing the rate of global warming in the short term by phasing out the most intense climate pollutants, such as methane, black carbon and HFCs, while building climate resilience and strengthening adaptive capacity in the most climate-vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.

Most recently, Mr. Taillant served as Climate Justice Policy Advisor at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) promoting more ambitious climate action targeting short-lived climate pollutants and worked closely with the UN’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition as an advisor on strategies to reduce methane and black carbon emissions.

Mr. Taillant brings to the CEC a breadth and depth of experience in sustainable development, environmental justice, and climate policy through community engagement and public participation.

Executive Director

Jorge Daniel Taillant is a seasoned global advocate for environmental justice and environmental protection. His career spans several decades, working with international development agencies, as an advisor to governments and with civil society organizations in Latin America and around the world promoting innovative approaches to environmental protection, fostering sustainability criteria in international development finance, and by working to promote greater corporate accountability in the area of sustainable development.

He has worked for the last decade to tackle the escalating climate emergency through aggressively reducing the rate of global warming in the short term by phasing out the most intense climate pollutants, such as methane, black carbon and HFCs, while building climate resilience and strengthening adaptive capacity in the most climate-vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.

Most recently, Mr. Taillant served as Climate Justice Policy Advisor at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) promoting more ambitious climate action targeting short-lived climate pollutants and worked closely with the UN’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition as an advisor on strategies to reduce methane and black carbon emissions.

Mr. Taillant brings to the CEC a breadth and depth of experience in sustainable development, environmental justice, and climate policy through community engagement and public participation.