Event

Robert Varney

JPAC Chair

Considered one of the nation’s most experienced and respected environmental leaders, Robert Varney is a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) New England Regional Administrator, who currently is President of Normandeau Associates, a science-based environmental firm with eighteen offices in 12 states. He was the longest-serving regional administrator and top environmental official in New England and is credited with instituting many innovative approaches and policy initiatives that have served as national models. Prior to EPA, Mr. Varney was one of the nation’s longest-serving state environmental commissioners, appointed by three Governors of both political parties.

Bob is nationally recognized for his efforts on global climate change; energy efficiency and renewables; homeland security and preparedness; clean air, clean water and safe drinking water; superfund and brownfields cleanup and redevelopment; environmental justice and healthy communities; restoration of rivers, lakes and coastal areas; strong and consistent enforcement and compliance assistance; strengthening partnerships; and improved agency management and performance.

Mr. Varney has chaired the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), State/EPA Superfund Policy Forum, Federal Ozone Transport Commission (OTC), Governmental Advisory Committee to the US Representative to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission and New England Governors Conference Environment Committee. He also was a member of EPA’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council and currently serves on the NH Board of Trustees for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the CEC Joint Public Advisory Committee (US, Mexico, Canada). Bob is the recipient of numerous environmental awards such as the EPA Lifetime Achievement Award, NE Water Works Association’s John H. Chafee Award, Environmental Business Council of NE’s Paul Keough Award and the ECOS Founder’s Award.

David McLaughlin

Strategic Advisor on Sustainability, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

David McLaughlin, BA, MA, MBA, is currently Strategic Advisor on Sustainability in the Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo. He is one of Canada’s leading public policy experts, with more than 25 years experience at the highest levels of government, including as a chief of staff and deputy minister at both the federal and provincial levels of government.

His career has included serving as chief of staff to former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (1993), former federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (2006–2007), and former New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord (2003). He served as a senior advisor to former prime minister and Constitutional Affairs Minister Joe Clark and former prime minister Kim Campbell.

Mr. McLaughlin was president and CEO of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE), which he headed from 2007 to 2013, and executive director of the Council of the Federation’s Advisory Panel on Fiscal Imbalance in 2005 and 2006. He served as deputy minister of Intergovernmental Affairs in the New Brunswick government, deputy minister of Policy and Planning and secretary to the Cabinet Committee on Policy and Priorities, and deputy minister to the New Brunswick Commission on Legislative Democracy, from 1999 to 2005.

He is also a published author and commentator on sustainability, politics, and public policy issues in the Canadian media.

Eric Dannenmaier

JPAC member

Kindy Gosal

Director, Special Initiatives
Columbia Basin Trust

Kindy Gosal (Golden, BC, Canada) is the Director of Special Initiatives for the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT), a corporation that was created to assist the people most directly affected by the construction of the Columbia River Treaty Dams in the Canadian Columbia Region. The mandate of the CBT is to assist the residents of the region in creating a legacy of social, economic, and environmental well-being. Mr. Gosal’s work with the CBT includes a focus on water and water issues locally, regionally, and in the transboundary context. He is the lead staff member at CBT on initiatives related to the Columbia River Treaty and to climate change and recently has expanded his role to include development of major new programs and projects in the social and economic sectors.

For more than 20 years Mr. Gosal has been a grassroots-level community practitioner working with local governments and communities of interest as a facilitator and convener, helping communities identify tangible actions to address the complex issues they face. He is a Professional Forester by training and has also worked internationally on a variety of forestry and socio-economic development projects in Africa and Asia.

Cameron Davis

Senior Advisor to the Administrator
US Environmental Protection Agency

Mr. Davis is senior advisor to the US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, providing counsel on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. He coordinates Great Lakes policy and funding initiatives with more than a dozen federal agencies and with state, municipal, tribal, business and civic stakeholders. He also served as a lead negotiator on the US negotiating team for the 2012 US-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

For more than two decades, Mr. Davis has worked to develop and implement policy on water quality and quantity. Starting as a volunteer, he served as a litigating attorney and law teacher at the University of Michigan Law School before serving for 11 years as president and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Under his leadership, the organization won the American Bar Association’s Distinguished Award in Environmental Law and Policy, the first time for a public interest organization in the honor’s history. He earned his law degree, including certification in environmental and energy law, from the Chicago-Kent College of Law and a B.A. from Boston University in International Relations. He is the author of Confluence (BookSurge 2009). Mr. Davis lives across the street from Lake Michigan with his wife, Katelyn, and two children.

Roberto Aviña Carlín

Director
Conservación de la Vida Silvestre (Semarnat)

With a bachelor of biological sciences degree from Universidad Veracruzana and having pursued advanced studies in sustainable development and the environment with the LEAD Mexico program at Colegio de México, Roberto Aviña Carlín has acted since 2007 as director of wildlife conservation for the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Semarnat). Highlights of his career as an environmental consultant include specializing in the development of public policies on environmental services, forestry projects, education, training and environmental awareness. In addition to his work as founding director of Fundación Ecológica de Guanajuato and promoter of Desarrollo Rural de Guanajuato, his professional experience includes having worked at the Quintana Roo Research Center and the Biotic Resource Research Institute.

Mr. Aviña Carlín has participated in several initiatives, such as the Arrecifes de Puerto Morelos National Park Management Program in Quintana Roo (working directly with local farmers and fishermen); the Environmental Program of the Guanajuato State Institute of Ecology, and diverse studies on the subsistence hunting of Mexico’s migratory aquatic birds and avifauna in Sierra de Santa Rosa, Guanajuato. He has also participated in projects under Semarnat’s Sustainable Wildlife Conservation and Use Program, the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve (sea turtle conservation in Quintana Roo), the Cuenca de la Esperanza Protected Natural Area in Guanajuato; the El Charco del Ingenio Botanic Gardens in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and the Guanajuato State System for Protected Natural Areas.

Among his diverse personal interests, Mr. Aviña Carlín pursues activities in conservation, ecotourism, and fruit growing in an oak forested area of the Sierra de Santa Rosa, Guanajuato, which he owns.

Paolo Solano

Legal Officer

Adriana Nelly Correa

Moderator
JPAC member

Adriana Nelly Correa Sandoval has had wide-ranging professional experience in consensus building, education and research. Correa Sandoval has been awarded the Rómulo Garza Award for Research twice (in 1997 and 2003), the Nuevo León Pro-Wildlife Merit Award (Education, 2008) and the “Women and Sustainability” Award (2011). The Planetario Alfa chose her as an environmental leader for the Green Revolution exhibition (2013).

She was Founding Director of the Andrés Marcelo Sada Chair at the Monterrey Institute of Technology (Tecnológico de Monterrey) (2001–2013) and  Director of Strategic Alliances at the Mario Molina Center for Strategic Studies (Centro Mario Molina de Estudios Estratégicos) (2013-2014).

Ms. Correa Sandoval has conducted research, managed projects and been a thesis director on basic ecology, valuation of ecosystem services, planning for sustainable development and land-use management. Moreover, she has made contributions as co-author and co-editor of the books: Tecnológico de Monterrey: un refugio para las aves (2010), Vida, ambiente y desarrollo en el siglo XXI and Ciencia ambiental y desarrollo sostenible (1997).

She participated in developing the Latin American input to the elaboration of the first international standard on sustainable water management (2010–2012). She coordinated, amongst other endeavors, the chapter on adaptative management of ecosystems and biodiversity in the Climate Change Action Program for Nuevo León (2008–2009), the Plan for Comprehensive Coastal Management of the Laguna Madre System of Tamaulipas (2004–2007) and Semarnat’s CCNDS Technical Commission for Environmental and Social Economic Policy for Sustainable Development (Comisión Técnica de Política Económica Ambiental y Social para el Desarrollo Sustentable) (2002–2007).

Ms. Correa-Sandoval has participated in some committees for the Mexico’s National Commission for Science and Technology (Conacyt). She represents academia in the technical board for ecological planning of the Cuenca de Burgos region; she sits on the Citizens’ Advisory Board of the Environmental and Natural Resources Protection Agency for the state of Nuevo León, and is member of the Technical-Scientific Subcouncil for the “Cumbres de Monterrey” National Park. A founding member of Pronatura Noreste, AC, she has been a member of its board of directors since 2008.

Since March 2002, she has been a Mexican representative on the CEC Joint Public Advisory Committee and serves as its chairperson for 2009.

Camilia Zoe-Chocolate

Director, Lands and Environment
Dene Nation

Mariana Bellot Rojas

Directora General de Desarrollo Institucional y Promoción
Conanp

Mariana Bellot has been working for more than 15 years on international environmental policy and biodiversity issues. She developed considerable expertise in international biodiversity agreements while working at the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Conabio), where she spent seven years supporting the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). In 2007, she joined Semarnat as Director for Bilateral Cooperation and in 2009 she moved to the National Commission for Protected Areas (Conanp), where she was responsible for developing the Climate Change Strategy for Protected Areas.

Currently, she is General Director for Institutional Development and Outreach at Conanp, responsible for international agreements pertaining to biodiversity and protected areas: the Convention of Biological Diversity, the Ramsar Convention, UNESCO’s Natural World Heritage Sites, and the Man and Biosphere Program. She is also responsible for Mexico’s Strategy for Climate Change and the negotiation of new conservation projects with national and international partners.

Ms. Bellot holds a BA in international relations and a master’s degree in environmental and policy studies from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.

David Angus

Moderator
JPAC member

After almost 20 years working in the private sector, Dave Angus became president and chief executive officer of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce in 1999. Since then he has served as president of the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Canada and represented local chambers on the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Strategic Planning Committee. He currently sits on the board of directors of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, representing Canadian chambers.

Under his leadership, the Winnipeg Chamber has increased its membership to the highest level in its history (more than 2,060 corporate members) and has not only been recognized by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce as an Accredited Chamber with Distinction but has also received recognition by the American Chamber of Commerce Executives for being in the top 10 Chambers for membership growth.

Paul Irngaut

Wildlife Communications Coordinator
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc

Bio will be made available shortly

Francisco Xavier Martinez Esponda

Coordinador Regional, Oficina del Golfo de México, Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental, A.C. (Cemda)

Mr. Martínez Esponda, who holds a Bachelor in Law from the Universidad Iberoamericana (2006) and a Master’s in Tropical Ecology from the Center for Tropical Research (Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales—CITRO) of the Universidad Veracruzana (2014), has been the director of the Gulf of Mexico regional office of the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental—CEMDA) since January 2013. A principal priority of CEMDA is the conservation of Mexico’s biocultural heritage, and in particular, the defense of native maize varieties. Previously, from 2005 to 2010, Mr. Martínez Esponda served as a lawyer and the director of CEMDA’s human rights program.

Mr. Martínez Esponda is the co-author of various publications, notably two papers on native maize: “La paz lejana y el diálogo de sordos: una historia local de la defensa indígena del maíz nativo y la construcción de un Estado pluricultural de derecho en México” (“Distant peace and a dialogue of the deaf: a local story of First Nations defending native maize and the building of pluricultural rule of law in Mexico”), published in the journal Derecho Ambiental y Ecología (No. 52, year 9), and “Conservando al maíz nativo, construyendo un Estado multicultural” (“Conserving native maize, constructing a multicultural State”) included in the anthology Socializando saberes en un primer encuentro internacional de posgrado, published by the University Press of Universidad de Granada and Universidad Veracruzana.

Chuck Striplen

Associate Environmental Scientist
San Francisco Estuary Institute

Chuck Striplen is an environmental scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI), a not-for-profit environmental monitoring and research organization in Central Coastal California. SFEI develops ecosystem restoration and management strategies that sustain key ecological goods and services such as water supplies, native biological diversity, harvestable resources, flood control, natural treatment of pollutants, carbon sequestration, sediment storage, and recreation. Dr. Striplen leads a Cultural Landscapes focus area, designed to facilitate a broader, more inclusive definition of “watersheds” in SFEI’s work—one incorporating a human (cultural) perspective. Tribal resource management practices and principles have applications to modern resource protection and restoration beyond existing tribal lands, including landscape approaches to the protection of wildlife and water quality. Building collaborative relationships between tribes and watershed scientists is a central theme of this initiative. Dr. Striplen received his PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley.

Robert Varney

JPAC Chair

Irasema Coronado, CEC Executive Director

Introductory remarks

Bob McLeod, Premier of the Northwest Territories

Welcoming remarks

Leona Aglukkaq, Canadian Environment Minister

Welcoming Remarks and Official Opening of the XXIst Regular Session of the Council

Gina McCarthy, Administrator, US Environmental Protection Agency

Remarks

Juan José Guerra Abud, Mexican Secretary for Environment and Natural Resources

Remarks

Robert Varney, Chair of the CEC Joint Public Advisory Committee

Remarks

Irasema Coronado, CEC Executive Director

Announcement of the Photo Contest Winner and closing remarks

Stephanie Yuill

Public Education Specialist, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, GNWT

Passionate about the environment and human history, Stephanie Yuill is fortunate to have a career that encompasses each. A long-time environmental educator, she strongly believes in the influence that the land and water have on humans, and visa versa. This is evident in her background, working in parks and museums. She began her career with Parks Canada at the Woodside National Historic Site as a front-line interpreter. Since then she’s gained experience with Ontario Parks, Alberta Parks, NWT Parks and others. Ms. Yuill has a BA from the University of Waterloo in recreation and leisure studies and an MSc from Texas A&M in recreation, parks and tourism. Her master’s thesis examined at what draws visitors to sites of death and disaster, specifically the Holocaust Museum in Houston. Currently, she is a public education specialist with the NWT Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Leona Aglukkaq

Canadian Environment Minister

Gina McCarthy

Administrator, US Environmental Protection Agency

Juan José Guerra Abud

Mexican Secretary for Environment and Natural Resources

Irasema Coronado

CEC Executive Director