Canada in a Changing Climate: Assessment Advisory Committee

Gord Beal

Gord is Vice-President of Research, Guidance and Support at Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) Canada. His areas of focus include strategic financial management, financial reporting, reporting and disclosure beyond generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), auditing and other assurance, board governance and organizational oversight, risk, sustainability, performance management, information management and technology, and contemporary professional issues. He became a chartered accountant in 1990 and holds a BA in Commerce and Economics, a Bachelor of Education and a Master of Education in Organizational Learning.

Robert Capozi

Robert is the Adaptation Specialist with the New Brunswick Climate Change Secretariat. His role focuses on facilitating the dissemination of climate change knowledge and technical expertise to stakeholders, with the ultimate goal of creating more resilient communities, improving local economies and advancing research. Prior to the Secretariat, Rob held the positions of Coastal Lands Manager with the New Brunswick Department of Environment, Habitat Specialist with the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Wetlands Management Specialist with Ducks Unlimited Canada.

Stewart J. Cohen

Stewart is a senior researcher with the Climate Research Division of Environment and Climate Change Canada and an Adjunct Professor with the Department of Forest Resources Management at the University of British Columbia. Stewart was co-author of Climate Change in the 21st Century, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. For the last 25 years, he has also been a member of author teams for several publications of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international body for assessing the science related to climate change. Stewart’s IPCC work has included the IPCC 5th Assessment Report, Climate Change 2014 – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.

Ellen Curtis

Ellen is the Director of Education for The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Over the past six years she has worked with numerous public and private organizations to develop engaging educational programs that work to advance geographic literacy in Canada. She is a passionate educator with a BA and an MA in Education from the University of Ottawa. 

Susan Evans

Susan is currently a Policy Advisor with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs’ Agri-food Climate Change Policy Unit, which is responsible for leading and coordinating the Ministry’s efforts on climate change mitigation and adaptation.  In Susan’s previous role with WWF-Canada, she provided science advice to various program areas on building climate resilient outcomes, and led the implementation of project work to demonstrate these concepts in practice. Susan holds a M.Sc. in Zoology from the University of Guelph and has actively participated in various Government of Canada science advisory processes, including as an advisor to the former National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.

Elaine Fox

Elaine is the Manager of Climate Change Adaptation/Mitigation in the Department of Sustainable Development of the Province of Manitoba.
Elaine draws on a broad range of knowledge and skills to provide leadership and expertise to government, stakeholders, municipalities, Indigenous organizations, business, advocates, and academia. Her applied experience in inclusiveness and collaboration work enhances an integrated legislative, regulatory and policy framework that guides sustainable development, a low carbon economy and adaptation to a changing climate future. Prior to her current role, Elaine worked as a Manager in both Strategic Policy, Sustainable Development and for the Department of Water Stewardship, Planning and Coordination.

Pierre Gosselin

Pierre currently works primarily at the Quebec Public Health Institute (INSPQ), where he coordinates the joint Ouranos-INSPQ research program in climate change and health. He was also in charge of the Health component of the Quebec Action Plan on Climate Change (2007-2017) and remains involved in some projects. He is also a clinical professor in preventive medicine at Université Laval and an associate at Institut national de la recherche scientifique, both in Quebec City. Pierre was trained as a physician (Université Laval) and in environmental health (University of California at Berkeley).

Ewa Jackson

Ewa currently works with ICLEI Canada where she has led the development of ICLEI’s Guidebook, Changing Climate Changing Communities, a compendium of resources that provides a milestone-based framework to assist local governments in the creation of adaptation plan; the guidebook was the result of a three-year process of research, collaboration and piloting with experts in the field. She has worked with municipal governments for over 16 years in the fields of sustainability, public participation and climate change. She holds degrees from the University of Toronto in environmental management and political science and is currently pursuing her MA in Environment and Business. Ewa’s particular field of interest is in the area of climate communications.

Anne Kendrick

Anne is a senior policy advisor for the national representational Inuit organization, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK).She provides policy guidance on Inuit rights and interests on a variety of climate change, food security, Indigenous knowledge and wildlife management topics. Before joining ITK, Anne worked for more than 15 years as an academic and practitioner on community-based resource management issues in the North. Anne has an interdisciplinary background in the natural and social sciences (BSc, biology, McGill; MA, human geography, McGill; PhD, natural resources and environmental management, Manitoba).

Paul Kovacs

Paul is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) at Western University, an independent, not-for-profit centre for multi-disciplinary disaster prevention research and communications. Paul’s research interest is insurance and adaptation to climate extremes. This includes action to build communities resilient to damage from urban flooding, tornadoes, catastrophic earthquakes and interface wildfire. Since 1996, Paul has been a volunteer with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international body for assessing
the science related to climate change.

David Lapp

David currently works at Engineers Canada where, since 2005, he has led a national project to assess the engineering vulnerability of public infrastructure to the impacts of a changing climate, making presentations and giving workshops and courses across Canada, as well as internationally. This project developed the infrastructure climate risk assessment tool known as the PIEVC Protocol, which has been applied to a variety of infrastructure systems across Canada and internationally. David graduated with a degree in geological engineering from the University of Toronto in 1978. After nearly 20 years working as a consulting engineer in Canada’s Arctic region, he joined Engineers Canada in July 1997.  

Caroline Larrivée

Caroline leads the Vulnerabilities, Impacts and Adaptation Group at Ouranos, where she has worked since October 2006. Her previous positions there included work as a specialist in the Vulnerabilities, Impacts and Adaptation Group and as coordinator of the northern environment and urban areas programs. As an urban planner in the private sector, academic institutions and at the Kativik Regional Government, she collaborated on research into the impacts of climate change on northern communities. Caroline holds a BA in urban planning from Université de Montréal.

Don Lemmen

Don is a Research Manager in the Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Division of Natural Resources Canada. He obtained his PhD from the University of Alberta in 1988, studying past environmental change in the Canadian High Arctic. Since 2000 he has led development of three Canadian national assessment reports of climate change impacts and adaptation, while contributing to other national, regional and global assessments. Internationally, he has been involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process since 2003 and with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) process since 2005. He is currently co-chair of the UNFCCC Adaptation Committee.

Patricia Manuel

Patricia is the Director of the School of Planning at Dalhousie University, Halifax with additional appointments in the Dalhousie School of Occupational Therapy and the Coastal and Marine Management Program of the University Centre of the Westfjords, Akureyri University, Iceland. She teaches and conducts applied research in environmental and community planning. Patricia works extensively with watershed, community planning and environmental groups to achieve environmentally sound land-use planning and development. She was a member of the National Coastal Assessment Advisory Committee (Natural Resources Canada) and the Atlantic Climate Adaptations Solutions Association Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation. She is currently a member of the board of directors of the Coastal Zone Canada Association.

Graeme Reed

Graeme Reed is of mixed Anishinaabe and European descent. He works as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), where he advocates for the inclusion of First Nations in climate and energy policy. He is an Action Canada Fellow, holding a Bachelor of Environmental Science from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Science from McGill University.