Staff & Board of Directors
All staff and board of directors can be reached at (647) 438 0038
Staff:
Carolyn joined Greenest City in 2009, returning to Canada after 2 ½ years living and working in the Middle East. Carolyn has over 7 years of experience working with NGOs in the Greater Toronto Area and in Calgary, developing and managing regional programs with a focus on community development through greening and gardening projects. Her past volunteer experience includes serving on the Board of Directors at Citizens’ Environment Watch (President) and leading Volunteer for Nature trips with the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. Carolyn graduated with a BSc. (Biology) from Queen’s University, followed by an MES from York. Her agricultural roots go back to her youth in Southwestern Ontario, including summer jobs in the fields and with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture.
Gelek’s role at Greenest City has evolved over the two-plus years that he has been with Greenest City. His assignments when he was hired were coordinating the youth staff and supporting the program in all the different areas. He still does a bit of that, but now he is also responsible for the communication and outreach efforts of the organization. Gelek, a Tibetan immigrant from Nepal, is passionate about youth empowerment, cultural awareness, arts and human rights. One of his goals in life is to climb the “mountain”. And to have a camera and notepad in hand to share what the view was like. He is also presently seeking a degree from a post-secondary institution. So if you happen to have any extra, just… you know, give him a shout.
Marilyn joined Greenest City in early 2009 shortly after she moved to Toronto. Marilyn has enjoyed working and volunteering in the food security and social service sector for the past ten years in Vancouver, Saskatoon, and Toronto. While at the University of British Columbia, she was active on campus as the chair for PRIDE UBC (A queer resource group). After graduating with a BA in Sociology, she moved to Saskatoon, where she concentrated her efforts on food security and community economic development initiatives working as the Good Food Box Coordinator (for CHEP Good Food Inc) and as the National Conference Coordinator (for the Canadian Community Economic Development Network and Quint Development Corporation). As a prairie girl, Marilyn is happiest when the sun is shining, the sky is big, and there are raspberries to be picked.
Sangyal completed her graduation from Darjeeling Government College in Botanical Science. In 2002, she moved to Japan and studied Japanese language and earned Post Graduate Diploma in International Tourism from Sundai college Tokyo, Japan. She served as an assistant Tour Operator/administrative assistant at INPAC Japan co., Ltd from 2006 to 2008 before joining Greenest City. She is passionate about nature and loves mountains and does her best to save environment by using less and acting more in the smallest possible ways. In addition to English, Sangyal is fluent in Tibetan, Japanese and Urdu.
Emma is pleased to join Greenest City and be part of a program that connects youth with their food from seed to table. Emma completed a certificate in horticultural therapy and a six month internship at a therapeutic farm on Vancouver Island and views gardening as a vital tool for health promotion. At the City of Toronto, with the Children’s Garden and Exploring Toronto Programs, Emma supported community centres with the delivery of children’s environmental programming. Working for Street Kids International, Emma managed a youth community mapping initiative around hidden youth poverty in York Region. Emma also organized the ‘Get Honest: Our Youth Matter’ conference for the York Region Alliance to End Homelessness. Emma currently serves on the Board of Directors at the Canadian Horticultural Therapy Association and the Julien Project, an establishing horticultural therapy organization, and has coordinated training opportunities for horticultural therapy students. Emma first discovered the thrill of growing food with containers of tomato plants on a small balcony and even without land of her own, she has been growing ever since. To share her love of gardening, Emma has started as a Toronto Master Gardener in Training.
Dhondup Norbu came to Canada in 2002 From Nepal. He has volunteered and been involved with Parkdale youth supervising various programs at Masaryk Cowan CRC for the past seven years. He was also a member of the security team for His Holiness the Dalai Lama during his visit to Toronto in 2007. Last year, Norbu completed Police Foundation at Humber College. Although he is new to the environmental movement, Norbu is excited about learning the different ways to connect with community members through food, nature and gardening. One thing he always keeps in mind is what his fitness teacher in Humber College told him once: "it’s not the experience that counts, it’s the capability and passion of the individual."
Board of Directors:
Karin is a Client Executive in the telecommunications industry at IBM where she has worked for 13 years holding positions in finance and in relationship sales. She attained her degree in Business Administration at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. She has served on the IBM Canada Women’s Leadership Council and the IBM Employees Charitable Fund Campaign. Karin ran as an NDP candidate in the 2007 Ontario provincial election and participates in the Eglinton-Lawrence NDP Riding Association. Karin has been passionate about nature since her childhood on the Niagara Escarpment and became involved in environmental issues since she started university, organizing two annual fundraising events to raise awareness and money for Friends of the Earth. She plans to renovate her home one day to have a carbon neutral footprint. She is an arts and theatre enthusiast, as well as a passionate, if not talented, gardener.
Joanne has spent most of her professional life in corporate senior management Positions and consulting roles. She has considerable experience in not-for-profit associations and projects, and is a participant in and supporter of several environmentally focused organizations. She comes to the Greenest city Board of Directors with passion for sustainable community based initiatives that enrich the lives of those involved and the city as a whole.
Heather is a Consultant with Courtyard Group, a consulting firm that is dedicated to transforming healthcare by assisting clients to achieve sustainable outcomes including improved patient safety, increased access to services and better patient care. Heather has been involved in strategy development and execution of priority initiatives with a variety of health related organizations. Heather is driven to bring this focus on enabling change to Greenest City by contributing to community based environmental initiatives.
With a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Ruth’s expertise lies in understanding and implementing growth from an environmental systems perspective. Her experience ranges from residential naturalization and architectural construction, to large parks and urban design, to environmental planning projects at the watershed scale. She also has a keen interest in stakeholder communication and the charette process.
As well as operating her own design practice, Ruth works with Studio LAB and the Toronto Economic Development Corporation. In concert with her Greenest City Board duties she volunteers with the Pediatric Group of Ontario, Design Initiative with Youth, and Water for Humanity.
Sally Miller holds a MA and PhD from Cornell University, as well as an MES from York University. She has worked in co-op management and co-op development for almost twenty years both in Canada and in the U.S. She has extensive experience as a consultant and manager in a variety of organic and natural food and agriculture co-operatives and enterprises, including Organic Meadow (OntarBio Organic Farmers’ Co-operative), the Ontario Natural Food Co-operative and the Finger Lakes Organic Growers’ Co-operative in New York. In 2006, she co-founded the Fourth Pig Worker Co-op, a co-op dedicated to the design and installation of alternative energy, and to natural home-building. Most recently she has been hard at work with the West End Food Co-op in Parkdale-High Park to develop one of Ontario’s first multi-stakeholder food co-operatives. In 2008, Sally published a book on innovative approaches to achieving a more equitable and sustainable food system (Edible Action, Fernwood Publishing, 2008).
To be updated soon.
