Panel 1: Climate Change, Eco-Anxiety, And Wellbeing
Courtney Howard
Dr Courtney Howard is an Emergency Physician in Yellowknives Dene Territory in Canada’s subarctic, a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Calgary, and a Community Research Fellow in Planetary Health at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research. The Vice-Chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, Dr Howard has researched menstrual cups and wildfires, and led policy work and advocacy regarding social tipping points and the health sector, ecoanxiety, vaccine equity, active transport, plant-rich diets, fossil fuel divestment, carbon pricing, coal phase-out, hydraulic fracturing and with regards to Canada’s Oil Sands. She led the 2017-2019 Lancet Countdownon Health and Climate Change Briefings for Canadian Policymakers and was the 2018 International Policy Director for the Lancet Countdown. Dr Howard was the first woman president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and is on the Communications and Advocacy Subcommittee of the WHO-Civil Society Working Group on Climate Change and Health. She recently completed a Master of Public Policy Degree at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University where she focused on using a planetary health lens to facilitate the transition to economies centered around wellbeing. She is part of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Lancet Planetary Health and the Journal of Climate Change and Health. She has two young daughters and loves to dance.
Ankur Patel
Ankur currently resides in the unceded and ancestral territory of the Haisla Nation, located in Kitimat. He is a third-year undergraduate nursing student and is currently seated on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Nursing Student Association. He has further been working with the BC Youth Climate Corps on project development and attended as a proud ambassador of the program.
Katharina
Katharina is a grade 9 student, enrolled in the Institute for Global Solutions program at Claremont Secondary School in Victoria, BC.
Anneliese
Anneliese is a grade 12 student, enrolled in the Institute for Global Solutions program at Claremont Secondary School in Victoria, BC.
Panel 2: The Many Paths of Climate Action
Brynna Kagawa-Visentin
Brynna Kagawa-Visentin (she/her) is an interdisciplinary environmental justice researcher, with experience as a coordinator and manager for conservation, climate justice, and ethical fashion non-profits. She takes a political ecology approach to environmental issues, meaning she investigates the power dynamics that underpin and accelerate the world’s most pressing socio-environmental issues. She holds a BSc in Environmental Practice with distinction at Royal Roads University and a MSc in Environment, Culture and Society at the University of Edinburgh. Throughout her educational journey, she led the development of the Sierra Youth Podcast at the Sierra Club Canada, represented the Sierra Club Canada at COP27, and developed programs at various institutions that catalyzed youth engagement in environmental-related issues.
Rachel Malena-Chan
Rachel Malena-Chan (she/her) is the Creator of Eco-Anxious Stories, where she brings together her passion for storytelling and her commitment to social and ecological justice. Rachel has been offering professional Story Strategy services for a decade now, using narrative to help others engage and communicate meaningfully. Her background is in Population and Community Health, and she resides in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – Treaty 6 and the Homelands of the Métis