Contact The Board

EEPSA is a volunteer organization.

Executive meetings are held approximately once every two months. EEPSA members and the general public are welcome to attend executive meetings to make presentations and to contribute to the proceedings. Please contact our President, Jonathan Dyck, if you would like information or to discuss opportunities to participate.

Current Executive & Advisory Roles

Jonathon Dyck

President

Jonathan Dyck

After living and teaching in Surrey and Langley for 15 years, Jonathan and his family decided to move to Powell River on the Sunshine Coast. He is currently teaching French Immersion and ELL at the local secondary school, and enjoys hiking and paddling and spending time by the ocean.

He holds undergraduate degrees in English literature and education, and a Master’s degree in curriculum and instruction, with a focus on ecological education. He endeavours to teach English and other subjects from a place-based approach, and loves what happens when he takes his students outside!

Jonathan has facilitated many workshops for EEPSA and the BCTF, on topics such as language arts education, Aboriginal education, place-based learning, social media, anti-racism, and the new curriculum. He appreciates the many layers and facets of the BCTF, and is known to get excited about politics. 🙂

email:[email protected]

Vice President

Nick Townley

Nick is a teacher who lives, works and adventures on the shores of the Salish Sea. He teaches social studies and outdoor education with the Vancouver School Board’s TREK Outdoor Education Program. He worked as a coordinator for seven summers with the Pearson Seminar on Youth Leadership.

For thirteen spring and fall seasons, he taught in the outdoor classroom of Howe Sound with Sea to Sky Outdoor School for Sustainability Education, where he was a Program Director and well known for his bioregional comedy routines. He has spent a total of six months as the Ecoguardian on Race Rocks Ecological Reserve.

email: [email protected]

Secretary

Donna Boucher

Donna‘s connection to the environment started as a child growing up on her family’s farm in southwestern Ontario. Her outdoor interests guided her to a BSc degree in Biology and Anthropology at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. Donna’s early career work in wildlife biology involved diverse experiences including relocating bears, wetland inventories, deer check stations, and studying moose in Algonquin Park. She also worked as a news and nature photographer completing courses at Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology.

After moving to BC, she continued her education at SFU and completed her B. Ed with an Environmental minor. She joined EEPSA at that time and has continued to be actively involved in teacher engagement /pro-d activities, as well as serving as EEPSA secretary for the past nine years.

Donna has been a teacher for over 15 years, encouraging her students to connect with their environment through place-based learning experiences. She has initiated various “green” related projects with her students and recently completed her Graduate Diploma in Nature and Place-based Learning through SFU.

In her spare time, she enjoys paddling, photography, hiking, gardening and spending time with her daughters.

email: [email protected]

Treasurer

Francis McCoubrey

Frances is a Grade 7 teacher in Williams Lake.  She has worked in outdoor education for the past 24 years with various agencies and enjoys being outside as much as possible.  She has been an EEPSA member for the past 6 years.

email: [email protected]

Membership

Laura Jackman

Laura was born and raised in the Kootenays and currently lives in Rossland BC. She loves the outdoors and can usually be found hiking, biking, canoeing or snowboarding with her family. 

She is the membership chair of EEPSA and the president of her local chapter, The Kootenay Columbia Environmental Educators. Laura is the Outdoor Classroom and grade 4 teacher at Rossland Summit School and is passionate about ecological justice education.

email: [email protected]

Communications Chair/ Web Manager

Megan Zeni

Megan is a mom, teacher, master gardener, and nature play enthusiast who spends her downtime with her family hiking, boating and skiing. She is a K-7 educator with over 25 years of classroom experience who re-imagined the prep role at her public school and turned it into her dream job of teaching all day in an outdoor and garden classroom! Megan is an advocate for taking children outdoors in all kinds of weather to learn, play, and grow.

She believes just about anything can be taught in a school garden, and that class time spent in nature develops empathy, resiliency, and self-regulated learning. Megan is concurrently completing her PhD at UBC in curriculum & pedagogy. Her research interests include developing professional learning communities with in-service teachers to bridge emerging theories with teaching practices that include unstructured outdoor play as a pedagogical approach.

Megan is a frequent speaker and workshop facilitator on all things K-7 outdoors. She shares out her learning on Instagram and Twitter at @roomtoplay and on her blog at meganzeni.com

email: [email protected]

Communications

Heidi Lessman

Heidi is excited to join EEPSA and will be supporting communications with members. Heidi completed her degree in Geography and Natural Resource Management at the University of Northern BC and started her career working with BC Parks and Water Resources. She was introduced to teaching experiential, environmental and outdoor education in New Zealand and the Yukon Territory.

These experiences as a teacher were transformative and she has since worked with a variety of schools and experiential education programs in BC. She was also instrumental in developing and delivering Zero Waste and Sustainability Workshops in the Squamish to Lillooet Region for several years.

email: [email protected]

Members at Large

Emma Garforth-Bles

Emma grew up and built a deep love of nature on the lands of the Stoney-Nakoda & Tsuut’ina people (Treaty 7 land, Bragg Creek, AB) frolicking in the forests, building ant homes, climbing trees, and collecting tadpoles. After graduating from UVic with a BEd, she began her career in Calgary as a Forest School and Nature Kindergarten educator for Common Digs where she quickly found her niche in a place-responsive, inquiry-based, emergent outdoor classroom. 

Now, she finds her home and workplace in Qukin  ʔamakʔis (Raven’s Land) on the ancestral lands of the Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it (Fernie, BC). She loves to hike, bike, camp, and garden with her family. As an SD5 teacher and a certified Forest School practitioner, she is a strong believer that the best learning happens outside in all-weather through deep imaginative and risky play, creative storytelling, and place-bonding practices. Emma has led various professional development workshops on topics related to Forest School philosophy and practice.  

Emma is completing her MA in Environmental Education & Communication and her research explores how nature-immersive, arts-informed practice can develop a deeper sense of self, enhanced pedagogy, and ecological identity. Emma’s studies demonstrate how decentering herself as a teacher outside can contribute to the decolonization of education.  

email: [email protected]

Chloe Fought

Chloe is a 5th generation settler on Lekwungen, W̱SÁNEĆ and Halq’emeylem lands who has a deep love for this place and is grateful every day for being able to live on these lands and learn. She has a passion for being wild; whether it is by foot, by bike or by canoe and finds the more she gets out there, the more she loves the wild west coast. She is a secondary science and social studies teacher in the Saanich School District and the current president of the Salish Sea Environmental Educators Provincial Specialist Association (SSEEPSA). She is passionate about moving forward the agenda on climate action in our districts and supporting the work of indigenous educators in land-based learning. 

email:

Kerri Lanaway

Previously with the Burnaby School District and the local EEPSA chapter, B-Outside, Kerri is now happy to call Vernon and the Okanagan Valley her new home. She is excited to be closer to family, paddle the waters and ski the slopes nearby! 

Kerri has been a classroom teacher for the last ten years, teaching secondary science for a time but now focusing primarily on grades 5-7. Before that, she developed and delivered environmental programs for Metro Vancouver’s Watershed Education program, as well as Sierra Club BC’s Education Program. Kerri has been a Wild BC facilitator for over 10 years and has been on the EEPSA board on and off over the years. She counts herself lucky to be working alongside such dedicated and inspiring educators. 

Kerri holds undergraduate degrees in Science and Education, and a Master’s degree in curriculum and instruction in ecological learning. She enjoys taking her students outside and believes all students should have the opportunity to explore the area in which they live, fostering a deeper respect for the natural world and connections to their ecosystem and community.  

email: [email protected]

Karen Andrews

Karen has been teaching for over 20 years in the Coast Mountains School District where she loves to explore the mountains and ocean. She’s a member of Terrace Search and Rescue, specializing in swiftwater and avalanche response. Karen has a post-degree diploma in Adventure Education and is a certified Outdoor Council of Canada field leader in hiking. Karen has a Bachelor of Education (French) from the University of Calgary and a Master’s Degree in Leadership from UNBC. She’s passionate about teaching in the outdoors and supporting teacher mentorship and collaboration. Karen facilitates teacher workshops on a variety of topics and is excited to be a part of EEPSA as the Professional Development Chair. 

email: [email protected]

Past President

Selina Metcalfe

Selina began her education career in summer camps in the Howe Sound, teaching backcountry leadership skills to street-affected youth for the Boys and Girls Club.   Since being wrangled into a classroom, she is a secondary English and Social Studies teacher in the Surrey School District. She has a passion for connecting students to the places that inform them, and aspires to use the curriculum to help students understand their relationship to the land.

Selina has a Bachelor of Arts in History and English from UBC, a Bachelor of Education from UVIC in Secondary Education and a Masters of Education in Ecological Education and Diverse Learning Environments from SFU.  Selina has recently been a Faculty Associate for the SEEDs (Sustainability Education in an Environment of Diversity) module of PDP at SFU. As president of EEPSA, she worked to establish Local Chapters of EEPSA across the province, and partner with like-minded organizations under the Classrooms to Communities professional development initiative.

Selina has delivered professional development to teachers and student teachers for the last 15 years on a wide range of topics such as Place-Based Literature, Outdoor Education, First People’s Principles of Learning, Watershed Education, Writer’s Workshop, Assessment Frameworks, Green Schoolyards and Curriculum Interpretation.

Selina and her family currently live in Burnaby, and endeavour to spend every single night of their summer holidays out in a tent.

email: [email protected]

Advisory Committee Liaison Positions

Duncan Whittick, CBEEN

Monica Nissen, CBEEN and KBEE

Patrick Robertson, UBC

Bruce Ford, Metro Vancouver

David Zandvliet, SFU

Environmental Educators Professional Specialists Association

EEPSA is a dynamic volunteer organization promoting networking, curriculum support, and leadership in environmental education supported by the BCTF.