SYC Team
- Administration
- Sustainable Campuses Team
- Sustainable High Schools/YAG Team
- Regional Action Coordinators
- Sierra Club Canada Youth Representative
Administration
National Director - Mark Hanlon
director@syc-cjs.org
Mark, originally from O’Donnell’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, graduated from MemorialUniversity of Newfoundland in 2005 witih a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Political Science. During his university days, he worked on and off campus in various social justices causes. Mark began working at Memorial University in the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development and most recently was executive director of AIDS PEI in Charlottetown, PE. He is heavily involved in sexual and reproductive health, planned parenthood and social justice, serving on the board of the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health and represented Canadian youth in Washington, D.C. in 2009 and in August 2010 in Lima, Peru. Media and public relations, social media and human rights based work are his favorite aspects of activism and NGO work.
National Sustainable Campuses Coordinator - Tracey Guptill
(outgoing)
Tracey has been an environmentalist since days of painting fish near sewer grates with her brownie troupe. Since then she has been working to increase her understanding of the world around her by studying in various fields, from theatre to ethics to municipal politics. She has a degree in Philosophy and Environmental Studies from the University of Ottawa and since graduating she has been working for sustainability at the local level by learning first-hand about sustainable farming and teaching elementary students how to grow their own produce with the Canadian Organic Growers’ Growing Up Organic program. She was the Logistics Coordinator for Power Shift Canada 2009, a national climate action conference. Other organising includes Ottawa’s two City Social Forums and last year’s Organizing For Justice conference. Lately she has been leading workshops based on Augusto Boal’s techniques: exploring oppression through forum theatre, as well as facilitating workshops in schools on cycling and activism drawing from her two-month educational cycling tour with The Otesha Project.
National Coordinator, Sustainable Campuses (Evaluation) - Sarah English
(incoming)
Sarah, born and raised in the Ottawa area, moved to the City of Waterloo to complete a Bachelor`s degree of Environmental Studies in urban design and environmental planning at the University of Waterloo. Here she became engaged in the environmental movement by joining the Sustainable Technology Education Project and being elected to the University of Waterloo Sustainability Project Board . After completing several coop placements with environmental NGOs and government departments, she was inspired to start a sustainable transportation group at the University of Waterloo now known as ACT (Active and Community Transportation). Inspired to take action, Sarah and several fellow students attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP15 in Copenhagen. Her involvement with a range of sustainability issues landed her the position as the first Sustainability Coordinator at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2010. While fully enjoying the opportunity to work with students and staff to improve the sustainability of Laurier`s campuses, life took her to Edinburgh, Scotland for most of 2011. There she volunteered for a number of NGOs including Oxfam, Transform Scotland and Sustrans while exploring the culture and learning about environmental issues in Scotland. Happy to be back in Ottawa, Sarah is looking forward to working with the Sustainable Campuses Project.
National Conference and Campaigns Coordinator - Cameron Stiff
Acting Quebec Coordinator
Cameron is a huge fan of the wilderness, feeling most at home in a stand of ancient hardwoods, or on a mountainside, or sitting on a surfboard in the ocean. His love of nature and the finer qualities of humanity - our intelligence, creativity and ability to love - motivate him to work for social justice and the environment. He dreams of sustainable cities, car-free, green and livable, living symbiotically with their surrounding countryside, rather than 'taking, making and wasting', in the words of green architect and Cradle-to-Cradle author William McDonough. Cameron has organized extensively around climate change at the national and international levels, worked at Concordia University in Montreal on a variety of sustainability projects, led greening and sustainability projects in his neighbourhood, and co-created a social networking platform for social entrepreneurs. He loves woodworking, making music, growing and cooking food, yoga, hockey, and theatre, and travelling to new and exciting places, meeting incredible people and learning new things about himself and the world.
Quebec Sustainable Campuses Officer - Cameron Stiff (interim coordinator)
Sustainable High Schools & Youth Action Gatherings Team
Sustainable High Schools Coordinator - Gabriela Rappell
Gabriela grew up in Toronto and has been active in the environmental movement since high school. She first became involved in SYC in high school and served as an under 21 member of the ExComm and as a SYC representative on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club of Canada. Gabriela is a graduate of Queen’s University with a focus on Applied Science and Environmental Studies. While there she became interested in food security and sustainable development and worked with the National Farmers Union (NFU) on local food projects in Kingston. Gabriela looks forward to helping the students to envision, assess and act to create more Sustainable High Schools!
Atlantic Regional Action Coordinator - Meghan McCarthy
Meghan was born and raised just outside of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Beginning with environmental activism in her first year at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Meghan has been a long time volunteer and supporter of the Sierra Youth Coalition. She has been an organizer of the Atlantic Sustainable Campuses Conference, and a presenter at Youth Action Gatherings. Her passions lie in the connection between climate justice and women’s rights, sustainable food systems, and healthy sustainable campuses. She has been involved in many environmental projects at MUN and in her local community, such as Students for Sustainability, the MUN Advisory Committee on Sustainability, Project Green, the NL Climate Coalition, the Canadian Federation of Students and as a climate change educator with RADHOC (Rights, Action, Development: High School Outreach Champions Youth Leadership Conference). She is now finishing her honours degree in History, with a focus in Environmental History, and German at MUN. She is extremely excited and motivated to work with youth in the Atlantic region and across the country to make positive change in their communities, campuses, and local environments. Please feel free to contact her with questions or ideas! Email: atlantic.action@syc-cjs.org
Ontario Regional Action Coordinator - Andrew McAllister
Andrew McAllister’s passion for the environment comes from his experiences in his hometown Fredericton, New Brunswick, where from a young age he enjoyed picking vegetables from his family’s garden and biking along the river. After moving to Toronto to start his undergrad in theatre at Ryerson University, he quickly became involved in campus life. Andrew founded an environmental group called the Green Action Group to address environmental issues on campus. Collectively, the group worked with university administration to reform waste management and diversion practices on campus, and to initiate a compost program for the cafeteria. Andrew’s environmental activism has grown into leading a campaign to eliminate the sale of bottled water on campus. Through creative activism and student pledges, the campaign has received significant attention from local media and university administration. This resulted in the announcement of Ryerson University being the first campus in Ontario to declare its intention to go bottled water free. Andrew is currently the Sustainability Comissioner for the Ryerson Students’ Union, and is involved in the campaign for more affordable post-secondary education in Ontario.
Samantha Green,
Youth Representative, Sierra Club Canada Board of Directors
Samantha Green holds a Bachelor of Arts & Science from McMaster University and is currently a senior medical student at the University of Ottawa. Throughout her studies she has been involved in environmental activism, most recently as Ottawa's medical student representative to the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, as a member of the Sierra Youth Coalition's executive committee from 2006-2009, and as the coordinator of a medical student advocacy group that explores issues of the environment and poverty through the lens of health and disease. In the past, Samantha represented Ottawa to the Canadian Federation of Medical Students' Global Health Program; coordinated the McMaster Student Union's environmental office; and represented Canadian youth on Canada's delegation to the Commission for Sustainable Development. Samantha aims to use her growing medical expertise to advocate on behalf of the environment and sustainable development. In between learning the medical profession and striving to maintain her environmental activism, Samantha loves to cook vegan feasts, run marathons, and bike around the National Capital Region.
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