Who We Are

Our team

Our team includes members from the BC Parks Foundation alongside the BC Conservation Fund Oversight Committee, working together to guide funding decisions and support meaningful conservation projects across British Columbia.

BC Conservation Fund Oversight Committee

The Fund is overseen within the Foundation through recommendations from a committee of experts.
Helping shape the future of conservation in British Columbia.

Cynthia Callison

Committee Chair

Cynthia Callison (Chair) is a founding partner of Callison & Hanna Law Firm, where she has been a leading negotiator in agreements between Indigenous peoples, governments, and resource developers. Cynthia is a graduate of the Sauder School of Business and the Allard School of Law at UBC and she received a Masters in Constitutional Law from Osgoode Hall Law School. She is an exceptional public speaker and an invited presenter at dialogues on Indigenous peoples. She currently serves on a number of boards which provide leadership for revitalizing Indigenous well-being. Cynthia is a member of the Tahltan Nation whose territory is the Stikine River Watershed in northwestern BC.

Dr. Jody Holmes

Committee Member

Dr. Jody Holmes has a doctorate degree in biology and has worked for more than 20 years to achieve healthy human and ecological systems in the Great Bear Rainforest. In conjunction with First Nations, she was one of the primary architects of the historic Great Bear Rainforest Agreements, protecting the largest expanses of old growth temperate rainforest in the world. Jody was the conservation sector representative at both the Central and North Coast Land and Resource Management Plans, the Coast Information Team and the EBM Working Group, the Land and Resource Forum Technical Liaison Committee and the Adaptive Management Steering Committee. Currently, Jody is the Director for the Rainforest Solutions Project (RSP), a coalition which won the Buckminster Fuller Challenge in 2016.

Dr. Tara Atleo

Committee Member

Dr. Tara Atleo, haḥuuła, is a stewardship economics researcher and Indigenous sustainable development practitioner from the Ahousaht First Nation, house of ƛaqišpiił. Tara is passionately committed to the principles of stewardship, dedicating her work to exploring innovative approaches to upholding and advancing Indigenous law and governance. Her focus in this area is the intersection of economic considerations as elements of sustainable development and natural resource management within Indigenous law and governance. Tara has played and continues to play pivotal roles in innovative initiatives that strive to provide economic opportunities and environmental stewardship under the guidance of Indigenous law. Grounded in her community roots, Tara uses her perspective to challenge and expand economic thought and tools to create opportunities for communities that advance efforts towards intergenerational equity.

Garry Merkel

Committee Member

Garry Merkel is a Registered Professional Forester who served as the Co-Chair of the Old Growth Review Panel appointed by the Government of British Columbia. This panel conducted an extensive outreach process that received input from thousands of people across British Columbia and helped inform their final report, “A NEW FUTURE FOR OLD FORESTS, A Strategic Review of How British Columbia Manages its Old Forests Within its Ancient Ecosystems” (OGSR). Garry was asked to return as a member of a 5-person Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel responsible for conducting a technical analysis to identify deferral areas that met the criteria established in the OGSR Recommendation 6. Garry is now an independent mentor, coach, facilitator and advisor who supports the government, forest sector and ultimately the land sector of the province through this transition. Garry also has extensive foundation and program design and delivery experience as an inaugural board member of Forest Renewal BC, the Columbia Basin Trust and the Tahltan Heritage Trust. Garry is a member of the Tahltan Nation whose territory is the Stikine River Watershed in northwestern BC.

Kory Wilson

Committee Member

Kory Wilson is Executive Director of Indigenous Initiatives and Partnerships at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. She is Chair of the BC First Nations Justice Council and Co-Chair of the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics Indigenous Affinity Group. Kory has over 20 years of experience in post-secondary education, community development, and in the legal profession. With a deep commitment to education, justice and good governance, she knows innovative and creative solutions are a must to move Reconciliation into ReconciliACTION. She is a strong believer that education and access to knowledge are key to moving everyone forward, and that when people know better, they do better. Kory is Musgamagw Tsawataineuk and Laich-Kwil-Tach. Both nations are part of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation. She is a member of the We Wai Kai Nation.

Linda Coady

Committee Member

Linda Coady is a subject matter expert on corporate sustainability, with a track record of helping to develop new solutions to issues with complex social, environmental, and economic interdependencies. Linda is currently a Board member of Forest Trends and the BC Parks Foundation. She has held roles as the Chief Executive Officer of the BC Council of Forest Industries, Executive Director of the Pembina Institute (a climate policy think tank); Chief Sustainability Officer at Enbridge Inc.; Vice-President of Sustainability for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games; and Vice-President of Pacific Region for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada. Ms. Coady’s work on sustainable development has been recognized with awards from Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, the Ecological Society of America, the YWCA, and the Globe Foundation for Business and Environment.

Roy Millen

Committee Member

Roy Millen is a lawyer with particular experience in Indigenous rights and title, commercial litigation, and international trade. Roy has been involved in a number of negotiations involving natural resource industries, governments, and First Nations, and is familiar with the complex and continually evolving legal framework surrounding those negotiations. Roy is recognized as a leading lawyer in a variety of industry publications.

BC Parks Foundation Board of Directors

The Foundation is an independent public foundation which began operations in 2018. We are the official charitable partner to BC’s parks and protected areas.

Our mission is to create the greatest system of parks and indigenous protected areas on earth.