Speaker Biographies:

Reduce the Juice (RTJ) is a youth-led not-for-profit organization that is committed to uniting youth and their communities through innovative and creative projects that create youth leadership opportunities and deliver measurable results on climate change issues. RTJ has designed and delivered several of these projects since 2005 and is always planning new ways to engage youth and their communities in creating a sustainable and vital future.

Ellen Mortfield has been managing EcoSuperior Environmental Programs, a non-profit green community organization based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, since 1996. The organization provides environmental education and programs in water and energy conservation, waste reduction, pollution prevention and urban greenspace issues. She has played a key role in developing the partnerships and programs that have enabled EcoSuperior to play a major role in addressing the environmental issues facing northwestern Ontario and the Lake Superior Basin.

Mark Emery is with the Ministry of Natural Resources and holds the position of Stewardship Coordinator for the Elgin Stewardship Council. He works on behalf of community interests to advance stewardship in the county for the benefit of fish, wildlife, forestry and people in balance with other priority land uses.

Mark is a graduate of the Fish and Wildlife Technology program at Sandford Fleming College in Lindsay and the General Business Marketing Program at St. Clair College in Chatham.

Mark and his wife Wendy live in London, ON with their daughters-Amanda and Alyson.

In 2006 Damien founded the Anishinabek Gitchi Gami Environmental Programs – the first environmental not-for-profit organization in an Ontario First Nation community. "Anishinabek Gitchi Gami" is Ojibwa for 'the people of Lake Superior'. The organization empowers people of Damien's community, Fort William First Nation, located on the northwestern shore of Lake Superior, as stewards of their environment.

Before 2006, Damien worked on environmental issues with various First Nation communities across Canada. He also worked for and is now a board member of the Taiga Rescue Network, an international boreal forest/indigenous rights protection NGO based in arctic Sweden. His work has also taken him to Kamchatka, in the Russian Far East, where he worked on environmental protection issues with local communities.

Damien left the Anishinabek Gitchi Gami Environmental Programs in 2008 to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in Indigenous Studies and Environmental Studies at Trent University, in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. This three-year degree will build on his existing diploma in Ecosystem Management from Sir Sandford Fleming College.