Board of Directors

Mark Mattson
President

Mark Mattson is the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. Mark is a litigator with experience in criminal defense, environmental prosecution, and administrative law. Over the past ten years, Mark acted as counsel for environmental and public interest groups in more than 40 hearings and represented clients in both Provincial and Federal courts.

In the past, Mark prosecuted environmental offenders for the Province of Ontario and recently acted as co-counsel in the environmental prosecution for private informants. Further, Mark has the unique experience of investigating environmental offences and testifying as a witness in court.

Caroline McDonald
Secretary/Treasurer

Carol is the Director of Administration and Human Resources at Ecojustice.

Kari Siirala
Director

After spending the first 15 years of his life in Finland, Kari emigrated with his family to New York City in 1961. Kari graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in 1969. Kari designed and ran a community based school program for those who dropped out of high school, taught emotionally disturbed children at a residential treatment centre, and started a literacy program for people with special needs. Kari is the designer and creator of Senitt Dolls and Puppets, a small family craft business producing plush animal puppets and hand bags. His long-standing friendship with the Fraser Riverkeeper as well as his belief in clean water and strong communities makes Kari very excited to be part of the Riverkeeper team.

Dr. Allan Connolly

For the past 25 years, Dr. Connolly has worked as a psychiatric physician in a public OP clinic working with the chronically mentally ill. He acted as the president of Physicians for Global Survival from 2004-2006. He acted as Canadian International Counselor with International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War from 1998-2004. Dr. Al was also the International VP for North America, IPPNW from 2005-2006. He is a founding member of Canadian Campaign to End UN Sanctions against the People of Iraq.

Michael Chapman

Michael brings years of investigative and marine experience to the Fraser Riverkeeper. He holds a BA from the University of Guelph, a Transport Canada Ships Master Certificate, and is a graduate of the National Customs College.

Michael has worked on several important campaigns, including the Metro Vancouver Sewer Investigations and others in BC and Ontario. Michael looks forward to being out on the water, keeping a sharp eye open looking for trouble, and working with the board to continue developing a strong Riverkeeper  program.

Advisory Board

Dr. Elaine MacDonald
Advisory Board Member

Elaine is the Senior Staff Scientist at Ecojustice, and is a registered professional engineer in the province of Ontario with experience in environmental engineering consulting. Elaine has a Ph.D. in geo-environmental engineering from McGill University where she researched the surface chemistry of heavy metal adsorption to soils and sediments. Elaine has authored numerous reports, submissions and articles on behalf of Ecojustice on a wide range of environmental concerns. Elaine provides the technical and investigative expertise needed to take on water and air polluters. Elaine’s current work focuses on the regulation of toxic pollutants as well as access to information and enforcement concerns.

John Werring
Advisory Board Member

John is a registered professional biologist (member in good standing of the College of Applied Biology of British Columbia), who is committed to ensuring that interests of the fish and wildlife of this province, and the public’s access to those resources, are taken into consideration in government and industry resource planning initiatives. He has a Masters degree in Zoology/Resource Ecology from UBC. John has extensive experience in conducting environmental investigations, specifically as they relate to alleged breaches of procedures of administrative and/or criminal law. In his current position, his primary duties involve investigating incidences where either government or industry, or both, may be violating environmental laws as they pertain to the protection of fish and wildlife and their habitats, both marine and freshwater, in BC. John worked as staff scientist and lead investigator for the Sierra Legal Defence Fund (now Ecojustice Canada) since 1992 and is now currently on staff with the David Suzuki Foundation’s Marine and Freshwater Conservation Program.

Staff

Doug Chapman
Fraser Riverkeeper

Mr. Chapman, the full-time Riverkeeper, is a revered prosecutor of polluters and one of the Canada’s most significant environmental fixtures in the last 30 years. He began defending criminal cases as a lawyer in Ontario in 1964, and in 1986 he was employed by the Minister of the Attorney General in Ontario and assigned to the Ministry of the Environment as a government environmental prosecutor. One of his most notable successes included obtaining the first Canadian jail sentence for a polluter (George Crowe). In 1993 he commenced his association with the Sierra Legal Defence Fund (SLDF) working in Vancouver and in Toronto as an environmental investigator and private prosecutor. He has since directed the gathering of evidence and the preparation of the prosecution briefs in 14 private environmental prosecutions in British Columbia and in Ontario.

For over 40 years Mr. Chapman was the captain or navigator on sailing and motor vessels making passages across the Great Lakes, the Mosel, Rhine and Rhone rivers in Europe, the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. These passages include 2 trans-Atlantic small sailing boat crossings. He also fished commercially on the British Columbia Pacific coast for four years in a 37 foot wooden salmon troller, which he captained.

Lauren Brown Hornor
Executive Director

Lauren Brown Hornor is working to develop a strong Riverkeeper program on the Fraser from the ground-up. Lauren provided legal support and guidance to Waterkeeper organizations located across the country while working at Waterkeeper Alliance in New York. She was responsible for Waterkeeper’s Clean Water Act Defense program, designed to maintain a strong and active national presence on Clean Water Act defense issues and protect the Act from regulatory and Congressional rollback. She prepares Waterkeeper Alliance’s Water Enforcement Bulletin, a quarterly publication tracking regulatory changes to the Clean Water Act, recent case law and Congressional action, all of which impacts clean water protection.

Lauren holds a bachelors degree in Environmental Studies and Geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder and graduated with honors from Pace University School of Law, receiving a Certificate in Environmental Law. While at the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, Lauren represented the Riverkeeper in various enforcement actions on the Hudson River and in the Catskill Mountains.

Mary Woodbury
Outreach Director

Mary has a B.A. from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, where she majored in English and anthropology/cultural studies. After college, she worked as a managing editor at Macmillan Publishing, and later moved toward technical writing in the health and animal health industry. Mary is also the editor of an online journal focused on ecology and literature and the owner of Moon Willow Press, a new small green press in the Vancouver area.

Mary manages the content of Fraser Riverkeeper’s website, newsletters, and other publications. She also coordinates volunteers and events, manages the office, and maintains the member database.