Board of Directors
Carol McDonald and Mark Mattson
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.
Lauren Brown Hornor
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.
Caroline McDonald
Secretary/Treasurer
Carol is the Director of Administration and Human Resources at Ecojustice.
Chris Alexander
Director
Chris grew up in Vancouver with a great appreciation for all things outdoors while sailing and fishing the local waters. He left the west coast for Queen’s University, earning his degree in Economics. After eight months traveling in New Zealand and Australia, he embarked on a 22 year career with RBC Capital Markets. Following short postings in Vancouver and Toronto, Chris spent the majority of career in New York as Vice President of Commodity Risk Management. In this role, he advised institutional investors and multinational corporations on identifying and managing commodity risk within their portfolios. Success demanded more than a technical and analytical expertise. Building relationships, initiating and executing the firm’s strategic plans, acting as a team leader, all within the framework of a strict professional code of conduct, were critical. Leaving his team in New York, Chris has returned to Vancouver with his wife, to raise their three children in this beautiful part of the world.
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.
Advisory Board
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
Riverkeeper
Mr. Chapman, the 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.
Karen Wristen
Executive Director
Karen Wristen is our Executive Director. She practiced law for nearly 30 years, more than half of them as an environmental lawyer with Sierra Legal Defence Fund, Canadian Arctic Resources Committee and Society Promoting Environmental Conservation. Her work included issues such as fish farms, fisheries and habitat, marine pollution, mining and First Nations rights. Presently, she consults to non-profits and municipal governments in need of help with governance, training and planning.
Mary Woodbury
Director of Operations
Mary is the project manager for FRK’s Riverwatcher and Swim Drink Fish programs, social media manager, and director of day-to-day operations. She develops training for volunteers and helps to plan and implement events. Mary enjoys these roles, but most of all loves to get out on the water.
Mary has a B.A. from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, where she majored in English and anthropology. Mary is 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 cares deeply for preserving natural ecosystems; her interests are hiking, rafting, writing, and photography.
Cindy Simmonds
Office Manager
Cindy manages office activities and provides a support role for programs, events, and volunteer coordination. Cindy loves to be outside and enjoys being on the water. Cindy is currently working towards obtaining a degree in International Studies (in International Development, Economic, and Environmental Issues). She is also pursuing a certificate in Sustainable Community Development. She has great respect for the environment and a passion to protect it.
Consultants
Alison Bradley
Program Manager/Environmental Research
Alison Bradley manages the environmental research for Fraser Riverkeeper’s programs. She contributes to the scientific content of the organization’s website and assists in coordinating aspects of pollution patrols and pollution intake protocol.
She has a post-graduate diploma in Environmental Management from Imperial College, U.K, and a Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Tasmania, Australia. Her previous experience as an Environmental Analyst concentrated primarily on industry-related ground and surface water contamination projects and water-quality risk assessment surrounding intake protection zones. She has also worked for many years in the Australian mining industry.
Alison has a passion for environmental issues and understands the importance of protecting and conserving our environmental resources for future generations to enjoy.
