Board of Directors
Cheryl Bozarth Soll
President president@naturealberta.ca
Cheryl Bozarth Soll joined Nature Alberta’s Board of Directors in 2022. She is actively engaged in Nature Alberta’s conservation committee, fundraising development, and is NA’s representative for Worldwide Quest Eco- Tours. Cheryl holds a Bachelor of Science in Conservation Biology & Management from the University of Alberta, and has worked in the fields of ecological education, environmental interpretation, urban planning, and event management. She is also a professional artist, with a diverse portfolio ranging from wildlife art to contemporary abstracts & expressionist landscape paintings. Culminating her love for science & nature through artistic expression has always been a lifelong passion. Her work often mixes elements of her understanding of boreal forest ecology, and the ethereal experience one gains from time wisely spent in nature.
Cheryl and her family recently moved to a small homestead nestled in the boreal foothills region of NW Alberta. Here they have embarked on the journey of designing & building their own passive solar home, along with starting a small regenerative farm; fully equipped with a large garden, properly named sheep, & other friends of fur and feather. It is near crown land & everything there is to love about boreal wilderness, wildlife, and northern climates.
Kim MacKenzie
Past President
Kim joined the Nature Alberta Board of Directors in 2013 and is the current President. She is a professional biologist based in Edmonton. She works in environmental consulting with a privately based company. Although she took every animal ecology course she could in her Environmental Biology degree program at the U of A, in the end, her favorite classes were Forest Ecology and Introduction to Vascular Plants. Kim joined Nature Alberta as the Alberta Native Plant Council representative and then took on the challenge to become president of the society. She continues to promote the importance of native plants to maintain biodiversity of all organisms, rare plant protection, and native plant habitat protection. The birders of Nature Alberta are rubbing off on her and she is working on being able to identify more than just her backyard birds. Kim’s consulting job, as a vegetation ecologist, takes her to all corners of the province. Kim MacKenzie has been very important providing effective leadership steering our organization into the future.
Lenka Stuchlik
Treasurer
In July 2024, Lenka accepted the role of Acting Treasurer and officially joined the Nature Alberta Board of Directors in September 2024.
She is a Chartered Professional Accountant with an MBA from Western University. Over her successful career, Lenka worked across a variety of industries, leveraging her expertise to drive financial and operational excellence. She has also made significant contributions to her community by serving on several non-profit boards.
In her retirement, Lenka enjoys immersing herself in nature, spending time outdoors hiking, running, skiing, traveling, and engaging in arts and culture. She is passionate about protecting our environment and continues to advocate for sustainable practices.
Despite having traveled to more than 50 countries, Lenka considers Alberta one of the best places to live. She looks forward to joining Nature Alberta and becoming an active champion for conservation of Alberta's natural environment.
Anne Wilson
Secretary
Anne joined the Nature Alberta Board of Directors in 2023. She recently retired from Environment and Climate Change Canada, where she worked for 29 years as a water quality specialist. Most of her career (including several years with DFO prior to EC) was spent in the Northwest Territories, working on environmental assessments and regulatory reviews of water quality and running periodic field programs to monitor effects on water. Her education includes a BSc (Honors) in Zoology from the University of Alberta and MSc in Zoology from the University of Manitoba. In 2011 Anne moved to Alberta, and continued to work on northern water quality protection. She lives on a small acreage near Beaumont with her husband Robert.
Anne has served on a variety of boards for non-profit organizations. She is currently the Treasurer-Secretary for the Canadian Society of Environmental Biologists (CSEB) and has been on their board in several capacities over the past two decades. Other board roles include a horse association and a dog agility group – these brought good experience working in committee settings, and also a focus on learning and organising events for young people.
Lu Carbyn
Provincial Regional Representative
Dr. Lu Carbyn joined Nature Alberta’s Board of Directors in 2013 and previously served as President. Lu is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta. Dr. Carbyn is an internationally recognized wildlife biologist who specialized in the ecology, conservation and management of mammalian carnivores and their prey. He became a biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in 1967 and a research scientist in 1974, written/edited 6 books, and published over 100 scientific papers. His research interests have included avian ecology, ecosystem biology (grasslands), and studies on mammals in western and northern Canadian national parks. He has been a member of the (IUCN) Wolf and Canid Specialist Groups since 1978 and became involved with research projects in Poland and Portugal. In the 1980s and 90s, Carbyn headed the Canadian Swift Fox Reintroduction program as chairman of the Recovery Team. He is still active in swift fox conservation as an adjunct member of the North American Swift Fox Conservation Committee.
Over the years, Carbyn served on numerous Boards of Directors of academic institutions and conservation organizations. In retirement he has pursued his interest in connecting with aspiring young biologists by teaching in a third year University of Alberta undergraduate course.
Heather Stocking
Northern Alberta Regional Representative
Heather grew up on a working ranch west of Barrhead where she developed a love for everything nature. Summers were waterskiing at nearby Thunder Lake and trail rides in the sand hills near Fort Assiniboine between competing in horse shows. Her grandfather farmed the "old-fashioned" way with a team of Belgian horses and sometimes she and her brother were called upon to stook bundles. It created an appreciation for modern machinery but those horses also created magical Christmases during family sleigh rides. Winter was also riding lessons, chores, helping with calving, and watching her brother play hockey. There was always a multitude of cats and dogs, all well loved and occasionally dressed up for skits performed in the haystack.
Heather uses her journalism background to speak with landowners and the general public to understand how she can create effective messaging on why it is important to protect what we have now. It can be challenging to convince people to conserve, preserve, and protect when they can look out their window or drive a short distance and see forests, lakes, and rivers. She works for a non-profit in northern Alberta helping landowners place their properties in conservation easements, develops public education about conservation easements, and coordinates citizen science programs such as a local annual butterfly count, an orchid and amphibian walk, and more.
Shane Hammell
Edmonton Regional Representative
Shane Hammell joined the Nature Alberta Board of Directors in 2021. Shane explored a variety of career path options as a youth. He studied Theatre Studies in Technology, Recording Arts and Music Production, Biology and Anthropology before switching to a career in Geomatics. He has worked in surveying and civil engineering for the past 20 years in oilfield, construction, and municipal environments. Surveying has allowed him to be outside a lot, and to see many parts of our province. For the past 5 years, Shane has worked for Strathcona County in the Transportation Engineering and Operations Department.
Shane lives in Leduc with his wife Jannette and two children, Elian and Amelia. In his spare time, Shane enjoys playing guitar and piano, photography, reading, running his aerial mapping business, and getting outside into nature as often as possible. During the summer, the outdoor activities are often at his wife’s childhood home at Wizard Lake. He has served on the board of the Wizard Lake Watershed and Lake Stewardship Association for almost 8 years. He is continually inspired by the efforts by volunteers and contributors to the conservation of Alberta’s natural environments and aspires to assist in conservation efforts wherever possible.
Claudia Lipski
Central Alberta Regional Representative
Claudia Lipski was elected to the Nature Alberta (NA) Board of Directors in 2009 as a representative of the Buffalo Lake Naturalists (BLN) which, at that time, was one of NA's eleven Corporate Clubs. She served as Nature Alberta’s Secretary for 4 years. Claudia joined BLN, which is based out of Stettler, in 2004. She has been active with the club, leading and scheduling summer outings, conducting grouse surveys, coordinating May Species and Christmas Bird Counts, and organizing annual Nocturnal Owl Surveys. In the past, she served as Secretary and President, and is the BLN President since 2020.
On the personal side, Claudia raised a family of four children and offered respite care for special needs children, while working within the educational system as an Educational Assistant. She enjoyed being a Girl Guide leader and Alix Library Board Chair, and continues outdoor pursuits such as gardening, canoeing and kayaking, bird watching, hiking, conducting Breeding Bird Surveys and exploring local natural areas. During her time at Ellis Bird Farm (EBF), she facilitated and delivered children’s programs, mentored staff and had the opportunity to take part in EBF's extensive Mountain Bluebirds and Purple Martin monitoring and banding programs.
Greg Appleyard
Calgary Regional Representative
Greg Appleyard, PhD, is a retired laboratorian who started his career developing molecular biology assays for infectious diseases in livestock and wildlife. Later, he transitioned from managing a busy provincial public health molecular diagnostic lab to directing a federal food safety laboratory specializing in bacteriology and analytical chemistry. He continues to be interested in wildlife disease ecology, public service, LEAN business process management tools, and citizen science.
Throughout his career, Greg has sought opportunities to promote science and foster curiosity about nature for a broader audience. He contributed to a Canada-wide science fair host committee and founded a non-profit science literacy organization. He has enjoyed both judging and mentoring participants at local and regional science fairs. He is involved in the Alberta Tomorrow Project, and recently contributed to their research participant's advisory committee. He is an amateur landscape photographer and novice Caribbean reef fish surveyor. He joined the Nature Alberta Board of Directors in 2024.
Paul Thibault
Southern Alberta Regional Representative
Paul Thibault became a Nature Alberta Board Member in 2023. He is a long-time member of Grasslands Naturalists serving on the board and committees related to governance, finances, communications, and technology. Paul received B.Eng. and PhD degrees from McGill University in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Now retired, he was the founder and president of two Ramped Companies specializing in combustion and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Although mainly working in industry, he has also held academic positions as an Auxiliary Professor at McGill University, and an Adjunct Professor at Dalhousie University. Paul has served on national boards, working groups, and committees including the board of the CFD Society of Canada, Canadian Standards Association (CSA) working groups, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant selection committee for Mechanical Engineering. He has been involved in many civilian and military international projects through CFD software sales, research contracts, accident investigations, and collaborations.
Paul is the chair of the newly-formed Grasslands Naturalists Irrigation Committee bringing an important perspective on irrigation issues and effects of climate change on water availability to Nature Alberta activities. His leadership provides an important touch stone as mixed grasslands is the most threatened biographical region in the province.
Josh Miller
Director-at-large
Dr. Josh Miller is a molecular ecologist applying a range of genetic and genomic techniques to inform wildlife management and conservation. Genomics provides a layer of information that complements traditional efforts such as field surveys. For instance, genomic methods can help define the scale needed for conservation actions by determining the number of genetic groups and their distribution on the landscape. In addition, genomic data allow accurate and precise assessments of genetic diversity, which is necessary for species to successfully respond to environmental changes. Thus, genomic data can help form the basis of wholistic management plans that preserve genetic diversity and population persistence. Over his career, Dr. Miller has applied this framework to studying ostriches, bighorn sheep, Galapagos tortoises, pine trees and polar bears. He is currently working as a partner on the Franklin's Ground Squirrel Project and joined the Nature Alberta Board of Directors in 2024.
Daniela Mitrache
Director-at-large
Daniela became a Nature Alberta Board Member in 2024. She is a lifetime member of Nature Alberta since early 2021, and is also servicing in her community's board of directors in Calgary. Daniela received a multimedia design degree from the International Academy of Design and Technology in Montreal, she studied economics, and has a degree in the IT field. With close to three decades of global experience in the digital field, from communications, to marketing and information technology functions, Daniela worked for most of her career in large corporations, and has a few years of non-profit experience as well.
In her personal time, Daniela enjoys outdoor activities, birdwatching, photography, reading, and is passionate about science and the arts. Giving back to our communities and protecting our environment have always been important to her. Daniela volunteers with The Jane Goodall Institute of Canada in different capacities for two decades, she was a citizen scientist and park steward with Parks Canada for over a decade, and a docent/education volunteer with Calgary Zoo for six years. Daniela is an avid traveller, has been on six continents and visited 50+ countries, and travelled all over Canada. When at home, she loves the diversity of landscapes in Alberta, and to explore the local places every weekend.
Join our Team!
Join the Nature Alberta Volunteer Team and view our Volunteer & Job Board here. If you are interested in contributing on the Nature Alberta Board of Directors, send an email to president@naturealberta.ca.