Executive Director & Co-Founder
Stan Gibson
Stan worked for many years in integrated community development in urban and rural communities globally.
In 1998, he co-founded the Ecologos Environmental Organization, a registered environmental charity which creates transformative learning experiences that stir citizens into real action for a sustainable future. He is passionate about protecting Ontario’s water, and has been instrumental in programs such as Water Hour, Stop the Mega Quarry, the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium, the Water Journey, and the Water Docs suite of programs.
Stan and his family own a 500-acre farm near Algonquin Park which they are developing as an example of sustainable agriculture.
Staff
Melanie Howe
Lead Programmer
& Festival Manager
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Melanie has been leading the Water Docs Film Festival since its inception in 2012. She holds a B.A. in Theatre and Film from York University and High Honours Diploma in Radio & Television Broadcasting from Seneca College. Melanie is an avid cinéphile and has been attending film festivals in Toronto since the 1980s.
Suzanne Christie
Assistant Festival Manager & Program Manager
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Suzanne has been assisting with the Water Docs Film Festival since 2018 and has worked in all aspects of organizing the event since that time including: ticketing, budgeting, graphic design coordination, and volunteer management. Suzanne has a long career in event management and communications, as well as catering.
Patricia Garcia
Public Relations Manager
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Patricia has been working as a PR professional for many years and has been the publicist for the Water Docs Film Festival since 2015. She has a wide variety of experience working with such organizations as the NFB, TIFF, WIFT and most recently and currently with Bell Media.
Ashley Catania
Digital Content Manager
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Ashley has been managing the digital content creation and communications for Water Docs for the last year and volunteered on our 2020 Film Festival Programming Team. She has worked for the NFB, Cineplex and several film festivals and enjoys supporting socially-relevant content and programming.
Board of Directors
Allenna Leonard
Chair
A respected consultant in organizational cybernetics, she is a Director of the Cwarel Isaf Institute and a licensee of the Team Syntegrity Process. She is past president of the American Society for Cybernetics and the International Society of Systems Sciences. She has written extensively on the application of systems sciences to ecology and social justice.
Stephen Bede Scharper
Director
Dr. Stephen Scharper is associate professor at the School of the Environment and the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. He is also cross-appointed in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, and is associate faculty with the Toronto School of Theology. A Senior Fellow of Massey College and a Fellow of Trinity College, Dr. Scharper holds a Masters in Theology from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from McGill University, where his thesis supervisor was Professor Gregory Baum. Dr. Scharper’s research and teaching focus on environmental ethics, worldviews and ecology, liberation theology, as well as nature and the city. Providing a unique blend of the scholarly and the accessible in both his teaching and public speaking, Dr. Scharper has inspired a wide range of audiences and remains a much sought-after lecturer.
Jean Ann Ledwell, OSU Director
Proud of her Newfoundland heritage, Jean Ann has been an adult educator in the ecumenical social justice movement and a tireless advocate for the rights of women and people living with poverty and differing abilities, both at home and abroad. A long time interest in ecology and spirituality led to her facilitation of the Elderberry Connection. She is a member of the Ursulines of Chatham and has served on its General Leadership Team. She currently serves as a board member of the Canadian Alternative Investment Foundation and as an ESL volunteer.
Jyotsana Naik
Director
Jyotsana is a retired professor of Microbiology who taught at several universities in India and at the University of Chicago. She has done extensive volunteer work with schools, hospitals, earthquake relief, and teaching underprivileged children. She moved to Canada in 2009 and is qualified to teach English as a Second Language.
Ronnie Seagren
Secretary
Ronnie is an editor and indexer of popular and scholarly books and articles, with a special interest in findability. She had an extensive career as an advisory technical editor and information architect for content and user interfaces in the collaborative software sector. Her experience with nonprofits, international work and communications includes education and community development in several Asian countries, Jamaica, and the United States. Her love of nature is rooted in early childhood experiences, and her passion for textile arts has been influenced by many cultures.
Marcelene Anderson Director
Managing director of Raven Strategic Consulting, Marcelene specializes in strategic management, assisting organizations to develop and successfully implement their strategy, align their organization at all levels, and build high-performance organizations that achieve results day-to-day. She works with private, not-for-profit, and Indigenous organizations.
Nanette Sanson
Director
Currently enjoying semi-retirement, Nanette brings 30 years of business management and entrepreneurial experience and has held numerous positions over the course of her working life, such as Fundraising Manager – Corporations and Foundations at Outward Bound Canada and Fundraising Manager – The Development Office at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto. She also worked with Executive Search and consulting on marketing and business development for the private and not-for-profit sectors. Nanette serves on the Advisory Board of the LGBT Giving Network and the Fund Development Committee for MCC Toronto. She was recently a board member for Workman Arts and The Toronto Friendship Centre and on the marketing committee of the Toronto Foundation.
Marguerita V. Pattison
Director
Marguerita is a senior financial professional who has held numerous positions in all aspects of finance over the past 30 years, including audit, risk management and controllership functions. More recently she has cut back on full-time work and concentrates on contract work for companies undertaking financial transformations.
Ian Gilmour
Director, Past Chair
An Associate Partner with KPMG, Ian specializes in designing and leading large public sector transformations. Currently advising on health care reform in several American states, he led the modernization of water and wastewater plants and helped design Ontario’s Water Resource Information System. Ian served as the Chair of the Ecologos Board of Directors for six years and has generously remained active in an advisory capacity
Sergei Petrov
Director
Sergei is the Executive Director of the York Region Arts Council. In the past, he was the Executive Director for Scarborough Arts and he founded and led the Scarborough Worldwide Film Festival in 2012, with the aim to enhance the cultural landscape of the region by celebrating the diversity and multiculturalism of our world, building it as the biggest cultural event in Scarborough. Passionate about social issues, Sergei has been involved with various organizations in the human rights, environmental and educational sectors, as a Board Member, advisor and volunteer. He now sits on the Board of Directors and enthusiastically brings his knowledge and experience of the arts in Toronto and the GTA to the organization.
Contact the Board of Directors
Founding Advisor
Marjorie J. Sharpe
For 50 years Marjorie was an inspiration and an example for women, blazing many a trail. She played the decisive role in creating the Toronto Community Foundation, and the amazing Pathways to Education program. As former president and CEO of Altruvest Charitable Services, she introduced the Board Match program, one of the most successful methods to recruit and train new board members. She is the author of the highly acclaimed Governing with Soul.
After many years of tireless service to her community, Marjorie passed from this world in June 2016.
Founding Advisor
Thomas Berry
Ecologos was born and guided in a series of conversations with Thomas Berry.
Thomas was one of the most influential thinkers of our time, eminent both as a cultural historian and as a profoundly insightful advocate and inspiring guide of the ecological movement. His writings include The Religions of India, The Dream of the Earth, The Universe Story (with Brian Swimme), and The Great Work.
From his start as a cultural historian Berry moved in the last twenty years of his life to become a historian of Earth – in his words, a geologian. His shift from human history to cosmological history was a necessary progression for Berry. He witnessed in his own lifetime the scientific revolution of the 20th century and the emergence of a planetary civilization as cultures came in contact with one another around the globe. At the same time, the very resources for sustaining such a planetary civilization are being undermined by massive environmental destruction.
Thomas began his academic career as a historian of western intellectual history, but was also strongly influenced by his studies of Asian thought and religions, indigenous religious traditions, and as a student of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.