Board of Directors

Inside Education is governed by a dedicated volunteer Board of Directors representing a diversity of industry, government, education, community and conservation perspectives -- valuable and necessary for quality bias-balanced education. Members share their expertise, leadership and enthusiasm with us by providing direction and guidance for the Society's vision, mission and goals.

2012 Board of Directors

Back row (L to R): Nadine Barber, David Hill, Gary Redmond, Jerry Brunen, David Huggill, Mike Kapiczowski Front row (L to R): Kathryn Wagner (Inside Education Programs Manager), Patricia Etris, Janet Millar, Bekki Hall (Inside Education Communications Manager), Steve McIsaac (Inside Education Executive Director), Karin Hedetniemi (inside Education Director, Business and Human Resources), Dave Robertson (Guest Facilitator). Not pictured: Alex Drummond

Patricia Etris, President and Chair of the Board
Our fearless leader Patricia has been President of Inside Education since 2011 and has been on our Board for the past 4 years. In real life, Patricia is Leader, Community Relations and Community Investment for Devon Canada (working closely with our Past President Nadine!) We first met Patricia at an Inside Education strategic planning session. We knew that anyone that can be that enthusiastic about Mission and Vision Statements would be a friend for life!

Nadine Barber, Past President

Nadine is delighting in her role as ‘Past’ President, having served as President for the previous 412 years….Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but she has provided incredible leadership to our Society through many fruitful years. Her day job sees her as Vice President of Government and Public Affairs for Devon Canada.

Jerry Brunen, Director

A leader in wetlands education in Alberta, Jerry has served on the Inside Education Board of Directors since 2005.  We first met Jerry on our first Water Education Institute in 1993. Who knew a field trip to a constructed wetland near Calgary would lead to many years of great fun and learning with and from Jerry! One of the dozens of hats he wears these days is coordinating education programs for Ducks Unlimited Canada.

Alex Drummond, Director

A former President of our Society, Alex is our longest-serving Director.  He's definitely one of the leaders in forest education in western Canada. In addition to speaking to innumerable teacher forest education professional development programs, Alex co-chaired both Alberta-based ForestEDWest Conferences and has provided expert advice in all our forest education programs. His real job is forest education as well - Alex is an Instructor in the University of Alberta’s Department of Renewable Resources.

David Hill, Director

If Alberta nominated a “Mr. Water,” there is a very good chance David Hill would be awarded this distinction. From his days working in the world of irrigation farming to his role at Alberta Innovates supporting water research across the province and now to his new role at the University of Lethbridge, David has been a champion for water education. David’s water expertise has been invaluable to Inside Education’s water education programming.  If you ever have a chance to see his water pictures from around the world…do it!

David Huggill, Director

Over our 27 years we have, of course, had hundreds of expert speakers take part in our teacher professional development programs. People still talk about David’s presentations! In his first presentation to a teacher group, he recognized there might have been a bit of an energy lag prior to another indoor presentation on a sunny day. So what did David do? He gathered all the teachers and challenged them to look at multiple perspectives by changing their perspective with “let’s go outside!” We first met David through his work in wind energy, his new(er) role with AltaLink continues to provide us insight into an important Inside Education topic area of electricity.

Mike Kapiczowski, Director

Inside Education could not do our exciting work in Canadian K-12 schools without the incredible commitment of classroom teachers. Mike has the challenge of representing the teachers' perspective on our Board. Mr. K is a Grade Four teacher at River Valley School in Sundre, Alberta... though we secretly believe teaching might be the means to his real end – professional fly fisherman! 

Janet Millar, Director

It can be said that the ‘roots’ of Inside Education natural resources education programming are in forest education (we couldn’t resist). Janet is part of a fourth-generation, family-owned Alberta forest company in her work as Communications Director at Millar Western Forest Products. In addition to being a champion of projects like our newly-launched Huestis Demonstration Forest Education Program, Janet also serves as the Board Liaison to Inside Education’s Communications Committee.

Gary Redmond, Director

Gary is the newest addition to the Inside Education Board of Directors, and we could not be happier to have such a busy person join our gang! When he’s not traveling coastal and alpine terrains with his family (tugging along their groovy little Boler trailer) or sitting on a number of NFP Boards, Gary squeezes in some time to be the Principal of Otago Consulting and Executive Director of both Synergy Alberta and the Alberta Capital Airshed. It’s a little embarrassing that we got tired just typing that, let alone leading all those great organizations! Welcome and thank you Gary!