Dr. Anjali Helferty

Interim Executive Director, Toxics Campaign Lead

Anjali started her engagement in climate activism as the first Council chair of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition (CYCC) while working as the National Coordinator for the Sustainable Campuses Project at the Sierra Youth Coalition (SYC). Following her time at SYC, she worked at the US-based Energy Action Coalition (now Power Shift Network). She subsequently worked as the Interim Director for the Southern Energy Network, a youth climate organization working in the Southeast United States. Anjali completed a Master’s in Organizational Change Management in 2013 and a PhD in Adult Education and Community Development in 2020 focused on settler climate activists and solidarity with Indigenous peoples.

Anjali can be reached at anjali@cape.ca.

Dr. Jane E. McArthur

Toxics Campaign Director

Jane has a Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Justice, and an M.A. in Communication and Social Justice from the University of Windsor. She has twenty-five years of experience working on issues related to environmental and occupational health, rooted in community-based health research and advocacy with a view to prevention. Past projects include the “Risk Exploration Project”, “Living and Working in Essex and Kent Counties”, and “Lifetime Histories Breast Cancer Research Study.” Jane’s dissertation research examined how women exposed to breast cancer risks understand those risks and the actions they see necessary for prevention.

Jane can be reached at jane@cape.ca

Pamela Daoust

National Communications Director and Quebec Coordinator

Pamela combines over ten years of experience in communications and public relations and has honed her skills in raising awareness with the general public and elected officials in regards to environmental protection, public health, and social inequalities.

It was during a mission with Oxfam-Québec, as a communications officer in Peru, that Pamela fully grasped the importance of increasing awareness of the consequences of climate change and pollution on health. This experience left a profound impact on her professional and personal involvement. She is involved in many working committees and communities of practice in the environmental and climate sectors in Quebec and across Canada.

Pamela can be reached at pamela@cape.ca

Dr. Joe Vipond

CAPE Board President 

Joe Vipond has worked as an emergency physician for fifteen years, currently at the Foothills Medical Centre and the Peter Lougheed Hospital. His interest in the environment began at a young age with many hikes and natural explorations, and solidified further when he worked for three summers at Dinosaur Provincial Park. In his own community of Hillhurst Sunnyside he, along with some neighbours, re-established the highly local, highly organic Farmers’ Market. More recently, his interest has turned back to the environment, sitting on the board of CPAWS-Southern Alberta (2012-2015), and the Alberta Wilderness Association (2015-ongoing) and becoming a  spokesperson for the Alberta Coal Phase Out movement, and more recently, the Canadian Coal Phase Out network. He runs three Facebook pages, including Alberta Acts on Climate Change, and often reaches upwards of 15,000 people per week. Joe grew up in Calgary and continues to live there with his wife and two young daughters.

Dr. Melissa Lem

CAPE Incoming President

Dr. Melissa Lem is a Vancouver family physician who also works in rural and remote communities across Canada. Director of Parks Prescriptions for the BC Parks Foundation, she is a longtime advocate for the health benefits of time spent in nature. Currently a senior writer for the CBC, she was the resident medical expert on CBC TV’s hit lifestyle show Steven and Chris for four seasons and continues to educate diverse audiences on air. Her writings on the environment and human well-being have also been published by national media including the Vancouver Sun, Toronto Star, Montreal Gazette, National Observer, and Alternatives Journal. She was the inaugural winner of University College’s Young Alumni of Influence Award at the University of Toronto, and is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Courtney Howard

CAPE Past President

Howard is a Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia and McGill University-trained Emergency Room Physician who practices in Yellowknife, in Canada’s subarctic.

Motivated by work on a Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) pediatric malnutrition project in Djibouti, and by climate-related health impacts on her Northern patient population, she led the Northwest Territories Medical Association team in the successful campaign to have the Canadian Medical Association divest from fossil fuels.

As president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) she helps to coordinate MD-advocacy on climate-health across Canada and has been involved in work on active transport, plant-rich diets, integrating health impact assessments into environmental assessments, carbon pricing, coal phase-out, and the health impacts of fracking.

She helps to coordinate medical education on the ecological determinants of health as chair of the committee for allied health professionals on the Ecological Determinants Group on Education associated with the Canadian Public Health Association, and is the North American Co-Chair of the World Family Doctor’s (WONCA) working group on the Environment.

In Yellowknife, she is a board member for Ecology North and is the local medical lead for the Ecology-North-supported “SOS-Summers of Smoke” research project into the health effects of wildfires, which she is writing up under the direction of Dr James Orbinski.

In a previous life she led the first randomized controlled-trial comparing menstrual cups to tampons—see FLOW-Finding Lasting Options for Women. (they work and result in a lot less waste. Try one!)

Courtney was the primary author on the 2017 Canadian Brief for the Lancet Countdown on Climate Change on behalf of the Canadian Public Health Association.  She represents CAPE on the board of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, most recently at COP23, where she presented on behalf of the health community at the Canada-UK Powering Past Coal announcement.

rMost recently, Courtney joined the board of Health in Harmony and is heading to Borneo to do clinical teaching at ASRI’s clinic site, and to connect her love of global health with an exploration of planetary health in the field. Check out her TEDx Talk here.

Dr. Larry Barzelai

CAPE Board Member

Dr. Larry Barzelai is a family doctor in Vancouver and is the head of CAPE’s B.C. chapter.

Helen Boyd, RN

CAPE Board Member

Helen is a Registered Nurse and hails from Quebec. She has worked in Alberta, the Yukon Territory, Switzerland and New Zealand as a Critical Care and the Emergency Room nurse. She was a Clinical Assistant at the UBC School of Nursing for seven years. As a clinician in the field of Mental Health and Addictions, she has the opportunity to speak to the Eco-anxiety caused by our changing climate. She is the BC Representative for the Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment (CANE) and embraces this opportunity to work in partnership with fellow healthcare providers of CAPE to improve our Planetary Health.

Helen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the University of British Columbia and a Masters degree in Counselling from Gonzaga University, Spokane Washington.

Firmly dedicated to social justice, she spent a decade as a community nurse advocating for the rights of individuals who are homeless. In 2009, she founded the Care-A-Van, an innovative nurse-led mobile healthcare clinic delivering services directly to the streets to our homeless population. She recognizes how these individuals are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.

In 2018, she founded the Comox Valley Nurses for Health & the Environment. Some initiatives spearheaded by this group include increasing awareness about the health impacts of air pollution particulates PM2.5 caused by wood smoke, taking action by facilitating events that encourage the electrification of transportation, advocating for bans on single-use plastics, and operationalizing Project Drawdown solutions locally.

She is passionately committed to conserving and enriching our natural environment for generations to come. She acknowledges the richness of Indigenous culture and explores ways to implement true reconciliation. Helen works closely with community advocates to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) regionally.

In 2012, the College of Registered Nurses of BC recognized her efforts with the Award of Advocacy.  She is also the recipient of the 2013 British Columbia Community Achievement Award.

In her free time, Helen enjoys volunteering with environmental groups that concentrate on river and forest restoration projects as well as food gleaning programs. She now lives on the unceded Territories of the K’omox First Nations on Vancouver Island with her husband, daughter and son.

Dr. Samantha Green

CAPE Board Member

Dr. Samantha Green is a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and at Inner City Health Associates in Toronto. She also teaches a graduate course called “The Social, Political, and Scientific Aspects of Primary Care” and is chair of the advocacy group Health Providers Against Poverty. Samantha is an ardent cyclist and lifelong environmentalist, having formerly served on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club of Canada. After completing medical school at the University of Ottawa and residency at McMaster University, she worked in the Yukon, Sioux Lookout, and Hamilton before settling in Toronto.

Dr. Ojistoh Horn

CAPE Board Member

Bio to come.

Felix Martineau

CAPE Board Member

Felix holds a Bachelor in Business from the University of Sherbrooke and a Masters degree in Accounting from the University of Sherbrooke. 

Having grown in a family of health-workers, Felix is interested in the link between health and the environment. He is hopeful that his financial and managerial expertise combined with its knowledge of the medical sector will help CAPE in its pursuit for a greener and healthier Canada.

Dr. Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers

CAPE Board Member

Dr. Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers is currently completing her training as a family doctor at University de Montréal. She shares a vision in which doctors are socially accountable to the communities they serve and in which they play a crucial role in reducing social inequities. She is the past vice-president of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA), the world’s largest and oldest medical students group, where she has been the voice of 1,3 million students in 130 countries. Over the past years, she has collaborated with the World Health Organization; has advocated nationally and internationally for a greater recognition of the health co-benefits of climate action; has lead several capacity-building workshops around the globe; and has been featured on several medias, providing insightful comments on climate related issues. She also sits on the board of Force Jeunesse, an organisation dedicated to intergenerational equity. Her outstanding leadership has been recognized by her peers at several occasions: the Judy Wasserheit Young Leader Award in 2017 for her exceptional commitment to improve health globally and the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) 150th Anniversary Award for Professionalism in 2018. She is the current chair the Québec chapter of CAPE, the Association québécoise des médecins pour l’environnement. In her free time, she enjoys talking about politics, reading new books and discovering microbreweries.

Dr. Éric Notebaert

CAPE Board Member

Bio to come.

Willow Thickson

CAPE Board Member

Willow Thickson is an Anishinaabe/Cree/Metís medical student currently studying at the University of British Columbia. She is on student council as the Aboriginal health representative, and is helping develop an EcoHealth club/movement towards divestment at UBC. The destruction of the land and water, as well as the deteriorating climate conditions, affect Indigenous people disproportionately. Something she is acutely aware of as she grew up in treaty 8 territory – home of the oil/tar sands. This knowledge of disparity fuels her to create change as she feels there is an obligation to leave a healthy environment for future generations.

George Tjensvoll Kitching

CAPE Board Member

Bio to come.