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In recent centuries, rights have been a catalyst for the abolition of slavery, the emancipation of women, the end of apartheid, and the resurgence of Indigenous cultures. In the face of a planetary environmental crisis, can rights-based approaches spark the systemic changes needed to achieve a just and sustainable future?

Our keynote is Dr. David R. Boyd, UN SPecial Rapporteur on human rights and the environment and professor of law, policy and sustainability at UBC. We also welcome Laura McKillop, grade 2 teacher from White Rock Elementary who will share about how she and her students engage with the UN Sustainability goals in the context of the “Year of the Oceans” and beyond.

Through story as pedagogical witnessing, Elin Kelsey introduces place as bioregional, lived through experiences within our own backyards. I will share the stories of the Southern Resident Killer Whales to emphasize the importance of nurturing relationships with the more than human world. The purpose of this story-telling experience is to empower us to develop an in-depth understanding of a unique, precious, and critically endangered community with whom we share a home. My hope is for educators to embrace story in their own practice to introduce, discuss, reflect, and act upon issues of shared place and community. Themes will include place as eco-pedagogy, ecojustice, ethics, empathy, and endangered species with special attention to ways of knowing, being, and healing.

Chris Harley has been studying coastal marine ecosystems along the west coast and around the world for over 25 years. He joined the faculty at the University of British Columbia in 2005, and he is currently a professor in the Department of Zoology and the Institute for Oceans and Fisheries. He and his students are interested in how marine ecosystems are changing and why, with emphases on climate change, species interactions, and biodiversity. While ecological change is at times alarming, Chris draws hope from the resilience of ecosystems and from the passion that people have for nature.

Elin Kelsey, PhD is an influential thought-leader for the evidence-based hope and climate solutions movement. She is the author of Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis (Greystone Books, 2020), Her influence can be seen in the hopeful, solutions-focus of her clients, including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and other powerful institutions where she has served as a visiting fellow including the Rachel Carson Center for the Environment and Society, the Rockefeller Foundation, The Kone Foundation, the Salish Sea Foundation and Stanford University in the Graduate School of Education. She co-created #OceanOptimism, a twitter campaign to crowd-source marine conservation solutions which has reached more than 100 million shares since it launched in 2014. She is currently leading a Suzuki Institute funded collaboration between The Solutions Journalism Network, Queer Brown Vegan and other social influencers to make evidence-based hope more shareable online. Recognizing the crucial role of climate emotions to climate engagement, she works on a range of collaborative projects with researchers, artists, journalists, educators and youth.

Passionate about bringing science-based stories of hope and multi-species resilience to the public, Kelsey is a popular keynote speaker and media commentator. In 2023 she will be serving as an author/artist in residence, leading hopeful environmental workshops with students in Oman, Norway, the USA and Canada. As an Adjunct Faculty member of the University of Victoria School of Environmental Studies, and, Western Washington University’s partnership in the Redfish School of Change, she is helping to forward a solutions-oriented paradigm for educating environmental scientists and social scientists. She is a feature writer and podcast host for Hakai Magazine and a best-selling children’s book author. Her first film, Breathe, was distributed globally by Amnesty International in 2022.