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Keynote Speakers

Dr. Susan Day

Susan is a Professor of Urban Forestry in the Department of Forest Resources Management and the Program Director for the urban forestry degree at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Susan’s research focuses on managing the below-ground systems to enhance urban tree growth and longevity in the context of environmental challenges such as stormwater mitigation and land development. She helped shape the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES®) crediting system for soils and has published more than 150 articles and book chapters on urban forests and urban soils. She is the 2017 recipient of the L.C. Chadwick Award for Arboricultural Research. Susan holds a B.A. from Yale University, a M.S. from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.

Dan Lambe

Dan Lambe is the president of the Arbor Day Foundation, an organization founded in 1972 that has grown to become the largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to planting trees. During his 15 years with the Foundation, Dan has led the development of innovative programs that expand the organization’s global reach — including international forest restoration efforts and the most recent Tree Cities of the World program. In addition, Dan spearheads the Arbor Day Foundation’s Evergreen Alliance — a strategic group of corporate leaders dedicated to helping the organization meet its recently announced Time for Trees initiative to plant 100 million trees and inspire 5 million tree planters by 2022.When not educating and empowering people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees, Dan is often training and struggling to complete triathlons or searching for another unique restaurant to explore. He finds any chance possible to travel for fun and adventure with his wife and two fantastic kids.

Megan Leslie

Megan began as head of World Wildlife Fund Canada in December of 2017 after nearly two years at the organization, first as a consultant on oceans governance, then as head of ocean conservation. Before joining WWF, Megan was a Member of Parliament, representing Halifax for two terms, during which she was deputy leader of the official Opposition, environment critic and vice-chair of the government committee on environment and sustainable development.  In Ottawa, Megan introduced a motion and guided its unanimous passage to add plastic microbeads to the list of toxic substances under the Environmental Protection Act.  She also worked across party lines to successfully expedite the passage of a bill to create Sable Island National Park Reserve. After university and before entering politics, she was a community legal worker and presented at the 2005 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Montreal on the issue of energy poverty.  Megan is the proud recipient of an Honourary Degree from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax and is a Senior Policy Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

Dr. David Wayne Phillips