Since 2000 NatureKids BC has helped thousands of children get outdoors to experience and take action to protect nature with their local nature exploration club. Kids have paddled canoes, slept under the stars, built bird boxes and pulled invasive plants. These experiences have helped children and nature thrive, and are just a sample of the many ways NatureKids BC continues to connect children with nature.
Today NatureKids BC announces a new member to the team of passionate volunteers and staff that power their work!
NatureKids BC welcomes Louise Pedersen of North Vancouver as Executive Director. Louise brings a deep passion for engaging youth with nature, as well as significant conservation, philanthropic and communications experience to her new role. As a parent of young children she knows first hand the importance and challenge of connecting children with nature in our fast-paced and screen-enabled society.
Louise grew up surrounded by heathlands in rural Denmark and acquired her love of nature there. She has worked in the philanthropic and communications field for a number of non-profit organizations in British Columbia, including Stanley Park Ecology Society and the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation. She also she spent five years with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the UK- Europe's largest wildlife conservation organization (and on whose youth program NatureKids BC is modeled).
Louise holds a M.Sc. in natural resource management from the University of Copenhagen as well as a post-graduate diploma in Public Relations from the University of Victoria. In her spare time she's an avid birder, cyclist and trail runner who loves exploring the local North Shore Mountains with her two young daughters.
Louise says she is “excited to be working with NatureKids BC where I can embed my passion for children and nature and use my communications and philanthropic background to build on all the great work NatureKids BC has done over the last 16 years”.
NatureKids BC is excited too, and looks forward to Louise’s leadership in achieving our vision of having children develop a love of nature, a lifelong connection to the natural world, and have the environmental literacy and skills to take action for nature.
Louise can be reached at louisepedersen@naturekidsbc.ca