Nathan Bennett is currently cross-appointed as a Research Associate with the OceanCanada Partnership at the University of British Columbia (Canada) and the Université Côte d’Azur (France).

As a broadly trained social scientist, he chooses to primarily focus on research projects that interrogate various aspects of the complex relationship between the marine environment and human society. He conducts research and publishes on such topics as social equity and governance in marine protected areas, responses of small-scale fishing communities to combined environmental and social change, indigenous perspectives on and approaches to conservation, the political dimensions of marine planning and ocean governance, coastal community access to marine resources and fisheries, the human dimensions of large-scale marine protected areas and the role of the social sciences in conservation. His work focuses on Canada, Thailand, Mexico, Europe, and the global oceans.

Dr. Carruthers Den Hoed, Senior Fellow and Manager of the Canadian Parks Collective and Adjunct Professor in Nursing and Midwifery, Mount Royal U, brings valuable insights as a park agency manager with extensive training in research and interdisciplinary inquiry. An expert in inclusion and facilitating access for diverse groups to parks, he also has extensive experience in park staff capacity building and education. He will assist the Banff Bow-Valley Alberta case studies and KM Immersion Course development.

Dr. Joyce Gould, Science Coordinator, AB Parks, Adj. Professor, Faculty of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, UAlberta, and recipient of the Canadian Council on Ecological Areas’ Gold Leaf Award, studies rare plant species and works with Alberta Parks to translate science into policy and practice. She actively bridges disciplinary and sectoral barriers that affect evidence-based park management and will serve as a key link between Gvt. of Alberta policymakers and network partners.

Dr. Joubert, Senior Planner, AB Parks, was recently awarded a Ph.D. in geography, and has extensive training in environmental management and perceptions, stakeholder and First Nations consultation, as well as cultural aspects of land use behaviour.  With extensive experience as an adventure and ecotourism guide, he also brings tourism and recreation sector perspectives. He will be the lead AB Parks contact, assisting with research design and KM efforts and ensuring sound practitioner engagement.

Dr. Hallström, Professor and Director, Alberta Centre for Sustainable Rural Communities, UAlberta, has spearheaded AB Parks’ science-community engagement process leading to the formation of the Social Science Working Group and related policy Framework. He has extensive institutional knowledge and KM experience in the health policy sector, and PI experience on previous CIHR- and SSHRC-funded teams. He will co-lead the interrogation of AB Parks Division’s Parks and Protected Areas Social Science Framework.

Howie is a Research Associate in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC where he examines the human dimensions of natural resources. The focus of Howie’s research is outdoor recreation management and planning, and public participation in natural resources decision-making.

Throughout his research, Howie has worked with communities, municipal and provincial governments, and industry to better represent the views and attitudes of the public in policy and operational decisions; working with these same groups, Howie has also helped to raise the profile of outdoor recreation issues and concerns with regard to broader land-use planning initiatives and strategies. Howie has contributed to the development and assessment of criteria and indicators for outdoor recreation in the planning of resource-integrated forested landscape planning in BC for government and the forest industry. Howie also plays an active role in undergraduate and graduate education in the Faculty of Forestry.