Severn Cullis-Suzuki has been an outspoken environmental and social
activist since she was a child. At the age of nine, she founded
ECO, the Environmental Children's Organization. Three years later,
she and other members of ECO attended the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio
de Janeiro, a UN conference addressing the fate of the world's
natural resources, where she delivered a powerful plenary speech
that was later turned into her first book,
Tell the World.
Shortly after, at the age of thirteen, she was awarded the United
Nations Environment Programme's Global 500 award. She graduated
with a BS in ecology and evolutionary biology from Yale and is
pursuing a graduate degree in ethnobotany at the University of
Victoria. Severn has served on the UN's Earth Charter Commission
and on Kofi Annan's Special Advisory Panel for the 2002 World
Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. She also
co-founded the Skyfish Project (www.skyfishproject.org), an
Internet-based think tank that encourages youth to speak out for
their future and adopt a sustainable lifestyle.
Kris Frederickson is a proud Métis from Stonewall, Manitoba, who
holds BSc and MSc degrees in biosystems engineering from the
University of Manitoba where he researched water treatment
techniques for Aboriginal communities. He has spoken frequently to
Aboriginal youth about pursuing post-secondary education. He holds
a Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award, a National Métis
Youth Role Model award, and a prestigious National Aboriginal
Achievement Award, which he earned in 2004. Kris currently works as
a water management engineer and co-chairs 2335, an initiative of
the United Way of Calgary.
Ahmed Kayssi holds dual bachelor's degrees in engineering
chemistry and business German and is currently pursuing an MSc in
physiology at Queen's University. He hopes to become a doctor and
participate in the country's healthcare debate. However, as a
native Iraqi who lived in Egypt and Saudi Arabia before calling
Montreal home, one of his passions is to raise awareness of the
place newcomers have within Canada. At his university, he founded
the Arab Students Association and organized and moderated panel
discussions on free speech and Canada-US relations.
Cynthia Mackenzie is a passionate human rights activist who is
currently pursuing her doctorate in political science in Melbourne,
Australia. She has worked on human rights projects around the
world, from sex-worker outreach in Calgary and refugee advocacy in
Vancouver to community development in India and Costa Rica and
urban environmental projects in Cuba. She has been actively
involved in Canada's public policy debate with Canada25 and for her
work, Volunteer Calgary named her a Leader of Tomorrow and
Maclean's has called her one of Canada's 100 Faces of the
Future.
A native of Toronto, Daniel Aldana Cohen obtained a BA in the
History of Ideas and International Development Studies from McGill
University in Montreal, where he was the editor of the independent
student newspaper, The McGill Daily. He has raced the 800 metres at
the Canadian Junior Championships, canoed into James Bay, and
camped amid Inca ruins. He has lived and studied in Paris and the
South of France and worked as a freelance journalist in Venezuela
and Bolivia.