Board

MARGRET ASMUSS | MCED., B.A. HONS

President

Margret is a (mostly) retired Sustainability Educator. She was the Sustainability Coordinator at the U of S Office of Sustainability for 14 years and received the President’s Service Award for that work in 2017. Before working for the university, she spent many years as the Energy Projects Coordinator for the Saskatchewan Environmental Society and was also co-owner of Community Solutions Consulting, a community development consulting company. Margret was trained as a Climate Reality Leader by Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project in 2017. Since 2018 she has volunteered as the co-coordinator of the Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) on Education for Sustainable Development Saskatchewan, a network of educators affiliated with the United Nations University. She also spent a few years on the SES board in the early 1980s.

BOB HALLIDAY | P.ENG.

Vice President

Bob is the former President of R. Halliday & Associates and practiced as a consulting engineer in Saskatoon for more than 25 years. He previously worked for Environment Canada and is a former director of Canada’s National Hydrology Research Centre. Bob’s projects concerned interjurisdictional water management, floodplain management, effects of climate change on water resources, and preparation of state of the basin reports for the Saskatchewan River basin and the Beaver River basin in Alberta. Bob has served on several international joint commission boards and other Canada-United States water-related entities. He is a former alternate member of the Prairie Provinces Water Board and was a founding member of the Advisory Council for international project WET, a water education initiative. Bob is currently board chair of the Partners FOR the Saskatchewan River Basin. Bob’s interests include water and energy matters, old buildings, science history, and ancient civilizations.

BERT WEICHEL | M.SC.

Treasurer

Bert is a semi-retired consulting ecologist and environmental science instructor at the University of Saskatchewan. Bert has been active on the SES board for the past 35+ years, including as President for many years. He is also a founding director and current board member of the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council, serves as secretary treasurer on the board of the Saskatchewan Association for Resource Recovery Corp., and is also on the SES Solar Co-operative board. After raising daughter Kaity and son Ky, Bert and his wife Jude, a weaver, spinner and fibre arts teacher, now generate solar power, keep poultry and sheep, grow a large vegetable garden, enjoy granddaughters Hanna and Heidi, and harbour a wide diversity of native flora and fauna on land near Pike Lake.

PAM BELCHER | M.A., B.F.A. HONS.

Director

Pam has a Master of Arts in Special Education from the University of Oregon, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from the University of Manitoba. Now retired, she was the Education Coordinator for SES for over 15 years. Through her work, SES’s education programming grew to include lessons for K-12 students in all core subject areas. A focus on energy and water conservation and waste reduction provided teachers with practical, curriculum connected lessons to teach students how to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Smarter Science Better Buildings, Student Action for a Sustainable Future, and the Boreal Water Monitoring Project were all conceived and developed during her tenure. Now, among other interests, Pam spends much of her time painting and is currently working on a series of paintings about wildfires, the effects of which she has experienced more frequently while canoeing with her husband and friends in Northern Saskatchewan. 

JASON HANSON

Director

Jason is semi-retired, currently working as the Communications Manager for Saskatoon Cycles, a non-profit bicycle advocacy group. He spent most of his working life balancing blue-collar jobs with social, political, and environmental volunteerism (including SES since 2000), and usually found the latter more rewarding. He is a proud shareholder in the SES Solar Cooperative, owner of a used electric vehicle, and a year-round cyclist. He enjoys writing, reading, drawing, politics, TV, and movies, among a million other things. His greatest passion is a healthy planet for present and future generations of human and non-human life forms. He sees serving SES as an opportunity to feed that passion.

CURT MCCOSHEN | B.A., B.Ed. 

Director

Curt is a former teacher who taught in Lloydminster, Bruno, and Yorkton, both high school and elementary. He now lives in Saskatoon with his wife, Patricia. They have a grown son who also lives in Saskatoon. While he was a teacher, he was the point person in a coalition to create a recycling centre in Yorkton. He currently sits as a member of the Climate Hub and a member of Climate Justice Saskatoon. He also sits on the board of the Farm School and serves as a member of Bus Riders of Saskatoon. He is a believer in activism because, “it’s really the only way to be a responsible member of society (seriously).”

PETER PREBBLE | M.Ed., M.S.E.M., B.B.A.

Director

Peter has been actively involved in the work of SES for over 30 years. Peter has authored and co-authored recent publications on climate change, the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, renewable energy potential in Saskatchewan, and stricter regulation of the oil sands industry. Peter served as a Member of the Legislature in Saskatchewan for 16 years. He has been involved in a wide variety of provincial initiatives related to wind power, energy conservation, and protected areas. Peter has also served as both SES’s Director of Environmental Policy and the President of SES Solar Co-operative, the first renewable power co-operative in Saskatchewan. Peter holds a Master of Sustainable Environmental Management from the University of Saskatchewan, a Master of Education from the University of Saskatchewan, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Prince Edward Island. He is currently focusing his environmental work on climate change and energy policy.

BREANNA SALM | B.A., Tech.Ag.

Director

Breanna is the partnership and programs coordinator for the Saskatchewan Aboriginal Land Technicians (SALT). SALT is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing technical education to First Nation lands managers. Breanna works on a variety of land management and environmental issues in Saskatchewan and specializes in making connections between different levels of government, NGOs, and Indigenous communities. Breanna holds a degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Regina. Breanna has experience with water and drainage concerns and formerly interned out of school with the Water Security Agency. Prior to her current role she worked with the City of Regina as a Solid Waste and environmental educator. Breanna has a passion for the outdoors and is a proud Métis woman living on Treaty 4 Territory.

DEAN STOCKDALE | B.F.A.

Director

Dean is a theatre artist from Treaty 6 Territory with a passion for environmentalism and climate policy. They received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Alberta, with the intent of using theatre for social good. They believe very strongly in the power of a community of people coming together to create a better way and hopes to apply that belief on a larger scale, with regard to climate action, as a board member of SES. Dean was previously an SES Youth Affiliate. 

ULRICH TEUCHER | Ph.D, B.A. DBL HONS, GKKP

Director

Ulrich was born in Bern, Switzerland, growing up in North America (Norman/Oklahoma and Chicago) before his family moved to Hamburg, Germany where he spent his adolescence and young adulthood. There he trained and worked for ten years as a pediatric nurse in oncology. After two years of life in India, he immigrated to Vancouver where he completed a PhD in comparative literature and Psychology, on metaphors of cancer. He was then hired for a position at the University of Saskatchewan in the Department of Psychology and Health Studies. For the last two years, he has been a Sustainability Faculty Fellow, teaching matters of sustainability to his students in the Health Studies Program.

ELAINE WHEATON | M.Sc., B.Sc. HIGH HONS

Director

Elaine is a climate scientist and an adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan. She previously worked at the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) for more than 31 years. Now partly retired, Elaine has research interests in climate change and its impacts, adaptations, hazards, and risks. Her sectors of expertise include agriculture, water, and risk assessment. Her awards include the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize certificate for substantial contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Wolbeer Award for contributions to water resources research, Emeritus Researcher and Distinguished Scientist appointments at the SRC, the YWCA Science and Technology award, and the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal. She is widely published in refereed scientific journals and reports, and is the author of the award-winning book, But It’s a Dry Cold! Weathering the Canadian Prairies (Fifth House Books). Elaine and her husband Dale live on the same farm near Saskatoon where they raised their twin sons.

GLENN WRIGHT | J.D., M.SC., B.SC., P.ENG.

Director

Glenn worked as a mechanical engineer in Saskatchewan’s resource sector for 20 years. In 2016 Glenn “retired” to pursue law at the University of Saskatchewan to become a better advocate for sustainable development. Glenn farms near Vanscoy and has been focused on minimizing his emissions and adopting regenerative farming practices. He installed small scale wind power and geothermal heat on his farm in 2008, disconnecting from natural gas at that time. He subsequently installed solar PV and designed and installed a deep insulation retrofit on his farmhouse in 2018-2019. Glenn has been driving electric vehicles since 2018. He also volunteers for the National Farmers Union (NFU), Climate Justice Saskatoon, and SaskEV. Glenn was part of the NFU delegation that attended the United Nations climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November 2021. Glenn is presently working on strategic climate litigation in Saskatchewan seeking to clarify how the Charter of Rights and Freedoms interacts with government action to build infrastructure that will exacerbate dangerous climate change.

Oluwamuyiwa Ajileye | B.Tech., AES, EPt, A.Ag.

Youth Affiliate

Oluwamuyiwa is a devoted enthusiast in environmental sustainability, regenerative agriculture, and renewable energy. He was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, where he earned his first associate degree in civil engineering and a B.Tech. in crop production and soil science, respectively. He’s a current master’s student in sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan. Oluwamuyiwa started his early career as a construction and Airbnb operational manager in Nigeria for three years and pivoted to his family farm as an operational manager before moving to Canada. He has been involved in different environmental volunteerism (including the Lekki Conservation Center in Lekki, Lagos). He’s a member of Eco Canada and the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrology. He has been actively involved in sustainability fieldwork in Saskatchewan neighbourhoods and Climate Reality Projects and seminars. He is an advocate for good environmental governance and climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy.