Susan Fisher
President
Susan is a third-generation Vancouverite and a grateful user of the city’s parks, especially Jericho. As the lands to the south of Fourth Avenue are developed for housing, the number of visitors to Jericho will increase dramatically, and those who love the park will need to protect its natural values.
Catherine Phillips
Director
Catherine is a landscape architect and graduate of Writtle College and Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK. She enjoys learning about native and non-native tree and plant species, birdwatching, gardening and being outdoors generally. Catherine has been a member of the Jericho Stewardship Group since 2012, including a two-year term as President from 2015 to 2017.
Michelle Catlin
Director
Michelle Catlin teaches at Queen Mary elementary school. She is a grade 2 school teacher who takes her students out to Jericho Beach once a week to explore and discover all the treasures to be found in this stunning park. She is passionate about encouraging young children to connect with nature, to provide opportunities for them to recognize how important nature is, in the hopes that our young children will be advocates for both the park and nature in the future. Michelle recently joined the Jericho Stewardship Board and is keen to learn from the other members all their expertise and knowledge about the park and be able to share this wisdom with her students. As well, her goal is to develop education programs about Jericho Park that other schools can participate in.
Hermann Schindler
Treasurer
Hermann was conceived in Europe’s Black Forest and blessed to grow up beside a large mixed use Toronto Ravine park and forest (Sherwood Forest). In 1990 he moved to Vancouver and has seen all the changes of the past 28 years. He hopes to encourage more people of all ages to become Citizen Scientists.
John Coope
Director
John Coope is a retired professor of Theoretical Chemistry from UBC. He grew up on Vancouver Island, and studied in Victoria, at UBC, and at Oxford’s Mathematical Institute. His interest in Botany grew from seeing native flora in the alpine during climbing trips. He has been working in Jericho Park since the late 1990’s, and is a founding member of the Jericho Stewardship Group.
June Ryder
Director
June Ryder is a ‘long-ago’ graduate of the UBC Geography Department. She is a professional geoscientist (terrain and soils specialist) who has worked as a researcher, teacher and consultant. Now retired, she is busy following her life-long interests in natural history, especially birds and conservation. With the help of Nature Vancouver members, she conducted bird surveys in Jericho Park during 2006-2007, and has carried out coastal waterbird surveys (for Bird Studies Canada) along the Jericho shoreline since 2003. She is concerned about preservation of habitat for the nesting, overwintering, and migratory bird populations of Jericho Park.
Frank Heinzelmann
Director
Frank is a founding member of the Jericho Stewardship Group and has been working in the park since the early 2000s. His educational background is in Biology and Forestry. He studied at the University of Cape Town (BSc Biology), the University of Berlin (MSc Biology) and UBC (PhD Forestry). He greatly values Jericho Park as a natural area that he would like to see “re-wilded” to benefit all critters and park users. His particular interest is the possibility of re-introducing a salmon population to Jericho Park, in conjunction with the future development of the Jericho Lands. He and his family are frequent users of the park and nearby beaches.
Irene Carrasco
Event Coordinator
Irene has served as the Jericho Stewardship Group’s Event Coordinator since 2019. She holds a BSc in Physical Geography from McGill University and a Masters of Geomatics for Environmental Management from UBC. On weekdays she is a GIS Technician with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Sustainable Fisheries Framework Unit. On weekends you can find her in the bushes, covered in mud, removing invasive species in Jericho Park.
At Jericho, Irene is responsible for coordinating volunteer events, maintaining the group’s social media platforms, and completing Vancouver Parks Board stewardship reports. To contact Irene please email: