Susan Fisher
Director
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.
Irene Carrasco
Director
Irene was JSG’s Event Coordinator from 2019 – 2022. She holds a BSc in Geography from McGill University and a MSc in Geographic Information Science and Cartography from the University of British Columbia. She currently works as a GIS Analyst for Fisheries and Ocean’s Canada – Marine Conservation Target Unit.
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.
Connelly Stirling
Event Coordinator
Connelly has served as the Jericho Stewardship Group’s Event Coordinator since 2023. She holds a BSc in Applied Biology from the University of British Columbia. Her work is centered around volunteerism in local parks in Jericho and in the Still Creek Watershed in east Vancouver. On weekends you can find her in the bushes, covered in mud, removing invasive species in various parks.
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 Connelly please email: [email protected].