As part of SOLA’s board, Marie brings her extensive experience as an educator, business owner and project consultant. She’s led teams in supporting learning and development initiatives in private, non-profit and public sector organizations throughout Canada. Some example programs include Healthy Schools Manitoba, Manitoba in Motion and EAL Summer Camps at the Cégep de Jonquière. Currently, she is the owner and CEO of Eclectic Communications and co-founder of Odality. 

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Marie’s board experience includes the Brandon Film Festival, Brandon Folk Festival, Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, PLAIN International, and the Institute of Performance and Learning. She is also the founder of the Manitoba Learning and Development Professionals Network.

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Marie is looking forward to supporting SOLA’s goal of empowering youth and community members in becoming leaders in sustainability by providing opportunities to connect to nature and fostering a community of sharing and cooperation. She is looking to supporting projects that align with permaculture’s three main tenets - caring for the earth, care for the people and sharing the surplus.

As a board member Elisa brings experience in business, community development, and land development. She is the founder of Graceful Evolution: Integral Business Solutions, and co-owner of Hawthorne Valley Farm Inc. She has 20 years of in-person, client relation experience, particularly with people in the vulnerable sectors, and has been actively in relationship with the land since she was a young child.

 

She spent 8 years actively involved in governance at the College of Licensed Practical Nurses of Manitoba, participating in the Crown Corporations Council Board Governance Training Programs, gaining valuable knowledge and experience in the public sector governance. 

 

For Elisa, SOLA isn’t about simply fulfilling projects, it's about being in relationship to the land you are working with, tending to it with care and respect, and doing the same each other.

 

“We have to give our children the opportunity to love the earth before we can expect them to save it.”

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She believes a renewed love and connection for the natural world will come through conscious exposure and opportunities to be immersed in the Earth's cyclical nature –because we are not separate from it, but a part of it– so it brings not just love for earth but a deep sense of belonging to place. SOLA being the facilitating force behind that love, and community building not only fosters belonging of earth, but also belonging of people. Community. 

Kris Garner has been working alongside SOLA in a variety of capacities since 2017 and brings her exceptional organizational and community building skills to her role as secretary on the SOLA board. She has over two decades of experience in the field of child-development and education and is the founder of The Emotional Literacy Movement.

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Kris has sat on several learning and development committees during her time as an educator in the Louis Riel and Pembina Trails School Divisions, and briefly held the role as acting principal of Beaver Creek Academy in 2021.  

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Her involvement with SOLA is rooted in the firm belief that building the healthy communities we aspire to see in the world begins with providing access to programming and opportunities for community-oriented projects. Kris is particularly passionate about reviving traditional practices related to gardening,  food preservation, and knowledge of native species, aiming to promote sustainability for future generations. As an advocate for emotional literacy education, her work underscores the significance of communal gatherings, outdoor engagement, and physical activities in nurturing a wholesome lifestyle.

 

Recognizing the pivotal role of such elements, Kris aims to instill these values within SOLA's mission. Her vision for SOLA is to help establish a community that fosters thriving environments where children and individuals of all ages can flourish and contribute to a better world.

With 16 years of experience in the financial industry, Daneeka draws from her knowledge gained as a certified financial planner (CFP). She understands that finances play an integral role in the longevity of an organization, and the ability to complete projects, but that it must be balanced with the needs of the community and the goals of a not-for-profit to drive change. 

 

When not working, volunteering, or supporting her family you will almost always find her in one of her gardens. In her words:

 

“The garden can be a place to remind us that we are not separate at all and in fact, we are all connected. We do not need to escape to “nature” it is exactly where we are if we allow it to be. The garden can teach us to go deep and observe. It can teach us that we can do better, and we can help heal the smallest, “unremarkable” and yet the most remarkable spaces on this planet and in doing so start to bring health back to us all. “

 

To Daneeka, SOLA is about teaching youth and community members that we can do better. Through sustainable- integrated earth care, we can improve the well-being of all that live here. We can learn about the healing power of plants, we can learn about the health that comes from healthy soil, healthy vegetation, and healthy food webs. It can help us learn that when these soils, vegetation and webs are sick, so are we. It can help us learn, to sit quietly and observe. To calm our mind and feel our feelings.

Daneeka chooses to participate with SOLA because she believes there can be nothing more important then teaching our children about the beauty, and health they have access to when they acknowledge the connection between us and everything else.

As founder of the Seeds of Life Alliance, Ivan has seven years of experience teaching the fundamentals of sustainable agriculture and land regeneration to youth within the Manitoba correctional facilities.  

His practice integrates the deep wisdom found in nature and applies the science of natural design principles to agricultural practices.  Ivan's passions consist of soil remediation and regeneration, wetland restoration, community integration, indigenous teachings and elder wisdom.  

Ivan strives to weave art into every space that is created and believes that nature is our greatest artist and ally and that we need to develop our spaces in a way that observes and interacts from a place of understanding our connection to these natural spaces and how we play a vital role in preserving them.