Steering Committee and Director

SeaBlue Canada is a joint project of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF), East Coast Environmental Law, the Ecology Action Centre (EAC), Nature Canada, Oceans North, West Coast Environmental Law, and the World Wildlife Fund Canada (WWF-Canada).

The work of SeaBlue is managed by our National Director, who is advised by a Steering Committee made up of representative from all eight partner organizations.

National Director

Jennifer Josenhans (she/her) is the National Director for SeaBlue Canada. She started out as National Coordinator in 2021. Before returning to her home province of Nova Scotia, Jen lived in Europe for 15 years, working with Ecologic Institute in Berlin for the last 6 and a half. At Ecologic Institute, Jennifer worked as Assistant to the Director as well as on various international projects including Ocean Literacy and the plastic pollution crisis. She remains an Associate of the institute. Jennifer has also worked as a translator and mediator, working in German, French and English. She has degrees from the University of Kings College and Mount Saint Vincent University. 

Steering Committee

Shannon Arnold, Associate Director, Marine Programs, Ecology Action Centre

Shannon’s leads EAC’s Marine Program. She has been working in advocacy for 15 years to improve fisheries and aquaculture policy, management and markets around the world to ensure the long-term ecological health of our ocean and support the livelihoods that depend on it. Shannon loves that her varied work takes her to international fishery negotiation tables, to the water with seaweed farmers in the Philippines and now in Canada, to boardrooms with sustainability leaders, and to the streets to protest environmental exploitation and injustice.

Alexandra Barron, National Director, Ocean Program, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society

Alex rejoined the CPAWS team as National Conservation Manager for the Ocean Program in 2019 following a brief sojourn as a Technical Planner for the Province of BC and Nanwakolas Council working on the Marine Plan Partnership in BC. Prior to MaPP, Alex spent five years with CPAWS-BC as the Ocean Conservation Coordinator and later Ocean Conservation Manager, working to secure protection for British Columbia’s rich marine ecosystems. During her time with CPAWS-BC she was lucky enough to celebrate the establishment of the Hecate Strait Glass Sponge Reef Marine Protected Area and go down in a submarine to visit the glass sponge reefs of Howe Sound.  Alex holds an MSc in science, for which she studied the role of “blue carbon” ecosystems like kelp, eelgrass and salt marsh as carbon sinks. She has been fortunate to have worked in some remarkable places, including studying sharks in South Africa, saving turtles in Greece and protecting coral reefs in the Maldives, where she saw first-hand the benefits of Marine Protected Areas.

Susanna Fuller, Vice President, Operations and Projects, Oceans North

Susanna’s commitment to marine conservation was born during her final year of high school when she spent six months on a tall ship during the same period when Northern cod stocks collapsed in Atlantic Canada. Her work now focuses on achieving tangible conservation outcomes in sustainable fisheries and spatial protections in Atlantic Canada and the Arctic, as well as initiatives to protect high seas biodiversity. She completed her Ph.D. at Dalhousie University, including research on North Atlantic marine sponge populations, and has worked for the past decade and a half on the science-policy interface for national and international fisheries and ocean conservation. Before joining Oceans North, she led the marine team at Ecology Action Centre in Halifax where she lives.

Stephanie Hewson, Staff Lawyer, West Coast Environmental Law

Stephanie (she/her/hers) is part of West Coast’s Marine Program, working to strengthen ocean protection provincially and nationally. Shaped by summers spent on the lakes and rivers of Northern Ontario, Stephanie is particularly passionate about protecting our aquatic environments to sustain and nourish future generations.

Stephanie graduated from McGill’s Faculty of Law in 2016 and articled with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. While in law school, she completed an exchange semester at UBC’s Indigenous Community Legal Clinic in Vancouver, where she saw the potential of Indigenous legal traditions to transform Canadian law, and fell in love with the West Coast. She also spent a summer in Anchorage, Alaska, working with a council of First Nations and Tribes in Yukon and Alaska to develop a governance strategy for managing the Yukon River Watershed. She is grateful for the opportunity to return to live and work on beautiful Coast Salish territory.

Erin Keenan, Senior Manager, Arctic Marine Conservation, WWF-Canada

As part of the WWF-Canada Arctic team based in Iqaluit , Erin works primarily on Arctic marine conservation projects, including marine planning and marine protected areas. She also helps generate and build support for WWF-Canada’s conservation objectives in Nunavut and acts as an effective conduit for local concerns and issues to be addressed in WWF project planning communications. Erin holds a Master’s in Marine Management from Dalhousie University.

Michael Kofahl, Staff Lawyer, East Coast Environmental Law

Mike graduated from Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law in 2017. While in law school, he worked with East Coast Environmental Law as a Pro Bono student and earned certificates of specialization in marine law and environmental law from the Marine and Environmental Law Institute. After law school, Mike completed shared articles with East Coast Environmental Law and McKiggan Hebert. He then worked as ECEL’s Coastal Research Coordinator until he was called to the Bar and became a staff lawyer.

Mike’s law practice is primarily focused on marine and coastal law issues, including marine protected areas, shipping, offshore resource regulation, coastal protection and access, and wetland stewardship. Additionally, he works on impact assessments and regional assessments and restorative justice. Mike also coordinates ECEL’s pro bono student and summer internship programs.

Akaash Maharaj, Policy Director, Nature Canada

Akaash is responsible for shaping the policies of Canada’s federal, provincial, and Indigenous governments, to protect and conserve wildlife and habitats across our country.

Outside of Nature Canada, he is Ambassador-at-Large for the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption, and a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

Earlier in his life, he was an international athlete for Canada, and was a triple gold medallist at the International Championships of Equestrian Skill‑at‑Arms. He subsequently led the Canadian Equestrian Team and federation as its CEO, to the team’s most successful Olympics and Paralympics of all time.

Akaash earned his Master of Arts from Oxford University, where he was the first overseas student elected President of the student government in the history of the 900-year‑old University. He completed further studies at the Sorbonne Université and the United Nations University.

Jay Ritchlin, Director General, B.C. and Western Region, David Suzuki Foundation

Jay Ritchlin is Director-General for Western Canada and the lead for Nature programs at the David Suzuki Foundation. He leads the Western Canada regional team and national Nature projects in efforts to achieve the David Suzuki Foundation’s vision that we all act every day on the understanding that we are one with nature. He has 30 years’ experience working on solutions to environmental challenges including open net- pen aquaculture, offshore oil and gas, marine fisheries, toxins, natural capital and seafood. Jay previously worked on pulp, paper and toxics issues and spent four years working in commercial fisheries. He has also worked in the U.S. Congress on foreign policy and military issues and spent several years working with Greenpeace in the U.S. and Canada. He holds a Biology degree from Kenyon College, Ohio.