Dr. Anne Hicks is an associate professor in Pediatric Respiratory Medicine and the clinical lead of the Stollery Children’s Environmental Health Clinic, a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre, at the University of Alberta. She founded the Stollery Pediatric Complex Asthma clinic and collaborates on provincial and national asthma care pathways. Her interdisciplinary research group studies how air pollution and other exposures, affects lung health and development, and what steps people can take to prevent or mitigate those harms.

Sammy Lowe is the Research Lead, Climate Health and Environment Epidemiology Research Lab, at the University of Alberta.

Crystal Parrell has worked in the air quality field with the Government of Alberta for the past 20 years. She is currently the Director of Airshed Sciences, leading a team that focuses on the monitoring, evaluation and reporting of ambient air quality and atmospheric deposition. She has always had a passion for making data and information available to the public and promoting use of the Air Quality Health Index.

Adrian Dybwad, CEO, founded PurpleAir after creating his own air quality sensor to measure the particulate pollution coming out of a gravel pit near his home in Utah. He quickly discovered great interest from the community as he made additional sensors. After extremely favorable evaluations from regulators and researchers, PurpleAir grew rapidly in popularity. PurpleAir is now the largest public air quality sensor network in the world. An immigrant from South Africa, Adrian believes that his previous experience with computer programming and electronics, along with a significant investment of time, allowed him to create the sensor and build many of the backend systems that support it.

Dr. Anna Farquhar is R&D Team Lead at Aeroqual Ltd, a New Zealand based company that specialises in sensor based real-time ambient air quality monitoring. Aeroqual designs and delivers integrated hardware and software platforms to reliably measure the air.

Melissa Masse works for the City of Edmonton as the Extreme Weather Response Coordinator, where she is responsible for planning and implementing measures to keep residents safe from poor air quality, extreme cold, and extreme heat. Not only does she navigate the impact of extreme weather on residents, but she brings the perspective of a Social Worker within the Affordable Housing and Homelessness Section. Melissa also participates in the Sector Emergency Response, a collaboration between the City, Homeward Trust and more than 25 system and partner agencies working together to keep our vulnerable citizens safe and warm on a daily basis.

Jocelyn Thrasher-Haug, M.Sc., P.Ag., P.Biol. is a Professional Biologist with over twenty years of municipal experience with Strathcona County. She is currently the Manager of Agriculture & Environment, responsible for a diverse team focused on environmental planning, invasive plant management, wildlife management and agriculture initiatives. She has been a municipal representative on the Alberta Capital Airshed Board since 2012, and is the current President. She fosters a strong connection between the municipal realm and the Airshed to support the community, ensuring easily accessible, high-quality data, and the expertise to interpret and translate so we can all make good decision that positively affect the air we breathe.

Dr. Amina Hussein is a mom and an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta. As a Canada Research Chair in Laser-Interactions, her research team works in interdisciplinary spaces, including addressing issues in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Her academic research, as well as her community involvement on boards of the Michener Park Education Society and the Tomorrow Foundation for a Sustainable Future, are what brought her to her recent work in air-quality monitoring, children’s health, and recommendations for child-care centers.

Erin Olefeldt is the Climate Resilience Advisor for the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL). Erin enjoys supporting Edmonton’s 163 Community Leagues in creating greener, healthier, more sustainable neighbourhoods. Previously, she worked for the Sierra Club of Canada and for the Species at Risk branch of the federal government. Erin has a degree in environmental science from the University of Manitoba, a passion for ecological landscape design and has led multiple community-based sustainability projects, including the creation of Edmonton’s largest community rain garden.

Terry Wickham is the long-serving Producer and Artistic Director of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, a position he’s held since 1989. With a Master’s Degree in Economics/Administration from Trinity College Dublin, Terry has a diverse background, including stints as a professional soccer player, piano mover, and even an extra in Superman 3. He produced the Calgary Folk Festival from 1996 to 2005 and has overseen 44 Canadian folk festivals in total. Outside of his professional life, Terry enjoys travel, reading, and tennis, and is dedicated to helping smaller festivals grow.