Meet the Speakers

Clint Jacobs

Clint Jacobs is Deer Clan, Anishinaabe member of Bkejwanong (Walpole Island First Nation) and has worked in the conservation/environment field for over 25 years at the Walpole Island Heritage Centre. Clint also led the creation of the Walpole Island Land Trust to support and enable peoples' connections to nature. Clint teaches at Western University and at the University of Windsor to help students understand their connections with and responsibilities to nature and to empower students to bring their gifts forward to reciprocate the love that nature shares with us all. In 2024, Clint was elected to the Walpole Island First Nation Council and in 2025 was appointed as the Senior Advisor to the President on Indigenous Initiatives at the University of Windsor.

Gwen Bridge, Gwen Bridge Consulting

A member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Gwen's career has been centered around providing advice, developing strategies, and managing natural resource-related projects for First Nations and their partners, including in land and water planning, protected areas planning, and policy. Gwen has worked with the Mescalero Apache, the Makah Tribe, the Okanagan Nation Alliance, and other First Nations and First Nations organizations. As all levels of government aspire to improve indigenous relations Gwen has been developing capacity in those and other organizations to advance reconciliation. Gwen has been recently working on indigenous-led conservation including caribou habitat protection and old growth protection with the Okanagan Nation Alliance and negotiating and planning for the South Okanagan Similkameen National Park Reserve and an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area in Canada. Gwen has a Master of Science in Renewable Resources with a thesis specialization in forestry hydrology and this grounding along with strength in indigenous perspectives, facilitates strong strategy development. Gwen has been advising the evolving provincial policy environment in British Columbia, Canada, for forestry and climate change, land use planning, and Indigenous-led conservation in BC. Gwen teaches courses in Ethical Space and Indigenous Leadership at University nuhelot’ine thaiyots’i nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills and is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia. Gwen has provided Ethical Space training and consulting to many levels of government and is coordinating lead author for the Transboundary Policy Options chapter of the North American Biodiversity and Climate Change Assessment. She is a member of the RAD Network Leadership Circle.

Dani Warren, Great Bear Carbon

Dani Warren is the Senior Manager, Sales and Operations for the Great Bear Carbon Credit Limited Partnership. An entity owned by communities of Coastal First Nations – Great Bear Initiative. An alliance of nine First Nations living on British Columbia’s North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii whose mission is to protect and conserve the environment and work in partnership with all levels of Government, NGO’s and others to create a new conservation-based economy within the respective Traditional Territories. Dani manages carbon credit sales, partnerships and operations working with First Nations leadership in decision making and policy matters related to the two Great Bear Forest Carbon Projects. Dani has a background in project management and holds a certificate in Forest Carbon Management from the University of British Columbia. Dani is Cree from the Montreal Lake Cree Nation, located in Treaty 6 territory, Saskatchewan from her mothers side and Scottish, English and Danish from her fathers side. Dani is a competitive bagpiper and teacher, bagpiping for 20 years. In August 2024, Dani became a mother welcoming her son Carson to her family.

Darcy Riddell, RAD Network

Darcy Ridell has spent more than three decades advancing environmental justice and transformative change across philanthropy, academia, environmental movements, and cross-sector partnerships. As a strategist, facilitator, and movement builder, her work focuses on addressing the root causes of unsustainable systems while advancing Indigenous-led land stewardship, climate solutions, biodiversity conservation, and regenerative economies. Through their leadership with RAD Network and numerous national and global initiatives, She has championed Indigenous rights and responsibilities, collaborative conservation, and systems-level approaches to change. Holding a PhD in Social and Ecological Sustainability from the University of Waterloo, her research and practice draw on extensive experience working alongside First Nations to advance land justice and conservation, including lessons from landmark agreements such as the Great Bear Rainforest and Canadian Boreal Forest initiatives. Her work continues to explore how Indigenous Nations, governments, organizations, and communities can work together to create lasting, transformative change.