Board of Directors
NFTC is led by a group of dedicated volunteers.
Meet the members of the board of directors below.
Haida Bolton
BC Representative
Regional guide representatives facilitate community in their region through calls, gatherings and communications activities and act as a voice of their region in Board discussions.Haida Bolton, a Certified Forest Therapy Guide with ANFT since 2016, is the owner of Nature With Haida on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. She has led nearly 200 forest therapy experiences in BC, Costa Rica and Uganda. With inspiration from Jane Goodall, she founded and ran a conservation education camp for Ugandan children in Uganda from 2007-2011. Her love of writing has led her to publish two works: a juvenile fiction, “Aida’s Adventures in Africa” which nurtures a love for adventure, animals and hollow trees in its readers; and a collection of poems in “My Poetic Journey Through Separation Among The Towering Trees.” Currently, Haida is writing a memoir on her forest therapy journey. After facilitating four forest therapy retreats, Haida created a new set of retreats recently with a focus on Empowering Empaths, the first of which was a great success. The second is coming soon. For further information, see NatureWithHaida.ca.
Wil Brunner
Atlantic Regional Representative
Regional guide representatives facilitate community in their region through calls, gatherings and communications activities and act as a voice of their region in Board discussions.Wil grew up in Muskoka, Ontario, where the beautiful lakes, Canadian shield outcroppings and white pines always felt like home. He studied at Sir Sandford Fleming College in the Ecosystem Management program before heading to the Maritimes. For many years he was engaged with community-based environmental restoration, conservation and education programs in both Nova Scotia and Ontario. He then made a switch and began offering wilderness-based counselling for teenagers in rehabilitation with Pine River Institute and Youthdale Treatment Centres in Ontario.
Wil began facilitating forest therapy and nature-based wellness experiences since his ANFT Guide Training and returning to Nova Scotia in 2021. Through his business Soft Pine Wellness, he is striving to expand nature-based health and climate well-being programs. He is most passionate about supporting local people on their journeys of building connections to the natural world. Wil and his partner live on an historic piece of land on the South Mountain near Kingston, Eleke’we’katik, where they are practicing reciprocity with nature through flower and veggie gardens and creating awareness for Old Growth Acadian Forests and the Annapolis River Watershed.
Beth Foster
Ontario Regional Representative
Regional guide representatives facilitate community in their region through calls, gatherings and communications activities and act as a voice of their region in Board discussions.Having wandered in the woods, waterways and tundra all her life, Beth has learned that, sometimes, you can go further by being quietly in one place and listening, smelling, touching, tasting and watching the wonder unfold. Beth believes that, in order to restore balance to our planetary and emotional health, we must reignite a deeper and sustainable connection between humans and the earth. As an ANFT Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and Trail Certification Consultant trained in 2018, she delights in guiding others to an awareness, understanding and deeper appreciation of the healing power of nature as a tool for peace and prosperity. Though Beth loves to guide in all seasons in the woods near her home in Barrie Ontario Canada, she especially embraces winter. As a Trail Consultant, she has designed self-guided trails at Scandinave Spa, Blue Mountains, and YMCA Geneva Park Conference Centre, Orillia. Pivoting to remote guiding, Beth meets with clients from all around the world, including students of Nature, Place and Restoration in the Recreation and Leisure Studies Department at Brock University, staff and volunteers at Simcoe Muskoka Palliative Health Network, students and staff at the Simcoe County Board of Education, and stakeholders at the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust. Most recently Beth has become very involved in protecting the Catchacoma Old Growth forest, north of Peterborough, Ontario, and in delivering Forest Bathing staff retreats to various Mental Health and Wellness organizations.
Beth loves time on the water as much as time near it. Her favourite place to paddle locally is the Minesing wetlands, though her chapter in Paddling Pathways: Reflections from a Changing Landscape, tells the tale of a surprising paddling adventure on Hudson Bay.
Beth holds a Master of Education and is a member of the Ontario College of Teachers.
Monique Giroux
Member
At large Board Members contribute ideas and energy to Board activities and policy development and help build the Guide community through holding space or facilitating community calls and webinars.After a 30-year corporate career in financial services, Monique took an early retirement, traded in her business suits for hiking boots, sold her possessions to pursue a slower-paced, minimalist, nomadic life. In 2019, she made a commitment to herself to live an anxiety-free life by finding calm and peace of mind after an enlightening experience in Bali. Immersing herself in study and becoming a certified Forest Therapy Guide with the Global Institute of Forest Therapy, Reiki Master, meditation and yoga teacher, she is now breathing deeply. Today, she works with clients to help them slow down and reconnect with their inner voice and intuition through nature connection, coaching and energy healing. Founder of Flourish with Monique, The Forest Guide Circle (a free global community of Forest Therapy Guides), Flourishment Collective, and climate change start up, Homes to Zero, Monique travels the world sharing stories along the way and published her bestselling in 2024, Lost Intentionally: The Inner and Outer Journey of a Spiritual Nomad.
Chris Jenik
Prairies Guides Representative
Regional guide representatives facilitate community in their region through calls, gatherings and communications activities and act as a voice of their region in Board discussions.Chris retired 2 years ago from the Calgary Public Board of Education, where she enjoyed working as a teacher and school administrator for over 34 years. Prior to working full-time in schools, Chris worked at an Outdoor School where she piloted and facilitated outdoor environmental programs for schools in Canada and the United States. She has been involved with developing curriculum and facilitating professional development opportunities for teachers and schools. Chris believes that nature continuously provides lessons, inspiration and support, which she has witnessed first hand through her work on the Crisis Team supporting families and students in trauma.
After retiring she did the training with ANFT to become a certified Forest Therapy Guide. She has been bringing Forest Therapy walks into schools for staff and students and has created partnerships with regional consortiums and a local Conservation Centre. Facilitating experiences that foster deeper connections with nature and enrich the well-being of others continues to be a privilege and passion for Chris. She looks forward to supporting and learning with other guides as the Prairie Rep.
Stana Luxford Oddie
Board Member at Large
At large Board Members contribute ideas and energy to Board activities and policy development and help build the Guide community through holding space or facilitating community calls and webinars.Stana Luxford Oddie (she/her) trained with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFT) and became a certified Forest Therapy Guide in 2016. Stana has been training and mentoring guides around the world since 2018. Stana is a certified teacher (OCT) and Queen’s University Outdoor and Experiential Education (OEE) grad from 1999. Since 1999, she has been in her “dream job” as the Senior Conservation Educator with Cataraqui Conservation. Her passion is to support people to experience wellness and to build their relationship with nature with their head, heart and hands. She is grateful for her continued embodiment practices along with wild swimming and exercise, yoga and mindfulness practices. You will most likely find her running and or sitting spotting in the forest or by a lake with her adventurous Cockapoo pup, Theo or adventuring in the good company of her partner, Lachlan and their teenaged son, Asher.
Susan Reid
Secretary
The Secretary oversees the scheduling, conduct and recording of Board meetings as well as facilitating communications amongst Board members between meetings.Susan brings over 20 years experience working with not-for-profit, environmental education organizations in Ontario and is excited to grow the community of guides and offer support to forest therapy guides across Canada. As a teenager she worked as a Junior Forest Ranger, stationed outside a small northern Ontario town near Thunder Bay, working in the forest, planting trees, clearing trails in Quetico park, paddling through nature in a canoe. After studying Forestry at Lakehead University, she worked in environmental education focused on water, and then back to the forest, where she worked with a team to develop a forest festival education program for youth in southern Ontario. Sensing the call of the forest, she took the opportunity to help people take time for themselves in a positive natural environment as a Certified Forest Therapy Guide with ANFT (Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides & Trainers).
Ronna Schneberger
Chair
The Chair of the Board of Directors provides leadership to the Board, oversees our legal and organization commitments, and leads efforts in strategy, advocacy, and partnerships.Ronna been a professional guide and naturalist in Banff National Park for over 25 years. She became a forest therapy guide in 2016 and is now a Trainer with the ANFT. For the past 15 years she has been delivering leadership development programs for private groups and through the Leadership Development program at the Banff Centre. Along with colleagues she developed leadership programs using the ANFT model which is turning out to be not only restorative but very powerful for today’s exhausted leaders. Recently, she pursued a long-time goal of becoming a professional coach with CTI. Today she brings all her talents together by taking groups and individuals out into the beautiful areas of Banff to re-calibrate, recharge, and tap into the gifts they bring to the world.
Sally Staples
Quebec Guides Representative
Regional guide representatives facilitate community in their region through calls, gatherings and communications activities and act as a voice of their region in Board discussions.Growing up on a remote farm in rural Ontario I came to know the healing power of nature early in life. After a long career in health and wellness, I became interested in the concept of Forest Bathing and consequently found ANFT. I did my certification with Cohort 28, and our in-person intensive in Sonoma was a game changer – I was hooked! I am very excited to be a part of this community and look forward to doing all that I can to nurture and support it.