Board of Directors
NFTC is led by a group of dedicated volunteers.
Meet the members of the board of directors below.
Scott Berry
Treasurer
The Treasurer provides oversight of the organization’s legal and financial dealings, working directly with the Chair and the Secretary.Scott is a full-time wilderness guide for the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and the founder and owner of Original Path Coaching and Guiding. He brings over 25 years of coaching/counseling, leadership, and guiding experience to the table. He is a certified Coach (CC), Nature and Forest Therapy Guide (ANFT), Professional Interpretive Guide (IGA), and certified in Advanced Wilderness First Aid. He co-founded one of the early heli-hiking businesses in Canada (Alberta Alpine Adventures). He’s honored and fortunate to have had the opportunity to guide several hundred people on various adventures in locations all over Canada. Over 25 years, he has built and led several private-sector organizations (up to $2M budgets and over a hundred employees) and held several governance roles of public and private organizations. Scott offers the NFTC/SINC board his combination of broad experience in leadership, coaching, and guiding along with dozens of years of hands-on experience as an entrepreneur and business executive.
Beth Foster
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.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.
Brian P. Hutchinson
British Columbia 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.Born and raised in a small town in Ontario, Brian now calls Lake Cowichan home. For him, the outdoors has always been a place for solace, great reflection, and growth. Upon completing his undergraduate degree in philosophy and politics, Brian worked for a human rights non-profit in South East Asia. He also worked as a counsellor in a Vancouver non-profit focussed on aiding the indigenous community. During this time, he obtained his designation as a Mediator and worked as a conflict resolution specialist for both non profits and government. Brian now offers forest therapy walks under the name “Leaning on Trees,” and works at an outdoor school as a forest mentor. He lives in a tiny home with his dog, Yogi. When not working or guiding, you can find him trail running, rock climbing, playing guitar, or exploring Vancouver Island. He is very excited to be a part of NFTC, and to grow and connect with the community of guides across Canada.
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.
Emma McKay
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.Originally from Vancouver, BC, Emma moved to Montreal to attend McGill University, graduating with an English Lit degree. She began her career in book publishing, eventually launching her own publishing company, MudScout. She has since worked as an editorial leader in major lifestyle and news media, overseeing digital transformation both within local newsrooms and nationally. She has written several books and has won awards for her poetry. She has developed and produced dozens of projects ranging from graphic novels to award-winning podcasts and videos. Emma obtained a PPCC coaching certification from Concordia University in 2018 and trained with the ANFT to become a certified nature and forest therapy guide in February 2021. She currently lives in Montreal with her child and their recently adopted rescue dog. Emma supports Quebec guides in both French and English.
Ken Ouendag
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.Ken Ouendag is NFTC’s Prairie Representative. He grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba and has made his way across the prairies (via Vancouver, BC) to his new prairie home in Calgary, Alberta. He became a Certified Forest Therapy Guide in 2017 and is currently an ANFT trainer and mentor. Ken has been serving individuals in various healthcare settings through his work in the field of recreation therapy while advocating for people living in long-term care and hospital settings to have opportunities to go outside and interact with the natural world. Ken is currently enrolled in a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology program and is keen to connect with other guides living in the prairie provinces.
Jeff Perry
Atlantic 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.Jeff is the founder and owner of The Cove Healing, a Reiki clinic and forest bathing centre located in Saint John, New Brunswick. After many years of dealing with his own mental illness, Jeff had a life changing experience when he discovered Reiki. Reiki taught him how to understand his pain, accept it, and heal. Realizing the immense impact Reiki had on his own wellbeing, Jeff knew it was his new purpose in life to show others how they too can break down barriers and begin healing. He now helps clients become their better higher selves by guiding them through their own journey of self-improvement and growth. Jeff has been training and practicing Reiki for nearly 10 years and is registered with the Canadian Reiki Association as a Practitioner and Master Teacher and is also a certified forest therapy guide with the ANFT.
Trisha Perry
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.Located in Saint John, New Brunswick, Trisha is a lawyer and certified mediator with nearly 20 years of practice in organizational governance, labour, employment, and administrative law. As a result, she has an extensive background in employment and administrative law, ADR, corporate governance, professional discipline, and the rights and obligations of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Trisha is also the co-founder of Resonance Inc. (www.resonanceadvisors.ca), a multidisciplinary workplace services company offering clients structural governance and strategic planning, organizational assessments (people, systems, processes, procedures), conflict resilience and resolution processes, workplace investigations, management and employee training, people services, and general employment law. She is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, the Law Society of New Brunswick, and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Canada.
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).
Kimberley Sanders
Ontario 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.Hiking and canoeing since she was strong enough to hold a pack and paddle, Kimberley describes the natural world as a constant companion, educator/storyteller, and infinite source of peace and inspiration. Her passion is working in partnership with the natural world on the benefits of deep nature connection for individuals living with chronic and episodic health conditions. A former Psychotherapist, Kimberley worked as Program Coordinator supporting individuals living with and impacted by HIV. She has an MA in Counselling Psychology, a BA in Human Services and currently works as a Manager in Clinical Operations for a national mental health organization. Kimberley and her partner live in a passive solar home in rural Ottawa. Kimberley became a Guide after experiencing the restorative power of a guided walk herself, and is dedicated to advancing the mission of NFTC/SINC. She looks forward to serving and supporting the needs of Guides throughout Ontario.
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.
Ruth Silver
Vice Chair
The Vice Chair works with the Chair to plan Board meetings and projects, helps execute the strategic plan, and chairs meetings in the Chair’s absence.Ruth has spent 20 years using design as a creative lens through which to engage in deep listening with diverse communities. In 2014 she founded Groundswell, a boutique design and strategy firm for mavericks and innovators challenging the status quo in pursuit of meaningful change. The firm works across sectors on long-term systems change projects that deconstruct structural and institutional barriers and fundamentally shift the way people believe what’s possible. She holds a BA in Fine Art & Indigenous Studies from McMaster, Master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and has held teaching positions at the Universities of Toronto and Waterloo, the Chang School, OCADU and Harvard. She has been a DiverseCity Fellow and served on the board of community organization Greenest City for 5 years. Ruth recently became a Girl Guide Volunteer, Forest Therapy Guide, Climate Reality Leader and is pleased as punch to join the NFTC/SINC board.