Candidates for 2024-25 Board of Directors
President / Co-Chair
Christine Thuring
Christine Thuring is a founding director of the Society and was an active volunteer right from the start. She co-established and continues to co-edit The Quarterly Buzz newsletter. In 2021-2022, Christine served as Secretary. She is pleased to serve a third (and final) term as co-chair with Sky Jarvis.
With a background in environmental science and plant biology, Christine is passionate about native bees, green roofs and climate action. While her career began in applied plant ecology, for the last 20 years Christine has worked predominantly in the urban context. As a Green Roof Professional and a Meadow Maker, she is committed to enhancing conditions for biodiversity, including the built environment.
Vice-President / Co-Chair
Sky Jarvis
Sky graduated from the Faculty of Forestry at UBC in 2021 and currently works for a Community Forest in the rural town of Barrière. She currently lives in Kamloops, in the heart of BC grassland region, with her son, Cedar. Sky has been with the Society for four years, starting as a member-at-large before transitioning to the Secretary role for the past two years, she is excited to step into the co-chair role for the next two years. Sky has helped get the Society affiliated with BC Nature and Bee City Canada - she looks forward to strengthening and expanding these connections with other organizations as the Society moves forward with its provincial BC Bee Atlas. Sky holds a profound appreciation for Nature, especially BC's 500+ species of Native Bees - this can be seen in her work for the society and her participation in public education and outreach events.
Secretary
Jane Lakes
Jane is a professional beekeeper and native bee enthusiast based in Vancouver. She has worked in the apiculture industry since 2019 and is dedicated to changing beekeeping practices and culture to help mitigate the impact of honeybee hives on wild bee species. She has been volunteering with the Native Bee Society of British Columbia since spring of 2024 and is a student in the Master Melittollogist program with Oregon State University.
Treasurer
​Nikki Donkersley
Nikki is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and has an extensive background in accounting and finance. She dedicated twelve years of her professional career to working in the non-profit sector for a registered charity. Nikki joined the Native Bee Society of BC as Treasurer in February 2022, combining her enthusiasm for bees with her love of numbers. Nikki and her husband live in Dawson Creek, BC with their two teenage sons. When she is not "crunching the numbers", she can be found working in her garden or at the school gymnasium cheering on her son's basketball team.
Members-at-Large
Lincoln Best
Linc has been actively documenting the native bee fauna and its floral relations throughout British Columbia and Alberta for 20 years. Currently he is part of the Faculty of Horticulture at Oregon State University where he is the Pollinator Taxonomist in the Pollinator Health Lab for the Oregon Bee Atlas and Master Melittologist. They have been successful in bringing the Master Melittologist program to British Columbia through the Native Bee Society of BC. This is a self-paced, step-wise educational program that provides a comprehensive education about bee biodiversity and ecology.
The Oregon Bee Atlas is the largest citizen science project of its kind, where hundreds of volunteers actively survey the state and produce tens of thousands of museums specimens representing hundreds of species of native bees, sampled from over 1400 flowering plant species, and counting. This has led to the development of WA and ID Bee Atlases as well. Linc is also working to curate the historical bee collection at the Oregon State Arthropod Collection and provide taxonomic support to many other research labs and government agencies. In BC he hosts the annual BC Native Bee Course in Penticton, and other related specialty courses throughout the province. Linc collaborates widely in BC on research and education with various post-secondary institutions, NGO’s, First Nations, and artists.
Linc will bring his energy and expertise in research, education, and outreach to the NBSBC, and leverage my network to the Society’s benefit. There is enormous potential for the society to provide strong science-based research, education, and outreach, and he hopes to develop programming and projects that inform stakeholder groups and lead to landscape-based solutions to our environmental challenges.
Bonnie Zand
Bonnie Zand is an RPBio based out of the Comox Valley, on Vancouver Island. She works in the intersections of pollinators and agriculture, running an IPM consulting company, Bonnie’s Bugs IPM. Bonnie is the BC instructor for the Master Melittolgist Program and also teaches the NBSBC’s Mini Bee Schools. She loves to help others learn how awesome bees are, and is passionate about the societies BC Bee Atlas. Bonnie also contributes to pollinator conservation through outreach to garden clubs, bee clubs, and school groups.
Bonnie is excited to be continuing with the board for a fourth year, and intends to continue to run the Native Bee Study Group, support the BC Master Melittologist program, lead the BC Bee Atlas and help with grant writing for to the society.
Paula Cruise
Maureen Marriott
Maureen has worked for many years at the University of British Columbia and Emily Carr University of Art + Design in the field of adult continuing education. Now she is passionate about learning more about BC’s incredible biodiversity, and to donate her time to organizations working to further environmental conservation, restoration, education and advocacy.​
Maureen is interested in continuing the co-editing of the Quarterly Buzz, and hopefully in 2024 being able to attend and contribute to in-person events and outreach. She is also (possibly) interested in helping with grant application processes.
Tamara Litke
Tamara is an outdoor educator focused on place-based learning about bees, plants and people. She has led projects in community, school, and botanical gardens in BC. She has developed urban greening projects, public education initiatives, and produced curriculum and events for people of all ages. She has a comprehensive knowledge of native plant nurseries and best practices to support habitat and pollinator recovery. She has an Honours Specialist degree in Art and Art History, a BFA in Ceramics, and a Masters of Education in Sustainability. Her current PhD studies in Ecology and Consciousness focus on connecting with our natural relationships.
Gwendolyn Williams
Fundraising
Gwendolyn is a citizen scientist, melittology student, and lifelong artist. She comes from a family of avid gardeners, and has a special interest in PNW native herbaceous plants. She maintains a pollinator garden in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, and cultivates native seeds to distribute to the community. She is the owner of a tattoo studio in downtown Victoria for the last 15 years, and specializes in illustrative botanical/nature design, and graphic design. She uses her artist platform to educate the community and regularly fundraises for various conservation programs with a focus on pollinators. She has a special passion for bees and their favourite native plants!
Valerie Huff
Valerie is a restoration botanist and native plant conservation advocate with a keen interest in pollination networks. She lives in Nelson BC and is a founding member (and current treasurer) of the Kootenay Native Plant Society. She is fascinated by complexity of plant-pollinator relationships, and is involved in numerous restoration projects with a pollinator focus.
Valerie is interested in bringing a plant perspective and expertise to the conversation about native bee conservation, as she strongly believes that they go hand in hand and is excited by the potential for cross-pollination.
Kelsey Day
Equity & Inclusion
Kelsey is a dedicated gardener of native plants and an environmental conservation advocate for biodiversity in British Columbia. Originally from a small town in Illinois, United States, she has made BC her home since 2017. Kelsey graduated from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor's degree, double majoring in Geography and Environmental Studies. She participated in various field courses at UVic, which enriched her learning experiences, ranging from ecological restoration efforts at the Millard Learning Centre on Galiano Island to integrating permaculture design elements in a Woonerf project in Victoria. Kelsey has volunteered with organizations like the Surfrider Foundation, Parks Canada, and LifeCycles Project Society, where she learned about the importance of local environmental stewardship and community involvement. Her educational and professional journey, combined with her lived experience as someone who identifies as part of a marginalized group, has made her acutely aware of the physical, social, and economic barriers many face in accessing nature and outdoor spaces. She aims to infuse her work with a passionate perspective on inclusion, intersectionality, and conserving critical habitats for bees and all other pollinators.
Paula’s interest in wild bees grew as a natural extension to her passion for gardening for people and pollinators through her work with Hives for Humanity, a non-profit society based in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Now enrolled in Oregon State University’s Master Melittologist program, she never fails to be amazed by the amazing biodiversity of bees and their associated plants in the Pacific Northwest and is particularly interested in how farms and backyards can support these critical pollinators. Her nursery, Buzzing Greens, focuses on vegetable plants and herbs started from local, open pollinated seeds that offer joy and nourishment in the smallest of spaces.
Paula has been a member of the Native Bee Society of BC since its founding in 2019 and joined the Board of Directors in 2020. For the past two years, Paula has been thrilled to co-chair the board alongside Christine Thuring. For 2025, Paula aims to contribute to the Society’s education and outreach programming and to its ongoing financial stability through grants and fundraising.