Michele Patterson
Michele Patterson is Vancouver Island University's first Manager of Environment and Sustainability. She has expertise in: rural and aboriginal community issues, external and government relations, and tools and approaches for marine protected areas and area-based management. Michele worked with WWF-Canada for nine years, leading a diverse BC conservation team in developing broadly supported, science-based conservation solutions that would support sustainable coastal communities in BC. At the time she left WWF- Canada Michele was WWF’s Acting Vice-President, Pacific Region. Michele is a founding Director of the Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association (www.pacmara.org); a BC non-government organization dedicated to providing collaborative, ecosystem-based research and analysis to inform and support marine planning, conservation and resource use in British Columbia. Michele has a Master of Arts Degree (Environment and Management) from Royal Roads University, where the focus of her thesis was improving governance for science and research to better inform marine policy development and planning. She also has a teenaged son with whom she looks forward to exploring Vancouver Island from their new base in Nanaimo, BC.
