OUFC Board of Directors

Peter Wynnyczuk, Executive Director

Janani Sivarajah, President

Peter has been involved in Urban Forestry for over 30 years at the municipal level and is the previous president of the Ontario Shade Tree Council (now the OUFC!). He has also been supportive of Arborist-related committees and activities. Peter is the retired urban forest supervisor with the Town of Richmond Hill.

Janani Sivarajah is an urban forester and ecologist. Currently, she is the Assistant Professor of urban forestry and the Research Chair of Urban Trees and its Environment (CRAUM) at Université Laval. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University. She obtained her Ph.D and Master of Forest Conservation from Daniel’s Forestry at the University of Toronto. She is a member of the Ontario Professional Foresters Association, working towards gaining her Registered Professional Forester designation. For over eight years, she worked as a consultant, advisor, and professional in Ontario’s urban forestry and non-profit sector. Her work crosses disciplines and she is passionate about building healthy resilient ecosystems and communities. 

Barbara Yaroski, Vice-President

Alison Craig, Director

Barbara is a retired Project Estimator who worked in the Upland & Wetland Restoration Industry. A love of trees was a personal passion that grew out of Barbara’s work as a Production and Sales Manager at a Garden Center. Her computer skills became an asset at the OUFC as Barbara initially designed and created the OUFC website which she still in part maintains today. Sharing her love for and concern for trees with the broader community and working with the OUFC and it’s partners has been a rewarding way to remain engaged in retirement. 

Allison is an ISA Certified Arborist Municipal Specialist®, a Qualified Tree Risk Assessor (TRAQ), and a Registered Professional Forester in training. She completed her Masters in Forest Conservation at the University of Toronto where her research focused on developing evidence-based recommendations for the strategic management of ash trees in urban parks. She is currently the manager of BioForest’s Urban Forest Health team in Toronto where her focus is forest health and invasive species detection and monitoring. Before joining BioForest, Allison worked as a tree planter for a Toronto-based non-profit organization. Allison currently serves as the Chair of the Editorial Review Committee for City Trees, a publication produced by the Society of Municipal Arborists’, and volunteers with Project Learning Tree as a youth mentor.

Sadia Butt, Director

 Ambika Tenneti, Director

Sadia Butt is a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her research focuses on the role of resident groups in urban forest governance. She has worked in urban forestry for the last 25 years as a practitioner, in forest ecology; as a researcher, investigating community engagement; and as a volunteer raising urban forest awareness through environmental education. She is also a co-editor of the book “Urban Forests, Trees and Greenspaces: A Political Ecology Approach”.

Ambika is a PhD candidate at the Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto. Her research is focused on recent immigrant engagement in Toronto’s urban forest. An environmentalist by training, she has worked extensively with diverse communities in urban and rural India in the fields of environmental health and education. Since moving to Toronto, she has volunteered with several public and non-profit organisations such as the city of Toronto, LEAF, and 10,000 Trees, to understand urban forest stewardship practices. Her work with Toronto Green Community’s Rivers Rising and Lost Rivers programs has helped her gain fresh perspectives on urban ecology, community engagement and Indigenous land relations.

Rike Burkhardt, Director

Jade Schofield, Director

Rike Burkhardt is a Registered Professional Forester with a Master’s degree in Forest Conservation from the University of Toronto. She has 20 years’ work experience across the province, from the GTA to the Far North of Ontario. Rike worked with the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division for about five years. In that time, she was involved in Ravine By-law enforcement, co-authored the City’s first tree canopy study, drafted a strategic forest management plan and helped coordinate the development of the Toronto Ravine Strategy. Since then, she has been part of a consulting team completing several other urban forestry studies and strategic plans in the GTA and surrounding area. Rike’s passion includes working across disciplines to find pragmatic solutions to complex public policy challenges (and planting trees).

Kyle Berwick,  Director

Kyle Berwick, NPD is an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist, ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualified, Butternut Health Assessor and graduated magna cum laude from the Niagara Parks Commission School of Horticulture. He spent nine years in the horticulture industry before transitioning into arboriculture and urban forestry in 2013 where he got his start as an Urban Forestry Consultant. He worked in the public sector for eight years before starting Urban Arboretum Tree Consulting. In his spare time Kyle enjoys hiking, canoeing, kayaking and backcountry camping.

Jade is the Project Manager of Sustainability & Climate Change for the Town of Whitby. Jade brings eight years of experience working in the municipal realm (e.g., Richmond Hill, Ajax and Whitby), and her expertise ranges from developing policies and programs relating to mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change, enhancing and improving terrestrial ecosystems, and developing resources for increased public understanding of environmental systems.  She is a member of the TRCA Watershed Alliance as well as the current Chair of the Durham Natural Environment Climate Change Collaborate. Jade holds a Masters of Environmental Applied Science & Management from Ryerson University and Bachelor of Science from both Plymouth University, UK and Trent University, ON. She also volunteers with Forests Ontario in several capacities, including their conference board and the annual Envirothon.