Meet our dedicated team of climate leaders from across the globe.
We work with experienced and passionate young people to design and pilot our projects at all scales. With our Operations Team based in North America, we leverage design thinking processes to create projects with our team of YCL Associates located in 6 countries and vast network of advisors.
As Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Youth Climate Lab, Dominique works with a global team of youth and partners to design, pilot and scale initiatives that engage youth in developing new approaches to climate policy and entrepreneurship. While a student at BSIA as well as in her role as a Graduate Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Dominique's research explored innovation in global climate finance governance as well as innovative financial mechanisms for refugee responsibility sharing.
Dominique is also a World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Shaper and a Board Member for the Foundation for Environmental Stewardship. She also sits on the Leadership Council for the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)-Canada. This year, Dominique was named among the Top 25 under 25 Environmentalists in Canada and Top 100 Visionary Leaders as well as received the Young Alumni Award by the University of Waterloo, Canada.
Dominique is an avid traveller, having visited and worked in more than 36 countries.
Driven by the need to create a more just and inclusive transition towards a sustainable future, Ana has been working on climate change issues for over 13 years, focusing on sustainable local economic development and the empowerment of diverse actors such as young people, women and girls.
As Co-Founder and Managing Director at the Youth Climate Lab, Ana leads the operations of the organization, developing and implementing resources needed to accelerate our impact by empowering youth in climate entrepreneurship and policy.
Ana also leads an Innovation Fund through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Partnership for Municipal Innovation in Local Economic Development. This fund provides small-scale granting for innovative solutions that benefit communities, with a particular focus on women and youth, across six countries.
Prior to her current roles, Ana worked with the Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program, supporting over 340 local governments in their efforts to take action on climate change across Canada. She was also a long-time volunteer with Green Economy Canada and Sustainable Waterloo Region where she became passionate about community-led action, and the need to connect those efforts to national and international policy levels.
Seth brings a passion for environmental justice and education to his role as Director of Programs for the Youth Climate Lab. A Danforth Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis and a native of Colorado, USA, he currently facilitates streamlining university-wide research initiatives for the Washington University Climate Change Program and works to improve accessibility of online information and coordinate constituency activities for the research NGOs constituency under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Seth previously implemented riparian restoration projects at the Open Space Council of St. Louis as well as led on-campus advocacy efforts to address hazardous waste and gain regulatory approval for clean energy projects in Missouri. He has developed environmental education curricula for the several NGOs in addition to designing educational programs to encourage alternative transportation usage for university faculty and staff. He received the President's Environmental Youth Award from the US EPA and Council on Environmental Quality in 2015 for his leadership in youth-focused ecological restoration.
As one of Forbes Top 30 under 30 Leaders, Innovators, and Visionary Entrepreneurs (Europe) and one of Canada's Top 30 under 30, Larissa is passionate about environmental justice and works hard to build resilience and adaptive capacity in communities who need it the most. She has four years of experience working in international development, Indigenous affairs, and the energy sector.
Larissa is currently in law school at McGill University, seeking to work in the fields of environmental and Indigenous law. She also holds an MSc in Environmental Governance from the University of Oxford, where she focussed her studies on climate change adaptation and resilience studies.
Larissa is also heavily involved in the UN climate negotiations and has attended several COPs, most recently as a party delegate for the Seychelles, supporting the team on loss and damage and gender.
She has held previous posts at the Overseas Development Institute, Canadian Federal Parliament, Ontario Energy Board, and Toronto City Hall.
Our YCL Associates work to advise, design and pilot projects that accelerate youth-led climate solutions. They are selected on the basis of their experience, commitment and deep engagement to climate action.
Nick is a highly motivated Environmental Scientist and climate activist whose career ambition is to enhance the science-policy-practice interface as a scientist, negotiator and educator. He is currently studying his Masters in Geology (Climate and Environment) at Aarhus University, Denmark.
Combined with his extensive knowledge of earth’s system processes, Nick has a great deal of industry and research experience on youth engagement, innovative climate finance, carbon budgets, environmental governance, renewable energy and sustainable water solutions. Nick is currently working with several local (Den Grønne Studenterbevægelse), national (PUSH Sweden) and international organisations (Australian Youth Climate Coalition and the UNFCCC) alongside Youth Climate Lab (YCL) in his attempts to better engage young people at all levels in climate action.
Nick has been active in the UNFCCC climate negotiations since 2016 (COP22), having represented Uppsala University (Sweden) and PUSH Sweden before joining the YCL as part of the Seychelles Support Team (SST). During this time he has spoken on multiple panels and represented the youth during press conferences and seminars. His main areas of focus include increased youth engagement, carbon budgets and climate finance, especially around the idea of increased access to consistent funds for youth climate projects.
As a practicing climate scientist, Nick believes it his obligation to demonstrate how easy it is to live a low-carbon lifestyle without sacrificing a high quality of life (eg: avoid air travel, take public transport and cycle and eat a plant-based diet).
Lucas has tackled climate change from a range of different angles. He's worked as a researcher on the international climate negotiations, helped Oxfam develop their position on climate justice, developed many of the forestry aspects of New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme, founded a company that helps people build more sustainable homes which won people's choice and judges choice awards from Climate Colab, and currently leads the development of a big corporate's climate change strategy. Last year, he launched the Auckland Climathon, an event where >150 participants worked on launching climate related businesses during a 24 hour period.
He holds an MBA from INSEAD and has a general interest in business and finance. He has experience developing impact models and measuring the wider benefit of a project.
Puninda’s unwavering desire to create meaningful positive impact has guided her professional and volunteer work. Puninda is Sustainability Manager at Bentall Kennedy, one of the 30 largest global real estate investment advisors and one of North America's foremost providers of real estate services. She leads the implementation of a number of portfolio-wide sustainability initiatives focused on climate risk mitigation and corporate sustainability reporting. Puninda draws from her past experience as a sustainability professional in the non-profit (Sustainability CoLab, Sustainable Waterloo Region), public (Environment Canada), and private sectors (Microsoft Canada). Puninda holds a Bachelors of Environment and Business from the University of Waterloo. She was recognized as one of Canada’s top 30 under 30 sustainability leaders and top 25 under 25 environmentalists.
Stephen is a writer and researcher dedicated to helping humanity tread more lightly on the earth. He's currently a Research Analyst for the U.N. Development Programme in Rwanda, trying to figure out how to create green jobs and reduce poverty through youth entrepreneurship. In his work, he focuses on using data and evidence to inform effective solutions to problems.
Before moving to Rwanda, Stephen worked with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and local Indigenous communities in Panama to improve forest conservation programs. In 2015, he was a Studio Y Fellow at Toronto's MaRS Discovery District where he collaborated industry, government, and NGO partners to develop innovative sustainable development policies.
Stephen has an M.Sc. from McGill University. He’s a passionate advocate for deep decarbonization and more ‘70s funk music being played at bars.
Neeshad is an environmentalist, educator and social change advocate. He is a Design Engineer in water and waste water industry, who holds a Master&#39;s Degree in Environmental Engineering and resides in Doha, Qatar. He has over 5 years of experience in analyzing global environmental &amp; climate politics with a special focus on the Middle East. Also, he is an active member of several global environmental youth groups and contributed actively in international summits related to climate policy, sustainable development goals and youth’s role in development.
Neeshad has been active in UNFCCC climate negotiation process since 2012 and advocates the importance of youth as partners for climate action at a variety of international forums and conferences. He is a Member of Policy Working Groups at World We Want 2030, Civil Society Consultation for the UN Development System Review Process &amp; UNEP West Asia Stakeholders Consultation.
Neeshad is a World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Shaper and currently volunteering as Executive Director at Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar, Middle East Officer at CliMates, named by the European Commission as Peace Ambassador to One Young World Summit 2017, Global Youth Climate Network Ambassador, Institute for Economics and Peace Ambassador 2018, Founding Member at Climate Action Network (CAN) Arab World, Liaison Officer at Citizens Climate Lobby for GCC countries, MIT Climate Co-Lab Fellow 2017, Green Faith Fellow 2019, Communication Coordinator at Womenpreneur and also on board of CoalitionWILD.
Muhammad has a strong passion for having a positive impact on the world environmentally and socially. He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo where he majored in Environment and Business, focusing on sustainability and corporate social responsibility.
He has a diverse set of experiences across sustainability consulting, non-profit program development, marketing, and technology. Muhammad is particularly interested in social impact, carbon finance, socially responsible investing, and climate change policy.
Masroora is a recent graduate student at the University of Waterloo’s Balsillie School of International Affairs and former Graduate Fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation. Her research focused on long-term approaches to capacity-building to climate change in developing countries, including how climate finance can more effectively reach the most vulnerable communities. Her research in Bangladesh has taken her to affected regions of the country where she saw first-hand the impacts and challenges of climate change and the responses from communities, NGOs and the government. She has engaged with the Adaptation Committee of the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change providing expert inputs on their programs and supports the Least Developed Countries in the climate negotiations.
A trained communications specialist, Masroora has held various managerial and coordinator roles in the international development, association and humanitarian sectors.
She holds a Bachelors degree in communications studies, a graduate diploma in corporate communications and a Masters degree in Development Management and Practice.