CPAWS-NWT Board welcomes new Executive Director Lani Cooke
August 25, 2008
CPAWS-NWT ANNOUNCES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
It is with great pleasure that the Board of Directors of CPAWS-NWT welcomes Lani Cooke as our new Executive Director. Lani will be working part-time in the position this fall and will be joining the team full-time in November.
Having lived in the Northwest Territories for over 30 years, Lani is excited about her newest challenge – being the face of the NWT Chapter and working to conserve the land, water and wildlife in the NWT for current and future generations.
Lani’s love of our northern land and cultures has been nurtured by her many northern adventures. She came to Yellowknife in 1973 as a newspaper reporter, a job that took her to almost every community of the NWT and Nunavut. She wrote stories about each of the communities on her travels with Commissioner Hodgson. In 1975, she decided to live in the small community of Rankin Inlet to edit and publish a bilingual Inuktitut and English newspaper, “The Rankin Times.”
In 1976, Lani joined four other women and made a move to Gros Cap, a large island at the entrance of the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. For two years she fished, snared rabbits, drove dogs, and survived in the wilderness with lots of help from Yellowknife old-timers and Aboriginal people of Ndilo and Dettah. Her passion for the wilderness on Great Slave Lake inspired her to take up commercial fishing for three summers until 1980.
When her son was born in 1982 she moved out of her cabin on an island into a shack in Yellowknife’s Old Town. She and her partner formed a documentary film production company which continued to celebrate the power of the land and people of the North. The film they produced for the NWT pavilion at Expo ‘86 was widely lauded. After the birth of her daughter in 1987, they worked on a co-production with the National Film Board on a circumpolar film about balancing traditional and scientific knowledge titled, “The Northern Lights.”
Throughout the 90s Lani was the Executive Director of the Yellowknife Association for Community Living. She became interested in the area of non-profit board governance and was awarded a year-long fellowship from The Muttart Foundation to research and write her book, “Weaving through the Community: Becoming a Responsive Board.”
Her consulting business, Leading & Learning (established in 2004), has undertaken numerous contracts for community consultations and organizational development training with boards, hamlet councils, and First Nation bands in the NWT.
“I feel privileged to have this opportunity to work with CPAWS-NWT and focus my attention on NWT wilderness protection. It is an opportunity to give back to the land and people of the North. I am dedicated to this mission and look forward to working with NWT communities, my local volunteer board, the national CPAWS organization, and various partners across the NWT and beyond to take up this challenge,” says Lani.
Warmest welcome Lani, we are excited that you have joined us and look forward to working with you closely!
Lani can be contacted at lani@cpaws.org or 867.873.9893 ext. 24.
DEPARTURE OF JENNIFER MORIN
Jennifer Morin is expecting her second child in mid-September, and is leaving CPAWS-NWT to focus on her family.
The CPAWS-NWT Board would like to recognize Jen for the tremendous dedication and enthusiasm that she has demonstrated over the past year as Interim Executive Director, and prior to that as Senior Conservation Coordinator. Jen’s strong commitment to conservation and CPAWS-NWT’s mission has been evident in her work with the Chapter over the past six years. Her contributions have been a key factor in recent progress towards protecting NWT wilderness.
Although we are very sorry that Jen is leaving CPAWS-NWT, we know that our Chapter and the territory will benefit from her commitment and hard work for years to come. We wish Jen and her family all the best and hope to see her back in the CPAWS family in the future.
-CPAWS-NWT Board
