Jarret Lontayo, RPF

Jarret was born and raised in Campbell River. He was once enrolled at NIC, prior to being accepted into the Forest Technician Diploma program at Vancouver Island University. After gaining experience working for licensees and consulting firms on the coast, Jarret decided to enroll at the University of British Columbia in pursuit of becoming a professional forester. While attending UBC, he was a teacher’s assistant for multiple forest operation courses. Now a recent registered professional forester in 2022, he uses his knowledge and skills gained from field and educational experiences to practice forest engineering and environmental based management for a consulting firm based out of Campbell River.

John Somogyi–Csizmazia

John is a professional archaeologist and instructor at NIC. He received his BA and Cultural Resource Management Diploma from the University of Victoria. He also completed his MA at Royal Roads University. John is trained as a forensic field investigator through the Physicians for Human Rights program in Florida and Texas. As a cultural heritage specialist, John has been involved in cultural resource management for 30 years working all over the world. He has also worked with many First Nation communities in BC conducting heritage assessments and traditional use studies. John sits on the Heritage BC board of directors and is a member of the Canadian Archaeological Association and the Archaeological Society of BC. He is also involved with the Salish Sea Initiative.

Kathryn (Kathi) Davis, RPF, RFT, BCSAS

Kathryn (Kathi) Davis is a Registered Professional Forester, a Registered Professional Technologist, and a BC Silviculture Accredited Surveyor. Additionally, she is the provincial silviculture surveyor accreditation examiner for the south coast region. Kathi’s teaching experience comes from providing forestry/silviculture training through her consulting company as well as working for a post-secondary institution prior to coming to NIC. She believes that learning should be fun and engages students by providing a positive learning environment with a ‘hands on’ approach within class activities and field labs. She enjoys passing along her many years of silviculture experience to the future forest professionals.

Ben Boghean, RFT

Ben grew up on a farm in Alberta with dreams of being an accountant during the week and a rodeo clown on weekends. But as a child, he would spend time visiting his grandparents on Vancouver Island and developed a love for the forests. Ben pursued a career in wildfire management starting with helicopter attack crew in Alberta and soon after enrolled at Vancouver Island University in the Forest Technician Diploma program. Ben worked at the Hinton Training Centre and became a registered professional forest technician. He moved to Campbell River to work at the Quinsam firebase. Ben has worked with Wildfire BC, Emergency Management BC, as well as with GIS corporations on earthquake and disaster relief work.

Andrew Smith, GIS PROFESSIONAL

Andrew has worked in the natural resource industry for over 15 years. He began his career as a forestry technician before heading back to school to pursue an advanced GIS diploma. He has since worked in forestry, mining, habitat modeling, LiDAR data collection, development, analysis, GIS coordination and systems development. More recently, Andrew has been working with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) and other remote technology for GIS use. Working in GIS within the natural resource industry has given Andrew the opportunity to manage large projects and teams, as well as work one-on-one with clients on individual projects around BC and the world.

Cynthia Lu, MA, RPF, P.Ag.

Cynthia is an independent forestry consultant based in Campbell River. Over the past decade, Cynthia has worked in forest harvest planning across Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, and Central Coast. In addition to being an instructor at NIC, she is engaged in a wide range of work as a forestry consultant and a part-time member of the Forest Appeals Commission. Cynthia holds a BSc. Natural Resources Conservation from UBC, and an MA Conflict Analysis and Management from Royal Roads University. In 2021, Cynthia was awarded the ABCFP’s Forest Innovation Award for her role in developing interpersonal competency training for forest professionals.

Coleen Maclean Marlow, RPF, MEM

Program coordinator Coleen MacLean-Marlow is a registered professional forester with a master’s degree in Environment& Management. She worked with School District 72, industry partners and Indigenous advisors to develop and deliver NIC’s Coastal Forestry programs, including the Worker certificate and Technical Diploma. Coleen has worked in forestry since1989, in both industry and private practice. In addition to her educational and consulting roles, she and her husband manage a family run woodlot license on Quadra Island. As a director for both the North Island Woodlot and Federation of BC Woodlot associations, she has participated in several advisory committees both locally and provincially.

Taisa Brown, RPF

Taisa Brown has worked in forestry across Canada for major licensees, government and small contractors. For the past decade, she has worked as a silviculture forester in the Campbell River and Mainland Coast areas. She has a strong background in site plans, basic and incremental silviculture activities, project management, performance assessments and environmental certification. Outside of work, Taisa enjoys backpacking, sea kayaking, skiing and snowshoeing. She is also a cub scout leader, a director with the Campbell River Forestry Education Association and works as a master corporal with the Gold River Canadian Ranger patrol.

Ritchey Ivans, RFT, BCSAS

Ritchey Ivans is a registered forest technologist and a provincial accredited surveyor. For the past three decades, he has worked for consulting firms on Vancouver Island and the mainland. His experience is a combination of all forestry disciplines with an emphasis on silviculture surveying. Currently, he is the field supervisor and surveyor with Silver Fir Forest Resource Consultants Ltd. In addition to his supervisor role, he provides training in silviculture surveys, forest health and basic forestry field skills, which includes introduction to forest engineering and timber cruising. Ritchey has also taught forest measurements and silvicultural survey digital data collection at Vancouver Island University.