The Board Members
Elsabe Kloppers (Chair) Government of Canada Representative
Robin Chambers (Vice Chair) KFN Representative
Grace Southwick (Board Member) KFN Representative
Mickey Beattie (Board Member) CAFN Representative
Tom Buzzell (Board Member) CAFN Representative
Ellen Bielawski (Board Member) Government of Canada Representative
Linaya Workman (Ex-officio non-voting Board Member) Site Manager: Kluane National Parks & Rec, Parks Canada
Christa Egli (Office Manager)
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Get to know Kluane National Park & Reserve Management Board. We asked a few of our Board Members "What do you like about Kluane National Park & Reserve"
Mickey Beattie CAFN Representative
Mickey was born and raised in Yukon. He is Champagne and Aishihik First Nations citizen. He was on the Alsek Renewable Resources Council for 5 years. He has been a trapper and guided since a young age. He is excited to be on the Kluane National Park Management Board for the park management planning process. His grandparents were Alex and Sue Van Bibber.
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Mickey is a Champagne and Aishihik First Nations citizen. He was born and raised in the Yukon and has spent most of his life living and working on the land. He has been a trapper and a guide since a very young age.
His grandmother was born at Wolverine Creek on the Donjek River in 1912. He was able to go there and to bring his daughter to the cabin where his grandmother was born.
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Robin Chambers Vice Chair KFN Representative
Robin is a Kluane First Nation citizen, born and raised in Yukon. Robin grew up in Haines Junction and the Kluane area and is of Southern Tutchone and Tlingit ancestry. She lives in Whitehorse, working for Government of Yukon, the Kluane Community Development Corporation and participates on various Kluane First Nation committees. Robin joined the Kluane Park Management Board as a representative for Kluane First Nation in 2017 and is grateful for the opportunities and the Board members I share this opportunity with.
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Kluane National Park and Reserve holds a special place in my heart and plays a significant role in my life. I take great pride in being able to say that I have grown up in Kluane, and I continue to appreciate Kluane for all it offers, represents and has given me. I am proud to represent and benefit from the beauty that is Kluane National Park.
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Elsabe Kloppers Chair Government of Canada Representative
Elsabé has been a resident of Haines Junction for 15 years, and loves to explore Kluane by air, trail or water, with a camera in hand. She works for Yukon University and YESAB, and also serves as a naturalist and musician on folk festival trains with Roots on the Rails. She is a wildife biologist by training, and worked in the field for many years studying a variety of species in the Yukon and Alberta. Past work includes graduate studies with Parks Canada, and many years with Yukon Environment, the University of Alberta, and the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board. Elsabé was appointed to the KNPMB as a representative for Canada in 2017, and has served as its Vice-Chair since then. She is grateful for this opportunity to contribute to KNPMB initiatives and develop a deeper understanding of Kluane, while building relationships with First Nations and the community.
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I love Kluane's vast landscape, its species and landforms; I love its icefields, with peaks as high as they are remote, and its wild rivers, worthy of their Heritage River designation; and I love the culture of Kluane, the living landscape of its First Nations, their trails, history, stories, and their shared knowledge of this area.
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Ellen Bielawski Government of Canada Representative
Ellen is a northerner by birth (Alaska) and choice (Yukon.)
“I love and respect Kluane country for its vibrant First Nations cultures and communities and their daily work to implement self-government within Canada. Serving on the KNPMB is a joy because I get to participate in caring for gorgeous land and waters that I love, in partnership with First Nation colleagues and friends whom I value, enjoy and respect.”
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Ellen has authored books set in the Northwest Territories and in Alaska. She’s at work on a book set in Kluane and Ireland. She holds a doctorate in arctic archaeology and has worked on land and water with First Nations and Inuit in Alaska, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Greenland. She has led research on Indigenous Language Revitalization. Ellen is one of five daughters, and mother to two sons who are not harming the world. She works so that Kluane National Park and places like it will exist for the generation of her grandchildren, and theirs.
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Grace Southwick KFN Representative
A citizen of Kluane First Nation, and daughter of Park and Babe Southwick. Grace is a member of the Dickson Family and of Tlingit ancestry. Grace lived in Burwash near Dalan Campground until her mother passed away in 1964 then the family moved to Whitehorse.
Grace was a Justice of the Peace, Territorial Court of Yukon from 2001 to 2014, and was a Destruction Bay ambulance supervisor, volunteer, and driver from 2001 to 2009, and past Vice President of the Kluane Lake Athletic Association. Currently a member of the Kluane First Nations Lands Committee, and the Constitution Committee; and now once again a member of the Kluane National Park Management Board.
Now residing in Burwash, Grace’s hobbies include: hunting, fishing, gardening and most importantly is family time that includes her 3 beautiful grandchildren.