Matt Flaherty
Matt Flaherty is an ultramarathon runner, running coach, and climate policy researcher. His background is in environmental engineering and law, and he formerly practiced law in Chicago. He also pursued trail running professionally for five years. Matt is currently pursuing two Master's degrees in environmental science and public affairs at Indiana University, seeking to synthesize his professional background and his passion for the environment in impactful policy work. He strongly supports land and biodiversity conservation efforts and is very excited to be a Monarch Ultra Ambassador. Matt is looking forward to this amazing project and sharing its important message with local environmentalists, area runners and schools, and the wider ultrarunning community. |
Ellen Sharp
Back in 2011, Dr. Ellen Sharp was finishing up a PhD in cultural anthropology at UCLA when a trip to see the monarchs in Mexico changed her life. Since then, she’s sought to share this experience with others by organizing butterfly ecotourism and working for more effective conservation of the monarchs’ overwintering sites. In 2013, Sharp relocated from Los Angeles to Macheros, a tiny town at the entry of the Cerro Pelón Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in the State of Mexico. She and her husband, Macheros-native Joel Moreno, run JM Butterfly B&B together. They also started the non-profit Butterflies & Their People, which employs four locals in full-time forest protection. Their work has been featured on the BBC and the AP Wire. Ellen is looking forward to organizing the welcoming committee for the last leg of the very first Monarch Ultra Relay Run. |
Dawn Pond
Dawn Pond has always being interested in plants and completed an undergraduate degree in Plant and Soil Science but it wasn’t until moving to Canada to study pollination where she really found a passion for the relationship between plants and their pollinators. She lives in Peterborough, Ontario and is a proud member of the Peterborough Pollinators community group. She is also the Depave Paradise and Downtown Vibrancy Coordinator at GreenUP, a Peterborough-based environmental charity. She is helping to create new green spaces in Downtown Peterborough through this collaborative project. Dawn is also an art enthusiast and enjoys producing drawings and prints inspired by plants and pollinators. She created Monarch butterfly prints to help the Kickstarter campaign for the Monarch Ultra and is now a Monarch Ultra Ambassador. |
Sergio Avila
Sergio Avila grew up exploring in the Chihuahuan Desert and dreaming of becoming a biologist. Sergio is a wildlife biologist who has worked on regional and binational conservation efforts along the U.S.-Mexico borderlands in Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora, Chihuahua and Baja California, working with species like jaguars, ocelots, mountain lions, rattlesnakes, California sea lions and Monarch butterflies. Sergio enjoys trail running, gardening, bird and butterfly watching, and looking for wildlife tracks. He lives in Tucson with his wife Jenny, their cats 'Lupe,' 'Carlos,' and 'Pancho,' and 'Toby' the desert tortoise. |
Russell Stubbles
Dr. Russell Stubbles was a professor of park management and tourism in the Dept. of Horticulture, Forestry, Landscape and Parks, College of Ag-Bio Sciences at South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD. He began graduate faculty status in 1995 and served on numerous graduate committees, including as chair. He held an adjunct professorship with the Dept. of Geography. He was one of three original faculty involved in the team teaching of the new Integrated Natural Resources Management capstone senior course for the College. Russell is the founder of Monarch City USA, a non-profit organization that supports monarch education programs nationwide by getting municipalities to become supporters of the monarch butterfly by planting milkweed and nectar plants. |
Jo Hayward-Haines
Jo Hayward-Haines was born in the USA. Jo and her husband, Paul, moved to Canada in 1976 to raise their three children, Tim (Bluestreak Records), Avery (CTV – W5) and Emily (Metric). As an artist, activist and teacher, she established a school for Dalits in New Delhi, a bilingual arts centre in Smooth Rock Falls, Ontario and the Victoria Peace Project in Fenelon Falls. She currently lives in Ennismore and is one of the founders of Peterborough Pollinators. Active in the Council of Canadians, Transition Town Peterborough, the Sacred Water Circle, 4 R Grandchildren and the Raging Grannies, she is dedicated to engaging with others to solve problems of social and environmental injustice. |
Suzanne Slear
Suzanne Slear is the President of Environmental Concern (EC), a non-profit corporation located on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. During Suzanne’s 20 years working with EC, she also served as an officer on the U.S. National Ramsar Committee for 15 years, and attends the annual meeting of the Trilateral Committee for Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation and Management as the USNRC representative. Suzanne’s passion for plants and natural habitat has expanded from a few jades on her window sill in college to supervising the creation of schoolyard pollinator habitats, and acres of Monarch butterfly habitat on EC’s campus and throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region. Suzanne is thrilled to be a Monarch Ultra Ambassador, and to be part of a network of environmentalists and runners from three countries working together to promote the conservation of natural habitat and to increase the awareness of the amazing journey of the Monarch butterfly. |
Jessica Lister
Jessica Lister is the co-founder of the Mid-Atlantic Monarch Initiative (MAMI) and Vice President of Restoration at Environmental Concern Inc. in Maryland. As EC’s VP of Restoration, Jess facilitates the creation & restoration of tidal marsh and wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay region. Through MAMI, Jess educates the public about monarch butterflies and collaborates with organizations and landowners to restore monarch butterfly habitat. Jess considers the monarch butterfly her “spirit animal”, representing the hope, change, and endurance that she strives to have in life. In addition to the monarch butterfly, Jess’s other great passion is for trail running and obstacle course racing. As Jess puts it, the Monarch Ultra Project is a “dream come true”….it’s very rare in life when your two utmost passions…your two worlds “collide”. She couldn’t be more excited to embark on this journey and support this amazing project. For Jess, this will be her very first ultra run. She is ready and excited to put in the work, and go through the “transformation” to become an ultra runner. |
Carl Wright
Carl Wright grew up on a traditional family farm in Southern Ontario. Learning from his father, Carl learned about the importance of sustainable farming. This was reflected by his dad’s deep loving care and stewardship of the land. When Carl was 15, his father died of a heart attack. The only place he could find strength and comfort was immersing himself in nature. This has resulted in a lifelong love for our natural areas. Carl took up running at 55 after a dire ultimatum from his doctor to get his blood pressure and cholesterol down. At 60, Carl has run many distances including 10 ultras. Carl works for a company called Busch Systems. With a strong Corporate Social Responsibility, the company has a generous give-back program to several carefully chosen environmental charities. Just over a year ago Carl was promoted to Creative Environmental Writer. A position he loves. |
Eileen Kimmett
Eileen Kimmett started running in the summer of 2012. She is a Mental Health advocate and openly talks about her mental illnesses. Running has been part of not only her physical health, but also her mental health. It was the news of the Monarch Ultra Relay Run and the concerns the Kimmett's children have on Climate Change and their future that really led to an increase in living a greener lifestyle at home. It led to being part of the incredible Monarch Ultra Relay Run following the migration route of the monarch butterfly to their winter home in Mexico. It also led to the beginnings of a pollinator garden in their backyard, Garden Stewardship of the Medical Drive Pollinator Garden in Peterborough, Ontario - of which their children are actively a part of. Eileen and her husband Joel are running a 50K leg in Indiana, which was a Valentine’s Day gift! The couple hopes to promote and share what they have learned about pollinators and the monarch butterfly through this relay run to many people. |
