UICN CEC Movilización de los jóvenes y las asociaciones intergeneracionales

IUCN Youth Advisory Committee Chair

IUCN CEC Co-Chair on Youth Engagement and Intergenerational Partnerships

IUCN CEC Regional Vice Chair for West Europe

Diana Garlytska is a young expert who over 9 years of her career in academia has taught in more than a dozen of countries across Europe and Asia as a visiting lecturer. Diana has written several workbooks for BA level students and created her author course on ‘Sustainable Business Development’.

Diana Garlytska is IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) member since 2018 and IUCN CEC West Europe Regional Vice Chair since 2022.

Diana Garlytska has a solid track in global environmental youth movement. She was a Steering Committee Co-Chair (2018-February 2022) and has been on the steering committee of CoalitionWILD (2019-February 2022). She is now on Advisory Board of CoalitionWILD. In 2021 Diana Garlytska was a member of the youth workgroup for IUCN Global Youth Summit and co-authored IUCN GYS Outcome Statement and had the honour to present it in IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France. In 2022 Diana was Youth Task Force member for Stockholm+50 and actively contributed to youth work in environmental policy development, participated at COY17 and COP27 including speaking engagements at these high level events.

In 2022 Diana attended SB58 and COP28 as well as the NATO Public Forum. Same year she co-organised RCOY East Europe under YOUNGO, UNFCCC that allowed youth in her part of the world to convene, network and cooperate. Later the same year Diana Garlytska also proceeded with her PhD research in environmental finance.

Thus, Diana’s greatest passions are youth engagement in nature conservation, storytelling and academic work. Diana takes great pride and inspiration in being part of the IUCN Youth Advisory Committee and her leadership role. Having started her journey as a Commission member Diana has experienced support of youth leadership in the Union. Hence, the establishment of YAC makes her confident that the implementation of the IUCN Youth Strategy will lead to even greater empowerment of young professionals.

Marie-Philippe Ouellet is a young professional working in the conservation sector as the Parks Canada. Born and raised in Berthierville (Québec, Canada), she has always lived with one foot in the country and one foot in the city, though it was only when she moved to Quebec City for her studies that she began to truly appreciate and prioritize finding balance between urban life and access to nature. She completed her bachelor’s at the Université Laval, and now holds a degree in public communications with a minor in sustainable tourism.

Marie-Philippe first began her career at Parks Canada as a student in 2017, working as a core member of the Franklin Expedition team to shed light on the tragic story of the expedition and to amplify local Inuit knowledge on the historical shipwrecks. Since then, an amazing array of opportunities within the agency has come her way, from engaging with Canadians on northern national park experiences, to building partnerships and collaborations in the international conservation field, and most recently, serving as a lead organizer and host of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Youth Summit in April 2021.

At the core of all of Marie-Philippe’s work is her passion for empowering young people to meaningfully participate in the conservation sector. She is a proud Student On Ice 2018 Alumni and an Ocean Bridge 2019 Alumni.

In 2021, Marie-Philippe received the Micah Messant Young Professional Award of Excellence from the Canadian Parks Council in recognition of her leadership in building the first ever IUCN Global Youth Summit..

As a dreamer who pushes boundaries, Marie-Philippe is constantly following her passions and putting new projects in motion. You are most likely to find her somewhere in the great outdoors, hiding beside her camera, taking in the sunset, or laughing with friends and family.

Regional Vice Chair for North and Co-Chair of Youth Engagement and Intergenerational Partnerships

Mrs. Kenza Khallafi, is currently the Partnerships Officer and responsible of the education for sustainable programs at the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental protection, a non-profit organization based in Morocco that takes action by raising public awareness and education on sustainable development, especially among the youth.

The past ten years, Kenza has been working closely with the Ministry of education of Morocco on developing ESD projects and programs, on accelerating local level actions to make progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and on Empowering and mobilizing youth from preschool to university. Kenza also work to reinforce cooperation with United nations agencies, international and national organizations and the Hassan II International Center for Environmental Training, the academic branch of the Foundation, launched in 2019, in the areas of environmental education, biodiversity, Action for Climate Empowerment and ocean literacy.

Kenza is member of the Climate Change Competence Center of Morocco (4C) a national platform for dialogue and capacity building for the various actors and a hub for climate change information open to its regional, African, and international environment. Before joining the Foundation, Kenza graduated in Finance from an American University Al Akhawayn based in Ifrane (Morocco) and Bocconi University in Milan (Italy).