Luba Mycio-Mommers, Ph.D.

Luba grew up in Brantford, Ontario.  After completing an undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, she eventually joined the Canadian Wildlife Federation and began a journey of developing national wildlife education programs after an amazing assignment in the Galapagos Islands.   

Working with partners, she helped carve professional development experiences such as WILD Education, including Project WILD with the Council of Environmental Education. This effort engaged over 110,000 educators across Canada over 27 years. 

Luba created Habitat 2000 in the 1980s in response to her concern of the absence of programs where students could spend time learning in the outdoors. Now known as WILD Schools, it was the first of its kind at the national level and involved hundreds of thousands of young people learning about wildlife in the outdoors by doing habitat projects.  It was the basis for a book she co-authored, Backyard Habitat for Canada’s Wildlife, which led to CWF’s programs of engaging adults in improving conditions for wildlife. 

Luba has served on many committees and organizations, including 25 years with COSEWIC and CEE.  She returned to university where she eventually earned a Ph.D. in Educational Administration at the University of Ottawa. 

Luba has edited or authored over 50 publications, including the Learning About Wildlife, Learning About Oceans and Learning About Canada’s Watersheds series. Her work has been widely adapted by many programs, such as Hinterland’s Who’s Who.  She was also instrumental in the development of Canada’s Oceans Day and Rivers to Oceans Week.  More recently, she became a Founding Fellow of the CWF Learning Institute and is becoming involved in IUCN-related activities.      

Luba believes in starting where students are at and creating opportunities for them to realize they can make a positive impact on the natural world.  Her work is directed to empowering educators with capacity for this to happen.  She also believes in the power of what young people can teach adults about their concerns of the future of the natural world and enabling that to happen.

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