MARINA MELANIDIS
Y4N Role: Founder & Global Ambassador
Location: Canada
Pronouns: She/her
Languages: English
Fun fact: Marina loves horror movies, and would write her own scary stories as a child!
Marina (she/her) is a Greek-British-Canadian settler on the unceded, unsurrendered territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (currently known as Vancouver, BC). She is the Founder and Development Director of Youth4Nature.
Marina is fiercely passionate about bridging false silos across nature and climate, while supporting young people to access meaningful, paid opportunities to create nature-climate solutions grounded in community and justice. Previously, Marina has worked on conservation and climate change at home with the BC Provincial and Canadian Federal government, abroad as a research exchange fellow in India, and with the United Nations as an intern with the UN Environment Programme. She has led global youth delegations to several high-level conferences, including the UNSG 2019 Climate Action Summit, and the UNFCCC COP 25 and COP 26. She currently serves on the Board of Global Witness.
Marina holds an MSc (honours) from the University of British Columbia, where her work concerns narratives and perceptions of “nature-based solutions”, and how we can better foster holistic conservation models that work for climate, nature, and people. She also holds B.Sc. (honours) in Natural Resources Conservation from the University of British Columbia. Marina is a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholar, a Global Shaper in the Vancouver Hub, a 2022 YWCA Women of Distinction Nominee, and has been named as one of Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leaders and Top 25 under 25 Environmentalists. She loves 70’s rock, good vegan food, and the BC coast, and is (attempting) to learn modern Greek.
Find Marina on Twitter: @marinamelanidis
Previous roles at Y4N include: Finance Director, Co-Managing Director, and Development Director.