Clean Air Champions (CAC) was founded in 2001 by David Chernushenko, Deirdre Laframboise and Anna van der Kamp. Each founder has extensive education and long careers in sport and environment fields.

Today, CAC is managed by an Executive Director and staff who work under the guidance of a volunteer Board of Directors and Advisory Board.

Deirdre Laframboise BES, MES
Co-founder and Executive Director

Deirdre has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies/Biology, a Masters degree in Environmental Management/Business, and 24 years of environmental consulting experience in program development and delivery related to air quality, climate change, waste management, sport and health.

Deirdre was a member of the Canadian National Equestrian Team (Three Day Event) for four years and served as its athlete representative for a decade. She is past Executive Director of Athletes CAN (Canada's association for national team athletes) and served a nine year term as a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee's Athletes Council, including four years as its Vice-Chair. Deirdre is a two time certified trainee of The Climate Project (Al Gore), proficient in French, and is active in several sports including adventure racing, freestyle cross country ski, cycling and cross country running.

Tricia Zakaria
Director of Programs

Tricia has a degree in Education (University of Ottawa) and an undergraduate degree in Sociology (Carleton University). Tricia has extensive program management experience delivering physical and health education programs to youth. She implemented recreation, leadership and school programs for the Department of Recreation and Athletics at Carleton University. At Clean Air Champions, Tricia was the Program Manager of the HSBC Clean Air Achievers program for two years before moving into the role of Director of Programs.

Tricia Rande, BSc, LEED AP
Program Manager, High School Climate Challenge

Tricia is passionate about sustainable design in the built environment, nutrition for wellbeing and all things that better our health and ecosystems. She is a LEED-accredited professional and certified teacher with degrees in Microbiology and Education (University of Victoria). She grew up in the wilds of Golden, BC and her environmental passion grew in the UVic Biochemistry department studying cancers and environmental toxins.  She enjoys skiing, mountain biking, hiking, vegetarian cooking, gardening, and studying philosophy and psychology to discover the beliefs, cultural practices, motivations and the unique human qualities that nourish resilient, happy communities.  With her husband and son in Ottawa, her family enjoys sharing their passion for being active, mindful, and healthy.

Kim Cunningham
National Program Manager, Air Aware

With over 20 years of experience in the corporate communications world, Kim brings a unique skill set to the role. She has developed and directed sales, marketing and customer service teams, led national, regional and local communications initiatives and public relations campaigns that increase awareness, improve morale and ultimately have a positive impact. Kim is a highly experienced media relations practitioner and accomplished event and video producer who has travelled internationally with corporate clients, managed trade shows, road shows and special events for audiences ranging from 20 to 2,000. Kim spent one exhilarating year as the Director of Sales and Marketing at a four season resort in Eastern Ontario. Kim is nurturing her interests in health and wellness, studying Holistic Health and Nutrition at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition with a focus on adolescent health. Living on a horse farm with her family just west of Ottawa, she shares her love of horses and passion for riding through teaching children and beginners to ride.

Joséphine Hénault
National Program Manager, HSBC Clean Air Achievers

Joséphine holds a Masters degree in Environmental Sciences from Université du Québec in Montréal and an undergraduate degree in International Studies from York University. She has been working in the environmental NGO world for over 14 years, both nationally, in New-Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and BC and internationally, in Mexico and Paraguay. Joséphine has worn many hats, including the ones of project manager, event organizer, office administrator and public outreach officer. 

Aligned with her passion to protect the environment we live in is her passion for the outdoors and physical activities. She is a certified rock climbing and cross country ski instructor and enjoys back country skiing, rock and ice climbing, cycling, hiking and travelling! She also is fluent in four languages: English, French, German and Spanish. Joséphine grew up in the beautiful region of Charlevoix Qc and currently lives in Gatineau with her partner and daughter.

Ingrid Liepa
Manager, Air Aware Coach Module

Ingrid is a two-time Olympian in speedskating and former lawyer who has been addressing air quality, climate change and environmental sustainability for the last 15 years. She started working for a large energy corporation as an environmental policy specialist during the second half of her speed skating career. In 2002 she began consulting independently on air quality and climate change issues. Since then her focus has been on facilitating the evolution of sustainability and environmental values at a community level, in classrooms, and with youth adventure programs.  Ingrid has been delivering Clean Air Champions' programs in the Kootenay region since 2007 and is now managing our Coach Module.

Angela Melhuish
National Program Coordinator, Air Aware

Angela brings many fields of knowledge to Clean Air Champions. Studying at the University of Ottawa in the Biotechnology program, she holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a BASc in Chemical Engineering. Not wanting to contribute to the ecological devastation wrought by the oil and gas field, Angela uses her knowledge to focus on environmental activism and education. Connecting our health with the air we breath, the water we drink and the food we eat, is key to educating others that our actions have a direct impact on our daily lives. Clean air is one of the most basic elements for survival.

Having competed provincially in high jump, Angela's passion for sport has only grown since joining the CAC team. She maintains an active lifestyle full of cycling, skating, running and walking, as not owning a car forces her to use active modes of transportation!

Melanie Dawson
Event Administrator, Air Aware

Melanie is a career television producer, marketing and sponsorship specialist, and event manager. Having produced hundreds of hours of sports programming, Melanie has worked with Olympic, Paralympic and National team athletes for most of her professional life.  Joining the Clean Air Champions team was a natural fit for Melanie as she has always been involved in her community and recently completed an in-depth course on social economy and sustainable community.  As an allergy and asthma sufferer herself, Melanie believes that fresh, clean air is precious and essential, moving home and office to a farm in South Eastern Ontario in 2008 and leaving the city air behind. Trading in city life for fresh eggs, farm chores and horseback riding has been an exciting and easy transition.

Deborah O`Malley, M.Sc
Communications Strategist, High School Climate Challenge

Deborah is a health communications professional who is passionate about promoting healthy living. She has an undergraduate degree in Communications Studies from the University of Calgary, a Master’s degree in Health Promotion from Queen’s University, and a certificate in Graphic Design from Algonquin College.

She also has over 10 years of related professional experience. As a Writer/Researcher, she’s produced detailed reports that assess the current state of the health and fitness industries. At Engineers Canada, she helped fulfill the organization’s mandate of “protecting the health, safety and well-being of all Canadians” by developing health-related communications materials. While working for world-champion squash player, Jonathon Power, she created marketing materials to promote health and fitness to underprivileged youth. Deborah is a competitive squash player and, as a native of Calgary, enjoys snowboarding, biking and hiking in the fresh mountain air.