Emily McMillan is the Executive Director of Nature Canada, one of Canada’s oldest national nature conservation organizations and a leading voice for nature. She joined Nature Canada as Deputy Executive Director in 2020 and took on the role of Executive Director in 2023. Since then, she has focused on growing the organization’s reach and impact, connecting local action with national advocacy and making sure nature has a voice in the decisions that shape Canada’s future.

Emily has been working to protect nature since she was 16, when she began lobbying and campaigning on issues from protected areas to climate change. Before joining Nature Canada, she spent almost eight years as a senior political campaigner and more than four years leading the Sierra Club of Canada’s Atlantic chapter.

Her love of nature started even earlier, with childhood summers spent camping and catching frogs.

Today, she can often be found canoeing, camping and birding with her two children, and believes firsthand experiences in nature are one of the best ways to inspire the next generation to care for it.

Emily holds a PhD in Human Studies from Laurentian University. Her research explored how children’s experiences at home and at school shape their connection with nature and influence their relationship with it later in life.