Go back to Our TeamZita Botelho [email protected]Director, Watersheds BC and Co-Director, Healthy Watersheds InitiativeZita spent her early years in living in northern Ontario near the shores of the world’s largest freshwater lake – Lake Superior. Spending these formative years exploring the wilderness of the region on skis, canoe and foot instilled a love, curiosity and respect for the natural world. She has woven together both environmental issues and public policy throughout her education and career working on a variety of environmental issues for the non-profit, private, and public sectors, both domestically and internationally. She spent 15 years working in different roles for the federal and B.C. governments. Her significant accomplishments include her leadership role with the Strategic Water Initiatives team at the B.C. Ministry of Environment where she led the development of Living Water Smart – BC’s Water Plan and the policy development which shaped the BC Water Sustainability Act. Both landmarks in policy and legislation have shaped the landscape of watershed management in B.C. for the past 14 years. After several years living in Europe and Africa, Zita returned to BC to work in the non-profit and consulting sector. Zita believes that supporting collaboration is critical to address our watershed security and governance challenges. In her role at WBC, she leads the team in delivering programs such the Healthy Watersheds Initiative, a partnership with the Real Estate Foundation of BC to deliver the $27 million provincial investment and more recently the $15 million dollar Indigenous Watersheds Initiative with MakeWay Foundation. Zita has BA (Hons) from Queens University in Political Studies and Geography and an MA in Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria.
