Meet The Team
Great things don’t just happen on their own. It takes a team of dedicated volunteers to help make Sustainable Cobourg awesome. These passionate individuals give up their time every day to help the community and us. The next time you see one of these people, make sure you stop and tell them just how much you appreciate what they’re doing and ask what you can do to help.
Sustainable Cobourg Team
Click image to view bios.
Gigi Ludorf-Weaver
PRESIDENT
Lorna Miller
SECRETARY
Tovan Lew
YOUTH AMBASSADOR
Warren McCarthy
ECO ACTION DIRECTOR
David Kuhnke
ELECTRIC VEHICLE DIRECTOR
Judy Smith
CLIMATE EMERGENCY DIRECTOR
Bill Glover
BICYCLE ACTION DIRECTOR
Gudrun “Gigi” Ludorf-Weaver
PRESIDENT
Gudrun (Gigi) Ludorf-Weaver has a passion for doing things better and smarter and that means doing anything with the lens of Sustainability. She has helped the organization to grow in the last 15 years with experienced, professional and dedicated volunteers leading the charge on many fronts.
An educator by profession, culminating as a Toronto Board administrator, and also wearing many hats from editor of Toronto Teachers’ Federation newspaper “Role Call’, to swimming instructor at Hillcrest School, to Primary Specialist Kindergarten teacher, to French Second Language as well as English Second Language teacher, and teacher for every grade enjoying each and every experience.
Mother of 3 delightful ‘bundles of joy’ and grandmother (Oma) to 6 more!
She has been a resident of Cobourg since 2005 and looks forward to many more years helping this beautiful Town commit to the 3 elements in the architecture of Sustainability; environmental stewardship, social responsibility and economic resilience not just for us now but for the future generations to come.
Lorna Miller
Secretary
Lorna is an accomplished Administrator with years of experience within progressive and environmentally conscious organizations. A keen social and community awareness was acquired through various work experiences within strong long standing Canadian corporate companies, who consistently demonstrated their environmental and social commitments. Lorna benefited from working on a national scale, and in that capacity, grew to understand and appreciate the diverse and fragile space we hold, and the importance of sustainability. She embraces a continuous learning culture and believes learning and contributing go hand in hand. She is an enduring volunteer, for which examples are the Canadian Diabetes Association and the Northumberland Orchestra and Choir. She moved to Cobourg in the late 1990’s, from Toronto. When not active in community events, or travelling, she loves to spend time on puzzles, listening to music or simply being in the garden.
Tovan Lew
yoUTH aMBASSADOR
Tovan is a third-year student at Trent University studying Biomedical Science out of Cobourg. Having gained experience participating in the Environment club, Interact club and for the Fair Share Food Bank throughout high school, he is committed to creating spaces for youth to participate in bettering our community and planet. As a novice beekeeper, he learned the important role pollinators play in contributing to our environment’s well-being and grew to understand the significance of protecting this delicate balance through sustainability.
In addition to his role with Sustainable Cobourg, he is an ongoing volunteer with the Hospital Elder Life Program at the Northumberland Hills Hospital, an executive member of the Undergraduate Biology Society at Trent, and an alumnus of the Summer Scholars Program at McMaster University where he contributed to research on T-Cell Immunotherapy.
He is driven toward engaging everyone in the community through accessibility and inclusion. Through a monthly ‘Sustainable Youth of the Month’ spotlight, Tovan showcases local everyday actions we can all take to work towards sustainability, which can be found on SC socials. Tovan is the director of social media and warmly invites new ideas and perspectives to share!
Warren McCarthy
ECO Action Director
Warren has lived in the region since 1995 and in Cobourg since 2011. For 15 years prior to retiring, he owned and ran a business-skills training & consulting firm which helped major IT, banking and consulting firms to learn and stay focused on their client’s story. Prior to being an entrepreneur, Warren enjoyed successful management positions in service, sales, marketing and operations in large, medium and small IT firms. In addition to Sustainable Cobourg, his community service has included Big Brothers and Sisters, a Youth Justice Committee, the Business Advisory Centre Northumberland and four Cobourg Council Advisory Committees. In addition to volunteering, Warren enjoys family, reading, thinking, discussions, travel and golf.
Advice for business owners: Success is much more likely by doing good work on the right things than by doing excellent work on the wrong things.
David Kuhnke
Electric Vehicle Director
Originally from Vancouver, received BASc Mechanical Engineering from UBC, moved to Ontario 1970, followed by MBA from UofT. Always interested in environmental/sustainable issues, working in nuclear power, nuclear waste and hydroelectric generation at Ontario Hydro/OPG for many years. Joined SC December 2019, based on Town of Cobourg’s Declaration of Climate Emergency. Together with Judy Smith, Steve Lapp and Doug Vowles co-founded the EV Society Northumberland Chapter, currently EV Chapter Lead. Since 2020, we’ve been informing close to 300 EV enthusiasts via the EV Society-Northumberland chapter newsletter about webinars, meetings, events & other information supporting the adoption of electric vehicles. Interested in EVs for several years, enjoys driving his Mustang Mach e, saving money and the environment at the same time. To learn more about EVs and to be added to our EV Society-Northumberland mailing list, send a request to evdirector@sustainablecobourg.ca
Judy Smith
Climate EMERGENCY Director
Judy Smith was the first Environmental Officer for the County of Northumberland. She was tasked with developing and then helping to implement the climate action plans for the County of Northumberland and several of the municipalities within Northumberland County including the Town of Cobourg. Previously, Ms. Smith was an environmental consultant for over thirty years with Torrie Smith Associates specializing in energy, climate change and environmental assessment. She was a Member of the Joint Environmental Advisory Committee for Environment Canada and Statistics Canada that produced the first State of the Environment Report for Canada. Judy is a graduate of the University of Waterloo in Environmental Studies and graduate studies in Natural Resource Management.
Bill Glover
Bicycle Action Director
Bill Glover is a Cobourg native since 2016. BSc Forestry (Wood Science) from U of Toronto. Worked for several wood industry associations over 13 years before joining Canadian Standards Association to manage construction materials and engineering design standards committees. Leaving CSA, I operated a one-person home repair business in Toronto. Moved to escape Toronto and retire close to my daughter and her family, and because Northumberland is an interesting and attractive place to live. Returned to cycling after arriving in Cobourg, joined the Northumberland Hills Cycle Club from which I was introduced to the Bicycle Action Committee and then the Cobourg Transpotation Advisory Committee. I became Co-Chair of the BAC in summer of 2021. My interest in cycling and this committee work is to encourage the completion of a fully connected cycling network, to afford cyclists of all ages the option of safe commuting and healthy enjoyment of recreational cycling within our community. Had the dice fallen differently at university, I might have ended up working in watershed management.