Bio:

DANIEL ROTMAN

Executive Director, Équiterre

Daniel is a dedicated and experienced leader in social and environmental change. With over 15 years of experience working with nonprofits, international agencies, and social enterprises, he has helped develop creative, inclusive, and people-centered solutions to address systemic and structural challenges.

Appointed Executive Director of Équiterre by the Board of Directors in December 2025, Daniel joined the organization in January 2025 as Deputy Executive Director as part of a structured transition. He now assumes the role of Executive Director with a commitment to strengthening Équiterre’s impact, agility, and relevance in a rapidly changing environmental and social landscape.

Before joining Équiterre, Daniel was Executive Director of the Sustainability for Resource Collectors Initiative (SRC Initiative), an international NGO that supports informal workers in their efforts to prevent plastic waste from entering the environment. He has worked internationally with the United Nations and Innovations for Poverty Action, and locally as Executive Director of the Community Food Centre, Le Dépôt (formerly the NDG Food Bank) for eight years, as well as a consultant for community organizations and social enterprises across Quebec and internationally.

JOANNE BAYS is a national leader in Canada’s farm-to-school and school food movement. As Co-Founder and Director Emeritus of Farm to Cafeteria Canada, she helped build and advance a pan-Canadian movement that connects students with healthy, local, and culturally meaningful food while strengthening communities, regional food systems, and food literacy.

For more than three decades, Joanne has worked at the intersection of public health, education, food security, and community development. Her leadership has helped shape the evolution of farm-to-school initiatives in Canada — demonstrating how school food programs can improve student health and wellbeing, support local economies and farmers, advance climate and sustainability goals, and reconnect young people to the land, food traditions, and their communities.

As National Director of Farm to Cafeteria Canada for nine years, Joanne led major national and multi-sectoral initiatives in partnership with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the J.W. McConnell Foundation. Her work helped lay important groundwork for the growing momentum toward a national school food program in Canada and demonstrated the vital role schools can play as hubs for health, reconciliation, food literacy, and sustainable local food systems.

Joanne currently works with the City of Courtenay as a Community Development Specialist, where she continues to champion community wellbeing, collaboration, and systems change. She is widely recognized as a passionate and inspiring speaker who brings people together around a shared vision for healthier children, stronger communities, and a more just and sustainable food future.