Originally published in Lake of the Woods Area News, Volume 55, Number 1, Early Spring 2025
Put a plan in place. Ensure there’s enough science and management expertise.
Coordinate actions bi-nationally. That’s our mission.
The Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation (LOWWSF) kicked off 2025 with a number of big announcements including personnel changes and the launch of a new, multi-year project supported by the Canada Water Agency’s Freshwater Ecosystem Initiative.
After 20 years at the helm, our Foundation’s founding Executive Director, Todd Sellers, retired at the end of 2024. Todd has not gone far, though, as he joined our Board of Directors to provide ongoing guidance to our work—a boon for all of us, as Todd holds rich expertise, spanning decades of water quality work for the Lake of the Woods watershed. Teika Newton is our new Executive Director, and Meghan Mills has joined the team as the new International Watershed Coordinator.
Teika will be familiar to Area News readers, as she has served as the International Watershed Coordinator over the past two years. She is also a long-time participant in regional watershed science, policy, and governance activities. Since 2013, Teika has been involved with the International Joint Commission’s International Rainy–Lake of the Woods Watershed Board, participating in the Board’s Community Advisory Group (CAG) and, from 2016-2020, as a board member, Canadian co-chair of the CAG, Engagement Committee, and the Adaptive Management Committee. Teika also has been helping to guide the IJC Board’s work on climate adaptation since 2016.
Over the past two years, Teika shepherded a complex project through the International Joint Commission, engaging international agencies and partners working on water quality issues in the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods basins to propose international water quality objectives and adopt alert levels through the regional IJC watershed board for nutrients and contaminants of concern. She continues to work with these partners to develop a long-term, shared, international monitoring, assessment and reporting program to ensure these water quality goals are achieved and maintained.
Teika lives in Treaty #3 Territory, just outside Kenora, Ontario with her husband, Mike, their son Sam and daughter Maya, and assorted dogs, cats and wild forest friends. When she’s not outside skiing, hiking, gardening, swimming or paddling, she can be reached at teikanewton@lowwsf.com.
Meg Mills has joined the LOWWSF team, taking on the International Watershed Coordinator role. Meg is thrilled to work alongside others dedicated to protecting our shared waters. She lives on Treaty #1 Territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and cherishes time spent off-grid at Pelicanpouch Lake, located on Treaty #3 Territory near Minaki, Ontario.
Meg is currently completing her Master of Natural Resources Management at the University of Manitoba, with a focus on researching meaningful public participation and community engagement in resource management through a co-governance lens. Her background includes diverse environmental projects that blend science and storytelling. She has done community-based monitoring and project coordination work, equipping her with strong technical and communication skills. Continually learning the complexities of water governance, she is deeply committed to relationship-building and meaningful collaboration with diverse groups through empathic approaches to achieve impactful outcomes.
In her free time, Meg enjoys backcountry canoe trips in the summer (a humbling reminder of coexisting with natures quirks, including bugs), cross-country skiing during the long, dark prairie winters, and exploring different art mediums, most recently, needle felting (it’s surprisingly cathartic to repeatedly poke wool with a sharp needle!). Meg looks forward to meeting and working alongside the LOWWSF community, and we are excited to welcome her. Meg can be reached at meghanmills@lowwsf.com.
This transition is happening at an exciting moment in the history of our Foundation, as we celebrate our 20th anniversary in 2025 and move forward into a new era of collaborative sustainability planning for the Lake of the Woods region.
