IAIA welcomes new Board members
IAIA is pleased to share the results of our recent Board of Directors election. Please join us in welcoming President-Elect Celesa Horvath and Board Directors Felicitas Egunyu and Sara E. Gonzalez. Learn more about these three new incoming Board members below.
Celesa, Felicitas, and Sara will join an active, dedicated, international group of existing Board members. Their three-year terms will start on 23 May 2026, at the Board meeting immediately following IAIA26. We look forward to working with them in forwarding IAIA’s mission and vision.
We also extend our sincere thanks to all candidates who stood for election and for all members who took time to cast their votes.
Celesa Horvath is an independent consulting practitioner with 35 years’ direct experience in impact assessment (IA) and regulatory processes across Canada (and internationally). She has worked with both public and private sector clients on a wide range of utility and transportation infrastructure, mining, energy, manufacturing, and urban development projects. Her international experience includes IA capacity building in China and Jordan, project-specific IAs in the Middle East and China, and work on corporate sustainability policy in the Middle East.
Celesa has been a member of IAIA for 17 years. She contributed to IAIA’s Foundations of Impact Assessment training course, chaired the IAIA22 Technical Program Committee, and served on the IAIA24 and IAIA25 Committees. She is active in the IAIA Governance Section, and she founded the Atlantic Canada Association for IA and the Canadian IA Practitioners Network.
Throughout her career, she has taken an active, constructive role in strengthening the legislative and policy framework for IA by directly engaging law-makers and process administrators, advising proponents, and playing a leadership role in the practitioner community to promote better IA. As President of IAIA, her goals are to continue to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of IA, to enhance connections and foster collaboration between and among IA practitioners in public service, industry, consulting, and academia, and to make IAIA more relevant to practitioners ‘at the working face’ of IA, those who daily conduct IA, in the field, in the office, in the community.
Felicitas Egunyu is an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She holds a PhD in environment and sustainability and has worked in the consulting, government, not-for-profit, and academia sectors in Canada and Uganda. She has conducted environmental impact assessments, including baseline studies, screening, monitoring, and report writing for mining, oil and gas, transportation, forestry, housing, and power generation projects. Currently, Felicitas teaches and researches impact assessment, engaging annually with 200-plus undergraduate university students. She is a member of the Ontario Association for Impact Assessment as well as IAIA, where she contributes to the Training and Professional Development Committee.
Having experienced impact assessment from both the consulting and academic sides, Felicitas sees immense potential for impact assessment to continue to evolve in response to global challenges. She believes this is a pivotal moment for IA professionals with unprecedented opportunities for learning, sharing, networking, innovating, and influence. As a Board Director, her vision includes expanding IAIA’s presence in academia to better engage students and young professionals who are the future of the field. She also plans to advocate for strengthening social impact assessment skills, particularly within government, and for a more inclusive and equitable IA process. She hopes that through collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas, she can support IAIA’s growth as a forward-thinking and dynamic community that will continue to be the backbone of impact assessment training, research, and practice.
Sara E. Gonzalez is an environmental professional with over 30 years of global experience in Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). Born and raised in Venezuela, she has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology, a Specialization in Sustainable Development, and a Master’s in Environmental Management. Early in her career, Sara was fortunate to be mentored by experts who inspired her passion for impact assessment and introduced her to the University of Aberdeen’s Intensive Training Course on Impact Assessment, hosted by the Center for Environmental Management and Planning (CEMP). This 6-month formative experience prepared her to serve for seven years as Director of Environmental Impact Assessment at Venezuela’s Ministry of the Environment. From the public sector she transitioned to the private sector managing ESIAs of projects across 5 continents, complementing her prior experience as a regulator and consultant. She has lived in the United States, Russia, and Mozambique.
Sara’s core passion lies in influencing project design early in the planning and execution phases to prevent and mitigate environmental and social impacts. She advocates for adaptive management and robust monitoring and follow-up to operationalize the ESIAs. She believes that while project types may vary, including energy transition projects, the fundamentals of impact assessment remain the same. Sarah has been an active member of IAIA and deeply values its role in advancing the field. She supports the development of foundational training programs and practitioner-focused education and is honored to serve on the IAIA Board to help further these initiatives.
