Management History

  • Bob Dickinson

    Bob Dickinson

    Former Co-Chair, Board of Trustees

    Bob Dickinson is the Chairman of the Board of Hunter Dickinson Inc. (HDI). He joined the MREPBC Board in 2004, and became the Chair in 2007. Bob retired from the MineralsEd Board of Trustees in 2021. 

    Bob is an economic geologist who has been active in mineral exploration for 50 years. He holds B.Sc. in Geology and M. Sc in Finance degrees from UBC and is one of the founders of HDI, a globally respected exploration and mine development team that has advanced mine development projects in BC and around the world.

    His leadership and achievements over the course of his career have been recognized and celebrated by the mining industry: Canada's Developer of the Year in 1990; BC's Mining Person of the Year in 2000; the Pacific Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004; with the Northern Dynasty team, the Thayer Lindsley International Discovery Award in 2007; the A.O. Dufresne Award in 2008; Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medal in 2010; and 2012 Induction with his HDI partner, the late Robert Hunter, into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

    Bob is well known for his efforts to help further the understanding of the importance of mining to society and of minerals in our everyday lives. A staunch advocate for Earth Science and mining education of youth in school, he has driven MREPBC’s fundraising campaigns since 2007. He also served as Vice-Chair of the Britannia Mine Museum driving and guiding the advancement of this National Historic Site as a premier education venue. Bob retired from his role as Vice-Chair of the Britannia Mine Museum in 2021. 

  • Maureen Lipkewich

    Maureen Lipkewich

    Founder and Former Board Member

    Maureen Lipkewich was a life-long member of BC’s mining community and co-founder of MineralsEd. She grew up in Merritt, BC and having “married a miner”, moved with her family from Merritt to Kamloops to Tumbler Ridge and Vancouver, eventually retiring to a ranch near Kamloops.

    Maureen was working as a volunteer with the Mining Association of BC in the late 1980s and began crossing paths with teachers at career fairs who informed her that they did not have up to date and useful materials to teach about mining in school. She began searching for a solution, a path that led her to the BC Ministry of Education, the BC Teachers Federation, and the Social Studies PSA. In the PSA, she met Coquitlam teacher Bruce Kiloh with whom she teamed up to create MineralsEd in 1991. Together they drafted a formal teacher-industry partnership dedicated to supporting teachers in their development of resources to teach about Earth Science, mineral resources and mining in school at all grade levels where there was opportunity in the curriculum.

    Motivated by a genuine sense of importance of youth having opportunity to learn about mining, an admiration for the commitment and role of classroom teachers, and belief in the worth of the mining industry and its people, Maureen built a MineralsEd team of partner-teachers who developed eight stand-alone resources on minerals, mining and geoscience matched to BC curriculum from kindergarten to grade twelve. These teacher-written units, and the way they were developed and shared with teachers around BC, remain at the heart of MineralsEd.

    Maureen served as the MineralsEd Director from its inception until 2003. Her role in the brilliant and effective creation of MineralsEd garnered Mrs. Lipkewich several awards: 1991, Mining Person of The Year; 1994/95 - CIM Distinguished Lecturer; 1996 - Mining Association of Canada-Keep Mining in Canada - New Faces in Mining; 1998- Order of Sancta Barbara – CIMM Centennial; and 1998 - Nominee – Women of Distinction – category – Education and Training.

  • Sheila Stenzel

    Sheila Stenzel

    Former Director

    Sheila Stenzel is a geologist, holding an MSc degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and PhD from Memorial University of Newfoundland.

    Sheila joined MineralsEd in 1999, first as a volunteer presenter for MineralsEd's in-service workshops, then as Education Program coordinator until 2003 when she became Director. Raised in farm country, Sheila brought with her strong academic background in geosciences and teaching experience, a great appreciation for the primary resources Earth provides. She provided geology instruction at MineralsEd's teacher workshops and was involved in all other aspects of MineralsEd program development and delivery. Her long-time affiliation with the school program built a good understanding of both the world of education and the BC broad-based mining community. Sheila retired from MineralsEd at the end of 2019. Sheila has helped to provide current and practical educational materials and quality learning experiences for thousands of teachers teaching and hundreds of thousands of students learning about our Earth, its mineral resources, and mining in school.

    For her work with MineralsEd, Sheila received the Order of Santa Barbara in 2009 from the CIM and was nominated in 2010 for the YWCA’s Women of Distinction Award in the category of Education, Training and Development.