Jen is our lead consultant for Social Health and Well-Being and has been catalyzing social change for over fifteen years. Jen has proud Métis roots from Northern Manitoba. With her compassion and humility, she brings a wealth of experience including nine years with local government. As a proven community leader, she knows that social change occurs when government, the private sector, Indigenous people, non-profit organizations, foundations, and concerned citizens listen to one another and work together. Jen advocates for evidence-based decision making and culturally appropriate methods of citizen engagement. Her expertise in facilitation, her accountability to community, and her ability to create spaces for inclusive dialogue allow her to successfully bridge diverging priorities to create community-driven solutions. She has a natural ability to listen and help others elevate their voices and experiences to align public policy agendas and community interests to address social challenges for community social benefits.

Gayle Frank has always been passionate about Indigenous rights and advocates to bring awareness to issues affecting Indigenous Women and Youth. While serving on the Board of Directors as the First Vice President for the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), Gayle facilitated and participated in engagement sessions for the Descheneaux c. Canada (Bill S-3), an Act to amend the Indian Act to address sex-based inequalities within the Indian Act. NWAC provided recommendations to the Inquiry and held provincial level engagement sessions, in which Gayle facilitated trauma-informed workshops to gather lived experience data. Gayle also has lived experience as a registered First Nation woman and has found that legislation plays a direct role in the racism she has lived through from a child to an adult. Being the very first person in her family to attend public school was a privilege that carried a burden of intergeneration trauma as 3 generations of her family attended residential schools. The lack of cultural identity combined with poverty and racism within schools created a young child that was afraid to learn about her culture. Fortunately in high school, First Nations education was picking up and Aboriginal Education workers were introduced to the school systems. The changes over the decades have allowed for growth for younger people to be more culturally aware. Addressing microaggressions and unconscious bias is needed at all levels of society and something she considers to be a shared responsibility.

Talia is a first-generation Pakistani woman who immigrated to Canada at the age of 11 as a child of a parent fleeing gender-based violence. Her initial years in schools were marked with memories of confusion, frustration, and sadness as she struggled with culture shock and the emotional trauma of family separation and immigration. Throughout her time in school, she personally experienced and witnessed the impacts of racism, discrimination, and social exclusion on her personal and community’s wellbeing and growth. Growing up in a racially diverse and low-to-moderate income neighbourhood she found a lack of resources, supports, and opportunities within her school to support her goals and ambitions. The lack of opportunities had greater consequences for her school community as Talia witnessed the heightened vulnerabilities of students from racialized communities to substance use, addictions, and gang violence. She has remained a strong advocate for racial and gender equity in the school system, and for creating inclusive spaces for newcomer students and families within schools. Talia served in leadership roles to support newcomer students and families in the Delta School District. As a working professional, Talia has facilitated engagements with racialized communities and youth to understand their needs and challenges in accessing services and supports needed for their success and wellbeing. At Urban Matters, she brings her in-depth knowledge of equity, and inclusion to support solutions that advance social justice. For StrongerTogetherVSD, Talia brings her knowledge and lived experience to apply a system-level approach to facilitate engagement that will bring about the diverse unheard voices and experiences of racism from across the school system.

Tona is a Communications expert with a background in broadcasting and community management. His strengths are in digital communications, marketing and engagement. His work with Mental Health experts through the #BellLetsTalk marketing campaign was pivotal in helping the Penticton community heal after the 2019 public shooting incident. He brings with him experience in media relations, event management, fundraising, social media, content development and customer service.

Kelsea Korki is a thoughtful communicator and attentive listener, equipped with a suite of creative approaches for facilitation and community engagement that enable diverse stakeholders to come together and find share their perspectives. Kelsea offers practical communication skills, creative forward thinking, and a passion for creating inclusive opportunities for community engagement. She follows internationally accepted public engagement best practices, having completed the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Certificate in Public Participation. Kelsea grew up in the City of Vancouver and attended Magee Secondary School. She continues to live in Vancouver with her husband and daughter, with another baby on the way this summer.

Angie identifies as a Filipinx woman and was born and raised in Winnipeg, MB. From elementary to jr. high, she attended a school in Winnipeg’s West End with a high proportion of students who are of Filipin@/x heritage. Growing up in the Winnipeg school system, she didn’t have the opportunity to learn about the history and current conditions of the Philippines. However, she is grateful to have grown up with other students who shared the experience of navigating between two different cultures at home and at school — being Filipin@/x while also being Canadian. Angie first became hyper aware of her racialized identity after attending high school in a predominantly white, middle- to upper-class neighbourhood. This continued as she pursued higher education in a field where Filipin@/x are underrepresented. It wasn’t until her later years of university where she gained the language to understand and express her experiences as a minoritized person. She understands her experiences in secondary school are a lot more typical of the experiences of students of colour in Canada when compared to her experiences in primary school. Through this project, she hopes to be able to help Vancouver schools be more of a culturally safe space for students of colour and other marginalized identities.

Jessica is a second-generation Taiwanese woman who has lived throughout Metro Vancouver, including Richmond, Vancouver, West Vancouver, and North Vancouver. From her experiences of attending schooling in diverse school communities, she recognized the need to enhance cultural competency across the social environment to create safe learning spaces for children from racialized communities. As a young student Jessica did not have the language to articulate her own interactions with racism and discrimination. For young students, this lack of language perpetuated white supremacist social norms that subvert any practices that did not conform to the socially accepted ideals. As she observed the power of language in building her personal agency to confront systemic racism, Jessica became committed to empower young People of Colour with the knowledge and language needed to bring about transformative social change within their social networks. As a consultant at Urban Matters, Jessica brings her lived experiences as a Taiwanese woman in Metro Vancouver to support a safe and inclusive environment for engagement.

Alex Miller is a communication and engagement consultant with a background in curriculum design, education and training, and public outreach. She has worked with students of all ages and abilities on projects related to environmental justice, local food system planning, public art, and green energy before joining Urban Systems in 2019. Through her communication and engagement initiatives for local communities, First Nations, and organizations she is committed to making space to amplify voices that have historically been left out of urban planning initiatives. She holds a master’s degree in Business Management from the University of British Columbia and completed the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Certificate in Public Participation.