Board Chair

Khalela Rodriguez-Bell

Kalila is  a long time Fernwood neighbour. She has previous experience working for local non-profits as a fundraiser, advocate, outreach worker and event planner. She is most interested in fostering relationships with the community, making growing vegetables and plants more accessible both in terms of finances and literacy, and contributing joy and laughter to board meetings. In her spare time, she likes to dance, cook, and host gatherings for friends and family

Vice-Chair

Monika Borchert

Monika is a project manager for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, where she and her team are working to develop educational iPad games for children under 6 to support with school readiness and classroom inclusion. She’s worn many hats at CNIB and enjoys strategic and programmatic development, identifying key quality indicators for program success, and ensuring no one gets left behind in the process! She recently relocated to Victoria from Toronto with her partner and senior rescue dog, and is keen to get involved in the work at the CEC.

Secretary

Lisette Chevalier

Lisette Chevalier grew up in Burnaby, on the unceded territory of the hən̓qəmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, and settled in Victoria on the unceded land of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples in 2010.

Her work is driven by a desire for community collaboration and the indisputable need for organizations, such as the CEC, to spearhead the creation of safe, engaging and inclusive spaces that focus on natural resource conservation, food security, and gardening education.

Lisette has been a consistent and committed member of the CEC Board since she first joined in 2018. She quickly took on the role of Board Secretary, then, in 2020 became Chair of the Board. During her time with the CEC Lisette has bottom-lined crucial HR policy development and strategic planning initiatives. She frequently participates in workshops related to non-profit leadership to help her in her never-ending quest to improve her ability to serve.

Lisette brings several years of administrative and business management experience, as well as institutional memory, to the team. Her interest in growing plants developed through months of volunteer work on farms in her early 20s, across different countries in Europe and several states in the USA.

Her passions include the study and practice of yoga, painting, and playing with all the wonderful children in her life. As a mother of a beautiful 7 year old and newborn twin babies, Lisette feels a strong commitment to work towards healing the soil, conserving resources, preserving knowledge and growing plants for the benefit of future generations. She believes wholeheartedly in the good work being done by the Compost Education Centre and looks forward with optimism and enthusiasm to contributing to new possibilities for the Centre.

Treasurer

Alison Ramsay

Alison moved back to Victoria a few years ago, wanting to spend more time outdoors in nature. This led to more time gardening, which in turn led her to attend a composting workshop at the CEC. This showed her what can be done on a local level to have real, effective impact in improving not just the soil in our back yards but the environment as a whole. It felt like a lightbulb going off!

Since joining the CEC board in 2022 as Secretary and now Treasurer, Alison is enjoying deploying skills and knowledge acquired during her senior management career in the field of specialty commercial insurance and risk management. Alison’s strengths include strategic planning and financial and contract analysis, and she hopes to continue contributing these to support the fantastic work of the staff and volunteers of the CEC.

Member-at-Large

Ash Whelan

Ash is a a transplant from Saskatchewan who has cultivated deep roots here in beautiful Lekwungun territory. For the past 7 years, she has managed a small but mighty urban farm in Vic West that grows thousands of pounds of food each year for restaurants and the surrounding community. She is also a student of the Soil Food Web School and is working towards becoming a Soil Food Web Lab Technician, which involves analyzing soil samples under the microscope to understand the biology, and therefore the health of, the soil ecosystem in question. She loves all things compost related, and is so excited about this new opportunity to connect, learn, and collaborate with many of you to continue the amazing work of the CEC!