Board Chair
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.
Vice Chair
Olivia Bradbury
Olivia is a settler living on Lekwungen, Songhees, and W̱SÁNEĆ Territories. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Geography at the University of Manchester (UK), with a year of her studies based at the University of Victoria. Throughout her studies and participation in community-based projects, she has mainly focused on theories and praxis of equitably nourishing the land and ourselves with careful and enlivened foodscapes.
The intersection of education, wellbeing, and justice are priorities in Olivia’s ongoing research into alternative food networks as a Board member. Olivia was a former Project Manager of Incredible Edible Manchester, a student based community gardening project.
Since joining the Board in 2020, Olivia has served on the Hiring Committee and Anti-Oppression Committee. She remains keen to be involved with the CEC for its crucial role in connecting and empowering our local community through sound environmental knowledge and praxis. With her relevant experiences underway, she is looking forward to continuing her active role as Vice Chair of the CEC Board and the ways in which it will further teach her.
Treasurer
Janeen Sam
Janeen is a settler in Lekwungen, Songhees, and W̱SÁNEĆ Territories. Originally from Africa she has always enjoyed the outdoors. When coming to Canada Janeen started gardening, at first, it was just because she was asked to be a “helper” at the community garden. Over time gardening became something that she loves to do—a way to get fresh air, to create and grow delicious vegetables to enjoy and share with others. This new found hobby led to connecting with the CEC and joining the board in the role of Treasurer.
Janeen is a qualified accountant and certified CPA. Recently Janeen ventured into the world of entrepreneurship and is currently partner of an accounting firm, which focuses on cloud bookkeeping, training and strategic management accounting. In addition to accounting, Janeen is a mindset coach, which is what she is most passionate about. She loves coaching others using step-by-step processes to help transform their lives for the better.
Secretary
Megan Chan
Megan Chan is a settler in Lekwungen, Songhees, and W̱SÁNEĆ Territories and grew up in Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territory. She got involved in food system advocacy at the beginning of her undergraduate degree when volunteering with the Community Cabbage club rescuing food from the waste stream, cooking it up and serving it to students.
The vibrant community created around sharing food and the ways that food impacts all people made her interested in further learning and work in advocating for more equitable and sustainable food systems. She now works as an event coordinator at a like-minded non-profit that does capacity-building work in food system advocacy called CRFAIR.
Megan joined the board of the CEC with a desire to stay diversely engaged in food system work and with admiration for the mission of the Compost Education Centre. Since joining the board, she has taken on professional development workshops, listens to governance-related podcasts and continuously seeks out learning opportunities to widen the knowledge that she brings to each meeting.
Megan holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies and Geography from UVic, where she was employed at the UVic Sustainability Office throughout her degree. Having worked for local non-profits since 2018 and taking a special interest in them throughout her education, Megan is delighted to be on the board at the Compost Education Centre. In all of her work, Megan is passionate and committed to continuously learning about equity and decolonization, committed to applying these lenses to her work at the CEC. In her free time, she enjoys skating along the beach, being a novice ultimate player and learning to cook Chinese dishes that she grew up eating.
Members At Large
Abby Maxwell
Abby is a queer white settler with Scottish Quaker, English, Norwegian, and German heritage. She was born on Treaty 7 land, so-called Southern Alberta, raised between there and Scotland, and moved east to Tiohtià:ke, so-called Montreal, to study Gender Studies and Environmental Studies at McGill University.
During her studies, Abby’s adolescent skepticism and alienation were nurtured into frameworks of community care and justice. She organized with a food and climate justice group on campus throughout her four years there, and got to go learn about anti-imperial struggle and Maya farming and seed sovereignty organizing in Guatemala toward the end of her degree. Upon graduating, she moved to Lkwungen and WSANEC territories where she has been working as a teaching assistant in Queer and Trans studies at the Gender Department of UVic, and being a student of food justice, healing, and resistance work in the myriad projects unfolding in and around these territories.
Abby orients to spaces of change-making and education, especially when centred around plants, so she is excited to work as a member of the CEC Board. After hours, Abby can be found at her gay book club, floating in the ocean, or making hot sauce.
Inanna Sokil
Inanna is a queer white settler with Ukrainian heritage. She was born on Treaty No. 6 Territory in Edmonton, but moved to the west coast at two months old to unceded ’Namgis lands on Malcolm Island. In between towns and cities she lived in a school bus and on a boat, and spent much of her childhood in the outdoors learning to identify animals and native plants. Inanna has been living on unceded Lkwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ territories now for 7 years.
Perhaps influenced by attending workshops at the Compost Education Centre when she was young, Inanna has been interested in ecology, natural systems, and sustainability from an early age. While earning a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, she became involved with the Environmental Studies Students Association and the Community Cabbage, which offered avenues of action that aligned with her values of sustainability, community, and food security. For her contributions to the volunteer sector of environmental work she was awarded the Vicky Husband Scholarship in 2017. Driven by her passion for sustainability and creative solutions, Inanna completed a Permaculture Design Certificate in 2018. Inanna has over three years of experience working with non-profits, including fundraising for the Wilderness Committee and volunteer coordinating for Mosqoy.
Inanna joined the CEC’s board of directors in 2020, and has since served on the Policy Committee. She is grateful for the opportunity to give back to the CEC. If her hands aren’t in the worm bin, Inanna is probably sewing or making something whether it’s structural, edible, or just beautiful.
Capital Regional District Representative
Avril Gilmour Ford
Avril Gilmour Ford is a settler in Lekwungen, Songhees, and W̱SÁNEĆ Territories. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria and has spent her career educating schools, communities and the public about the natural world. Avril joined the Compost Education Centre Board of Directors in September 2018, appointed to the CEC’s BoD as the Capital Regional District’s (CRD) representative.
Avril is the Environmental Education Liaison within the CRD’s Environmental Services Department. Her work with the CRD focuses on education and outreach regarding environmental topics including solid waste, water conservation, watershed protection and climate action. One of her favorite parts of her work is leading tours of Hartland Landfill and being able to show people where their garbage goes, what is ending up in the garbage and the amount of waste unnecessarily ending up in the landfill. Creating opportunities for people to see what happens when you throw things “away” and have discussions surrounding challenges and ideas for waste reduction is one of the most rewarding aspects of her work.
Further Information
The current board of directors were elected at our last Annual General Meeting in September 2020. Terms run for two years. Elections are scheduled for our next AGM in September 16, 2021. To discuss opportunities with the Board of Directors, please contact us.