Claire (she/her) is a settler with German, British, and Irish ancestry that has lived on Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ territories for the past five years. She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and grew up in Nairobi, Kenya where her parents worked for an international humanitarian agency. She holds a BA in Chemistry from Reed College in Portland, Oregon and a MASc in Civil Engineering from the University of Victoria.

Claire is an interdisciplinary researcher with a decade of work experience focused on improving communities’ sustainability and resilience. Before working for the CEC, Claire spent 8 years working for SOIL, a non-governmental organization that operates a household sanitation and thermophilic composting waste treatment service in Haiti. Her strengths include project management, financial analysis, stakeholder consultation, and technical communication. She has also taught university-level courses with a focus on sustainable natural resource management, public health engineering, and sustainable cities.

Kayla Siefried is a settler in Lekwungen Territory, the steward of the Compost Education Centre demonstration gardens and the curator and main educator of the Adult Education Program. She can be found growing seedlings for plant sales, working with volunteers to keep gardens healthy, flipping hot compost, arranging expert instructors to teach workshops, or out in the community teaching about soil health, organic gardening, waste reduction, and Do-It-Yourself tasks that increase our climate resilience. Kayla holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo, has a Permaculture Design Certificate, has completed various gardening and soil science courses, and has completed the NuMethod Facilitation Training.  

Grounded in the reality that our climate is in a chaotic state Kayla (as a Waste Reduction Superstar, Compost Queen and Practical Gardening Instructor) leads with joy and practical knowledge, no matter where people are on their learning journey. Kayla finds meaning in advocating for and living an environmentally sustainable life that involves bicycles, healthy food systems, and community connection. When she’s not working, she can be found zipping around on her bicycle and cooking wildly in her kitchen, hiking some back trail, running with her Run Club, all while laughing with friends.  

Zoe-Blue Coates (she/her) is a queer Black woman who was born and raised on One Dish One Spoon territories in Tkaronto (Toronto,ON). Her ancestors are from West Africa, China, Scotland, and nations not yet known to her.

As Administration and Communications Coordinator, Zoe-Blue promotes the CEC’s educational resources. In her role, she works on the CEC’s social media, networks with like-minded organizations, and speaks to CRD residents via phone call, email, and in-person.

During her first few months at the CEC, Zoe-Blue created the BioDiversity zine. This project tells the stories of non-white ecological stewards throughout history. Ecological stewards build relationships of respect and reciprocity with the lands they live on and all it’s living-beings. These people have had lasting impacts on industries like botany, agriculture, permaculture, agro-forestry, foraging, and herbal medicine. Due to the white-washing of the history of ecological stewardship, many youth like Zoe-Blue believe that any interest in ecological stewardship was a sign of their assimilation into whiteness. She created the zine to push back against that notion and show today’s youth that their passion for the earth makes their ancestors proud.

In her free time, Zoe-Blue learns about herbal medicine, befriends her neighbourhood’s crows, and cooks.

Jeffrey Ellom (he/him) is a settler of Ewe and mixed European descent who grew up on unceded Syilx Okanagan territory. He’s been living on unceded Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ territories since 2014.

Jeffrey joined the CEC in 2021, and has helped to develop and deliver workshops to children and youth throughout the CRD as part of the Education Team. He loves creating puppets and props to help make big ideas like soil stewardship accessible to young minds.

Jeffrey studied biology in university, and is a life-long learner with particular enthusiasm for plant and microbe ecologies. He also holds an awareness of the institution of science as a colonizing force, whose methods of extracting and gatekeeping knowledge and privileging of Eurowestern perspectives have come at a cost to Indigenous peoples here on Turtle Island and worldwide. With this in mind, Jeffrey looks for ways to educate young people about living systems in ways that inspire an ethic of interdependence and responsibility toward human and more-than-human communities. He also works to involve youth in community-based citizen science, to encourage a shift toward science that is more conscientious and equitable.

When Jeffrey isn’t teaching kids about composting or native pollinators, he’s usually looking after the CEC’s worms or rummaging for soil to look at under the microscope. He’s also a visual and musical artist who loves cycling and sewing clothes.

Haya Aldoori (she/her) is a settler with Lebanese, Iraqi, and Palestinian ancestry. She grew up on Dish with One Spoon territories and has been living on the territories of the Lekwungen speaking peoples since 2021.

As a long-time facilitator of outdoor learning, she is passionate about cultivating care and connection to the land in her community. She is motivated by the belief that connection to the land  is essential in building a resilient and equitable future for all.

In her role as Child & Youth Education Coordinator, Haya is an energectic member of the team, contributing her skills, knowledge, experience, and other gifts to supporting the CEC’s mission and community-based work.

In her free time, you can find Haya watching/photographing birds, saying hi to neighborhood cats, and running around on the soccer field.

Martyna Tomczynski is a second generation Polish-Canadian who grew up in the traditional territory of the Algonquin People. She is the Manager of the Compost Education Centre’s Healing City Soils Program which offers free soil testing to gardeners and food growers in the CRD, and explores research in soil toxicology and low-tech bioremediation techniques. She holds a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from Royal Roads University and is currently completing her master’s degree in the same field with an emphasis on urban soil management. She is registered with the BC Institute of Agrologists, and her career to date has primarily focused on agricultural best management practices, ecological restoration, and ecosystem information technology. Martyna is passionate about soil health, accessible science communication, and helping individuals take meaningful action in their own backyards to promote resilient, thriving ecosystems in urban environments. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, hiking, sewing, making jewelry, and volunteering with local conservation groups.

Bio coming soon.

Tina comes from from Saugeen Ojibway Nation, but her father is from the Iroquois First nations on his father’s side and her mother is first generation from Italy. Tina has been living in Wsanec territory since she met her lovely husband and has two teenage boys that complete their family. She is a red seal chef and has done every possible job within her field- worked her way up the ladder to head chef in a hotel, private chef on a yacht, opened restaurants, caterer and now she presently teaches cooking classes for teens and new parents at Saanich Neighbourhood Place and Juan de Fuca Rec centre. 

She has always had a love of gardening since her mother has a vibrantly green thumb and taught her at a young age how to grow food. Tina grows quite a lot of fruit and vegetables in her little back yard and loves learning how to fortify her soil naturally and finds the resources at CEC help immensely.

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!

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.

Bowen Arbutus Macy is a member of the Compost Education Centre’s board of directors and a neighbor living just down the road. With a day job in sustainability technology, his background weaves together a passion for community organizing and a commitment to building sustainable systems—whether through workshops, music, or events that connect people to each other and the land. He was drawn to the CEC for the way it blends practical skills like composting, gardening, and food preservation with a deeper practice of land-based resiliency. Bowen first came across the CEC after moving to the neighborhood, poking his head in and promptly asking a million questions, a pattern he continues to repeat in board meetings. Outside of his work with the Centre, Bowen hosts Third Place Radio on CFUV, spends time rifling through his mom’s old CD collection, and thinks about ways to inspire local environmental action. He believes in the CEC as a place for people to gather, learn, and imagine, even just for an afternoon in the garden with a cup of tea. That’s the kind of thing he’d like to help grow.

Anna was born and raised in Toronto, the traditional territories of the Anishinaabe, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Wendat, and the Haudenosaunee peoples. She has been gratefully living in Lekwungen territory since 2021 and volunteering with the Compost Education Centre since 2022. During her time in the CEC gardens, Anna has found joy in watching the seeds she’s planted grow over a season, making hot compost, and processing flax seeds. She is now excited to deepen her commitment to the CEC through serving on the Board of Directors. Outside of the CEC, Anna currently works as a Senior Policy Analyst and enjoys creative writing, wandering in the woods and along shorelines, and long conversations with friends over tea.

Cassidy grew up on Treaty 4 Territory in Saskatchewan, where her early years among farmers and gardeners sparked a lifelong love of growing food and playing in the soil. This passion led her to pursue a BSc in Environmental and Soil Science, deepening her understanding of the vital link between climate action and food security. Before relocating to Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ territories in 2022, Cassidy served as the Food Security Coordinator at the University of Regina. There, she led campus-wide initiatives to improve food access and develop gardening programs, deepening her appreciation for the transformative power of community-driven food systems. Since then, Cassidy has worked as a farmhand, Agriculture and Food Security Planner and most recently, Sustainability Planner. Cassidy enjoys playing outside, singing sad songs and being a bird nerd. 

Rachel grew up just east of Seattle, WA (traditional lands of the Snoqualmie peoples) and has lived on W̱SÁNEĆ territory for the last three years. She is currently a researcher at the University of Victoria, focusing on sustainable food systems governance, social equity, and climate resilience. Previously, she has worked in academia and for nonprofits on sustainable agriculture and food justice issues around the world. Outside of work, Rachel loves to garden, learn about native plant restoration, hike, and expose her toddler to as much nature as possible.