Alexis Hogan, Management Team, Office and Communications Manager and Healing City Soils Program Coordinator
Alexis Hogan is a queer (she/her) white settler with Indigenous heritage (Irish, Quebecois and Anishinaabe from Sharbot Lake, Ont).
She’s deeply committed to the community-centered environmental education that the Compost Education Centre offers. She is especially enthusiastic about continuing to learn how to help reduce barriers to accessing education around compost, waste diversion, food gardening and ecological restoration and conservation.
Her work at the CEC often dovetails with her semi-professional art practice, which is informed by feminist, land-based and activist perspectives. Her artwork, through site-specific projects, social practice and printmaking, confronts extractivism through restoration, reciprocity, reflection and critical care.
She holds a BFA in Visual Arts (2015) from Emily Carr University of Art and Design with a focus in printmaking, sculpture and critical, cultural theory. Alexis recently served as Vice Chair of Board of Directors at Open Space Arts Society, and was Gallery Coordinator of the fifty fifty arts collective from 2016-2018. Some of Alexis’ upcoming projects include a multi-year site specific project, lichen, with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (2019-2021) and a collaborative essay with Megan Quigley, titled The Collective Agreement which will be featured in the book Creative Conciliations edited by Tarah Hogue, Jonathan Dewar and Jennifer Robinson (2019).
When not working at the CEC or in her creative practice, Alexis occupies her time with all of the other overlapping things that she loves: cooking, kickboxing, hiking, camping, canoeing, garden supervising, processing food she and her partner grow, and learning about local ecologies, Indigenous and invasive plants, decolonizing agriculture, and birds of prey.
Zoe Blue Coates, Site & Schools Program Assistant
Zoe-Blue is a queer Afro-Caribbean and African-American woman born and raised in Tkaronto (Toronto, ON). Her passions include music, textile art and design, and cooking.
She pursued a degree in Canadian History and Indigenous studies. Her research focused on how Canadians learn about the history of the lands they’re on. Studying history taught her ways to take lessons from the past and use them to build community.
Through the Compost Education Centre, Zoe-Blue has combined her passion for knowledge and community. She enjoys creating informative and accessible educational resources like the BioDiversity zine for school age children. Zoe-Blue has enjoyed many facets of working at the Compost Education Centre including: connecting with community members interested in ecological stewardship, planting and harvesting fruits and vegetables, and learning more about the importance of insects in the composting process.
Hannah Estabrook, Site & Education Program Assistant
I grew up as a settler in beautiful Mi’kmaq territory (Halifax, Nova Scotia), and had the pleasure of dabbling in the dirt throughout my childhood. My love and care for the Earth was ignited by going on long walks in the woods with my Grandpa every summer, where we would forage for wild blueberries, harvest field mushrooms, and marvel at tadpoles in the nearby river.
When I was 18, I moved to the West Coast to pursue a degree in Environmental Studies at UVic. Through my studies, I’ve come to understand how issues of environmental degradation are ultimately rooted in the unjust social and political systems of the settler colonial state. Through this lens of ‘political ecology’, I’ve developed particular interests in localized food systems, social change movements, and education for sustainability.
For the past 5 summers, I’ve worked as an Outdoor Educator, sharing my love of natural places with youth and adults alike. I’ve also become involved in food justice work here in Lekwungen Territories by helping coordinate the Community Cabbage, a group that diverts food from the waste stream and repurposes it to serve free meals for students.
Some of my favorite things in life include hosting potlucks, living with lots of roommates, knitting socks, making collages, open water swimming, backpacking, identifying native plants, farmers markets, CATS, and cooking food from all over the world.
Juniper Hogan
Human Resources Manager
Age: 2
Areas of expertise: Waste management, food sampling, stick retrieving, toy shredding, supervising site operations, greeting staff and visitors