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Tag: staff

Meet Emily!

July 4, 2024


Hi everyone!

My name is Emily, I’m the new Child and Youth Education Assistant at the CEC, and I’m very excited to be working here for the summer! While originally from the territories of the Anishinaabe Mississauga peoples out East, I have been living on these lands for the past 7 years. As a graduate from the Geography and Indigenous Studies departments at UVic, my experience and interests lie primarily in community-based research, environmental education, and climate justice.

My interest in working with the CEC came from a passion for projects that help support healthy and reciprocal relationships to the land, as well as instilling these values in the hearts and minds of our society’s youngest members.

In my free time you’ll find me gardening, climbing, practicing my Spanish, and trying to entertain my very needy cat. Besides helping with the Child and Youth Education Program, I’ll be spending my time with Zoe-Blue working on some fun communications materials. Come find me in the office and garden; I love a good chat, especially when it’s about Native plants!

Posted in Announcement, Blog, Child and Youth Education, News, StaffTagged ,

Zoe-Blue Coates (she/her), Birder and Resilient Communities Enthusiast

February 22, 2024

A C E C staff member is kneeling in a garden bed and riffling through a layer of dead leaves on top of the dirt.

If you’ve been by the Compost Education Centre, you’ve probably been warmly welcomed – and educated – by Zoe-Blue Coates. Zoe-Blue is our officer manager, communications coordinator, and general doer. If you have a question about anything regarding the Compost Education Centre, she’s probably the person to ask! And if you catch her at a quiet moment, she’ll relay to you her latest efforts at a more sustainable and resilient life whether it’s solar dehydrating mushrooms (grown at the Compost Education Centre demonstration site!) or showing up for her community in an intentional and grounded way.

When she’s not dispensing composting wisdom at work, she frequently leads nature walks for the Special Bird Service Society, a group focused on making nature more accessible for the global majority through birding. Across her work and play, Zoe-Blue aims to inspire other to form reciprocal relationships with the land through caring for the natural world that is closest to them regardless of whether it is in a rural or urban environment.

The Narwhal recently featured Zoe-Blue in its article, “Many birds are named for enslavers, colonizers and white supremacists. That’s about to change.” The article shares how Zoe-Blue has always been a birder, but through a “Bird Language Interpretation” workshop offered through the Compost Ed Centre, she started paying attention to bird sounds and found it to be an accessible and grounding exercise. (If you’re interested in taking this same course, we are offering it on March 9, 2024 at 10 am!) Zoe-Blue shares her take on renaming birds, which is that by changing names we can clarify the connection between birds and people, plants, and other beings. And by clarifying the connection? We could be lucky enough to have a deeper relationship with the birds and a richer commitment to conservation.

Interested in learning more? Zoe-Blue is teaching a workshop at the Compost Education Centre’s Strawbale classroom on April 27, 2024 at 1 PM about “How Birds Help: Gardening with Reciprocity.” In the workshop, she’ll cover what birds are commonly found in Southern Vancouver Island backyards; how birds help us control pests, rodents, and pollinate our plants; and how we can form a reciprocal relationship with our winged neighbors. We look forward to connecting with you!

Claire Remington, Executive Director

Posted in Blog, StaffTagged , , , ,

Kayla Siefried, a finalist for Charity Village Award

December 6, 2023


Our Site Manager and Community Education Coordinator, Kayla Siefried was a top finalist for the Charity Village awards, in the category of Most Outstanding Individual Impact. 

As an expert educator and ground leader, Kayla teaches others to do as she says and what she does. In her time at the CEC she has taught 946 workshops to 16,127 childen, youth, and adults on topics related to composting, food preservation, and gardening.

When asked to describe his experience learning from Kyla, a former workshop attendee wrote:

“For the past two years, Kayla has been my invaluable gardening mentor, guiding me through this journey with unwavering expertise and passion. Her exceptional communication skills have not only helped me immensely but have also benefited our entire class. I owe her a profound debt of gratitude, as there’s no one I’ve learned more from about gardening than her.”

We are grateful to have Kayla on staff at the Compost Education Centre.

By Zoe-Blue Coates, Office Manager and Communications Coordinator

Posted in Accolades, Announcement, Blog, News, StaffTagged , ,

Welcome Celia!

June 15, 2023


Summer is here and we are so happy to welcome our newest staff member! Celia has been a longtime volunteer in the garden and the Healing City Soils program. We are fortunate to have her on our team this summer. Below are some get to know me questions.

What’s your favorite dish? Tabbouleh! So fresh and delicious.

What’s your favorite summer activity? Riding my bike to the lake. 

What do you like about the Compost Education Centre? I like feeling connected to food, the land, and growing out food responsibly with reciprocity for the beings around us. I love sharing that education with everyone in our community who wants to learn. It’s been great working with the CEC and feeling connected to food and flowers! 

What’s your favorite berry? I love strawberries, but when it comes to flavor, raspberries have my heart.  

What do you do in your free time? I like to garden, sew, and read. Currently, I’m rereading the Lord of the Rings. 

 

Posted in Announcement, Blog, News, StaffTagged ,

Welcome, Claire!

March 1, 2023


Claire Remington has joined the Compost Education team as the Executive Director.

She is a settler with German, British, and Irish ancestry who 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.

In her free time you’ll find Claire playing ultimate frisbee, reading a book, hiking, or playing board games with friends.

Posted in Announcement, Blog, News, StaffTagged , , ,