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President
Michiah Prull
Michiah was born in Santa Fe New, Mexico where he was involved with many non-profit and community development groups, and also worked as a firefighter and emergency medical technician. He moved to Vancouver in order to study at the University of British Columbia and graduated with a BA in political science. In 2008, Michiah returned to the U.S to serve as a staffer on the Obama for America campaign. More recently, he has worked on development projects in Swaziland, Peru, Kenya, Nepal, and Haiti. Michiah has returned to Vancouver where he is involved with a variety of environmental non-profits and works at the David Suzuki Foundation as the Community Leadership Coordinator. |
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Vice President
Carole Christopher
Carole has a doctorate in Nutrition with particular focus on nutritional ecology and food policy. She has developed and taught university courses, was a consultant to the US Federal Trade Commission's attempt to regulate food advertising to children, and has over 25 years experience as an activist in food and environmental issues. Carole speaks frequently on the role of technology and marketing in creating an industrial food system that is nutritionally hazardous and ecologically unsustainable. She advocates supporting regional and urban agriculture by eating locally and seasonably whenever possible and is an avid organic gardener and seed saver.
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Vice President
Tara Moreau
Tara became an environmentalist after attending a children’s environmental camp in Northern Ontario. She has been involved with researching and promoting sustainable food systems since 2002. Tara recently completed a PhD in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia where she evaluated alternative pest controls for whiteflies in commercial greenhouses. She obtained a MSc. from Dalhousie University and the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada (OACC) and has worked as an organic agriculture consultant with United Nations-Food and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO). Tara has been a SPEC board member since 2006 and is co-chair of SPEC’s food committee. She is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow in a collaborative project between UBC and Kwantlen Polytechnic University where she is assessing regional greenhouse gas fluxes in urban and peri-urban agricultural systems to identify methods of reducing emissions, estimating GHGs and sequestering carbon.
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Secretary
Siena Ezekiel
Siena joined the SPEC board in January 2011. She is currently in her last year at UBC, where she is majoring in Latin American studies. Siena has spent the last year as Vice President of Sprouts, a volunteer-run cafe and grocery that promotes food security at UBC. Siena is keen to find ways to integrate her interest in issues of food security, sustainable agriculture and environmental justice with her knowledge of Latin America. In her free time Siena enjoys hiking, gardening, playing ultimate frisbee, and speaking Spanish.
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Director
Rob Baxter
Rob Baxter is a co-founder and a director of the Vancouver Renewable Energy Cooperative. Prior to that he ran his own business consulting firm. He teaches a course in renewable energy for Langara College Continuing Studies. He has been interviewed by CBC radio, CBC TV and Global TV on sustainability issues. He has also published articles and photographs on environmental issues.
As a community organizer he has served on the Board of People for Lake Whatcom and initiated a campaign that successfully lobbied the B.C. Cancer Society to promote more sustainable transportation. He has a MBA from the University of Western Ontario.
Rob has been car-free for two years and uses a bike as his main form of transportation. He has a worm composter and carries a reusable coffee mug with him.
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Treasurer
Vandana Nayar
Vandana has a background in finance and accounting, with an Indian Chartered Accountant designation to her credit. She is currently a CGA Pace Level student and works in public practice as a staff accountant for a CGA firm. She has traveled in many countries before her arrival in Canada four years ago. She is experienced working with non-profit organizations and has found the experience very fulfilling. Feeling strongly about the environment, she is proud to be associated with SPEC. |
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Director
Caitlin Dorward
After connecting with the organization as a directed studies student and then a summer intern, Caitlin joined the SPEC board in December, 2009 and is currently active on the food campaign. Her passion for food security work was initially sparked during four summers spent as a tree planting camp cook, and deepened through involvement as a member of the Vancouver Food Policy Council’s Food Secure Vancouver committee, serving as president of the UBC food hub, Sprouts, and completing a degree in food security and community development at UBC in 2010. Caitlin currently works as a research associate for Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Institute for Sustainable Horticulture, coordinating a research project aimed at identifying strategies to enhance sustainable agriculture and improve agricultural land management. When she’s not working might be found climbing, practicing yoga, or collecting eggs from her backyard hens.
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Director
Ross Moster
Ross has a thirty-five year background in small business, food, cooperatives, social and environmental activism, and sustainable, resilient community building. He is engaged in numerous projects through Village Vancouver (Vancouver's Transition Town initiative), which he founded, and is a member of the Car Free Vancouver, NOW BC Co-op, and IMAPON boards and the Vancouver Food Policy Council. He is involved with several other initiatives, including SFU's Local Food Project advisory committee, Vancouver's Peak Oil Executive, Salon d'Elan Vital (co-founder), the Westside Food Security Collaborative, and Langara College’s Summer School on Building Community. He is particularly passionate about fostering collaboration through creating neighbourhood “villages” and neighbourhood food growing/sharing networks; this is reflected in Welcome to Village Vancouver articles in Common Ground magazine. Ross served as GM of an organic food co-op for 20 years, and on the boards of L.A. EcoVillage and different California cooperative organizations for many years. In the 70's, he published the L.A. People's Yellow Pages, a social change/social service resource directory. He lives in Vancouver with his wife Laura Lee and their cat Attila, and relishes ties to family and community.
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Director
Sara Blenkhorn
Sara has over ten years experience in the field of sustainability having worked cross-culturally with government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and large corporations. She has expertise in the field of strategic planning, business advisory service, and project and team management. In 2010 Sara joined an international team of sustainability advisers at The Natural Step International (TNSI), based in Stockholm, Sweden. In the spring of 2009 Sara graduated from Sweden's award winning sustainability program and now holds a Master's degree in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainbility. Prior to earning her Masters degree, Sara worked in Tanzania with The International Center for Sustainable Cities spearheading a microfinance project for the city of Dar es Salaam as well as building basic business capacities among Dar's internal and external sustainability engagement initiatives. Sara's passion for adventure has taken her all over the world. She is fluent in English and Spanish and has basic language capacities in Swahili and Swedish. She's also an aid athlete and, in not found on the local slopes, you might look for her on the basketball court or in the ocean.
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Director
Tova Plashkes
Tova has a BSc in Kinesiology from the University of Western Ontario and a Masters in Physiotherapy from McMaster University. She works at Vancouver General Hospital as a clinician and at UBC as a researcher. In 2008, she volunteered in Central America, where she worked with Doctors for Global Health focusing on health promotion and rehabilitation. She brings a passion for grass roots community building and advocacy to the SPEC team. In her spare time, you can find her running, biking, hiking, skiing and sailing around the beautiful roads, slopes and shores of BC.
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Director
Barry Warren
Barry Warren Barry joined SPEC as an intern for the summer of 2011. He brings with him a passion for environmental education and building sustainable communities. Barry has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria and is currently studying Sustainable Resource Management at BCIT. He enjoys spending his free time playing piano and guitar with friends or reading by the beach. |
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2060-B Pine Street Vancouver BC V6J 4P8 | tel: 604-736-7732 | www.spec.bc.ca | admin@spec.bc.ca
