Advisory Board
Margaret Birrell
Elisa Campbell
Michael Clague
Cheeying Ho
Seth Klein
Michael Magee
Darlene Marzari
Kevin Millsip
Patrice Pratt
Dan Rogers
Anne Russo
Margaret Birrell
Margaret Birrell was the Executive Director of the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities, a province-wide advocacy voice for the cross-disability community, a position she has held this position for the past 20 years. Margaret brings with her a broad range of talents and experience having participated in community development since 1969. She has worked on such issues as universal child care, reproductive rights, pensions for older women and the effects of technological change on the work force.At the Coalition, Margaret has played a leadership role in campaigns on such varied issues as guardianship legislation, AIDS and disability, accessible transportation, deinstitutionalization and compensation for Hepatitis C victims of tinted blood. Margaret also administers the Coalition’s Advocacy Access Program, a highly respected consumer-driven service for people needing assistance to obtain provincial disability benefits and CPP disability benefits.
Margaret is currently working on community consultations and campaigns on a broad range of issues including compensation for former residents of the Woodlands School, the revamping of the handyDART system in the GVRD, amendments to the Representation Agreement Act, changes to Part 7 of the ICBC Act, amendments to the Family Compensation Act to include children and seniors and the coordination of people with disabilities and seniors groups opposed to the introduction of the Advance Health Care Directives.
Elisa Campbell
Elisa Campbell is the Executive Director of the Design Centre for Sustainability at UBC. She has extensive experience related to the planning, design, and construction of sustainable buildings, infrastructure and communities. As Director of the Design Centre, her role is to promote an ongoing dialogue between the academic realm and the physical world. Prior to joining UBC, Elisa worked with a Vancouver-based multidisciplinary consulting firm on projects related to improving the social, economic, and environmental performance of buildings and communities. She is a LEED Accredited Professional, and has won a number of awards for her work on green buildings and communities.
Michael Clague
Michael Clague writes, teaches, and works in the fields of adult education, community development, and social planning. He currently works as a private consultant and as a community volunteer. In the past he has served as Director of the Carnegie Community Centre, Director of Programs for SPARC BC, Executive Director of SPARC BC, and as Executive Director of the Community Council of Greater Victoria.
Michael is the recipient of several notable awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Council on Social Development and the Thakore Foundation Award for Service to the Carnegie Community Centre and Vancouver Eastside presented by SFU. He has taught courses and workshops at UBC, SFU, Langara, and through SPARC's Community Development Institute.
Michael is an active community member, having founded the Downtown Eastside
Community Arts Network, and is currently the President of the Carold Institute for the Study of Citizenship in Social Change.
Cheeying Ho
Cheeying is the Executive Director of the Whister Centre for Sustainability. She also served as a director of Smart Growth B.C. - a province-wide non-governmental organization promoting sustainable land use and development and was the Executive Director of B.E.S.T. (Better Environmentally Sound Transportation). She has worked in the non-profit sector in policy, planning and education on transportation, land use and smart growth for the past twelve years.
Cheeying currently is a director of Vancity Enterprises, and sits on the SFU Community Trust Community Advisory Committee, the Imagine BC Advisory Committee, the Provincial Government’s Integrated Community Sustainability Planning Advisory Committee, and the SFU Urban Studies Program Advisory Committee. She has previously held numerous board positions including Vancity Credit Union, Canada’s largest credit union, the Fraser Basin Council and Northwest Environment Watch. She recently finished an assignment as a member of the Prime Minister’s External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities.
Prior to working in the non-profit sector, Cheeying was a science and mathematics teacher for seven years at the high school and college levels. She has a background in science and also holds a masters degree in education. In her non-work time, Cheeying likes hang out with her two-year old son and climb mountains, on foot or on skis.
Seth Klein
Seth Klein is the BC Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a public policy research institute committed to social and economic justice. Seth holds a BA in international relations and a B.Ed from the University of Toronto, and an MA in political science from Simon Fraser University. He has been a social activist for over twenty years.
Seth was hired to open the CCPA’s BC Office in 1996. Under his direction, the CCPA–BC Office has grown to nine employees, approximately 3,000 members, and publishes regular research reports on topics such as taxes, minimum wages, poverty and inequality, resource and environmental policy, health care, public education, globalization, and the BC economy.
A former teacher, Seth has been a board member with CCEC Credit Union in East Vancouver, and is currently a founding board member with the Centre for Native Policy and Research. Seth is a frequent media commentator and public speaker on public policy issues. He has authored numerous studies and newspaper articles. His research deals primarily with welfare policy. His most recent publication is Denied Assistance: Closing the Front Door on Welfare in BC (with Bruce Wallace and Marge Reitsma-Street). Seth has lived in BC since 1993, and currently lives with his wife and daughter in East Vancouver.
Michael Magee
Michael is President of Convergence Communications, a Vancouver based consulting company that specializes in social change and environmental communications, public affairs, strategic philanthropy and fundraising. With over 20 years of experience in government strategy, political campaigns, and campaign financing, Michael has played key roles in several successful political campaigns including the mayoral race in Toronto as well as city councillors and federal members of Parliament. Political clients have included successful campaigns for MPs, MPPSs, MLAs, city councillors and mayors in Vancouver and Toronto.
His civil society clients have included Oxfam Canada, BC Summit of First Nations, Taku River Tlinigt First Nation, Kaska Dena Council, Ontario Coalition for Social Justice, the Lubicon Cree, World Wildlife Fund, the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, Rainforest Solutions Project, BC Federation of Labour, Council of Canadians, Coalition for Gun Control, Greenpeace Canada, Canadian Boreal Initiative, Round River Conservation Studies, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, and the World Wildlife Fund. Foundation clients have included the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, Tides Canada Foundation, Endswell Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and numerous anonymous individual donors.
He serves on the board of the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society, and is a Senior Advisor with the Tides Canada Foundation. Michael is heavily involved in planning for upcoming municipal, provincial and federal elections.
Darlene Marzari
Darlene has had an extensive career in politics, which began in the Social Planning Department of the City of Vancouver in 1968. From this position, Darlene continued on as a Vancouver City Councillor for 8 years and served as a GVRD Director. Darlene became MLA of Point Grey in 1986 and held two cabinet positions: Minister of Tourism & Culture from 1991-1993 and Minister of Municipal Affairs from 1993-1996. During this time she was responsible for the creation and adoption of an innovative Growth Strategies Act in 1995.
Now retired, Darlene serves on a number of boards and committees. She is Chair of the Georgia Basin Network, Honorary Director of the Legal Action Fund, Honorary Director of the Big Sisters Society of BC, a Member of the Katherine Sanford Housing Society, and a Board Member of Headlines Theatre.
In the past, Darlene has served as Director of the Fraser Basin Network, a Member of the BC Regional 50th Anniversary Group, Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, an Elected Member of the UBC Alumni Association, and a Member of the Vancouver Folk Festival Society Board.
Kevin Millsip
Kevin Millsip has over 15 years experience working with young people as an educator. He has served as a trustee on the Vancouver School Board where he drafted one of Canada's strongest policies protecting students from advertising in schools, worked to increase student involvement in the School Board and began a project called Sustainable Schools which is now working with 11 Vancouver schools to design and implement climate change education and action plans. He helped found Check Your Head, coordinated the successful Get your Vote On campaign which registered 20,000 new voters for the 2005 provincial election, and sits on the Boards of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Headlines Theatre. He is currently developing a Leadership Program for post-secondary age young people.
Patrice Pratt
Patrice has been a community and social justice activist all her life. She served as the Chair of the Board of the United Way of the Lower Mainland in 2000 and sat on that board until June 2006. She was a director of the Vancouver Foundation (VF) for six years, chaired committees that funded important community projects, and still sits on disability related committees for VF.
Patrice worked for the BC Government and Service Employees' Union for 28 years before retiring in 2004. During that time, Patrice served in various elected positions in the BC Federation of Labour, was appointed to the Board of BC Hydro, the Simon Fraser University Board of Governors, the UBC Centre for Labour Management, the UBC Labour Relations Board, and was Vice-Chair of the Governor General’s Leadership Conference.
Patrice’s daughter, Jordana, has a condition called Williams Syndrome and as a single mom, Patrice involved Jordana in all the activities and organizations that she herself participated in. Patrice currently chairs the Sharing Our Futures Foundation, which supports the Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion (BACI) where Jordana receives many of her services. They are both members of Vella Microboard Association.
Dan Rogers
Originally from Victoria, Dan has had a variety of life experiences. A strategic thinker, he likes to concentrate on the big picture. He currently is the Director of Marketing & Communications with Concept Design Ltd., which is the largest marketing agency in northern BC. Dan is also currently Chair of the Community Energy Association of BC, Chair of the City of Prince George’s Trails Task Force, and Co-chair of the 2007 National Junior “A” Hockey Championship in Prince George. In the past he has served as Director of the McGregor Model Forest Association, Director of the Prince George Substance Abuse Prevention Task Force, and he chaired the Prince George Aquatic Centre Building Committee.
First elected in 1993, Dan served four terms on Prince George City Council and during that time he served two years on the Executive of the Union of BC Municipalities. He also spent seven years on the Executive of the North Central Municipal Association, including a year as President and three years as Past President. Dan also spent three years on the FCM Five Star Community Awards Committee, a program that recognized and encouraged communities to improve life for those with special needs.
Dan is as comfortable in front of the microphone as he is behind it and he utilizes that experience while lecturing on marketing, communications and media relations. Aside from his professional career, his passions include family, community, and an occasional athletic pursuit.
Anne Russo
Anne Russo has an MA in Leadership and Training from Royal Roads University, with additional coursework in Decision Making in Local Government. For twenty years she worked within the arts sector, for local and provincial government agencies and departments, on policy and program development.
Anne has worked at the community level, developing arts programming and policy that contributed to the development of the North Peace Cultural Centre in Fort St John. She has worked with arts organizations of all sizes: professional and community-based, innovative and traditional, and in a variety of arts disciplines. She served on the executive of the Assembly of BC Arts Councils for six years, developing a sound understanding of local cultural issues in communities throughout British Columbia. She later managed the transition of the Arts Development Office from the Greater Victoria Intermunicipal Committee to the Capital Regional District and led a strategic planning process for the arts in the region.
Anne was one of the original editors for Creative City Network. The organization and its website provides a resource base for staff in municipalities across Canada who are responsible for cultural policy and program development. She has written Creative Connections: Arts and Culture in British Columbia Communities for UBCM, describing how communities can use the arts to help meet community goals, and is co-author of A Cultural Planning Toolkit, to be released in 2007. Anne currently works very happily at the Burnside Gorge Community Centre in Victoria as an Executive Assistant to the Director.