Our Team

The Cowichan Green Community is made up of a dynamic group of community members.

Board

Nadeane is passionate about healthy food, fresh water and the healing power of nature, creativity and nurturing relationships. She enjoys gardening, cycling, paddling, and communing with trees. Nadeane is continually inspired by the energy, enthusiasm and skillsets of CGC staff and by the projects they undertake.

Nadeane Nelson

Lucy Thomas

Lucy loves to learn, loves her community, and just loves life. She is married to hereditary Chief of Lyackson for 38 years with 2 children many adopted children, 10 grand children and 1 great grand child. She is a survivor of residential school and has worked for house of friendship since 1982. She will support happy events as well as sad ones.

  • Position: Vice President
  • Boards: CGC
  • Email:

Suzanne bought her first home just up the street from the CGC office 8 years ago and hasn’t looked back.  She moved to the Island over 40 years ago from North Vancouver and has been lucky enough to live in several small communities.  She subs the odd day in Kindergarten, spends lots of time in her garden and is currently training a new to her German Shepherd. Suzanne is delighted to be on the board and is looking forward to her time with this wonderful new community with so many like-minded people.

  • Position: Secretary
  • Boards: CGC

Suzanne Didier

Cathy Gilbert

Cathy has lived in the Cowichan Valley for the past 7 years and loves the community, the nature surrounding us and the ocean especially.  She is passionate about many things, among them the importance of food security, and small farms.  She loves the work of the Cowichan Green Community!

  • Boards: CGC
  • Position: Treasurer

Eduardo Sousa is an Advisor with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative which fosters Indigenous nationhood as a way to conserve and manage Indigenous lands. He runs a consultancy, Caminho Do Meio, providing strategic planning and communications, and project management support for Indigenous communities. Eduardo also worked for Greenpeace for over a decade as senior Forests Campaigner, successfully implementing the world-renowned and award-winning Great Bear Rainforest Agreements with First Nations, the BC Government and the logging industry. Prior to arriving on the west coast, Eduardo worked many years as Ontario-Quebec Organizer for the Council of Canadians on public policy issues related to healthcare, water, trade and Canada-US relations. Eduardo was also an environmental planner and special projects coordinator for Toronto Parks, working with communities on environmental stewardship and community gardens. He has a Master’s in Environmental Studies from Toronto’s York University, with a focus on watershed planning and community mobilization, and an Honours BA in Social-Cultural Anthropology / Environmental Studies, from Victoria University/University of Toronto. Eduardo has various articles published in books and magazines and online, regarding watershed stewardship and planning, water issues and environmental history.

  • Position: Director
  • Boards: CGC

Eduardo Sousa

Chloe Boyle

Chloe is a recent transplant to the Cowichan region, having grown up in Montreal. Her background in terrestrial ecology and love of the outdoors led her around the world to eventually land in Cowichan. Currently, Chloe’s work as a use planner incorporates her experience in environmental sciences to make sound planning decisions. She is thrilled to be setting down roots in a place that is working to build healthy and happy residents, and believes that local nourishing food is integral to growing resilient communities.
  • Position: Director
  • Boards: CGC

Staff

Born in Vancouver, Judy took a long detour through life and other countries before she was enticed back to this gorgeous Valley. Blessed to be living on a float house and working in a fabulous organization that fuels her creative and environmental fire, she’s reminded how much more inspiring life is when working in a place that is aligned with her passions.

Judy Stafford

Leela Hamilton

Leela worked 9 years at the Duncan Garage Cafe, where her beliefs aligned with the cafe’s ethos of home made, organic, vegetarian food with a focus on reducing waste and being less harmful to the environment.  It seems suiting that her next position would be at the Cowichan Green Community, where the principles are the same.

Bobbi-Anne grew up on Vancouver Island, but is new to the Cowichan Valley. In her spare time, she loves to be outdoors and explore all that nature has to offer, whether it’s snowboarding, hiking, rock-climbing, snowshoeing or cross country skiing. She’s also recently started to try and learn more about the specific flora and fauna that BC has to offer. Throughout university, while studying International Business & Finance, it became quite clear to her that the corporate life did not quite compute with what would bring her “success” and happiness. Non-profits however really appealed to her, as she wanted to be a part of something where she could feel like she was contributing to her community. Bobbi-Anne started at the CGC in June of 2020 and is excited to be a part of such a community centred organization.

Bobbi-Anne Piercy

Lorena Bucklee

Lorena is CGC’s Station Manager and Administrative Assistant,  She brings over 25 years of experience and is excited and proud to be part of the team.  Lorena has 2 beautiful daughters, 2 adorable grandkids & Rocco, her fur-boy!

With a background in marine biology, Nathan originally set out to work solely within marine conservation but since moving to the island 5 years ago, he has developed a new passion for sustainable farming and the Cowichan region. He now owns and runs ‘Local Forage Farm’ in Glenora that focusses on ethically raised animals and an abundance of fruit and vegetables. He has also networked within the community and worked at a number of local farming businesses including Averill Creek Vineyards, Evening Cove Oysters, Haltwhistle Cheese Co, to name a few. Nathan’s new position within the food recovery team aligns his need to connect with community and move towards a more secure and sustainable food system

Nathan Harben

Laura Boyd-Clowes

Laura is a gardener who moved to the Cowichan Valley in 2017 after years of too-short growing seasons in Quebec and Alberta. Throughout her education in Philosophy and Ethnobotany, she spent summers working in landscaping and farm management, and now prefers to keep her hands dirty full-time. Laura is inspired by small farmers around the world, and is dedicated to making water-efficient, biodiverse, food-secure cities a reality. She is eager to share her enthusiasm for unusual vegetables and further explore the rich web of of people-plant relations in Duncan.

From a young age, Naomi has been passionate about the environment and growing food. After receiving a degree in Geography, her thoughts turned towards the future. She started to dream about living sustainably and growing most of her own food herself. Returning from a year away in Grande Prairie, Naomi started working in a 2-acre greenhouse as a “temporary” employee, staying for the next two years to learn as much as she could about farming and local food. In her final year she managed the greenhouse, further deepening her appreciation for local food growth. Returning to the work force after a year at home with her now toddler, Naomi is eager to learn all she can about permaculture and urban gardening. She is particularly excited to teach kids and youth about food production, and is hoping she can inspire young people to become just as excited about gardening as she is!

Naomi Kulhawy

Alyssa Krawchuk

Born and mostly raised in Ontario, Alyssa moved out to beautiful British Columbia in 2008. With her Bachelor’s Degree in Child and Youth Care, Alyssa’s passions lie in working with children, youth, and families to create an inclusive, safe, and vibrant community celebrating the gifts and strengths of all people. On the side, she thoroughly enjoys playing music, creating art, and taking in the beauty of Vancouver Island by going on mini adventures and hikes.

Janice has lived in the Cowichan Valley since her early teens and has been a passionate gardener and farmer for over 35 years. She has runs a small hobby farm, supplying the bulk of her and her family’s needs. Jan’s working career has revolved around plants, growing and creative construction.

Janice MacKirdy

Lauren Ziffle

Lauren moved from Winnipeg to Duncan in August 2019 to pursue her passion for agriculture. As a farm assistant, her goals are learning about permaculture, connecting with others who share a love for gardening, and growing her relationship with nature while strengthening her knowledge of food security. Exploring alternative and sustainable ways of living while working towards self-sufficiency and consciously creating an abundantly greener life is what she is currently working on. In her free time, she loves to draw, spend time with her loved ones, and listen to music.
  • Position: Farm Assistant
  • Email: laurenziffle@cowichangreencommunity.org

A father of 3 boys, gardener, cyclist, flyfisher and musician, Sandy has no trouble filling his days. Originally hailing from Alberta, Sandy visited Vancouver Island in June 2000 with friends intending to stay for only a month. Twenty years later, he still loves Vancouver Island and all of its natural beauty, and hopes to improve his community by strengthening food security and building relationships with like-minded people.

Sandy Munns

Lauren Bosch

Lauren is Medical Herbalist and plant-tender. She has a deep connection to plants and a desire to share them with others to meet their specific needs. Lauren is eager to continually integrate new plant-related arts to her repertoire, such as (herbal) medicine-making, ethical/sustainable wildcrafting, gardening, photography, etc. She has taken a range of courses on Botany, Horticulture, and Gardening and has expanded those to practical knowledge by getting her hands in the soil. Her role at the Cowichan Green Community is to pilot the Plant Nursery project, focusing on Medicinal and Native plants.

 

Julika just moved to Vancouver Island recently and will be working on CGC’s Community Food Access program as our Administrator and Outreach Coordinator. Before she moved, Julika operated a Zero Waste & Plant Based Catering company in Vancouver. She also has a background in Project Coordination for events & festivals, as well as the film industry. She’s passionate about community building, arts & culture as well as sustainability. After a few years of soul searching, she’s excited to finally get to work with an impact driven non-profit organization. As a nature lover, she’s also fully embracing her new country lifestyle.
  • Position: Manager, reFRESH Marketplace
  • Email: julika@cowichangreencommunity.org

Julika Pape

Tessa Stiven

Tessa is happiest with her hands in the soil, growing food, playing and learning from the land. She has spent the past decade working as an outdoor educator, guiding wilderness trips, building school gardens and creating community programming. Tessa believes that gardening is not only amazing for the soul, but also an important means to building healthy, ecologically-regenerative communities. Tessa is thrilled to be working on the Inclusive Farming Project at the Garden Education Centre.

Owen Vaags is a new team member working at the garden education centre on a job creation project. Having read the book “the fifth sacred thing” Owen fell in love with the study of Permaculture. After having completed his Permaculture Design Certificate, he looked into finding work where he could apply his knowledge and learn more about the world of organic farming and gardening and found his place at the Cowichan Green Community Society.
  • Position: Staff, Garden Education Centre

Owen Vaags

Hannah Auer

Hannah Auer is a homesteader and a community organizer, grateful to be living and creating on Quw’utsun territory. She is a mother of two beautiful wild children. Hannah is also a storyteller and fibre artist, and works with the local environmental arts collective, Mother Rising, working to breath art and ritual into environmental issues. She is working on The Resiliency Project at the Cowichan Green Community, building ecological resiliency and community connection through the Covid crisis.
  • Position: Project Coordinator, The Resiliency Project
  • Email: hannahsophia@cowichangreencommunity.org
Carolyn is an enthusiastic Earth advocate. Her passions are fueled by awe and wonder in the beauty and intricacy of the Earth’s many systems. A teacher by profession, Carolyn has worked with students of all ages. She takes great pride in organizing systems to increase efficient flow. Her spare time is spent making beeswax candles, in her vegetable garden or exploring with her dog. Carolyn is grateful to be working with the CGC and supporting healthy, sustainable food systems on the Island.
  • Position: Manager, Food Project
  • Email: carolyn@cowichangreencommunity.org

Carolyn Morris

Arianne Panet-Raymond

Arianne was born in Caracas, Venezuela from a French-Canadian mom and a Latino dad. The family left the country to live in Montreal, Canada.  She studied in and worked using her three native languages: English, French and Spanish. Currently, Arianne is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management in Sherbrooke University. She wants to specialise in Food Studies after spending years volunteering in her local food bank and in urban agriculture initiatives back in Montreal. Now an intern at CGC, Arianne wants to transfer everything she learned during her internship to improve food security back in Montreal.
  • Position: Office Intern
  • Email: arianne@cowichangreencommunity.org
Laura was born and raised in Victoriaville, Quebec. When she left the family nest, she started travelling all over Quebec looking for the next adventure. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, she had returned to her hometown to apply the skills she had gathered through her Environmental Studies bachelor’s thus far, helping the local community with urban agriculture. She is now an Intern at CGC to learn more about food security through an environmental lens in order to benefit the community!
  • Position: Office Intern
  • Email: laurab@cowichangreencommunity.org

Laura Bernier

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