We promote, encourage and support community-level actions and initiatives that move Calgary towards a sustainable future.
David Barrett
Board Member
David is an active member of his community, a researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences, and a sessional instructor in the Department of Geography at the University of Calgary. Scientifically, David's research focuses on freshwater systems in cold-regions, and the impacts of anthropogenic activity and climate change. His researcher aims to address emerging management issues related to the health of aquatic ecosystems in Alberta. As a result, he can often be found in waders, walking around in the Bow River collecting water quality samples and bugs. He is also an active member in a number of regional non-profit organizations and is passionate about improving the management and understanding of the environment for non-scientists. Additionally, he is actively involved in a number of initiatives encouraging and advocating for sustainable growth and change in Calgary.
Brett Bergie
Board Member, Chair
Brett Bergie works in the areas of communications, government relations, and organizational governance and policy. Based in Calgary, Alberta, she pursues simple and local pleasures with her family.
She is a community advocate for safe streets, active mobility, and people-centric spaces in cities. Brett moves through her city and region on zero- and low-emissions transport, and she lives in the first apartment-style condo building in Calgary constructed without any private automobile infrastructure whatsoever.
Brett has a baccalaureate degree in history and politics and a masters degree in professional communications. In 2015, she co-authored a book chapter, "The Twitter citizen: problematizing traditional media dominance in an online political discussion” in Hashtag Publics: The Power and Politics of Discursive Networks by Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.: New York.
Lucia Blanco
Landscape Architecture Consultant
Lucia Blanco is a Mexican interior architect from the University of the Americas Puebla (UDLAP) and is currently pursuing a Master of Landscape Architecture at School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture in Calgary. She has worked for several years in the Government of Mexico City’s experimental urbanism office, the Laboratory for the City (LabCDMX), where she co-lead a series of public space interventions and design guidelines centred on the concepts of urban play and learning. In 2019, she received the Chancellor Cuthbertson Environmental Design Graduate Entrance Scholarship with which she has been able to extend her practice into the design of playful environments for children living in cities. At Sustainable Calgary, Lucia explores new possibilities to integrate playful landscapes into Calgary’s streetscape.
Projects: Streets as Playful Places, The Confluence, Stepping Towards a Greener Tomorrow, Connaught Open Street, Meridian Active Alley
John Campbell
Volunteer
John Campbell returned to Calgary in the fall of 2017 after spending nearly 25 years on the west coast where he worked as a magazine writer, editor, and photographer specializing in the sport, culture, and art of motorcycles. In that time he journeyed extensively by motorcycle across Canada and the United States and produced countless stories from the open road that featured his photos and writing. Through his work as a motorcycle photojournalist, John pioneered a working relationship between the motorcycle publishing sector and the Canadian tourism industry. Today numerous partner regions across the country have established scenic “Motorcycle Routes” with designated signage and “Motorcycle Friendly” businesses to attract touring motorcyclists. With his return to Calgary, John is still actively involved with the two-wheel community but his passions have expanded to include the pedal-bike variety and he now spends countless hours roaming the bicycle paths, trails, and cycle tracks of the city seeking adventure, story ideas, and photo-ops.
Chloe Chan
Activation Lead, Alumnus
Chloe is a recent graduate from the University of Calgary where she has B.A's in Political Science and International Relations. Here, she specialized in studying how physical and digital spaces affect the social sphere. At Sustainable Calgary, she has worked on the Connaught Open Street project, combining her education with practical experience in placemaking.
When she's not working, she can be found biking around Calgary and drawing scenes of the city.
Monisha Deol
Engagement Lead
Monisha is a student at the University of Calgary graduating soon with a Bachelor of Commerce. She has also obtained an Embedded Certificate of Sustainability, which is where her passion for sustainability began. In particular, she is fascinated by tactical urbanism, social sustainability, and community development. After graduation, Monisha is hoping to pursue a career or higher education in the sustainability sector. Outside of work, Monisha loves hanging out with family and friends, and spending her time doing something artsy.
Deepak Dayal
Research, Alumnus
Deepak has been working for Alberta Health Services since 2012 supporting various mental health outreach programs. He is strongly interested in how climate and the built environment impact health outcomes, specifically mental health. He obtained a BSc. in Anthropology from the University of Calgary and is currently completing his masters in public health through the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is an avid traveller who loves to discover how cities live and breath. He plays basketball in his spare time and is a board game aficionado.
Victoria Fast
Volunteer
Victoria Fast is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Calgary. Specializing in urban geographic information systems, Dr. Fast uses participatory methods to engage government, citizens, and NGOs on issues related to building smart cities that are socially just and sustainable. Most recently, she draws on research themes related to open data, volunteered geographic information, accessibility analytics to study and support better integration of people with disabilities into the smart city.
Poornima Jayasinghe
Vollunteer
Poornima is passionate about both research and teaching, and she has a strong desire to protect the environment and the lives of others. Over the last 15+ years, she had the opportunity to work with real-world community-based projects such as ‘analysis of energy utilization’ and ‘sustainable bioreactor landfill’, both in collaborations with City of Calgary. Poornima is currently affiliated with CREATE-IISC (Integrated Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities) program based at the University of Calgary as the Program Manager. She has been also serving as an instructor and contributing to undergraduate and graduate level teaching in two post-secondary institutions in Calgary: UofC and SAIT. Her work has been recognized at many national and international conferences, and she has received several prestigious awards for research and teaching excellence.
Her research interests span the areas of integrated and sustainable solid waste management, application of sustainable practices to industrial processes through circular design, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and sustainable community development through integrated infrastructure concept. Poornima holds a doctorate degree and a master’s degree, both specialized in Environmental Engineering and bachelor's degree in Chemical and Process Engineering. She was born and raised in Sri Lanka and living in Calgary since 2006.
Tripty Kaur
Landscape Architecture, Alumnus
Tripty Kaur is an Indian Architect graduated from Indraprastha University in Delhi. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Landscape Architecture (MLA) at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture from the University of Calgary. She has worked on various Institutional campus design projects in India where she developed design strategies for academic, residential and public spaces for the university campuses. With her growing interest in public space design she is now exploring the tangible and intangible aspects of urban design and ecology with the focus on landscape urbanism. With Sustainable Calgary, she has worked on the ongoing Catwalks project by designing an underutilized catwalk connection in the Rundle community in order to make it safer and part of a larger pedestrian and cycling network.
Projects: Reimagine Catwalks, Stepping Towards a Greener Tomorrow, Martindale Calm Collector
Noel Keough
Co-Founder
Noel is a co-founder of Sustainable Calgary Society and Civic Camp Calgary and Assistant Professor of Sustainable Design at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Environmental Design. His research interests include community sustainability indicators; affordable living; sustainable and low carbon cities and social economy. Since 1996 Noel has worked a lead researcher or consultant on 5 ‘State of Our City’ community sustainability indicator reports for Sustainable Calgary Society as well as indicator projects for Banff, Alberta and as a member of the Canadian Index of Well-being National Advisory Group. A focus of Noel’s work has been citizen-led participatory approaches to indicator design and reporting. His research includes evaluation of indicator project outcomes – what difference do they make? Noel is also a principal with PLAN NET Ltd International Development consulting and over the past 25 years has been involved in project and program evaluation, design and management in Asia, Africa, Latin American and the Middle East.
Madeline Kleinfeld
Master of Public Health Intern
Madeline is currently completing her Master of Public Health degree in Social Policy through the University of Victoria. She brings with her a well-rounded understanding of public health phenomena, also holding a Bachelor of Health Sciences in Public Health from the University of Lethbridge. Madeline has spent much of her education exploring the impact of the built environment on health. She is particularly passionate about children’s health and brings her experience developing children’s programming to the team. Her undergraduate research titled Determinants of Outdoor Time in Children and Youth: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal and Intervention Studies was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Madeline will be working on the Connaught Open Street project at Sustainable Calgary, where she will perform research to inform its hopeful expansion. She enjoys keeping busy in her down time by spending time outside, taking fitness classes at local studios, and through various art forms including paint, clay, and dance.
David Kowel
Project Manager
David is working towards his B.Sc in Civil Engineering with a minor in Energy and Environment at the University of Calgary. With a strong interest in the sustainability of our built environment he is always eager to learn and expand his knowledge base of design-oriented solutions to social and environmental issues within our city. He has experience leading other sustainability initiatives outside of Sustainable Calgary such as a coffee cup waste reduction program at the University of Calgary and an affordable, sustainable housing initiative geared around the contextual viability of micro homes with Grow Calgary.
Projects: The Confluence, Stepping Towards a Greener Tomorrow, Connaught Open Street, Meridian Active Alley, Martindale Calm Collector
Roxanne LeBlanc
Volunteer
With my background in social work and public health I have spent the majority of my career working with non-profits, primarily in community development and health promotion. For the past 10 years I have focused on active and motorized transportation and the built environment. Safer Calgary and the Safe and Smooth initiative, Alberta Health Services WalkAble project, Active and Safe Routes to School and now Sustainable Calgary’s Active Neighborhoods Canada are examples of the work I have been involved with. As a resident of Calgary for 40 years, I have spent a lot of time on city roads and pathways as a pedestrian, cyclist, transit rider and motorist. Working to make Calgary a more active and sustainable city is my dream, not only for myself but for ALL Calgarians.
Projects: Active Neighbourhoods Canada, Healthy Places, Reimagine Catwalks, Stepping Towards a Greener Tomorrow
Celia Lee
Executive Director
Celia specializes in designing and implementing research for the non-profit and government sectors, on topics ranging from poverty to the social economy, material culture, environmental economics, environmental design and sustainability. She shares her professional time between Sustainable Calgary, consulting, and singing with groups including Early Music Voices, Luminous Voices, and the Rosa Barocca Orchestra. Through Sustainable Calgary she has led a made-in-Alberta approach to “codesigning” healthy neighbourhoods, and collaborated to integrate new knowledge on healthy cities in policy and practice. In addition to work on healthy cities, Celia has co-authored work such as The Cost of Poverty in Ontario (2019), Every Ninth Child in Ontario (2015) and Poverty Costs (2012) in Alberta, each aimed at informing policy decisions. Celia holds a Bachelor in Environmental Biology and a Master of Environmental Design.
Ryan Martinson
Volunteer
Ryan believes that people should challenge themselves. His philosophy? “You have to get out of your comfort zone and learn how to say ‘yes!’” Ryan is a leader in the active and sustainable transportation field with Martinson-Golly, and has been involved with numerous game-changing transportation projects —all with the goal of creating stronger communities and better cities (including Calgary's Centre City Cycle Track project!) Because of his approach to transportation planning and his understanding of how these concepts apply in real situations, Ryan has been invited to present his expertise to communities, municipalities, and professional organizations. His goal is to make places better for people to travel through: on foot and by bicycle. When he’s not working, he’s volunteering for community organizations or spending time with his family.
Byron Miller
Volunteer
Byron Miller worked as an urban planner for the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, in the early 1980s, spent three years living and studying in Freiburg, Germany, earned a Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Minnesota in 1995, and taught at the University of Cincinnati (1993-2000) before taking his current position at the University of Calgary as Coordinator of the Urban Studies Program. Here he teaches courses on urbanization and urban planning, urban social geography, urban politics and governance, globalization, and field courses on urban sustainability in Europe. He has been a board member of Sustainable Calgary since 2008 and served on numerous City of Calgary planning committees, and currently serves on the Community Representation Framework Task Force. He was appointed to serve on the Plan-It Implementation Committee (2009-2010), addressing the implementation of Calgary’s new 60 year Master Development and Transportation Plan (“Plan-It”). He is author/co-editor of: Geography and Social Movements(2000), Spaces of Contention (2013), and the forthcoming Handbook on the Spaces of Urban Politics (2018).
Bob Morrison
Volunteer
Bob Morrison is a planner with over forty years of experience in water management, transportation, public involvement, and, as a citizen advocate, analysis of urban development, health care, and municipal finance. A graduate of Eckerd College with a self-designed major in urban studies, he has worked for a socio-economic consulting firm, the Government of Alberta, and, on project secondment to engineering firms, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. In addition to technical documents on issues ranging from institutional analysis to aesthetics, his publications include articles for his newsletter Moving Beyond Now, newspaper opinion pieces, a commentary on the libretto for Handel’s Messiah, and submissions to governments as a co-founder of Calgary’s CivicCamp. He is a member of the Board for Sustainable Calgary and a member of the Community Advisory Board for KSPS, the PBS station in Spokane.
Eimer Niilo
Administration
Eimer Niilo was born in Dublin, Ireland. Eimer has traveled and worked in many countries throughout the world, including in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, India, the United States, Australia and across Southeast Asia. She now lives in Calgary with her family. Eimer’s previous work experience includes project management in publishing and managing teams in bustling market and branding studios. Eimer is a true team player, and she brings to PlanNET her innate ability to organize and her talent for inspiration.
Srimal Ranasinghe
Community Lead
Srimal Ranasinghe originally hails from Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates, but has called Canada home since 2004. He has worked with people from all walks of life around the world. From piloting a youth leadership program with groups of Indigenous youth in Western Canada, to providing addictions and mental health counselling to teens, and facilitating community outreach programs in collaboration with members of the South Sudanese community in Calgary, he is a seasoned hand at working in partnership with diverse communities. Volunteering with groups such as his local community association, church, Calgary Folk Music Festival, and Leadership Calgary leaves him well-connected to Calgary's non-profit sector. Srimal holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of British Columbia, and a Master of Environmental Design from the University of Calgary. In his spare time, Srimal enjoys reading, biking, strumming his guitar and coming up with terrible puns.
Mindi Summers
Board Member
Mindi Summers is an Associate Professor (Teaching) in the department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. She designs innovative teaching and mentoring practices to involve undergraduate students in biodiversity and conservation research, and helps build community partnerships for students to apply their biological knowledge to sustainability. Mindi's research and outreach efforts focus on pollinators, and her collaborative work led to the University of Calgary being designated a Bee Campus in 2020. Through this designation, she works with the campus community and The City of Calgary to study and promote urban pollinator conservation.
Breanne Sayles
Board Member
Breanna is currently completing her Master of Biological Sciences degree at the University of Calgary. Her research is focused on the impacts of municipal wastewater treatment on the aquatic food web within the Bow River. Additionally, she works as an Indigenous Water Use Research Assistant, where she facilitates research and discussion with members living downstream of the City of Calgary to better understand their water and land related concerns. Her previous experience includes wildlife rehabilitation, sustainable workplace consulting, and environmental education in the form of Citizen Science with children, youth, and adult groups. Outside of her academic and professional commitments, Breanna is often at the kickboxing gym or hanging out with her family, friends, and pets.
Fateme Taridashti
Board Member
Fateme is an international graduate student from Iran. She is doing a PhD program in Aquatic Ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences, at the University of Calgary. Broadly, Fateme’s PhD research is for a project called Bow River Ecosystem Health Assessment. Specifically, she is doing field-based research aiming to identify the contribution of stormwater from the Nose Creek Watershed in the Bow River. Fateme is interested in doing research on water health and monitoring of aquatic ecosystems. She is passionate about improving water securities and raising public’s awareness about environmental issues and water health. Fateme was a former active member of Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) focusing on protecting the environment and natural resources of Guilan Province, Iran.
Ann Toohey
Board Member, Treasurer
Ann Toohey is the Scientific Coordinator for the University of Calgary’s Brenda Strafford Centre on Aging. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, where she completed her PhD in 2018. Her inter-disciplinary research program has integrated evolving understandings of the health-promoting potential of human-animal relationships for older adults into frameworks for developing age-friendly cities. Her approach delves into policy implications of promoting aging-in-place in ways that also promote social justice. Ann has also worked in both municipal government and non-profit sectors in a variety of capacities, including facility-based research and policy development, funds development, and communications. Her past volunteer contributions have included a number of environmental and ecological initiatives concerned with balancing human activity and environmental consideration.
Jon Yee
Board Member
Jon is a published subject matter expert in education for sustainable development with over 13 years of experience working in 15 different countries. Jon's experience and background in the private and public sector have culminated into his expertise in advising and implementing projects, programmes, and policies with various nonprofits, governments, and United Nations organizations. His work also focuses on climate change education and media and information literacy. He is a former 3-term member of the Sectoral Commission for Culture, Communication, and Information for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and a 2-term member of UNESCO’s Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development. Jon has lived in Calgary for the past 9 years and enjoys hiking, snowboarding, tennis, and piano.
Chris Zhen
Activation Lead
I am currently a fourth-year university student at the University of Calgary, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies. While I am in the final stretch of my undergraduate program, I am setting my sights on furthering my education with a master's degree in urban planning. My passion lies in exploring city programs, social spaces, and particularly the urban processes that influence everyday urban life. During my free time, I enjoy attending seminars and workshops that focus on enhancing urban spaces and highlighting city issues. I particularly enjoy collaborating with professional developers to discuss urban challenges and explore potential solutions.
Collaborators
Jessie Andjelic
Jessie Andjelic has worked with notable architecture firms Sturgess Architecture in Calgary and Powerhouse Company in Rotterdam, and has led design teams on four competition wins. Her range of projects includes private houses, multi-family and mixed-use housing, civic centres, university buildings and masterplans. She graduated from the University of Calgary in 2009 and was recognized with the University of Calgary Faculty of Environmental Design Gold Medal, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) Student Gold Medal, and in 2019 the RAIC Young Architect Prize. Jessie co-founded SPECTACLE in 2013 and currently works as a design studio sessional instructor at the University of Calgary.
Amritpal Khakh
GIS Analyst and Research
Amrit is currently working as a Senior Analyst/Research Associate (GIS) at Alberta Health Services. She holds a Master of Geographic Information Systems degree from the University of Calgary. She is a GIS specialist, a public health researcher and health equity advocate. Her thesis focused on measuring spatial accessibility of primary healthcare facilities in the city of Calgary for multimodal means of travel. The purpose was to quantify access and identify underserved areas and to extend this research beyond the traditional approach of measuring access by a private mode of travel. She has honed strong quantitative spatial analysis and cartographic skills by working in research and operations settings in Alberta and British Columbia. At Sustainable Calgary, she provides GIS expertise for the Active Neighbourhoods project. Besides GIS and Public health, Amrit enjoys trying different cuisines, watching good television shows, traveling and spending time with family.
Iuliana Morar
Iuliana Morar is a Landscape Designer and Emerging Artist with a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Calgary. Growing up in the mountains, her passion sits at the intersection between land, experiences and people and her work is constantly exploring the forms and functions a public realm can take, in the urban, natural and residential realm. With her deep interest in the conservation of natural world, she seeks to align her personal and professional life through the practice of landscape architecture, land art and research. Iuliana is a standing Public Artist for the City of Calgary for Place-making through public art. She is a standing sub-contractor for GH Collaborative, collaborating on projects in Alberta, BC and Nunavut. An award-winning professional, she has worked on alternative parking lot concepts since 2018, winning the Tactical Award with Celia Lee, at the international MOVEMENT competition.
Asawari Modak
Asawari is an Architect who graduated from Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey. She is pursuing a Master of Planning (MPlan) at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture in Calgary. Through her work in the public and private sector of Turkey, along with her internships in India and Kenya, she has explored various aspects of architecture, planning and urban design projects in different parts of the world. At Sustainable Calgary, she is working on engagement strategy development with the public and private sector to formulate a framework with disposable tools for a Healthy Alberta Initiative.
Philip Vandermey
Philip Vandermey is an architect and urbanist, and a Founding Partner of SPECTACLE. He has contributed to work published in Canadian Architect, Architect, Mark and MONU Magazines, and that has been awarded with a Best of Canada Award, two Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence, a P/A Award, and the University of Calgary RAIC Student Gold Medal. Prior to co-founding SPECTACLE, Philip was a project architect with Barcode Architects in Rotterdam. He has worked on a wide range of project types around the world, including master plans, train stations, housing, offices, schools, public spaces, museums, and libraries. He teaches part-time at the University of Calgary as a sessional instructor and is a LEED Accredited Professional.