BE THE CHANGE GROUP - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Animator
Languages
Spanish
Bio
Alberto is a seasoned animator and motion designer, dedicated to working at the intersection of digital media, design, art, and technology. With a depth of experience, he brings comprehensive expertise to the entire animation process, including scriptwriting, animation, illustration, and direction. His impressive international portfolio features a diverse range of clients from NGOs to startups to artists.
Alberto also creates animated short films, and has earned accolades and recognition from prestigious film festivals such as Animasivo, Locomoción, FotoFilm Festival, and Festival de Animación Animal. Outside of his professional pursuits, he enjoys basketball, creative writing, illustration, board games, and movies.
Alberto holds a Bachelor's Degree in Architecture from ITESM (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education), a Certificate in Innovation and Design Thinking from CEDIM, and a Certificate in Film Directing from Facultad de Cine in Mexico City.
Job Titles:
- Financial Administrator
- Member of the Dream Team
Detail oriented and sharp with numbers, Alejandra manages financials, budgets, and invoicing. She plays a key role in keeping the company's financial health on track.
With more than 10 years of experience in finance and administration, as well as her strong organizational skills, analytical thinking, and work ethic, she is a valued member of our team.
With a passion for adventure, Alejandra arrived from Chile along with her husband and son, seeking for new opportunities and cultural enrichment. She loves meeting new people, and discovering new places, talking with people and sharing stories. She's 100% a dog lover, and can always make time for chocolate and coffee.
Alejandra holds a Bachelor's Degree (with distinction) in Business Administration from Universidad Austral de Chile and a Diploma in Finance and Investments from Universidad Adolfo Ibanez (Chile). In 2023, she graduated from the Post Degree Diploma in Business Administration program at Langara College.
Job Titles:
- Designer
- Member of the Dream Team
Delivering design research, data visualization, user testing, social media content, and web and report design, Alma also works closely with our research and communications teams to identify and overcome communications and accessibility challenges via visual language. She brings positivity, open-mindedness, humility, curiosity, and compassion to each project she works on, and ensures that every client objective is entirely satisfied in our final designs.
Alma has a background in finding creative solutions to complex problems, having worked as a junior product designer for Mustang Survival, where she developed her sewing and pattern drafting skills and learned industry standard procedures in pattern design software. She also worked at Emergco Aerospace where she constructed rescue products used for helicopter external cargo.
While Alma found working on life-saving products rewarding, she wanted to expand her skillset and work to effect systemic change and improve people's quality of life through empathetic, human-centred projects. In joining Be the Change Group, Alma seized the opportunity to tackle environmental, social, and health issues, and collaborate with others who want to make a positive impact. She has impacted us too, upgrading our recycling and compost systems so relentlessly that she was named "office sustainability officer"-a position we didn't even know we had!
Alma graduated with a degree in Product Design from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Wilson School of Design.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Project Manager
- Senior Researcher
With over ten years of research and project management experience supporting B.C.'s public health organizations and agencies, Ange brings expertise in quantitative research methodologies and data analysis, facilitating focus groups and key informant interviews, data preparation and management, community engagement, policy analysis, and systematic literature reviews. She has also planned, implemented, and monitored the daily operations and scientific activities for a variety of public health program evaluations and other research projects, both in the academic and nonprofit sectors.
Prior to joining our team, much of Ange's work focused on early childhood development and understanding how programs and services can best meet the social and emotional needs of children and their families. In addition, Ange had also worked on community-based research projects with both adolescents and young adults, as well as women either involved in or affected by the criminal justice system.
Ange is grateful that research can play a role in advocating for and improving people's health and well-being. She wholeheartedly believes in its capacity to foster healthy communities, and hopes her work can contribute to positive social change by identifying sustainable, evidence-based solutions that are also human-centred and compassionate.
Ange holds a Bachelor of Human Kinetics from the University of British Columbia, and a Master of Public Health from Simon Fraser University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- VP of Projects and Client Experience
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Digital and Creative Project Coordinator
A member of our Design and Development team, Barkha brings her enthusiasm, determination, skills, and experience to client projects and internal team communications in order to drive projects to successful completion and create meaningful change.
With past experience as a program officer for a non-profit organization in India, Barkha has a strong understanding of public health, maternal health, and youth health. Since initiating and developing a project involving artificial intelligence to provide health-related information to girls in rural areas, she has fostered a passion for project management combined with technology, while developing her organizational, operations management, proposal writing, and website management acumen.
Barkha is committed to continuous learning and self-improvement, and is excited to acquire more certifications in her field. Aside from work and studies, she likes to travel, explore nature, and feast on good food!
Barkha holds a Masters in Business Administration from Trinity Western University, Canada and a Bachelor in Technology (Computer Science) from Jamia Hamdard, India.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Co - Founder
- Creative Director
- Member of the Dream Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Co - Founder of Youth RISE
- Drug Policy Specialist
Caitlin is the co-founder of Youth RISE, an international, youth-led network that advocates for the reduction of drug-related harm and is grounded in human-rights based policies. She has worked in Cambodia and Southeast Asia in the fields of HIV/AIDS advocacy and education, drug policy, and human rights initiatives, and regularly speaks, facilitates, and moderates sessions and panels at high-level meetings within United Nations agencies, international organizations, and conferences. In addition, she has worked on a variety of documentaries and video-based awareness campaigns, and owns a thriving holistic health coaching practice working with women who struggle with problematic alcohol use.
Job Titles:
- Illustrator
- Member of the Dream Team
Bio
Carlie prides herself on her visually multi-faceted work, and brings diverse conceptualization techniques to our projects to develop visually pleasing, engaging, and highly communicative imagery.
Since beginning working in illustration and design in 2011, Carlie has partnered with several organizations and worked in the fields of surface design, editorial illustration, branding and identity, childrenʼs illustration, layout design, and product photography. Every aspect of Carlieʼs work values creativity, openmindedness, forward thinking, and honesty, and contributes to meaningful and relevant visual communication.
Carlie holds a Certificate of Art Fundamentals and a Bachelor of Illustration (honours) from Sheridan College.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Senior Communications Designer
Celia has always been curious about everything around her. From a young age, this curiosity took the form of an interest in the natural world, so a path in life sciences and resource conservation seemed to be a fitting career choice-until it wasn't enough anymore. The need to fulfill her creative side and a natural flair in storytelling eventually landed her in communication design, where she has flourished ever since.
Celia enjoys breaking down complex problems to find creative solutions, with an eye for detailed pixel-perfect executions. Her favourite design teacher once said, "art creates dissent; design creates consensus," and Celia holds this as a personal motto to remind herself that communication and consensus building is a natural part of the design process, and applies it to her work in user-centred design, brand and visual identity development, and art direction.
With over eight years of experience elevating brands and products, Celia was drawn to Be the Change Group by the opportunity to support positive human-centred projects that can benefit the greater good. She bases her work on empathy, honesty, and maintaining a sense of fun. She's also known for knitting and crocheting up a storm in her spare time, all with impeccable design direction, of course.
Celia holds a BSc in Natural Resources Conservation from UBC, and a diploma of Digital Design from Vancouver Film School.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Dream Team
- President
- Research Director
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Photographer and Illustrator
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Registered Nurse
- Practice Specialist
- Public Health Specialist
Geoffrey is a Registered Nurse, published clinical researcher, and public health expert with over a decade of experience in infectious disease, sexual health, health promotion and clinical policy. He is experienced in knowledge translation, implementation of science research, curriculum development, facilitation, and leading multidisciplinary teams.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Office and Culture Lead
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Web Developer
Joel is a dedicated learner who enjoys staying up to date with new technologies and frameworks and thrives on collaborating to creatively overcome challenging real and technical challenges. Driven by a desire to bring greater equity and justice to the world, Joel has a background in community development, which has given him the opportunity to see the impact of development programs in communities that lack basic resources. He loves partnering with organizations dedicated to supporting communities in reaching their full potential.
Outside of work, Joel enjoys spending quality time with his friends and family, building community, exploring new restaurants, and participating in a variety of physical activities such as golf, hockey, tennis, and hiking.
Joel studied International Development at the University of Calgary, and graduated with a Diploma in Web Development from Lighthouse Labs.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Senior Gender Advisor
Joya Banerjee is a global health and development professional with 20 years of experience in gender-based violence (GBV); gender-transformative programming; sexual reproductive health and rights; maternal, child and adolescent health; and HIV and AIDS. She currently serves as the Senior Gender Advisor at Be the Change Group, a technical and creative population health, education and climate consulting firm. Previously, Joya has worked across the development, nexus and humanitarian settings at CARE, Jhpiego, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNFPA.
Joya received a BA in Human Rights and Political Science cum laude from Barnard College in 2004, and a Master of Science in Global Health and Population from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2010. She has a broad array of field experience in 14 low and middle-income countries, most substantively in India, South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda and Chile. Joya has worked across sectors as a program implementer, quantitative and qualitative researcher, policy and advocacy specialist, feminist and racial justice activist, grant-maker, fundraiser and non-profit founding director. She has authored 17 peer-reviewed articles on GBV, gender, sexual reproductive health and rights, and maternal newborn child and adolescent health.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Researcher and Strategist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Communications Designer
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Developer Team Lead
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Project Coordinator
- Researcher
As part of our research team, Sadie supports background and literature reviews, research and evaluation methodology development, qualitative data collection and analysis, and project coordination. Throughout this work, she applies her academic foundation in Health Sciences to confidently analyze varied and complex population and public health issues.
Passionate about human rights, health equity, and inclusion and diversity initiatives, Sadie believes research has the power to address oppressive programs, organizational structures, and institutions. Her academic and professional experience in sexual and gender equity work guides Sadie in developing safe, appropriate, and culturally relevant data collection tools with an intersectional approach as they connect to race, sexuality, class, nation, and ability.
Sadie continuously advocates for the importance of involving community in the research process. When working with the Relationship and Gender Equity Measurement Among Gender-Inclusive Young Women and Non-Binary Youth in BC (RE-IMAGYN BC) Study, she gained first-hand experience employing community-based research principles to plan a youth-led, community-based, qualitative research study by, with, and for queer and trans young women and non-binary youth. Accordingly, Sadie understands the importance of giving community members a voice, as local knowledge and expertise can help refine research questions, design, and methodology, enhancing the validity and reliability and research findings.
Sadie is also a champion of the 2022 Canadian and World Evaluation Student Case Competitions. Her ability to evaluate various programs in effective and creative ways while collaborating effectively under pressure helps our team achieve successful project outcomes.
Sadie holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Health Studies and Gender Studies with a Certificate in Sexual and Gender Diversity from Queen's University, and a Master of Public Health from Simon Fraser University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Key Member
- Research Team Lead
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dream Team
- Communications Designer