Board of Directors
Jan Bird
After working and living around the world Jan made Roberts Creek home 9 years ago. She was a Board member of the Sunshine Coast Resource Centre and Co-chair for 3 years during a period of growth and dynamic change. This, along with participation in other coast wide initiatives such as Poverty Reduction and the Patients Advisory Table provided Jan with insights into the critical issues facing the community and the impetus to join the PICs Board. The emphasis from the PICs team to promote innovation and learning, to build community potential and their commitment to influence policy is something she is now excited to be part of. Jan’s working life has always been focused on supporting individuals, communities and grass root organizations overcome disadvantage and take more control over their own lives. In Scotland she worked in community and organizational development. Jan helped develop a national knowledge hub on tackling poverty and urban regeneration. As a UK Fellow of the Office of Public Management she developed innovative ways to engage with communities. For the UK Government she led a policy team providing evidence-based policy to alleviate neighbourhood poverty. In the Dominican Republic, UK, New Zealand, and now in Canada Jan works with individuals to help improve communication and resolve conflicts; and with organisations to help develop effective planning processes built on knowledge, evaluation and learning.
Lindsay Cole
Dr. Lindsay Cole has worked at the intersections of public policy, sustainability, innovation, and adult learning for many years as an interdisciplinary community- engaged scholar, civil servant, educator, and consultant. Her research, teaching, and professional practice bring together multiple disciplines, practitioner intelligences, and real-world challenges in creative, experimental, and learning-filled experiences. Her work is in service of uncovering, imagining, planning, and walking pathways of transformation toward socio-economic and ecological justice, wellbeing, and liberation together. She first moved to the Sunshine Coast in 2002, and currently lives in xwesam with her teenage son, pair of cats, and small flock of chickens.
Natalie Gerum
BOARD MEMBER
For more than 15 spins around the sun, Natalie has worked in K-12 classrooms, post-secondary campuses, and communities across Canada to lead the design, delivery, and assessment of initiatives in transformative experiential learning, youth leadership development, and creative community change.
She thrives when bringing together unlikely allies, and aims to ask better questions of how might collaboration, curiousity, and courage support systemic solutions to the complex social and ecological problems facing the planet. From lecture halls to lettuce fields, from the backcountry to boardrooms, from community halls to canoes, Natalie uses her skills in place-conscious engagement to root people in the processes – governmental, environmental, interpersonal - shaping their lived possibilities, and then builds joyful community through real, responsive, and resilient action. As she continues her own antiracist and decolonizing learning, Natalie is thankful to so many generous teachers and is committed to supporting teams in their growing orientations to justice and equity.
Natalie is grateful to be raising her two young children alongside her partner amongst salmon berries, cedar trees, and humpback whales, and spends as much time being in wonder and in play with the lands and waters of her bioregion as she can.
Pat Hunt
BOARD MEMBER
Pat’s personal goals are to help build capacity, influence positive change, and to strengthen the lives of the people who live here by finding funding and making the connections to tackle some of the critical issues in our community. To that end she has been chairing the Partners in Change Society after it’s incorporation as a not-for-profit society in 2021. Social innovation has been at the core of PICS and with the feisty PICS team she continues this overwhelming challenge. Pat worked in all aspects of community recreation from1978-1995, retiring as a senior manager from the City of Ottawa’s Recreation Department. She then worked as a consultant with Active Living and Sport organizations across Canada finally retiring in 2014. Her specialty areas were program design and development, staff training and motivation and advocacy training. She holds a BA from Carleton University and has her PHD in life!! After spending 43 years living, working, raising three children and volunteering in Ottawa, Pat and her husband Bob picked up stakes and moved to Sechelt in 2006 to be closer to family. And what a good decision this was. Pat’s three beautiful children have also led to six wonderful grandchildren and being an active part of their lives is one of her greatest joys.
Janice Iverson
BOARD MEMBER
For most of her career, Janice worked in corporate communications and community economic development, but she entered a more flexible and creative chapter in 2020.Looking back at her mid-20s as a photojournalist in Alberta, Janice now understands more fully why her journey has always held an undertone of curiosity, adventure and wondering why. A few decades of her career involved leading teams within the field of corporate social responsibility, working with businesses that wanted to do better, and with non-profit organizations that desired deep and thoughtful corporate partnerships. It was during this time Janice learned that changing outdated systems meant changing ourselves and the way we show up, listen and learn. In 2020, Janice stepped down as Executive Director at Community Futures Sunshine Coast, where impact investing and community lending became a new passion. The Partners in Change Society was incubated as an idea within the Community Futures organization, and it lives today, after many iterations, as a community intention to catalyze and support social innovation and social finance on the Sunshine Coast. Janice is also on the Sunshine Coast Foundation board, a volunteer strategic advisor with the Coast Investment Co-op, and a non-profit leadership coach with Thriving Non-Profits/Scale Collaborative. Home for the past nine years, and hopefully forever, is within the beautiful territory of Shíshálh Nation on the Sunshine Coast, BC.
Amanda Prince-Lea
Amanda brings extensive experience in research, social services, public health, and community organizations to drive impactful initiatives and foster collaboration, ultimately effecting positive change in communities. With a keen eye for strategic planning, development, and leadership skills, she has consistently spearheaded initiatives to address societal challenges and promote community well-being. As a consultant, Amanda has led community engagement, conducted need assessments and research, and facilitated strategic planning sessions for various organizations. Her work has been instrumental in guiding these organizations towards sustainable growth and impact. During her time working in Vancouver's inner city and downtown east side, Amanda forged strong partnerships across sectors to address complex social challenges, developing and leading numerous initiatives and programs, including creating the Vancouver Rent Bank to tackle homelessness and housing insecurity through innovative solutions and community collaboration. With a Master of Public Health from Simon Fraser University, specializing in Social Inequities in Health, and a Bachelor of Commerce from Concordia University, Amanda brings a unique blend of analytical rigour and business acumen to her community practice. Driven by a profound commitment to social justice and equity, Amanda remains steadfast in her mission to drive positive change and empower communities to thrive.
Darnelda Siegers
BOARD CHAIR
Darnelda and her husband relocated from Alberta to the Sunshine Coast in 2009. In 2011, she was elected to the District of Sechelt Council. She was Mayor for the District for the last 4 of her 11 years there. During that time, she was also the District representative to the Sunshine Coast Regional District Board. In her elected roles, Darnelda brought her focus on the importance of community connection and social innovation to the fore. She was a government liaison to such diverse groups and boards as the Sunshine Coast Community Forest, Sechelt Library, Senior’s Planning Table, Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Business Association, Community Action Team (CAT) and many others. She was the catalyst for the creation of the Sunshine Coast Emergency Task Force and the Housing Action Table, both coastwide initiatives. Darnelda truly believes that if we keep doing the things we’ve always been doing, we’ll keep getting the results we’ve always been getting. If we can step back and take the time to get really clear and focused on the results we want to achieve, and reach out to others in the community with like minded vision, together we can innovate and collaborate to reach our goals. Over the last few years, the dynamic interrelationships between housing, labour shortages, health challenges, mental health and substance abuse, seniors care, food costs and security, and others, have evolved so that no one organization can resolve them with the same resources and ways of thinking that have always been used. To resolve them, it will require innovation and collaboration and new ways of thinking and working together. Darnelda was honoured to join the Partners in Change Society (PICS) Board to collaborate with these powerful women in supporting social innovation on the coast. PICS is a catalyst for change and innovation and she is excited to see what results can be achieved by working together across sectors on the coast to address these dynamic situations.