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Meet the Next Up Edmonton group from Year 3 (2011-2012)!

Eva Bogdan

Eva grew up enjoying in wonderment the marvels of nature. Guided by her passion for the natural environment and the desire to understand her place in it, Eva pursued a BSc. in Environmental and Conservation Sciences. She chose to major in Human Dimensions in order to better understand what it is about the human species that causes them to live unsustainably on this finite planet. After a few years adventuring on organic ranches and volunteering oversees, Eva went on to complete a MSc. in Environmental Sociology where she worked on several projects related to food, food security, urban agriculture, and urban-rural interdependencies. Today, Eva has found her dream job working on food-related issues in the context of sustainable community economic development. Eva is continuing to cultivate her passions and explore her relationship with the planet and she hopes that her future will continue to be filled with interesting and meaningful work. In her spare time, she loves to dance, be outdoors, give abdominal massage (Chi Nei Tsang), read, promote human and environmental health, and enjoy a tasty and nutritious meal with family and friends.

Freddi MacDougall

Frédrique (Freddi) MacDougall came to Nextup with a background in community environmental sustainability work in her home town St. Paul. This and the fact that she grew up in close proximity to a First Nations community accounts for her keen interest in social justice and community awareness work. Freddi believes good intentions alone aren’t enough and thus tries to seek interventions that prioritise facilitation of positive impact at the community level. When she moved to Edmonton where she is currently in the third year of her BA majoring in Political Science and Sociology, Freddi was excited about the prospect of active collaboration with likeminded individuals and organisations. This aspiration led to Nextup which Freddi hopes will be a launch pad towards greater and more meaningful engagement in social and environmental justice work. After completing her undergrad, Freddi intends to travel and develop her interest in peace studies, mediation and conflict resolution into a career anchored by social justice and community awareness. Outside the world of social and environmental justice, Freddi is committed to semi-professional jigging, singing in her band and playing social soccer.

Malambo Moonga

Malambo Moonga relocated to Edmonton in September of 2011 from Zambia, where he acquired training and work experience in policy, program development and training around matters of human rights, HIV/AIDS, gender equality and community empowerment, amongst many others. Being particularly passionate about participatory empowerment approaches, Malambo is a strong advocate for the need to mobilize communities into becoming the primary agents for progress and change within their communities; more specifically transforming institutions and societal structures. Committed to community involvement and development, Malambo was in search of ways in which he could continue to pursue his passion in his new city and in Canada. Thus Next-up has provided Malambo with the opportunity to interact with likeminded individuals and has exposed him to socially progressive organizations and activities in the area. Malambo often sees the connections between social justice issues in Edmonton and Zambia which in turn has ignited his interest in building relationships and connections with people and groups that are concerned with policy advocacy around the welfare of minority communities and fostering progressive North-South relations. Malambo is looking forward to enhancing his interest in international public policy through graduate studies next fall.

Alix Krahn

Alix is a very passionate and active member of multiple communities. She is currently in her third year of Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta, where she plays a large role in the U of A chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) as VP Advocacy. Through her work with EWB, Alix desires to encourage Canadian aid to other countries which is more effective. She believes this can be done by increasing and enabling Canadian engagement. Besides her work with EWB, Alix is also interested in gender and queer studies, feminism, as well as citizenship. Alix strongly believes in systemic change, which is strongly reflected in her advocacy work. In her spare time Alix enjoys reading, biking, and playing the ukulele.

Kate Kozakiewicz

Kate is passionate about using theatre and the arts as a mode of social change. Kate strongly believes in theatre and the arts as something everyone should be able to access and use to tell stories and explore storytelling. She is passionate about working with people who experience disability, creating a paradigm shift towards being able and fully participating in the arts. Currently in her third year of Drama Honours at the University of Alberta, she is a part of the Fine Arts Collective on Campus, which gives a voice to the arts on campus and educates the university community about fine arts. She is involved in facilitation work, currently co-facilitating and directing a fringe show based on communication and the way we communicate with people around us.

Melanie Alexander

Melanie was born and raised in Edmonton. She has always had an inclination towards progressive activism and this led her to becoming active in a collective that hosts the new feminist radio show Adamant Eve on CJSR radio station at the University of Alberta.

She is involved in many local feminist activism initiatives. In May of 2012 as regional mobilizer, she organized a delegation of woman to attend the RebELLes Pan-Canadian feminist gathering in Winnipeg.

Her thoughtful and considerate nature pairs well with the work she does with survivors of sexual assault and her involvement in anti-rape activism. Passionate about transformative change, she loves community gardening and the power it has in bringing people together.

She cares greatly about the importance in navigating her role as a consensual ally to indigenous struggles. Melanie is an extraordinary ally within the progressive community as a whole and brings knowledge, ability and dedication to her work.

Melanie is an enthusiast of making vulva cupcakes, paintings and crafts.

Tim Penton

Originally from Saskatchewan, Tim was raised in southern and northern Alberta and has called Edmonton home since 2007 after teaching English abroad in China. He is a passionate individual who is constantly eager to learn as much as possible about social justice issues and always brings enthusiasm into his work.

While living in Calgary, Tim was an active union member with the Telecommunication Workers’ Union promoting the importance of workers rights. He has been active in political campaigns, willing to knock on doors and dedicate his time and energy to volunteer organizations in the hopes of change.

He is always excited to talk about the ways that we can come together, assert our rights and stand united. His positive hope for the future is intoxicating and palpable. He is convinced that each person has the ability and skills within themselves to change the world.

Currently, Tim is interested in the diversity of the Canadian workforce and how workers can organize to prevent abuse and exploitation and continue to improve their rights. He is working towards a Bachelor of Arts in Labour Studies through Athabasca University.

Chris Chang-Yen Phillips

Well-travelled, inquisitive and friendly, Chris is an eager contributor to the Next Up team. Since participating in a Canada World Youth program that led him to an eye-opening stay in China, Chris has been interested in social justice. He pursued a formal education in the field, first at York University and then at Trent University, where he graduated with a BA in International Development and Environmental Studies. Along the way, Chris stumbled into journalism. After writing an article for a local Edmonton magazine, Chris became involved with the Trent campus newspaper, where he eventually worked as associate editor before moving on to intern with CBC for 4 months in Toronto. Happily, Chris’s interest in journalism continues to thrive. Chris passionately believes that creating dialogue to allow individuals to feel empowered to be good citizens is important in moving towards environmental and social justice, and ultimately hopes to use journalism to obtain this goal. For now, Chris’s time is spent enthusiastically working for the U of A’s Global Education office and volunteering with campus radio.

Kim Hayward

Kim loves both art and anthropology, so she is a creative mix of creativity and intellect herself. She loves art & design and seeing people commit their emotional and physical energy to creative expression. Anthropology introduced a way to examine society and the world, but it was her community experiences that got her hooked on developing her skills as an active social agent. She sees art and anthropology as always connected; two lenses shaping her worldview (like one left eye and one right eye). Two Community Service Learning courses had a significant impact on her. The first was a course on artistic representations of the energy economy in Alberta, where she worked in collaboration with an advocacy group called Friends of the Lubicon. Here she became committed to learning about how the energy economy affects First Nations. In the second course, she worked with the Office of Sustainability at the University of Alberta, where she developed a research project outlining why and how sustainability and design education go hand in hand. Kim has travelled extensively and her recent adventure was a student exchange in Brazil. She was attracted to Brazil’s thriving art culture which is strongly connected to social movements and community development. While Brazil is very different from Canada, there are parallels between resource development issues in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest and Canada’s tar sands. Her experiences in Brazil confirmed that she wants to continue to engage with social movements and explore what making a better world looks like to her. She sees Next Up as a great opportunity to explore action projects and organizations to continue growing and developing her role as an active citizen.

Kathryn, Nikki, Ola coming soon