Chelsea King
Chelsea King was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba but has spent the last decade living and working between her hometown and Brisbane, Australia where her family now resides.
Chelsea has a passion for social justice and women's community advocacy. After completing an Advanced BA in Global Political Economy at University of Manitoba, she has worked in the financial and non-profit sector. Chelsea is now the Mentorship Coordinator at West Central Women's Resource Centre, where she works in leadership and empowerment programming, in addition to coordinating volunteers and internship participants.
Chelsea is involved in Community Economic Development as a staff person, board member and volunteer and hopes to continue contributing to the development of Winnipeg’s inner city.
Chris Clacio
Christopher Clacio Born and Raised in Winnipeg, Mb. He is an up and coming community helper in the North End of Winnipeg. You can always find him every Friday's at 470 Selkirk Avenue helping the young people set up and organize Meet Me at the Bell Tower at 6pm. Another place you can often find him every week is at Neechi Commons at 865 Main St. at noon. Where he hangs out with fellow Aboriginal Youth Opportunities leaders to talk system and political literacy at what they call PolitixBS which stands for “BrainStorms” and not the other word you thought it was.
He is also apart of the AYO team and you can find his biography on the Ayomovement website as proof of his efforts helping in the North End. He helps with community outreach for AYO! He helps faciltate at various community meetings, welcome guests, create partnerships and positiviely represents the movement from a voice that is not First Nations, Metis or Inuit. His heritage is of filipino decent making him the one of the first non-indigenous youth to be recognized as part of the team.
Anny Chen
Anny is an educator and coordinator at the University of Manitoba, running experiential programs that get students involved in the community and thinking about their role in positive social change. After a stint teaching middle-schoolers, Anny found her true love in community education – first in settlement and language instruction for newcomers, and more recently in alternative youth programming and grassroots organizing around food, education, civic engagement, leadership, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations. When she’s not in a 9pm meeting with Red Rising Magazine or 13 Fires, you can find Anny relaxing with a good, ol’ 90s rerun. Full House, anyone?
Jenna Gall
Jenna was born and raised in southeastern Saskatchewan where she grew up farming, hunting, and fishing with her family. During her final year of high school she had the opportunity to travel to both the Arctic and Antarctica with Students on Ice. It was during these experiences that Jenna realized her passion for environmental and social justice wasn’t just a part of her life it was who she was.
She chose to study a BSc in Environmental Science at UBC. During her degree she started many organizations that focused on local food and food security as well as sustainability and climate change. Through various experiences she became passionate about focusing on environmental issues through a social justice lens. She has lived and worked in Saskatchewan, BC, Yukon, Nunavut, Peru and Tanzania and she is excited to be in Saskatoon working in the renewable energy field.
When she’s not installing solar panels or organizing creative climate actions, you can find Jenna outdoors. She loves hiking, cycling, backpacking, camping, skiing and bringing others to enjoy nature with her. When it snows she struggles between choosing a good book and a warm fire, or convincing her not-so-adventurous friends to choose winter camping instead!
Cori Longo
Cori calls Edmonton “home” but has lived in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan. She’s proud to come from the prairies!
Cori was first introduced to the labour movement as a teenager when she started working as a postal worker. Little did she know, that it would become her passion and change the course of her life. She was instantly drawn to the power of the collective and developed strong skills as a union representative on the shop floor. Cori experienced the advantage of being a union member which led her to choose her next career. Working part time at the post office, Cori completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Grant Macewan University. In her third year, she studied abroad at the University De Holguin in Cuba. She was briefly employed as a Registered Nurse before taking a full time position in the labour movement. Cori currently works for the Canadian Labour Congress as the Regional Representative for Alberta. In her free time, Cori likes camping and spending time outdoors. She is excited to make climate justice a priority in her work!
Ashton James
Ashton is currently moving and shaking in Edmonton, where she supports a non-profit organization that combines her interests in grassroots community organizing, sustainable food movements, and youth activism. As Program Director with Ceiba Association, she facilitates global education and community-led development internship opportunities for young people in Edmonton, creatin launching points for engaging in social and environmental change work. Through this role, she is committed to bridging local and global social justice concerns through sparking conversations on the roots of injustice, including histories of capitalism, colonialism, and land ownership. Currently supporting sustainable agriculture initiatives in southwestern Uganda, Ashton is motivated by a sense of urgency to act on the disproportionate influences of climate change on developing and marginalized communities.
Elizabeth Jack
Born and raised in Calgary, Elizabeth is a life-long learner whose studies in Philosophy took her to ponder life’s big questions in faraway places like Ireland, Belgium and Germany. She returned to Calgary in 2009, where it has been a privilege to participate in the discourse of a city exploring its identity and what it wants to be. She works in the fields of continuous improvement and organizational effectiveness. She is currently in a professional role with an energy company that combines her philosophical interests in learning and problem solving processes, experiential education and employee engagement.
You can usually find Elizabeth on some sort of outdoor adventure – hiking, climbing, camping, cycling, x-country skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing are all treasured ways to spend her time. She also volunteers as a Ranger leader with Girl Guides of Canada, mentoring brilliant young women in outdoor pursuits and responsible citizenship. She is thrilled to be part of Next Up’s Climate Leadership Program, and looks forward to the challenge and community involved.
Kalen Pilkington
Kalen Pilkington is the Director of the Office of Sustainability at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta. The Office of Sustainability strives to connect, engage and inspire MacEwan University’s campus and the community through sustainability leadership. Utilizing a systems-thinking methodology, she strives to create a balanced approach to the environmental, economic, social, cultural and well-being dimensions of sustainability. Through her work at MacEwan, Kalen oversees the creation and implementation of a sustainability strategy, complete with targets to achieve the long term vision of a resilient and equitable future. Working alongside key stakeholders, the office provides guidance, fosters awareness, monitors progress, and promotes partnerships towards campus-wide sustainability.
Originally from Ontario, Kalen holds a Masters of Environment and Sustainability and a post-graduate certificate in Green Architecture. She has also obtained several professional designations related to public engagement, project management, sustainable events, and green buildings.
Kalen enjoys spending time with her dog Fyfe, hiking, backcountry camping, canoeing, biking, yoga, listening to music and reading. When Kalen can’t be found around Alberta, she can be found travelling, learning about different cultures, and how sustainability is done around the world. She tries to continually build her skills and push boundaries. Currently, Kalen is learning ukulele and slide guitar. She dreams of starting her own consulting firm that focuses on well-being in sustainable, healthy spaces. Kalen likes to tackle global challenges through local action which connects participants with a larger community working towards positive change. She believes in status-quo disruption, so let’s be troublemakers and make innovative, long-lasting impacts.
Corey Dekker
Corey Dekker has a passion for public policy. Corey grew up in Metro-Vancouver and attended Simon Fraser University, where he completed an undergraduate degree in political science. Corey then headed off to London to complete a master’s degree in government and political theory at the London School of Economics. Following graduation, Corey found his way to Ottawa and secured a job with the federal public service, where he has worked since 2009. As a federal public servant Corey has worked across four departments in three different cities (Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary) and is currently a Socio-Economic Specialist with the National Energy Board.
A central theme of Corey’s work and personal interests is Indigenous peoples and Indigenous rights, and particularly how Indigenous peoples rights and interests affect public policy. Through his work, Corey leads engagement with Indigenous peoples across Canada and has had the privilege of meeting with members from over 100 Indigenous groups. One key takeaway from his work with Indigenous peoples is their concern about environmental sustainability and climate change. In that spirit, Corey is excited to participate in the Climate Leadership Program as a vehicle to better understand the challenge of climate change and to learn about (and contribute to) climate action.
Corey is a status member of the Pine Creek First Nation in Manitoba and currently lives in Calgary with his wife Jasmine.
Christopher Lammiman
Chris was born and raised in Calgary and currently resides in the Rocky Mountain foothills about an hour west of the city. He and his partner Jodi live and work in an intentional community at a spiritual retreat centre on a 166-acre wilderness property on the Ghost River. Their work is centred on hospitality, inclusion, and creating safe space for all.
Chris has an undergrad degree in theology, and recently graduated from Royal Roads University with a Master of Arts in Disaster and Emergency Management. His major research project focused on the gendered dimensions of the 2013 Alberta floods. As he begins his career in emergency management, he is passionate about creating disaster resilient communities based on social equity, protection of vulnerable populations, community health, environmental sustainability, and climate change adaptation.
You can usually find Chis out wandering in the woods, where he spends as much time as possible. He also enjoys cooking, writing, reading, and terrible puns.