Our Staff

Executive Director

Communications and Program Coordinator

Operations and Technology Coordinator

Youth Projects Assistant

Youth Digital Projects Coordinator

Program Assistant

Environmental Justice Education Coordinator

George Radner

Executive Director

George Radner is the Executive Director at Be The Change Earth Alliance for the summer of 2019 and also serves as a student representative on the BTCEA Wisdom Circle. George is passionate about climate justice and has been actively volunteering with climate and environmental groups for seven years. He is currently an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia studying economics and math. George hopes to use knowledge and skills from his degree to become a more effective advocate for the issues he cares about. George is a founding member of the student-led initiative ‘UBC Climate Hub’ and leads their Climate Ambassador Workshop Program. He first connected with Be The Change when exploring ENGOs that could help implement the Climate Ambassador program which will train university students to facilitate hope-inspiring climate action workshops in high schools. George has dual citizenship; he was born in Washington D.C. and grew up in Toronto. His favourite activities include bird watching, vegan cooking, and meditation.

Jake Hubley

Communications and Program Coordinator

From his roots in Nova Scotia, traditional Mi’kma’ki territory, Jake has walked through the last 10+ years as a social and environmental justice activist on his journey through becoming a change-maker. He holds a Combined Honours B.A. in Sociology and Environmental Sustainability, Minor in Philosophy from Dalhousie University.

Jake finds himself inspired by the depth of the human experience, and our sacred capacity to heal ourselves, each other and our earth through intention and practice of profound relationships between our inner and outer worlds. For Jake, climate change and the increasingly chaotic feedback from the destruction of our biosphere in the external world, is mirrored by the health of our individual and collective inner worlds which are at the root of the culture and systems whose rhythms are misaligned with the cadence of our local and climatic ecosystems. Right now, he is on a path of becoming a healer, who can assist others in rebuilding the way we relate to our ‘self,’ others and the environment, to serve humanity by helping to unlock and empower our greatest potential, for a better life and world rooted in love and an uncompromised willingness to coexist.

Jake is a musician, energy worker, practiced facilitator and experienced political campaigner for local climate solutions and policy. He has seen local victories across Metro Vancouver, working with communities to elect climate leaders and win motions in several cities declaring climate emergency and adopting rigid greenhouse gas reduction targets (IPCC, Net-Zero by 2050). As a volunteer with Greenpeace, SeaWolves, and Stand. Earth, he has taken non-violent direct action and been arrested and charged twice to stop construction of the TransMountain pipeline, disrupted a press conference with Prime Minister Trudeau and confronted the world’s largest companies for deforestation practices. Jake takes action on climate and environment in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and acknowledges his occupation of unceded ancestral territory of Coast Salish Peoples.

Kelvin Lee

Operations and Technology Coordinator

Kelvin Lee joined Be the Change Earth Alliance in January 2020, as the Operations Coordinator. He has a Bachelor of Art’s degree in Labour Studies with a Certificate of Social Justice from Simon Fraser University. After working in the automotive industry for three years, he is excited about the opportunity to educate others and help change their perspectives about climate change. His passion for social justice and climate change was fueled by his education which largely focused on migrant labour. He understands that education and awareness are key in the fight against climate change. In his spare time, he volunteers with new immigrants to help acclimate them and is interested in photography.

Rebecca Hamilton

Youth Projects Assistant

Rebecca is a core organizer with Sustainabiliteens, the high school climate strike movement in Metro Vancouver. She is very interested in how public education can be used to transform values and systems towards justice and sustainability, and is thrilled to be working with BTCEA! Rebecca is graduating from Lord Byng Secondary School.

Anna Tokunaga

Youth Digital Projects Coordinator

Anna grew up in Jasper National Park on the Beaver, Cree, Ojibway, Secwépemc, Stoney, and Métis territories where her passion and love for nature developed. In 2019 she graduated from McGill University with a bachelor’s in psychology and environmental studies, specifically focusing on environmental health. While in Montreal, Anna worked with the non-profit Youth Fusion to guide students through creating a project based on environmental design.
Anna is interested in encouraging and supporting the young change-makers who are passionate about social and environmental issues and are ready to take action. She is excited to reduce the sense of climate grief through agency and action.
In her free time, she enjoys reading, card games, and being outdoors in all forms: hiking, biking, canoeing, and relaxing on the beach!

Esmé Decker

Program Assistant

Esmé is a Japanese-Irish settler, born and raised on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-waututh, and Squamish peoples in so-called “Vancouver”. She has just finished her first year as a student in the UBC Faculty of Arts studying literary, historical, and philosophical texts in the Arts One program. Her climate organization journey began with leading school strikes since the first global climate strike on March 15th, 2019, organizing with Metro-Vancouver’s youth climate strike network Sustainabiliteens, then volunteering through the UBC Climate Hub on the Youth Climate Ambassador Project (YCAP) workshops, and now has led to her joining the BTCEA team as a Summer Program Assistant!

Shalen Chen

Program Assistant

Shalen (she/her) is a second generation, Taiwanese settler born and raised on the traditional, unceded Coast Salish Lands of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish Nations in so-called Burnaby. She is a recent graduate from the University of British Columbia with a degree in Global Resource Systems, specializing in sustainable urban development and global environmental policy. Throughout her undergrad, she has been exploring the intersections of climate change, urban sustainability, and environmental justice, and has learned a lot from her diverse experiences from working with Environment and Climate Change Canada, UBC Campus and Community Planning, and in student sustainability organizing.

Tia Bankosky

Program Assistant

Tia is a settler Canadian born on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg and Haudenosaunee territory, also known as Ka’tarohkwi or Kingston, Ontario. She is a recent graduate of Trent University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Environmental Studies and Sciences. Over the course of her undergraduate career through courses, volunteer work, and part-time work, she became involved in Indigenous, environmental, and social justice activism. Tia has become passionate about the intersectionality of our personal positionalities, the influence of cultural norms or expectations and how they influence our relationships with the environment and each other. She has begun to push herself to think of new ways to give back to these relations in respectful and beneficial ways. She believes that relationality and reciprocity are fundamental elements of equitable environmental justice and change-making work.

Hannah Wicki

Program Assistant

Hannah is a settler Canadian, born on unceded Kwantlen, Stó:lō, and Nooksack territories in so-called Abbotsford, and is currently residing on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-waututh, and Squamish peoples in so-called “Vancouver.” As an organizer with Climate Education Reform BC (CERBC), and many local community events, Hannah has been engaged with community/climate action throughout the past 3 years. She has now just graduated secondary school and is looking forward to a season of growth and exploration around further educational transformation with the BCTEA team.

Naomi Leung

Program Assistant

Naomi Leung 梁珮恩 is a second generation immigrant with parents from Malaysia and Hong Kong. Naomi and her family are settlers and uninvited guests residing on unceded, stolen, and unsurrendered Musqueam, Tsawwassen, Tsleil-Waututh, and Cowichan First Nations territories colonially known as Richmond, BC.

She has a background in organizing for racial and climate justice with Sustainabiliteens, a youth climate striking movement in MetroVancouver, and for climate education to be taught in schools with Climate Education Reform BC (CERBC) and their growing campaign. As a young woman of color in the climate justice movement, she is energized to do all anti-colonial work, and aims to do so with BTCEA. Fun fact, Naomi has a pet dog named Oreo!

Mica Dela Cruz

Environmental Justice Education Coordinator

Mica (she/her) is a first-generation, Filipino settler born in Manila, Philippines, and was raised on the traditional, unceded territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, and Cowichan Nations in so-called “Richmond”. She is a recent graduate from Simon Fraser University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Health Sciences. As a public health advocate, she is passionate and enthusiastic about working with the community and improving public health through facilitating positive, sustainable changes in the environment and opening up discussions about important social justice issues within minority and vulnerable groups. She has engaged and supported youth in the importance of food systems, food literacy, and nature in order to facilitate collective action in their own lives. In her spare time, she enjoys writing, reading, biking, and swimming.

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