INSIGHT TEAM

Meenakshi Das | Data Collection & Analysis Specialist

Meenakshi (Meena) Das (she/her/hers) is a nonprofit analytics consultant with her practice, NamasteData. She specializes in designing survey-based research tools and analyzing engagement. With more than a decade of experience, she supports nonprofits and their fundraising teams in 3 areas: engaging with their donors for increased giving and meaningful connection, intentional reflection and action towards data collection and analysis processes with equity and inclusion, and supporting in-house researchers with customized analytics training and future-focused roadmap planning.

Meena appreciates spending her time outside work as a mentor to immigrants and as a pro bono research advisor to small shops.

Her three recent non-consulting projects include building a space for IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) in data through her newsletter “Data
Uncollected”, designing the second season of her podcast “Being and Unbeing an Immigrant” where she wants to bring together the families of immigrants left behind in the home country, and, publishing her first e-book “Some Data Posts” – a collection of essays on intersection of inclusive research, analytics, and personal identity.

Connect with Meena through her website namastedata.org, or on LinkedIn.

Jai Djwa | Digital Transformation Coach & Creative Technologist

Jai Djwa, MFA, is an artist, facilitator and digital strategist that works in the cross-section of arts, games, technology and people. He incorporates his understanding of the world as a person of color to his life and artistic practice. He cares deeply about community, creativity and convening. Djwa is appointed to the BC Arts Council, the Vancouver Fringe, and is a business mentor for new immigrants at MOSAIC. Learn more about Jai’s work at www.djwa.ca.

Nancy Ho | Human Resources Consultant

Nancy Ho is a Human Resources leader with over 20 years of experience across a variety of industries including technology, logistics, legal, professional services, manufacturing & distribution and arts & entertainment. In addition to her experience, Nancy has an MBA and an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts. Nancy is passionate about people and is driven to help people be their best selves.

Areas of expertise:

• Recruitment & Selection
• Onboarding & Retention
• Employment Contracts
• Group Benefits
• Leadership Development
• Talent Development
• People strategy
• Employee Relations

Connect with Nancy through her website lovewhatyoudo.com.

Anita Lal | Grant Writing Consultant | Funding for BIPOC-Led Organizations

Anita Lal, fourth-generation settler, was born and raised on the ancestral lands of the Lhtako Dene. As both the co-founder and Director of the Poetic Justice Foundation and an arts administrator, Anita dedicates herself to social justice advocacy and community development. Her goal is to foster growth and strength within the BIPOC-led community, guiding grant writing and funding application processes.

Anita has cultivated a robust career within the non-profit and charitable sectors, and consults with various organizations to enhance operational frameworks, drive business development, and facilitate community engagement. With a wealth of experience as a grant writer, she has successfully secured over $3 million in operational and program funding for multiple non-profit organizations and charities.

Beyond this, she contributes her expertise by serving on a range of Boards and Advisory Committees: Notably, the Royal Academy of Punjab Society, Moving Forward Family Services, Province of BC’s Punjabi Canadian Legacy Project, the South Asian Community Hub, South Asian Studies Institute at The University of the Fraser Valley, West Coast Coalition Against Racism, and Seva Thrift Society.

Jules André-Brown | Governance & Leadership Specialist

Jules André-Brown (He/Him/His) is a leadership consultant and artist. Jules is involved in local music and visual arts and serves as a board member for the New Form Festival and CiTR/Discorder. Jules recently completed a thesis for a Master’s in Arts in Leadership degree at Royal Roads University. His graduate work looks at how young people see the future of leadership in arts organizations.

Patricia Huntsman | Strategic Planning & Organizational Assessment

Patricia Huntsman is a two-time nationally award-winning bilingual arts and cultural strategist, policy writer and planner. She worked nationally and internationally in senior cultural sector roles, and is a sought-after voice on arts and culture-led community and economic development in Canada. After working with over 52 communities around the province, she holds a deep understanding of BC’s cultural sector context. She pairs this with a special focus on organizational assessment, planning and capacity-building for arts organizations stemming from her Masters in Business Administration. She is recognized for her intuitive, engaging, dedicated people-centered approach, using an intesectionalist lens, and has rooted her practice in UNDRIP since 2009. 

Practice Areas Include:
• Organizational Assessment
• Strategic Planning
• Board Governance
• Cultural Planning
• Development & Marketing

Learn more about Patricia’s work at www.patriciahuntsman.com.

Merideth Bisiker (she/her) | Executive Coach & Operations Consultant

Merideth Bisiker, BA, ACC, partners with leaders who are ready to explore new and creative ways to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. She provides safe, virtual coaching spaces in which she supports her clients as they set new goals, and design and implement plans that are aligned with their values and their organizational needs. Merideth develops a customized approach for each of her clients, depending on their own goals and stakeholder interests. Clients can book a range of packages, from a one-time coaching session to multi-month coaching and/or consulting packages.

Merideth’s areas of specialization include boundary-setting and leadership in the workplace, creating new financial and operational systems, budgeting, and personal development. Through her role as Financial and Data Administrator with Arts BC, as well as Treasurer with Qualicum Beach Museum & Historical Society, Merideth has an intimate understanding of the challenges that arts administrators face, and leans on this expertise to support arts administrators and artist entrepreneurs. You can reach Merideth through her website talktomycoach.com or at [email protected].

With reverence, Merideth lives on the unceded and ancestral lands of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically Qualicum First Nation. 

Coaching and consulting rate: $100 CAD + GST per hour session for Arts BC members (regular $150 CAD)

Carla Stephenson | Systems Change, Rural Arts & Festivals

Carla Stephenson is the project lead for the Rural Arts Inclusion Lab (RAIL) a systems change project funded by the Vancouver Foundation. Carla has been working in small rural communities for over two decades, she is the co-founder of the Tiny Lights Festival and the Executive Director of Renascence Arts and Sustainability Society and a member of the ArtsBC Insight team She has presented at the Canadian Arts Summit and the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation Conference about the innovations that her organizations have made in equity and sustainability.

Through her work with RAIL, she has been facilitating many conversations to address colonial systems that perpetuate inequality by design. Over 200 arts administrators, artists and funders attended these conversations in the past year. Her facilitation work is grounded in creating conditions where emergence can happen through listening and collective story harvesting.

She believes art plays a vital role in disrupting and getting to the truth of issues in subversive and overt ways. Carla brings to her work the lived experience of being a mixed-race woman of colour and mother who is grateful to live and work on the unceded territories of the Sinixt and Ktunaxa Peoples.

Julie Fowler | Grant Writing Services & Organizational Consulting

Extremely knowledgeable and experienced in the arts sector in BC, Julie is pleased to assist arts organizations in grant writing, organizational development, and project management. For 17 years Julie Fowler was the Executive and Artistic Director of the Island Mountain Arts Society in Wells, BC where she ran a school of the arts, gallery, artist-in-residence program, and spearheaded the creation of the Northern Exposure Conference (2015 – 2020) and the ArtsWells Festival Of All Things Art (2003 – 2020). Now based in snpintktn (Penticton) on the unceded ancestral territory of the syilx (Okanagan) Peoples, she consults for other arts organizations including Ignite the Arts Festival and the Dream Café in Penticton and 2 Rivers Remix based out of Lytton. In 2020 Julie was honoured with two prestigious awards for her work in the arts, the BC Achievement Foundation Community Award and the BC Museums Association Distinguished Service Award.

Mykel Hurlburt | Insurance Advisory

One of the benefits of membership in Arts BC is access to low-cost insurance. Reduced rates for Directors and Officers Liability, General Liability, Property, Cyber and Volunteer Accident coverage. All non-profit members are eligible for reduced rates available through Axis Insurance Group (formerly Shaw Sabey & Associates Ltd.).

This unique insurance program was created to make it easier and more affordable for non-profit arts organizations to get insured. In partnership with Axis Insurance Group, our 30+ years’ experience and group-buying power has helped us negotiate some of the best coverage and lowest rates in Canada.

To request a quote, please complete this form here. 

You can reach Mykel directly:

Direct 604-685-4287 | Toll Free 800-684-1911 | Fax 604-331-0662

[email protected] | www.shawsabey.com

Jeanne Lesage | Arts Human Resource

Jeanne LeSage, LeSage Arts Management, CHRL, MBA. Jeanne has a 25+ year career in arts management, starting as a stage manager working across Canada; 10 years at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) first in Theatre Operations followed by starting TIFF’s first Human Resources department; 6 years in international arts projects including the Arts Management Fellowship at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Managing Producer of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Deputy CEO of the Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman; and then acting as Executive Director of the Kay Meek Centre for Performing Arts, a multi-disciplinary presenting centre in West Vancouver.  Jeanne is a Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL), holds an MBA in Management Consulting, and has launched the LeSage Arts Management consultancy in Toronto with a focus on Human Resources, Organizational Effectiveness, Strategy, and Facilitation.  She is pleased to serve as a board member for Volcano Theatre, Department of Imaginary Affairs, and S.M.Arts Stage Managing the Arts.

Ken Blackburn | Community Outreach

Ken Blackburn, BFA, MFA | Director, Campbell River Arts Council, www.crarts.ca Campbell River, BC: Ken is a visual artist and works across a wide range of mediums, including drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, video and performance. Through his work, Ken explores the relationship of contemporary art to current social issues. As the Director of the Campbell River Arts Council, he is currently leading an effort to see local art become an integrated part of the new Campbell River Hospital.

Shae Code | Communications Specialist

Shae Code is a Communications Specialist with over ten years of experience in the digital marketing industry. She has a background in digital and traditional art which brings a creative eye to every project. Shae prides herself on being able to adapt her strategies to suit any industry. She has successfully re-branded businesses and professionally mentored or consulted for theatres, non-profit organizations, retail stores, real estate agents and entertainers. In addition to being a member of the ArtsBC Insight team, Shae co-owns a t-shirt company, manages a boutique, and is employed at the Tidemark Theatre on Vancouver Island. Shae is a proud member of the LGBTQ2+ community and served on the North Island Pride Society Board as Vice President.

She humbly acknowledges she lives and works on the traditional unceded territory of the Ligwiłda’xw people: the We Wai Kai, Wei Wai Kum, and Kwiakah First Nations.

Chad Rickaby | Digital Strategist

Chad is a consultant at Nordicity with a breadth of experience in leading digital assessments and strategies in the arts and cultural sector. Through his work, he has also developed a broad set of robust research and writing skills and strong experience in survey design and enumeration, strategic planning facilitation methods and communication.

Chad was the research lead on ArtsBC’s DigistARTS, including designing a province-wide online survey, giving him unique insights into the needs and opportunities for digital transformation in BC. As part of this work he also developed a ‘digital toolkit’ for that provides a one-stop shop for existing tools that may be useful for arts organizations. Additionally, Chad has worked on digital strategies for arts organizations as well as at the municipal and provincial level across Canada.

Chad holds a Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs (MPP) and a BA in Political Science and International Relations from the University of British Columbia.

Renée Leighann | Web Designer & Arts Consultant

With over 15 years of experience in arts and business management, Renée brings a diverse range of knowledge and expertise to her web design and consulting work. She has held various managing roles at organizations including the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, The Fifty Fifty Arts Collective, and the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria, and has been successfully grant writing for the past 12 years. Renée also owned and managed the Copper Owl, a busy music and events venue located in downtown Victoria, that focused on supporting emerging and experimental artists.

In her work as a Web Designer, Renée offers a wide range of skills and knowledge to a variety of clients, providing tailored services to artists, designers, non-profit organizations and retail businesses. Her dedication to helping others succeed along with a passion for design makes her a valuable asset to her clients.

Her services include:

• Non-profit Arts & Business Management Consulting
• Web Design & Digital Marketing
• Grant Writing Support for Arts Organizations & Artists
• Digital Resource Design & Development
• Arts Programming Consulting

Renée offers discounts for consulting and web design services for Arts BC members. You can connect with Renée through her website: www.reneeleighann.com.

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