Our Board of Directors
BRYAN KIRK YOUNG - Chair
Email: bryan@transitionsaltspring.com
Bryan has 25 years’ experience in energy conservation program design and renewable energy development. He founded and managed an incubator fund providing $12 million annually to support the development of innovative electricity conservation programs at Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator. Currently, he is the Chair of Transition Salt Spring -- a catalyst for the implementation of the Salt Spring Island Climate Action Plan for which he was a lead author. He’s passionate to see how much food he can grow on 1.89 acres on the south end where he lives with his partner, poet Brian Day. Bryan is passionate about bridging divides, finding synergies, and building a more equitable and diverse Salt Spring economy. He believes that one of the paths to economic prosperity for Salt Spring will be found in the restoration, stewardship, and cultivation of diversified forest and marine ecosystems for the benefit of our communities and the natural world around us.
DEBORAH MILLER - Vice Chair and Working Group Liaison
Email: deborah@transitionsaltspring.com
Deborah is an educator who spent her 34 year public school career on Salt Spring teaching Biology, Science, English and a variety of other things. She has a Masters of Arts Degree from UVIC, developed a nature-based environmental education course at GISS, and was the head of the Environmental Educators Group for the BC Teachers Federation for several years. She was hired by SSI Conservancy to develop and deliver a program for SSI students in the Stewards In Training program. In her career and personal life she has focused on relationships both in and with the natural world. She is a gardener, a hiker and a sometimes artist. Especially in these times of climate and biodiversity emergencies, she feels compelled to continue to dedicate her life toward a renewed natural world for the benefit of her four wonderful grandchildren and for future generations.
PATTI BARAL - Engagement
Email: patti@transitionsaltspring.com
Patti has lived on Salt Spring Island for 18 years. She has served on board and as past President of the Transition Salt Spring Society, formally the Earth Festival Society, since 2005. She was a round-table member of the Official Community Plan’s Energy Strategy task force, a member in 2011 of SSI’s Climate Action Council, and is a permaculture designer, environmental activist and event producer. She also serves on the board of the Salt Spring Island Foundation. Patti lived in Europe and Russia and worked in the investment banking sector as a director with emerging markets divisions specialized in Russian equities. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia and participated in the graduate program at the Budapest University of International Business and Economics. She believes in supporting her community in having access to sound and sustainable practices, and is committed to strengthening our cultural vibrancy by supporting the implementation of a diversity of artistic and sustainable programs.
RUTH WALDICK - Climate Adaptation Research Lab
Email: ruth@transitionsaltspring.com
KELDA LOGAN - Treasurer
Email: kelda@transitionsaltspring.com
KARLIS HAWKINS
Email: karlis@transitionsaltspring.com
Our Staff & Contractors
DARLENE GAGE - Executive Director
Email: darlene@transitionsaltspring.com
Darlene has over 30 years of experience as a social change activist, community organizer, adult educator and facilitator who loves to work collaboratively with groups and communities to learn, plan, get organized and take action together. She specializes in facilitating community change projects and organizational decision-making processes. She is a skilled trainer, counsellor and leader who has spent her career in the non-profit sector, working in small communities, big cities and around the world. She has led organizations and programs in the public health care sector, international development, economic development, and social change and is committed to seeing her home of Salt Spring Island become the beacon of hope it could be during these turbulent times.
ERINANNE HARPER - Coach Administration
Email: info@transitionsaltspring.com
Erinanne supports the coach rebate program admin and led day-to-day administrative coordination for Transition Salt Spring (2017-2024) She has over 20 years’ of experience in project management and non-profit administration. Erinanne grew up in Vancouver and graduated from SFU with a BSc. in Environmental Science and Certificate in Liberal Arts. She proceeded directly after graduation to Cortes Island to find out how to grow food, make medicine and learn permaculture. She fell in love with island life and has lived on SSI since 2003, practicing and teaching permaculture, collective living, and land stewardship. She is also lead singer with The Hilltop Pranksters and loves travelling, gardening, making medicine from herbs. She is also an artist working with textiles and recycled materials.
ANDRIA SCANLAN - Coach Education Programs
Email: andria@transitionsaltspring.com
Andria has worked in community health research and programming for over 35 years. Committed to knowledge and education Andria has put the skills she learned doing her PhD to work in half a dozen other countries and settings including: academic, for profit, NGO's, government and start ups, with one goal in mind - creating healthy communities! Born and raised on the west coast and a full time resident of Salt Spring for over 15 years Andria is a passionate drought tolerant gardener, composter and succulent enthusiast!!
NATASHA KONG - Communications Lead
Email: natasha@transitionsaltspring.com
For over two decades Natasha has focused on design and marketing for nonprofit organizations and social mission-based businesses. She is passionate about online storytelling, using graphics, audio, and video to help communicate challenging climate issues, supporting organizations and individuals to carve a path towards change. She's happy to have called Salt Spring home since 2007 and can be seen booting around the island on her electric bike or hiking up one of our beautiful trails. One day she hopes to complete her permaculture certification.
PAM TARR - Programs Manager: Advocacy
Email: pam@transitionsaltspring.com
Pam brings deep experience in advocacy, with a frequent focus on climate change, to Transition Salt Spring. Her work on regenerative agriculture with American Farmland Trust and The Carbon Underground supported the importance of carbon drawdown and food security as fundamental to our resiliency. She has championed work with non-profit organizations to empower social and political change, including Rock the Vote and Council for a Livable World. As an entertainment and advertising executive producer, Pam produced myriad media and messaging projects and in the process, founded industry-changing companies, organizations and trade associations to invigorate those business communities. She is inspired to help create systemic solutions to Salt Spring’s interrelated challenges.
ANDY MARTIN - Operations and Projects Manager
Email: andy@transitionsaltspring.com
Andy is a heart-led community planner, facilitator, and event producer, passionate about manifesting a more harmonious world. He (any pronouns are welcome) is driven by the question: "how can we heal and evolve ourselves, individually and collectively, to create greater connectivity, resilience, and flourishing in our communities?" He loves giving his energy to co-creating organizational systems and transformative experiences that empower collaboration. In his free time, he can be found dancing ecstatically, gardening with his landmates, and dreaming up ways to make a more beautiful world.
KAREN CLARK - Bookkeeper
Email: bookkeeper@transitionsaltspring.com
Karen Clark (Bookkeeper) has co-owned & operated a human resources consulting firm specializing in pay equity for 25 years & has an MBA. Deeply-rooted in the rocks, soil & community of this island since 1997, Karen is an author and blogger focussing on feminist-centred pagan spirituality.