Our Team
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Seth Klein, Director of Climate Emergency Strategy and Team Lead
Seth served for 22 years as the founding director of the British Columbia office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), Canada’s foremost social justice think tank. He is now a policy consultant, speaker, writer and author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency. Seth is an adjunct professor with Simon Fraser University’s Urban Studies program, and remains a research associate with the CCPA’s BC Office. He writes a regular column for Canada’s National Observer. For more about Seth, visit his website here.
Follow Seth on Bluesky @sethdklein.bsky.social
Photo credit: Josh Berson
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Anjali Appadurai, Director of Campaigns
Anjali spent her early career building a strong civil society voice at the UN Climate Convention, working with social movements from around the world to demand climate justice at a multilateral level. Today, Anjali is passionate about making the links between climate change and globalization, colonization, and economic inequality. She previously worked as Climate Justice Lead at Sierra Club BC, bringing an equity lens to the BC climate movement. Also a singer, songwriter and music producer, Anjali hopes to weave politics and art together to reflect the times we are living in and galvanize true collective action.
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Erin Blondeau, Director of Communications
Erin (she/her) is a Métis mom, currently living and working on the west coast of so-called British Columbia in unceded Quw’utsun territory. Her paternal family comes from the Red River Settlements and the Qu’Appelle Valley, and her maternal family is British and Eastern European. Erin has a decade of communications experience, having worked in anti-racism, graphic design, communications, and climate justice. She holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology with interest in climate communication and conspiracy theories. Erin also sits on the board for Cowichan Women Against Violence, and works as a freelance journalist/writer, in addition to her role at the CEU.
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Juan Vargas Alba, Prairie Organizer
Juan is based in Edmonton, on Treaty 6 territory. Through organizations like Climate Justice Edmonton, Juan has engaged with hundreds of Albertans about a just transition, mobility justice, and worker-oriented municipal advocacy. Born in Colombia, multiracial and cross-border perspectives deeply inform Juan’s work, having completed research capstones on environmental peace-building and energy transitions in South America. When they’re not organizing, Juan can be found enjoying local art and theatre, bird-watching, or scheming to amplify the presence of communities of colour in these spaces.
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Emiko Newman, BC Climate Emergency Campaign Coordinator
Emiko is passionate about exploring the intersections of social justice and climate justice. In 2022, she completed a master’s degree in Social Justice Education and Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto, focusing on the power of eco-pedagogies for fostering a praxis of hope within environmental education.
Her past work experience includes coordinating anti-racism workshops, working as a research assistant on environmental and sustainability education, and teaching piano. She joined the BC Climate Emergency campaign with the desire to work alongside others to push the government away from incremental action towards the emergency-level action demanded by the climate crisis. Emiko is also an avid field hockey player, pianist, taiko player, and (sometimes) completer of reading challenges.
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Bushra Asghar, Youth Climate Corps Organizer
Bushra Asghar (she/her) was born to an expat family in Saudi Arabia, and identifies as part of the South Asian diaspora on Turtle Island. She is a daughter of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War refugees and a granddaughter of the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent. She has lived experiences in Pakistan, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the USA, and Switzerland.
Bushra has had the privilege of serving three years as an elected representative at various student unions (AUSU, Sault Ste. Marie & GISA, Geneva). Currently, she also works part-time as a Care, Culture and Equity Consultant for the Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) at Concordia University.
Bushra is a community organizer and a proud feminist who believes that social movements and civil society are integral to having strong, vibrant communities of change. She is committed to the principles of harm reduction, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive practice.
She loves experimenting in the kitchen with Bengali, and Saudi cuisine as well as hosting large dinner gatherings for her friends, and community.
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Doug Hamilton-Evans, Project/Campaign Manager
Doug has joined the Climate Emergency Unit to help build systems and relationships in support of campaigns for a just transition. He brings almost 15 years of varied experiences in communications and community engagement to the task, with previous roles at SFU Public Square, CBC Vancouver and the First Peoples’ Cultural Council. He holds an MA in media and communications studies from the University of London, where he researched local alternative media’s impact on the mediation of the toxic drug crisis in Vancouver.
Strategic Partners
Sierra Club BC has a campaigned on climate justice for years, speaking climate truth to power. The CEU is pleased to partner with them in some of our sectoral and community organizing.
Small Change Fund is the easy and effective way for communities across Canada to amplify the impact of their projects with expert advice, greater awareness, and crowdfunding, and for people with vision to get behind them.