Seth Klein
Adjunct Professor, SFU Urban Studies

Seth Klein served for 22 years as the founding British Columbia Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a public policy research institute committed to social, economic and environmental justice. He is now a freelance writer, speaker and policy consultant, and an adjunct professor with Simon Fraser University’s Urban Studies program. Seth’s new book – A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency – was published in September 2020.

Seth is a founder and served for eight years as co-chair of the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, a co-founder of the Metro Vancouver Living Wage for Families campaign, and an advisory board member for the Columbia Institute’s Centre for Civic Governance. He also serves on the board of Dogwood.

A social change activist for over 35 years, Seth lives in East Vancouver with his partner and two children. Seth has been listed by Vancouver Magazine as one of the 50 most powerful people in the city, and by Homemakers Magazine among the “60 men we love.”  He does not know how he ended up on either list, but he humbly accepts the latter.

Sarah Moser
Associate Professor, Department of Geography, McGill University

Sarah Moser is Associate Professor of Geography at McGill University in Montreal, Canada where she is the Director of the Urban Studies Program. Sarah received her PhD in Geography from the National University of Singapore and held postdoctoral fellowships at the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Center for Urban and Global Studies at Trinity College. Sarah’s research primarily focuses on Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Gulf states. She is interested in the global phenomenon of new cities being built from scratch, the transnational circulation of urban policy, and how religious and national ideology are manifested in the built environment, particularly in state-driven urban mega-projects.

Sarah has published articles in journals such as Urban Studies, Cities, Area, Social and Cultural Geography, Geography, ABE Journal: Architecture Beyond Europe, Urban Geography, International Development Planning Review, and Geoforum. She has a book coming out this year titled New Master-Planned Cities, Islam, and Identity (Routledge).

Laurah John
Founder & CEO, JUA KALI LTD., St. Lucia

Laurah John, founder and Chief Executive Officer of JUA KALI LTD., is a social & green entrepreneur with the colossal mission of changing the way WE view ‘waste’. JUA KALI LTD. provides sustainable Resource Recovery/Circular Economy based solutions to address waste management issues in Small Island Developing States. 

Being an entrepreneur in a developing country context has afforded Laurah certain opportunities to develop her professional capacity. In May of 2019, she was invited by the World Bank to present and be a guest panelist at their Understanding Risk Caribbean Conference held in Barbados. In May 2018, Laurah joined 999 Millennials (talents) in Singapore as part of the UNLEASH Innovation Lab, where they sought to create solutions to some of the pressing Sustainable Development Goals. Academically, Laurah successfully completed a Master’s in Urban Studies (Social Planning) at the Simon Fraser University in Canada from 2010 to 2012.

Anna Maria Bounds
Assistant Professor, Sociology, City University of New York

Anna Maria Bounds is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Queens College, City University of New York, USA. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban and Public Policy from The New School. Her new book, Bracing for the Apocalypse: An Ethnographic Study of New York's ‘Prepper’ Subculture, is a rich ethnography that explores the rise of urban preppers in her city. Her research interests focus on city subcultures, city tourism, and public space. She teaches courses on urban sociology and social science research methods. She has also earned an M.A. in Writing from Old Dominion University. Her sheltering in place hobbies include analyzing the books and photos displayed by others during virtual meetings, half-hearted decluttering and daydreaming about pet ownership.

Lilia Yumagulova
Program Director, Preparing Our Home

Lilia Yumagulova is the Program Director for the Preparing Our Home Program, an award-winning Indigenous community resilience planning program.

Lilia is a Bashkir woman, born and raised in the Soviet Union, in a low-income area of a large urban centre prone to recurring floods. It was witnessing these regular “disasters” affect her community year after year that influenced her choice of profession. Lilia holds degrees in Engineering (with a focus on emergency management), an M.Sc. in Risk Analysis (King’s College London, UK), and a PhD from UBC with a focus on resilience planning.