Board Our 2010/2011 Board is ... Dalhousie Students Waleed Kadray Sonia Grant Aaron Beale Fraser Thompson Vince MacDonald Isabella Marble Kaleigh McGregor-Bales Associate Members Sébastien Labelle Judy Haiven Ryan Lum Please see further below for Board member bios... About the NSPIRG Board The NSPIRG Board of Directors is a volunteer board comprised of 7 Dalhousie students, and 3 non-Dalhousie students ("associate members") The Board makes decisions about the organization and how it serves students, the wider community and working groups. The Board does financial and organizational planning, decides funding allocations, engages in policy making and oversees staff and hiring processes. Board elections are held once a year. Being on the NSPIRG-Dal Board of Directors is a unique opportunity for students to gain experience and skills in helping direct a non-profit organization. Board members are also offered training in this area. Contact the office for more information. You can reach them by emailing board|a|nspirg.org ELECTION BIOS Aaron Beale: I am dedicated to the success of NSPIRG. I believe strongly in the work the NSPIRG does and I am willing to work hard to make sure the organization continues to fulfill its mandate. I have been involved with NSPIRG from my arrival at Dalhousie and have learned more about its operations and become more involved since then. This year I devoted myself to working with Campus Action on Food (CAF), a working group of NSPIRG that is committed to fighting for food justice on campus. I have always been involved with student organizing and was a part of the International Development Education and Awareness Society (IDEAS) last year and Students Mobilized on Campus (SMAC) this year. SMAC has supported NSPIRG and has been committed to the fight to democratize Dalhousie. I feel I understand the workings of NSPIRG and its operations on campus and in the community. I believe strongly in the work NSPIRG does in being an alternative voice and campaigning for social justice through education and direct action. I have experience in organizing within anti poverty groups in Halifax and Vancouver. In the Vancouver Anti Poverty Committee I worked on harm reduction projects and outreach to protect drug addicts. I have been a director at the Halifax Grainery Co-op for 3 years and have volunteered for the Ecology Action Center, protesting city decisions on transportation, and on food issues. I have also been involved in development and activist projects in Latin America. These include working with mining resistance groups and aiding communities with political outreach. I look forward to the opportunity of serving on the NSPIRG board and will work to ensure that NSPIRG continues to have a strong and influential voice in the community. Sonia Grant: Hey, my name is Sonia Grant. I’m an undergraduate student studying International Development and Environmental Studies. I’ve been really involved with NSPIRG over the past year, acting as co-volunteer coordinator, an active member of the working group Campus Action on Food and the No One Is Illegal campaign, and a board member since January. Through this activism, as well as through work with groups such as Oxfam and the Ecology Action Centre, I have gained a lot of knowledge and developed good outreach and organizational skills that I could bring as assets to the board. I have a firm belief that through collective action, people can work to shape more just and sustainable communities. I think that NSPIRG plays an important role in Nova Scotia in empowering and mobilizing students and community members to take action regarding injustices that affect them or others. I would like to sit on the board of directors of NSPIRG to be involved in and help facilitate this process. I think that my passion for social and environmental justice, as well as my experience with NSPIRG, makes me a good candidate. Waleed Kadray: I am a 3rd year history major with a focus in the Middle East and Africa. I have been a part of numerous societies at Dalhousie. From 2008-2009, I was an executive of the Dalhousie Muslim Student Association. By 2009-2010, I was elected president of the Dalhousie Muslim Student Association, where I worked with my organization to dispel misinformation about Islam and promote tolerance between Muslims and Non Muslims. In 2008-2009, I was also an executive of the Palestinian Solidarity Society, an organization devoted to the promotion of the rights of the Palestinian people, and to educate the public about the oppression that Palestinians faces everyday. Both of these organizations have direct affiliations with NSPIRG, therefore I have had the opportunity on numerous occasions to work with NSPIRG. With my leadership, and organizational skills combined with my familiarity with NSPIRG, I feel that I would be a great student representative on the NSPIRG board. Vince MacDonald: My name is Vince MacDonald and I am currently enrolled with Dalhousie University in my second year of the Bachelor of Social Work program. I graduated from Cape Breton University in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in Community Studies. The majority of my life thus far has been spent living on Cape Breton Island, where I first began to encounter activism, critical thinking and community change. I had grown up in a family which supported many community development initiatives and valued social capital; however, it was not until I attended my first year of university that I began to take initiative in my own social activism. I managed to organize some activism and direct actions, such as a campaign to stop the development of a NASA space tourism launch pad in Arichat (a rural and environmentally sensitive area of Cape Breton). I organized a day of action campaign during the United Nations conference on the environment, which was held in Bali. I was also involved with human rights and refugee advocation during my time spent with C.B.U. I was the spokesperson for a group of 8 students, including myself, who were advocating on behalf of a Filipino refugee claimant who was facing deportation, and a sure death, due to his inability to afford medical aid in his homeland. This year long media and advocating campaign was eventually successful after approaching the Federal Minister of Immigration during a private luncheon with a Cape Breton Economic Development Corporation. In 2006 I became friends with two community activists who had relocated from British Columbia to my hometown of New Waterford. New Waterford is a post industrial coal mining town which has high rates of poverty and drug abuse. It was an interesting experience to host events in the community such as: anti-capitalism free film festivals; “free food for free people”; barter fairs; community arts centre; community gardens; free schools; injection needle cleanups; etc. I am now studying social work with Dalhousie which uses an anti-oppressive and critical thinking framework. Since moving to Halifax I have felt almost overwhelmed by the amount of progressive action and anarchist ideology in comparison to Cape Breton Island. I have become involved as much as possible with any sorts of social action and activism that strive towards positive community change and human solidarity. I have become most interested in the Nova Scotia Public Interest and Research Group and the many working groups and endeavors they undertake. I look forward to the chance to be a part of the NSPIRG Board of Directors. Isabella Marble: My name is Isabella Marble, and I am from Indian Brook, Nova Scotia. I have previously heard about NSPIRG around campus and from people who are involved in it that I have met. It seems to be a group that advocates interests that are closely related to my own, and I would love to have a chance to be a part of it. I particularly like the fact that NSPIRG works to link social and environmental issues – I believe that these two “causes” are interconnected; one does not often see them linked together. My Mi’kmaq heritage has always been important to me and I am interested in issues of racialized people, not only indigenous but other groups as well. I am an Arts student, and my education revolves around many social and environmental issues. I would love to be an active member at NSPIRG to become more aware and informed on these issues and attribute to campaigns for causes that are important to me and that I believe should be addressed. Kaleigh McGregor-Bales: I am a second year Environmental Science and Community Design student at Dalhousie. De-corporatizing food systems and increasing food sovereignty are important issues to me. I am on the executive of SustainDal for 2009/2010, as well as an active member of Campus Action on Food (CAF) (an NSPIRG working group). I am also interested in the capacity of sport to build community, promote heath, and transcend barriers. I have coached and refereed people of all ages with different physical and mental abilities, and as a volunteer with Right to Play, have led sessions that use sport to promote inclusion and heath in children in an anti-oppressive setting. By being on the Board I seek to gain a greater understanding of how NSPIRG functions as well as contribute more broadly to the organization. I see this as an excellent opportunity to make connections within the Dalhousie campus and the greater Halifax community. I am new to the organization and I would bring a fresh perspective to the NSPIRG Board. Fraser Thomson: My name is Fraser Thomson and I am a second year law student. I am running for this position because I have the experience to be an effective Board member, and the passion to work towards positive change with NSPIRG. Over the past ten years I have been a member of many social justice and environmental groups. This year I have been part of NSPIRG’s No One Is Illegal campaign, the Environmental Law Student’s Society, and have been a Dalhousie Pro-Bono volunteer and an active member in Dalhousie Aboriginal Law Students Association. During my time at the University of Guelph, I started an environmental organization called the Renewable Energy Group. Amongst our accomplishments were making our campus student run cafeteria fully powered by wind energy and working with the university administration on a campus wide energy retrofit. I was also a co-founder of Canada’s first Fair Trade Clothing Co-operative and spent two years working on building the co-operative that continues to this day. During this time we worked directly with our partner co-operative of former sweatshop workers in El Salvador to ensure ethical and fair labour conditions. All these experiences have helped me develop the knowledge and skills to be an effective board member. I also have experience as a board member in similar types of organizations as NSPIRG. In the past I have been a member of the University Centre Board (at the University of Guelph) and as the College of Arts representative on the Central Student’s Association. As a member of these organizations I organized student consultations to ensure accountability and transparency for these organizations. If I am elected as a board member for NSPIRG I would work hard to ensure that NSPIRG remains active in its social justice and environmental mandate while working to maximize student input and accountability of the organization. Please feel free to email me with any questions you might have concerning my campaign or with NSPIRG (frasertho@gmail.com). ASSOCIATE MEMBERS Judy Haiven: In my day job, I work as a professor in the management department of Saint Mary's University. I teach labour relations and human resource management. By night, I am active in a variety of organisations including the Saint Mary's Faculty Union, and the Halifax and Dartmouth District Labour Council. I am a member of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives; the CCPA is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice. I am a member of Canadians, Arabs and Jews for a Just Peace, a group dedicated to promoting a just peace in the middle east. As a member of Halifax's Save the View Coalition, I want to help preserve built heritage and ensure that Halifax continues to be a liveable, walkable, accessible and vibrant city. I think NSPIRG is a very useful resource which helps students and members of the wider community understand and get involved in important issues of the day. We need NSPIRG because its campaigning spirit, its research and its dedication to social change helps to make this province a better place for all of us. I've served on the NSPIRG board as a community member for nearly six months and I feel I can contribute more to the organisation. Sébastien Labelle: I have served on the NSPIRG board of directors as a student representative for the 2009/10 school year and would like to continue my service on the board as a representative of the wider Halifax community. I will be graduating this year with a Combined Honours B.A. in International Development Studies and Theatre (Acting). My research interests include enclosures of the imaginative horizon imposed by oppressive ideologies, and possible strategies to free the imagination from such enclosures through the fostering of pedagogical practices that value critique, creativity and love. All the while in theatre, my interests lie particularly in the applications of theatre performance as a means to empower through creative expression, build communities and expose oppression. Last year, my involvement in NSPIRG has included my participation on the Outreach, Resource, Policy, Human Resources and Campaigns committees, as well as in the new No One Is Illegal campaign tackling migrant justice issues. I hope to continue the efforts I've begun at NSPIRG, particularly in regards to improving the efficacy and fairness of NSPIRG's policies as well as continuing to ameliorate NSPIRG's outreach efforts and its visual presence on campus. I want to continue to promote NSPIRG as a well known and trusted student-driven organization on campus. I also believe my knowledge of the organization and dedication to it can be valuable resources for new board members and any volunteer at NSPIRG. My experience as a board member will certainly ease the turnover process and help ensure that operations go on uninterrupted. I also wish to continue engaging in the ongoing struggle to acquire more varied and ethical sources of food on campus by supporting student-driven initiatives. What's more, as a community representative on the board, I hope to strengthen connections between campus and the wider community; particularly through my work with local theatre companies who engage in 'Theatre of the Oppressed' work with local youth. In short, I hope to continue my work at NSPIRG because I strongly value its presence on campus as an alternative voice and source of information for students and because its mandate and work is in accord with my own opinions in regards to ideological resistance and anti-oppression struggles through the opening of spaces for critical and creative dialogue. Ryan Lum: “I hereby declare my imagination to be autonomous” I am a third year History and Contemporary Studies student at the University of King’s College and an active member of Campus Action on Food (CAF) , the Grainery Co-op, Students Mobilize Action on Campus (SMAC), the Dalhousie Bicycle Advocacy Society and the UKC Memoir Project. I am a volunteer for SchoolArts, and have worked for the Frontier College Labourer-Teacher Program and the Aboriginal Summer Reading Camps Program. I am a motivated, dedicated, cooperative, respectful, forward thinking, boundary challenging early morning person, and I hope that I can help NSPIRG start initiatives that involve more youth. Another PIRG dream project of mine is to see a revival of the migrant worker campaign to provoke awareness on an important, underexposed issue that is going on right here in Nova Scotia. I believe that education should be empowering and anti-oppressive. I have big ideas, am creative, and hope that I can help the process that is NSPIRG by sitting on its board. Please consider my nomination and have a good day.