OUR TEAM
Executive Director
Amy Nugent
Amy (she/they) brings experience in capacity building, government relations and programming to the Urbanarium as its first ever executive director. Prior to this she was the executive director of Inclusion BC Foundation and has held resource development positions for a number of cultural institutions in Western Canada. As the former president of Artspeak, she has been recognized with a Mayor’s Award for Board Member of the Year from the City of Vancouver. You can reach Amy by email at amy@urbanarium.org.
Engagement & Communications Manager
Alexandra Huang
Alexandra (she/her) is passionate about creating impact at the intersection of people and the planet. She has worked across marketing, communications, and development, supporting nonprofits and global brands in Vancouver and over 30 countries. She recently completed her post-graduate studies in Sustainable Business Leadership, where she explored how systems thinking, circular economy models, and sustainable strategy can drive meaningful change across sectors. You can reach Alexandra by email at alexandra@urbanarium.org.
Board Directors
Am Johal
Am is Executive Artistic Director of the Indian Summer Festival. He was the Director of SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement and Co-Director of SFU's Community Engaged Research Initiative. He has been on the boards of the Vancity Community Foundation, Vancouver International Film Festival, Bloom Group, 221A, the Or Gallery, Greenpeace Canada and the City of Vancouver’s Arts and Culture Committee and the Planning Commission.
Andrea Smith
Andrea has been involved with the Urbanarium since its inception in 2013 as a volunteer, Administrator and now Secretary/Treasurer. She is the Controller at Henriquez Partners Architects, and both a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and a Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR).
Brad Jones
Brad is the Chief Development Officer of Wesgroup Properties, responsible for overseeing project design and execution, community consultation and government relations. With a background in Urban Planning, he has been involved in the design and approval of 4,000 homes and over 4.5 million square feet of built space.
Bruce Haden
Bruce Haden is the founder of FLUID Architecture. His design work has been recognized globally, and he contributes to the health of architecture and city making in Canada through design, writing and volunteering. His two areas of focus are work for Indigenous communities and evidence based tools to create buildings that support sociality.
Bryce Rositch
Bryce is a principal of RH Architects in Vancouver. He is the past president of the Architectural Institute of British Columbia and a former member of the Board of Governors of UBC. He is an avid fundraiser, active in community issues and generous donor.
Dan Watson
Dan is an urban planner and development manager dedicated to advancing high-density, transit-oriented, and sustainably built communities. At Terra Housing, he manages housing, long-term care, childcare, and mixed-use development projects. He also serves as past president of the board of the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia (ANHBC).
Derek Lee
Derek (he/him/his) is a Partner and Creative Director at PWL Partnership, Co-founder of Resilient Region, and Past President of the British Columbia Society of Landscape Architects. With nearly three decades of experience, he advances innovative approaches to urban design, placemaking, and collaborative city-building. His work explores how design can strengthen relationships between people and nature while creating more resilient, inclusive, healthy, and connected communities.
Hannah Walpole
Hannah leads BTY’s Project Delivery service line across British Columbia, bringing 14 years of experience in the construction and development industry. Originally from the UK, she has been with BTY for 10 years. She volunteers with the BC Chapter Committee of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and previously supported WISH Drop-In Centre Society, advancing essential services and peer support for women.
Kari Dow
Kari is an urban designer at the City of Vancouver with 12 years of professional experience in urban design and sustainable community planning. Before joining Vancouver's City Design Studio, Kari was an Associate at Perkins+Will Vancouver, where she managed a number of large-scale, multi-disciplinary urban design projects.
Marta Farevaag
Marta Farevaag is an urban planner and Principal at PFS Studio interested in the integration of planning, landscape architecture, and urban design.
Michael Mortensen
Michael Mortensen brings 20+ years of development and urban planning experience to his consulting work at Liveable City Planning, leading teams and managing all aspects of the development of transformative mixed-use projects. His experience includes projects at scale in Greater Vancouver, Toronto, L.A., London UK, and Edinburgh.
Ouri Scott
Ouri is honoured to be the first Indigenous female architect in British Columbia. Drawing on her Tlicho Dene roots, she brings an Indigenous perspective through advising on process and protocols, culturally appropriate engagement, and innovative design strategies. Working with communities, Ouri shapes design languages grounded in land, place, and stewardship.
Richard Henriquez
Richard Henriquez, Vancouver Architect and Artist is the Founding Partner of Henriquez Partners Architects . Recipient of the RAIC Gold Medal, he is internationally recognized for his award-winning, iconic buildings and for his many years of Community Service.
Robert Moore
Robert is a Senior Associate at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. He is a litigator practising in construction and insurance defence. His practice focuses on assisting owners, contractors, construction professionals, and insurers in construction disputes, including complex builder’s lien issues.
Sara Stevens
Sara Stevens is a historian of architecture and urban design and an associate professor at UBC SALA. She is a member of the collective Architects Against Housing Alienation that curated the Canada Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Sheryl Peters
Sheryl is a Project Management Professional with 26+ years in public and private real estate, spanning design coordination, development, and construction. Now Provincial Director – Redevelopment at BC Housing, she leads modernization of aging assets and advances sustainable, innovative urban design. As the 2023 ULI BC Women’s Leadership Initiative Award recipient, she is active in sector and community leadership, championing equity, accessibility, reconciliation, and climate‑resilient, inclusive communities across BC.
Shirley Shen
Shirley is the director and co-founder of Haeccity Studio Architecture. She is a registered architect in BC and Washington State.
Travis Hanks
Travis Hanks is Principal and Co-founder of Haeccity Studio Architecture, and adjunct faculty at UBC SALA. Travis has presented housing research across BC and beyond in order to contribute to policy change around housing choice and affordability.
Vincent Delfaud
Vincent Delfaud is the Founder of WAAi Inc., the next generation AI-enabled real estate intelligence. He brings two decades of experience across architecture, construction, and development on landmark projects including the Shard, Google Bay View, Vancouver's Stack and large scale mixed-use and residential master plans across the GVA and the US.
Advisors
Carol Henriquez, CM
Carol Henriquez is the Co-founder and former Executive Director of Children’s Arts Umbrella, a visual and performing arts organization for children located in Vancouver. She has worked as a social worker and an artist. She holds an Honorary Doctorate from Emily Carr University and is a Member of the Order of Canada.
Catherine Alkenbrack
Catherine Alkenbrack is the director of Facilities Planning at UBC, working to develop comprehensive planning models for new and renovated facilities.
Dr. Gary Hack
Gary Hack is professor emeritus of urban design in the School of Design, University of Pennsylvania. From 1996-2008 he served as dean of the School and is a former chairman of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. He practices and writes about large scale urban design, and has prepared plans for over 40 cities in the US and abroad. Garry Hack serves as an advisor to the Urbanarium.
Ian Grais
Ian is a founder and Creative Director of Rethink Communications.
Joe Rekab
Joe Rekab is a Partner and Chairman of BTY Group, a real estate and infrastructure consultancy for project delivery, design and construction cost management services in urban centres globally. Joe Advises world cities from affordable housing to health care, transportation to utilities infrastructure.
Larry Beasley
Larry is the retired Co-director of Planning for the City of Vancouver. He is now the founding principal of Beasley and Associates, an international planning and urban design consultancy and the “Distinguished Practice Professor of Planning” at the University of British Columbia. He is a Registered Professional Planner in Canada. He is a Member of the Order of Canada.
Leslie Van Duzer
Leslie Van Duzer is a Professor of Architecture in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia.
Peeter Wesik
Peeter Wesik is the President of Wesgroup Properties, one of Vancouver’s most prominent development companies, a long term holder and developer of industrial, commercial and office properties. Peeter has over 30 years of experience in corporate law, corporate acquisitions, real estate investing, mortgage lending, and structuring and negotiating complex transactions.
Ray Spaxman
Ray Spaxman is an architect and planner with over 50 years of experience. Half of his career has been as a municipal planner in England, Toronto and Vancouver (Director of Planning 73-89), and the second half as president of RSC Ltd. providing planning and urban design advice in Canada and Internationally.
Sam Mohamad-Khany
Sam Khany is a planner and urban designer at the City of Vancouver, with over 14 years of experience in private, public and nonprofit sectors dealing with various scales of planning. He currently leads retail streets public realm and mobility capital projects and was a former Urbanarium board member.
Scot Hein
Scot is a retired architect and was Vancouver's and the UBC's, Senior Urban Designer during periods of rapid growth. He is a founding board member of Urbanarium and Small Housing BC and continues to support many neighbourhood and industry groups. He believes that a creative process of design engagement best honours multiple stakeholder perspectives and reveals shared outcomes that strengthen cities.
Collaborators
Kristen Elkow
Kristen is a community planner and graphic facilitator with more than 17 years of experience in planning, urban design, and public engagement. With the Urbanarium Studio and through her engagement consulting practice, she connects people and ideas through visual tools. Her background in public-sector planning shapes how she works and gives her a strong understanding of policy, process, and the realities of local government.
Michael Mateyko
Michael is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator who brings the Urbanarium brand to life through posters, publications, and other visual communications. Aside from drawing cartoons and staying up past his bedtime, he is also a regular contributor to a number of pop-culture gallery spaces across North America.
Niña Mendoza
Niña is a DJ that holds the torch for the boogie. A longtime collaborator with Urbanarium, they have been setting the soundtrack for our parties and events since 2022. An uncanny sense of the groove imbues their DJ sets with a broad swath of styles. With deep knowledge & fierce passion for music, Niña’s sets crawl underneath the skin of the mainstream & unearth gold.
Surabhi Shakkarwar
Surabhi is an urban designer and planner with experience in community and area plan implementation, land use policy development, master planning, urban design guidelines, and public engagement processes. She helped establish the Urbanarium Studio back in 20XX... She is passionate about creating sustainable, inclusive, and well-designed communities that reflect local identity and diversity.
Uytae Lee
Uytae is a columnist and filmmaker whose work covers the complex issues surrounding our cities. Since 2020, he has collaborated with Urbanarium to produce launch and solutions competition videos through his YouTube channel, About Here. His background in urban planning paired with his experience in journalism provides him with a unique perspective on communicating the complex issues surrounding our cities.
Zoë Acton
Zoë is a planner at the City of Vancouver who has worked in the land development consulting, architecture, and civil engineering industries. She has been part of the Competition Committee since 20XX and has played a big role in... She has a Master's degree focused in City/Urban, Community and Regional Planning from Queen's University.