I am delighted to serve on the Board with other capable colleagues, sharing the mission and values of BCHA, in recognition of its vital place in our contemporary society.

I obtained a bachelor and masters degree in social work at McGill University and a doctorate (PhD) at the Université de Montréal. As a community organizer, and therapist, I have worked with individuals and families that included child protection services, therapeutic counselling, and working with domestic violence offenders in group treatment programs. My research included publications in numerous journals on the topic of effective intervention with intimate partner abusers and program standards evolving in the US and Canada. I have presented on my research in North America and Europe. I accepted an appointment teaching as Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work, University of Houston, Texas in 1994, and, later, in 2002, as permanent faculty with the sociology department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in B.C. until my retirement. I have published in numerous peer-reviewed journals in Canada and elsewhere, and continue to serve as reviewer for a professional journal.

I additionally volunteered and collaborated with progressive organizations such as Amnesty International, B.C. Civil Liberties Association, La Ligue des Droits et Libertés in Québec, the Greater Montreal Anti-Poverty Coordinating Committee, served on the Advisory Committee of the Senate-appointed Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women, and, more recently, Exit International. Additionally, I worked with anti-war coalitions in the US and Canada that included volunteering with the Montreal Council of War Resisters in the 1970s and also the War Resisters Support Campaign in Quebec and BC during the last two decades.

I am currently working on a biography on the life and career of a diplomat for anticipated publication, and serve on Sunshine Coast Elder College Program Committee. I am managing the recent Canadian chapter of 

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Jonathan Dickie, Secretary

Originally from Nova Scotia, I’ve lived in BC since 2009.

Though my post-secondary education was engineering and physics, I ended up having a career for more than a decade in federal and provincial politics. I was the campaign manager for the first Green to win a federal riding in 2011 and was the national campaign manager for the Greens in the 2019 federal election, along with campaign manager and advisor roles for key Green wins between ‘11 and ‘19.

I’ve transitioned from politics since 2020, as I update my education for the next stage of my career.

I learned about and became a humanist in my mid-twenties, leading me to leave the faith community in which I was raised.

Outside of my career I am an avid cyclist. I live in North Saanich with my partner and our 7 year old son.

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Adam Highway, Vice-President

Bio pending.

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Kathy Leavens, Treasurer

With an MBA and a Chartered Financial Analyst designation, I worked in the financial industry in Vancouver for 30 years.  After retiring in 2014, I travelled and volunteered for various groups including Take a Hike Youth at Risk Foundation, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter and Douglas Park Community Association. 

When I was in my teens, I realized I was an atheist, but it wasn’t until my 40’s that I discovered humanism.  I joined BCHA in 2002 and later served on the board as treasurer.  Over these past 20 years, my involvement in the humanist community has contributed so much to my understanding of the world and possible solutions to many of its problems.

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Katie Marshall

I’m a professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia, where I research and teach in animal physiology and biochemistry. As someone who was raised in a very religious community in small town Ontario, discovering Atheism was an important first step for my eventual path towards becoming a biology professor. I have lived on both coasts in Canada, and after a few years as a faculty member in the US, am very glad to be back in British Columbia. I have extensive experience working with several scientific societies, and am looking forward to bringing that experience to the BCHA.

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Paula Stromberg 

Communicator/Human Rights Advocate Paula Stromberg actively supports climate justice, women’s empowerment, LGBTQI2S+ and human rights issues in Canada & around the world.

After working an eternity with the BC labour movement, Stromberg began collaborating in Africa and SE Asia with women activists, including as International Coordinator for the Anti-Witchcraft Allegation Coalition of Ghana.

In Cambodia, Stromberg collaborated seven years with garment factory workers, a union of Cambodian sex workers (WNU), social action networks including a women’s music group, Khmer rural lesbians and farmers as well as Rainbow Community Kampuchea (RoCK).

In Canada, Stromberg volunteers with seniors & human rights groups including LGBTQ refugees & BC newcomers. In 2023 she began serving on the Board of Directors of the BC Humanist Association.

She has produced documentaries about gay and lesbian folk, including refugees in hiding in UN refugee camps in West Africa. Her short doc, Missing My Brother Ted, made with a Suicide- Prevention Project at the University of British Columbia, was used by Canadian mental health groups.

Some of her happiest moments were screening her collaborative documentary, Family is Like Skin - Lesbians in Cambodia at MilanoMIX in Italy, CINEfable in Paris, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, as well as in Palm Springs, and several Trans, queer and Two-Spirit film festivals across Canada.

Her current project is to make personal restitution for harms created by colonialization and inspire other queers to do the same. Stromberg is adescendant of English and Scandinavian settlers who farmed on Saskatchewan farmlands confiscated from First Nations (Carrivale Treaty 2 territory, and Briercrest Treaty 4 territory). She hopes to inspire LGBTQ+ and others without inheritance-expectant relatives to make bequests that return settlers’ accumulated wealth to First Nations people.

Stromberg is widely published. Her profiles, human rights and social justice stories, labour newspapers she produced, her photography and art designs have won more than 50 national and international awards. For further information, see paulastrombeg.com

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