Meet the Team
Network Manager
Love-Ese Chile, PhD
Bio
Dr. Love-Ese Chile is known for turning research into real-world impact. With a deep commitment to innovation, accessibility, and meaningful change, she uses storytelling to spark dialogue and connect diverse stakeholders. As Network Manager, Love-Ese guides her team in organizing knowledge-sharing events, translating complex research into clear, accessible language, and managing collaborative projects that bridge academia, government, and industry.
Love-Ese holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia. Her leadership and contributions have been recognized with several national awards, including the 2024 Clean50 Emerging Leader Award, the 2023 UBC Chemistry Young Alumnus Award, and the 2024 Gloria Baylis Award for Entrepreneurship and Advocacy from the Canadian Black Scientist Network.
Project Coordinator
Asha Wareham
Bio
Asha is interested in the relationships we build with land and water systems, and the communities within them that we explore. Her curiosity about these ecological and social interactions has led her to roles in remote field research, diversified farming, program delivery, and knowledge mobilization. She enjoys bringing people together around shared priorities and helping align research with on-the-ground farmer experiences. Always learning from local and international agrarian communities, she thinks a lot about context, regional expertise, and shared agricultural challenges in her work. Asha is an articling agrologist with the BC Institute of Agrologists and holds a BSc in Global Resource Systems, specializing in sustainable agriculture and soil science, from UBC.
Knowledge Translation Assistant
Juliana Cao
Bio
Juliana is passionate about the intersections of food and sustainability. She holds a BSc in Natural Resources Conservation from the University of British Columbia and has served as a Communications and Engagement Assistant at UBC Sustainability and as the Events and Communications Coordinator for the Columbia Institute. In 2020, she ran an online vegan bakery (baking, marketing, and delivering!) as a passion project. With her background in science and work experience in communications, she developed a passion for creating engaging knowledge mobilization products that make complex research accessible for diverse audiences. She enjoys putting a creative twist on everything to make new information more fun and exciting!
Steering Committee
Sean Smukler (Chair)
Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, University of British Columbia
Soil Systems, Crop Production
Shabtai Bittman
Agassiz Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Soil Systems, Crop Production
Andrew Black
Soil Physics and Biometeorology Group, University of British Columbia
Climate Modelling, Soil Systems, Water Systems, Extreme Weather Response
Lauchlan Fraser
Thompson Rivers University
Ecological Restoration, Livestock Management, Extreme Weather Response
Miranda Hart
Wine Research Center, University of British Columbia Okanagan
Soil Systems, Crop Production, Ecological Restoration
John Janmaat
University of British Columbia Okanagan
Socioeconomic Transitions, Agricultural Policy, Water Management
Woo Soo Kim
Simon Fraser University
Agritech Innovation, Remote Sensing and Management
Bing Lu
Simon Fraser University
Remote Sensing and Management, Crop Production, Soil Systems
Jason Lussier
Climate and Environment Programs, BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Soil Systems, Extension and Adoption, Agricultural Policy
Ian McLachlan
Strategic Climate Initiatives, BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Climate Modelling, Socioeconomic Transitions, Agricultural Policy
Kent Mullinix
Institute for Sustainable Food Systems, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Crop Production, Socioeconomic Transitions, Agricultural Policy
Robert Newell
Royal Roads University
Socioeconomic Transitions, Habitat and Biodiversity, Agricultural Policy
Michael Preston
University of Northern British Columbia
Soil Systems, Ecological Restoration, Crop Production
Tom Pypker
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Thompson Rivers University
Water Management, Climate Modelling, Extreme Weather Response, Habitat and Biodiversity
Rahul Singh
BC Centre for Agri-Tech Innovation, Simon Fraser University
Agritech Innovation, Extension and Adoption
Gary Telford
Agassiz Research and Development Center, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Extension and Adoption, Agricultural Policy
Past Team Members
Shauna MacKinnon (Network Manager, 2019-2024)
Subin Lee (Communications Assistant, 2024-2025)
Katie Kathiresan (Communications Assistant, 2024)
Renli Xiang (Research Assistant, 2024)
Wenwen Wang (Communications Assistant, 2023-2024)
Catalina Garcia (Communications Assistant, 2023-2024)
Rachel Wang (Communications Assistant, 2021-2022)
Jason Lussier (Network Coordinator, 2017-2019)
