People

Staff

Gabe Sawhney

Executive Director

Gabe Sawhney is an experience designer, creative technologist and innovation strategist. He uses design and technology to address creative, civic and business challenges. He’s a pioneer in the Canadian civic tech community, helping co-found Civic Tech Toronto and launch Code for Canada.

Lia Milito

Managing Director

Lia is an urban planner with an interdisciplinary background that includes education, public policy, and community building. She is a former chair of the Civic Tech Toronto steering committee, and helped to launch Code for Canada.

Dorothy Eng

Director of Partnerships

Dorothy helps organizations and institutions use science and technology to solve problems. She is passionate about lending not only her voice, but her hands, to develop tech-based solutions that create meaningful change in our communities.

Luke Simcoe

Communications Lead

A journalist turned civic tech advocate, Luke is passionate about the potential for technology to improve government services and engagement. Prior to joining Code for Canada, he was the Managing Editor of Urban Affairs for Metro News.

Kelly Halseth

Education & Community Program Manager

Kelly has an array of experience in the non-profit and public sector as a community organizer and capacity builder. She has led and supported initiatives throughout the U.S. and Canada utilizing human-centered design and collective impact approaches to tackle complex social issues.

Shea Sinnott

Civic Hall Toronto Program Manager

Shea is an experienced project manager and organizer with a background in social and environmental justice. She holds an MEd in Education and Community Development, and is passionate about bringing people and organizations together, across sectors and issues, to work for a better world for all of us.

Samira Matan

Fellowship Program Coordinator

Samira is an experienced program manager and facilitator, and holds a BHSc in Anthropology and Health Sciences. She previously worked as a Regional Director for a ethical travel organization in Tanzania, and is excited to merge her passion for social justice with the potential of new technologies.

Marisa Bernstein

GRIT Toronto Program Manager

Marisa has a background in urban design and community engagement, which has helped her incorporate values of inclusion and accessibility into her work in the civic tech sector. Prior to joining Code for Canada, she co-founded a civic tech company that created digital tools to help communities to become better engaged in the urban improvement process.

Board of Directors

Charles Finley

Chair

Charles has led transformational digital change for Thomson Reuters, the MaRS Discovery District and for clients while at Critical Mass and Bensimon Byrne. He is currently Global Director of Marketing and Communications with IBI Group and a member of the steering committee for Jane’s Walk.

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Elina Lawrie

Director

Elina is a service designer working to humanize customer and employee experiences across a variety of industries. She is currently at Fjord and was previously at Bridgeable and the University Health Network, where she designed and implemented immersive solutions for healthcare.

Ren Bucholz

Director

Ren is a commercial litigator specializing in intellectual property, defamation and new technologies. He previously served as a Google Policy Fellow and the Assistant Director of International Policy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Cindy Tan

Director

Cindy Tan has worked in the non-profit and public sectors in areas such as community engagement, economic development, youth employment, diversity and inclusion, poverty reduction, and city-building.

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Craig Saila

Director

Craig is a leader in digital experience design. He is currently working with the CBC to deepen its audience experiences on the web, in mobile, and across a variety of emerging technology platforms.

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James Chan

Director

James is the Programming Lead at Impact Hub Ottawa and a co-founder of Ottawa Civic Tech. In both of those roles, James helps to steward an environment for civic and social innovation, where engaged citizens can connect, collaborate, and work towards social change.

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Mike Jarrell

Director

Mike is the VP Business Development at Circuit Stream. He is passionate about empowering people from all backgrounds to learn and engage with technology and is excited about a Canadian future where everyone has the opportunity to learn how to code.

Hilda Tang

Director

Hilda is a management consultant and has advised top global organizations on a range of topics from digital transformation to product and service design. She’s excited to help Code for Canada expand and create broader impact for citizens nationally.

Ria Lupton

Director

Ria is a community builder with a passion for creating inclusive spaces. She’s helped launch and grow several communities, including Women Who Code Toronto. Her work is focused on using technology for good and solving for positive social change.

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2018 Code for Canada Fellows

Caley Brock

2018 Fellow, Public Service Commission of Canada

Caley comes from Code.org where she built open source software tools to increase access to computer science education worldwide. She is an active participant in communities that work to make the software field more inclusive and diverse.

Joey Hua

2018 Fellow, Public Service Commission of Canada

Joey is a “sales-guru turned designer” with a background in patient and client care. Through her design practice, she has crafted product solutions for small businesses, start-ups, and non-profit organizations.

Siobhan Özege

2018 Fellow, Public Service Commission of Canada

Siobhan has delivered digital products for companies and non-profits across Canada’s broadcasting, music, and technology sectors. With a background in communications, she brings an interdisciplinary lens to her work in product management.

Evan Savage

2018 Fellow, City of Toronto

Evan has worked with Fortune 500 companies, research labs, startups, and non-profits to help them build everything from real-time spam detection systems to interactive data visualization tools.

Pallavi Thampi

201 Fellow, City of Toronto

Pallavi is a User Experience Designer dedicated to inclusive and equitable design. She has worked with start-ups, social innovation hubs and community-run arts organizations to build accessible and empowering products.

Andrew Konoff

2018 Fellow, City of Toronto

Andrew is a startup founder, technical product marketer, and freelance developer. He believes great products flow from environments that allow people to share, explore, and be transformed by new perspectives and beliefs.

Fatima Sarah Khalid

2018 Fellow, Transport Canada

Fatima is a software engineer and civic hacker who’s worked inside and outside of government. Her adventures in civic tech have taken her from the U.S. to Canada, and she’s worked for clients like Microsoft, the City of Boston and Digital Echidna.

Andee Pittman

2018 Fellow, Transport Canada

Andee is a UX designer and consultant with a focus on social innovation and participatory design. She blends her design practice with a strong social conscience and has worked on challenges ranging from blockchain applications to housing and reconciliation.

Jennifer Payne

2018 Fellow, Transport Canada

Jennifer is a committed design researcher with an MSc in human-computer interaction. She has run user research studies for clients ranging from American Express to the United Nations, where she worked on a tool to help UN analysts query social media data.

2017 Code for Canada Fellows

Christine Lee

2017 Fellow, Government of Ontario

Christine has a unique background in digital product management, development, and finance. An advocate for lifelong learning, she volunteers at tech community workshops and has taught product management courses.

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Santiago Mendoza

2017 Fellow, Government of Ontario

Santiago is a software engineer and machine-learning enthusiast who believes in the power of technology to change people’s lives. He has worked for startups and well-established companies in both Canada and Europe.

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Sophie Sengmany

2017 Fellow, Government of Ontario

Originally from France and having lived in London and Singapore, Sophie moved to Toronto four years ago. She has a background in finance but her passion for helping people and a desire to be creative led her to UX Design.

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Daniel Tse

2017 Fellow, Government of Canada

Daniel is a biomedical engineer and data analytics consultant. He has worked with the Government of Manitoba to design a digital tool to assess healthcare needs in remote communities.

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Leon Lukashevsky

2017 Fellow, Government of Canada

Leon is a Toronto-based developer and has worked on web projects with clients like the University of Toronto, The Globe and Mail, Sustainability Solutions Group and Influitive.

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Raluca Ene

2017 Fellow, Government of Canada

Raluca is a seasoned UX designer. She has worked in digital innovation for over 12 years with clients in a wide range of sectors including finance, education and healthcare.

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Alumni

Meghan Hellstern

Former Education and Community Program Manager

Meghan has led digital transformation in both the public and private sectors and is an advocate for human-centred design. She worked with Code for Canada from 2017-2018, and is currently with the Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Jenny Struyk

Former Operations Lead

Jenny has a background in nonprofit management and leadership, and served as Code for Canada’s Operations Lead from 2017-2018. She is driven to contribute to positive change, holds an MBA, and has designed and led programs for women and youth across the country

Aaron Wytze Wilson

Jr. Research & Communications Analyst

Aaron is an MA candidate at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, and a journalist with experience covering civic tech movements in North America and Asia. He was a Jr. Research & Communications Analyst at Code for Canada in 2018.

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Emily Kuzan

Jr. Program Analyst

Emily is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where she studied mathematics, economics and statistics. She was a Jr. Program Analyst at Code for Canada in 2017 and 2018.

Ravicha Ravinthiran

Jr. Program Analyst

Ravicha is heading into her first year at the University of Waterloo, studying science, business and political science. She was a Jr. Talent Acquisition Specialist at Code for Canada in 2018.

Hebah Masood

Jr. Program Analyst

Hebah is an MA candidate in Urban Planning at Rutgers University, focusing on community education and communication. She was a Jr. Program Analyst at Code for Canada in 2018.

Brendan Thompson

Strategic Partnerships Intern

Brendan is an MBA candidate at York University’s Schulich School of Business. He was a Strategic Partnerships Intern at Code for Canada in 2018.