Staff Team

Zeynya is the Centre for Family Equity's community engagement and research coordinator. Zeynya is a researcher and policy professional with an interest and experience in human rights, sustainability, and public policy issues. In her past roles, working with non-profits, think tanks, and governments, she has coordinated and contributed to a diversity of research and policy projects with experience working directly with at-risk communities impacted by poverty and marginalization.

Zeynya coordinates the CFE's research partnered with academic institutions and plans, coordinates and carries out community engagement at the CFE both internally for the organization and for external engagement contracts with allies and partners. She trains and supports all peer researchers and peer facilitators in the CFE's participatory action research capacity-building mandate and program, collects and analyzes data, develops policy and program recommendations based on research and engagement data, writes research reports, and supports all community-engaged knowledge mobilization with peer researchers. 

Viveca serves the Centre for Family Equity in the role of executive director. Viveca is a founding member of the organization; in 2014, she banded together with other lone mothers impacted by poverty and lack of access to legal aid, housing, and child care, to mobilize grassroots leaders and advocate for public policy solutions to lone-parent family poverty in BC.

In past roles, Viveca has worked for the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition as the founder and coordinator of the BCPRC's Community Action Network, then led the Coalition through the pandemic as Interim Community Organizer until her departure to create the first staff role at what was then the Single Mothers’ Alliance in 2021.

In 2017, Viveca was nominated to the Minister's Advisory Forum on Poverty Reduction to design BC's first poverty reduction strategy and resulting legislation.  In her spare time, Viveca can be found trying to keep up mountain biking with her 15-year-old son and paddling her canoe on BC's remote lakes and rivers. 

Emily Faubert (she/they) is the Youth Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator at the Centre for Family Equity, running monthly youth nights engaging youth 13-27 on the CFE's transit advocacy including Transit for Teens, organizing outreach, and assisting with policy research. She is also a PhD student in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, Canada. Their background is in Journalism and Digital Media Cultures (HBA), Social Justice Studies (MA), as well as community organizing for fare-free public transportation and mobility justice. Emily is currently the Senior Accessibility Editorial Fellow for Cabaret Commons and the Digital Research Ethics Collaboratory, has contributed work to The Tyee and Societies, and is one of the coauthors of Queer Cartographies: Mapping Queerealities.

Vibusha Kalanee Madanayake is the northern and rural BC engagement liaison for the Centre for Family Equity located in Prince George, BC. Vibusha works on a continual contract for the Centre for Family Equity for research and project-related activities on an as-needed basis and has been with the CFE since 2022.  Vibusha’s previous experience involved managing projects on post-conflict development and gender-based violence in war-affected communities in Sri Lanka. Vibusha is a passionate advocate for public health advocacy, gender equality and youth empowerment who completed her Master's in Gender Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). In her spare time, she is keen on spending time with her family, enjoying movies, and exploring diverse destinations and food cultures. Vibusha is also employed at Positive Living North No khe̅yoh t'sih'en t'sehena Society in Prince George as their Education Manager.

Bonnie Koehn facilitates the Centre for Family Equity’s Parental Mental Health Support for Survivors Program, and has contributed to the design and development of the program through 2023 to the present. Bonnie is a Registered Clinical Counsellor in private practice. Alongside her practice, she is committed to working with non-profit and charity organizations to support women and gender-diverse survivors of family violence and intimate partner violence in moving toward post-traumatic growth and recovery. She believes strongly that mental health care, social and community supports, family law reform, and socioeconomic opportunity are imperative to the well-being of those who have experienced family violence and intimate partner violence. Bonnie’s experiences as a survivor and single parent helped to build the foundation for her compassionate curiosity and her drive to create positive change through counselling, research, and advocacy.

Bonnie previously coordinated the Making Ends Meet project with First Call Child & Youth Society, a participatory research project that examined the challenges experienced by low-income families in the Lower Mainland. She also authored an academic research project called Fostering Resilience and Posttraumatic Growth in Women Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence: A Holistic and Social Justice Framework for Healing.

Jagdeep coordinates and facilitates the peer support meeting component of the CFE's PMHSS program. Jagdeep brings her passion for supporting families and a wealth of past and current experience to the CFE. Jagdeep is a contributor to the mental health field in BC through several key roles. She is a facilitator with the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) for the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) groups with Youth, Young Adults, and Adults. Jagdeep has worked as a Family Peer Support worker supporting parents and caregivers as they support their dependants with mental health and/or substance use challenges. She currently supports the CMHA Peer Support Workers to best support families navigating the challenges that come with mental health and substance use, particularly with systems navigation. Jagdeep is also a Parent Family Ambassador at Foundry BC and has been and continues to be a part of many ongoing projects with the Foundry as it continues to grow in the province. Jagdeep has been a member of the Single Mothers' Alliance and now the CFE for many years. She contributed to the organization as a peer researcher for the Justice at Work for Lone Mothers in BC research project and is also currently a Lone Mothers' Economic Inclusion Metro Vancouver Regional Impact Committee member.