Meet the Team
Alden E. Habacon (he/him)
FOUNDER | PRINCIPAL | D&I STRATEGIST | CONSULTANT
Alden is one of Canada’s leading diversity and inclusion strategists and facilitators. He is well known in this field and highly regarded for his over seventeen years of impact, and his innovative work around inclusive leadership, unconscious bias and intercultural training. He specializes in leading men and male leaders through difficult conversations about equity, privilege and the implications and expectations of a more inclusive and diverse workplace.
He works with leadership in a wide range of professions and sectors throughout Canada, including the legal community, social services, the public sector, municipalities, first responders, and large private corporations. Organizations that Alden has helped in developing diversity and inclusion strategies and training include Vancity, First West Credit Union, UBCP ACTRA, Technical Safety BC, Worksafe BC, and YVR. Alden also led the national diversity strategy for the CBC Television Network, and has been lecturing at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism on diversity in media for the last ten years. He currently sits on the Board of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
In 2010, he was appointed by UBC’s President, Stephen Toope, to lead the University's commitment to intercultural understanding, where he was the Director, Intercultural Understanding until the end of 2015, and Senior Advisor, Intercultural Understanding from 2016 to 2017.
At UBC, he has provided intercultural skills development for the UBC Okanagan School of Nursing, the College of Health Sciences, the Masters of Public Policy and Global Affairs Program, the Graduate Program of the Peter A. Allard School of Law, and the Masters of Management and MBA Programs of the Sauder School of Business. He has also provided intercultural skills training to students in the CPA program at the SFU Beedie School of Business.
Alden has lived in Manila, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Regina and Burnaby (in that order), and currently resides in Vancouver with his wife and three sons.
Zen Lim (he/him)
HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & CLIENT SUCCESS | FACILITATOR | COACH
Zen brings to his role over 2 decades of Executive Leadership, Operations Management and Entrepreneurial experience. He has produced, directed and project-managed numerous Canadian-national marketing programs for many of the country’s top brands. He attributes much of his professional success to effective collaboration with countless teams of creative professionals around the world.
His values around equity, diversity and inclusion are heavily inspired by his lived experience and active advocacy for Asian-Canadian representation in media and the arts. For several years, he proudly served as a Board Trustee for Vancouver’s Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden to support his values around cultural diversity and community belonging.
Engaging in a highly disciplined study of martial arts in his early years, Zen developed a relentless and lifelong commitment to his personal development. This value has proven to be an integral part of his own leadership development. Zen also serves as a Facilitator & Co-Active Coach, certified in Trauma-Informed Care.
Hilary Leung (she/her)
OPERATIONS | CONTENT DEVELOPMENT | PROJECT COORDINATION
Hilary’s primary roles are Operations, Content Development and Project Coordination. She has also been a music teacher for more than five years, working with students from various different age ranges, all the way to post-secondary level. She graduated from the University of British Columbia with a major in English Literature and a minor in Creative Writing. A year later, she pursued a graduate degree in journalism at UBC, focusing on community-based stories and seeking to amplify the voices of marginalized groups.
Pam Garcia (she/her)
FACILITATOR
Pam Garcia is a Latina Canadian education specialist and strategic consultant with over ten years of professional experience in diverse educational contexts including higher and secondary education, workshop facilitation and teaching. Her expertise includes curriculum and resource development, workshop design, facilitation, evaluation, strategic consulting and educational coaching. Pam also specializes in teaching writing, reading, and critical thinking to both educational and corporate clients. Using an anti-racist and critical race lens, Pam works to propel teams and individuals to dynamic action, using kindness, empathy, and creativity as her teaching foundation.
Pam holds a BA in from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master's in Society, Culture and Politics in Education from the University of British Columbia and has completed substantial coursework towards a Doctorate in Educational Studies.
Pam has been the recipient of several prestigious scholarships and awards including the Morehead-Cain Scholarship, a Four-Year Fellowship and the City of Coquitlam Spirit of Community Award.
Alexis Carr (she/her)
DATA ANALYST | RESEARCHER
Alexis is a Research, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) specialist with over 15 years of experience in the field. With expertise in results-based management, qualitative and quantitative research methods, and gender-based analysis, she has worked with diverse stakeholders across the globe, including intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, higher education institutions, government agencies, and banks. She is also a seasoned workshop facilitator and trainer, with experience in course development and teaching.
Significant professional accomplishments include: the development of an empowerment framework, which has been used in more than five countries; authorship of a ‘Measuring Empowerment Toolkit’ launched by COL and UN Women at the 8th Pan-Commonwealth Forum in 2016, and co-authorship of numerous peer-reviewed papers and presentations which have been presented at major global events and conferences. She was appointed the monitoring and evaluation lead for the UNESCO OER global coalition, and has led research and M&E projects for organizations such as Universities Canada and The International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
Alexis holds a Masters in International Studies from Simon Fraser University (SFU) and is currently a PhD Candidate (all but dissertation) at SFU in the Faculty of Education. She has been awarded the prestigious SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship from the Government of Canada, as well as the International Doctoral Research Award from IDRC. Her current doctoral research focuses on gendered experiences of mobile learning in agricultural communities.
Outside of work and school, Alexis is a mother of two and spends her time as a director of a non-profit that aims to increase access to soccer for youth and early career coaches that face barriers to participation in the sport.
Krista Laboucane (she/her)
FACILITATOR
Krista is Métis from Fort McMurray and currently resides in Edmonton. Over the past 20 years, Krista has been an Indigenous Relations and Employment Specialist working with Indigenous Communities, Industry and multiple levels of Governance. Her experience includes work with RBC, Oteenow Training and Employment Society, Women Building Futures, Director of the Métis Settlement Strategic Training Society, Civeo Corporation, and most recently, ATB Financial. Krista has worked with many Indigenous Communities and organizations in Alberta, including the 8 Métis Settlements, and in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, the North West Territories and Nunavut. Recently, Krista has been working with Industry to advance their Indigenous Relations and employment strategy and to connect with all areas of the organizations engaged in Indigenous Relations. This includes incorporating Indigenous policy into human resources, business development, leadership, procurement, marketing, and sponsorship.
Krista’s awards and recognition include the 1999 RBC General Managers Award for the foundational work on The Aboriginal Stay in School Program; the 2016 Esquao Award for Community Involvement, a recognition for Indigenous Women Role Models in Alberta presented by Institute for Advancement of Aboriginal Women; and the 2007 Provincial Acknowledgment for 10 years of working with Children in Care.
Some of Krista’s volunteer work includes: Board member to Indigenous Works (previously the Aboriginal Human Resource Council), Calgary Urban Aboriginal Youth Advisory Committee with Heritage Canada, the Calgary Urban Aboriginal Initiative, the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Fostering Connections, Wichitowin, Aboriginal Women’s Professional Association, Block Captain for Capital City Clean up. Artist contribution to Walking with Our Sisters.
Jocelyn Chee (she/her)
PROJECT MANAGER
Jocelyn has over 20 years of experience that has spanned across different industries, bringing a diverse skill set and a broad range of expertise to this role.
Jocelyn holds a BSc. in Physics and French from the University of Sussex, UK and kickstarted her career at the European branch of a multinational fintech organisation based in London, gaining extensive experience in project management and international teamwork. Despite thriving in this field, she felt something was missing and sensed a strong desire to explore her artistic potential. This calling led her to Vancouver, where she trained in film and theatre, a field where she could express herself and celebrate the richness of different cultures and identities.
Since immigrating to Canada, Jocelyn has provided event management for
conferences, developed innovative fundraising campaigns through leveraging digital marketing and provided operational support to non-profits, small businesses, and entrepreneurs, all with a keen eye for optimizing processes and creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone. She is also an active member of the community, having helped launch grassroots initiatives such as Make Music Vancouver, which celebrates the talents and cultures of local musicians and artists.
Outside of work, Jocelyn loves to travel and discover new cultures and perspectives and is always seeking out new ways to express her creativity and connect with others. Through her love of the arts and her personal relationships, Jocelyn is committed to cultivating a more inclusive and equitable world, where everyone can feel valued and empowered to be themselves.
Susan Bahadori (she/her)
EDI MEDIA SPECIALIST
Susan’s roles encompass communications, content development, special projects, secondary research, and gathering resource and reference material. Using her expertise, she guides organizations to actualize their goals by crafting customized EDI vision statements.
She graduated from the University of British Columbia with a dual degree in English Literature, and Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice. Before IESS, she taught English to students from elementary to high school. Her interests include art, history, and video games.
Char Wong-Richardson (she/her)
PROJECT MANAGER
Char is a Chinese Canadian project manager and strategic consultant, with professional experience in the marketing and events industry in the corporate, non-profit, and private sectors. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from UBC Sauder School of Business, is a certified Transformational Life Coach, Neuro-Linguistic Programming Master Practitioner, and is trained in Trauma-Informed Care. She brings her expertise to IESS to support the team and clients to have a more seamless, efficient, and effective experience in working towards creating more inclusive spaces. Char is an advocate of leading with authenticity and compassion, exemplified in her life-coaching practice to promote self-love and empowerment, and her work with IESS.
Michele Mawhinney (she/her)
FACILITATOR | EXECUTIVE COACH
Michele is an experienced executive with a passion for diversity, equity, and sustainability in business. She assists executive teams assess their readiness to successfully lead their organization’s diversity journey. Michele brings expertise on setting the diversity stage, creating a corporate culture of inclusion, and designing diversity targets. Michele was previously recognized by the Government of Canada as an Employment Equity Champion for her bold diversity leadership. She is an advocate of compensation equity and brings expertise in evaluating gender pay gaps, along with pay gaps for other diversity groups.
As a facilitator and executive coach, Michele promotes candid conversations that support leadership teams with their diversity accountability.