Mary Pullen
Program Director
Laurel Wayne-Nixon
Operations Manager
Our staff team
Brianne Meikle
Communications Lead
Anne-Catherine Bajard
Executive Director
Mary Pullen, Program Director
Mary Pullen is the Program Director at BCCIC. She is excited to be working with organizations and individuals across British Columbia, engaging in issues and initiatives to advance sustainable development and social justice. Over almost 20 years, Mary has held roles as a strategist, facilitator, and capacity builder to further social change, working with local partners, communities, and other sectors. She spent over a decade collaborating with partners in South America to support initiatives focused on youth and women’s economic empowerment, microfinance, community tourism, agroecological farming, and climate change adaptation. Prior to joining BCCIC, Mary served as Program Manager at Community Evolution where she led program strategy and delivery to support community-based enterprises. She previously worked as part of the Sustainable Livelihoods team at Crossroads International, where she managed the Bolivia program and international volunteers. Mary also spent four years supporting women artisans in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, where she launched a community economic development initiative for and with women impacted by violence. Additionally, she has designed and implemented gender audits and training with co-operatives in the Philippines, and currently serves as a volunteer program evaluator (M&E) at Employ to Empower. She holds a Master’s degree in Geography from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a B.A. (Honours) in Geography from Queen’s University.
With gratitude, and as a guest, she lives, works and plays in Vancouver, BC, located on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples: xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. When not advocating for social change she can be found with her husband, reading, tackling a creative project, or testing a new recipe. If she can’t be found she’s probably by the ocean, on a hiking trail, or playing tennis.
Laurel Wayne-Nixon, Operations Manager
Laurel moved to Vancouver in the summer of 2018 to do an internship with BCCIC. She had spent the previous year in Norway, busy with the first year of her Masters in International Environmental Studies. Prior to moving abroad, Laurel lived in Victoria and obtained a BA in Political Science and Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria. She was a cheerleader for 9 years and has an impressive house plant collection (of over 20 plants!). Laurel has a passion for bringing people together, often planning parties for the team and her friends. For fun, Laurel loves to cook, bake, and try new restaurants- she even has an Instagram account dedicated to food! Not to mention she has been known to write a murder mystery or two in her spare time.
Laurel is passionate about the intersection between policy, food, and environmental sustainability, and she wrote her Masters thesis on the barriers that environmentally-sustainable food businesses face. Laurel started working on SDG policy briefs during her internship at BCCIC and became fully immersed in the 2030 Agenda. She sees a powerful opportunity in the SDGs, and she is excited to continue building meaningful partnerships through BCCIC to achieve these goals.
Brianne Meikle, Communications Lead
Brianne joined BCCIC at the end of 2021 and has been ecstatic to work alongside those within and beyond our network making transformative change towards sustainable development. She’s honoured to contribute to global cooperation through public engagement, member engagement, and the many other areas she focuses on as BCCIC’s Communications Lead. Brianne lives and works as a guest on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ and Skwxwú7mesh First Nations in what is now referred to as East Vancouver. She’s passionate about environmental stewardship, reconciliation, corporate responsibility, migrant labour, food sovereignty and so much more. She loves rock climbing, propagating plants, and playing outdoors.
Brianne has supported social justice and environmental organizations with communications, community engagement, project management, research, and policy analysis for almost a decade. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours in both International Development and Anthropology and a Master of Environmental Studies. A lifelong learner, Brianne is always eager to build on her understanding and application of intersectional, decolonial, and solidarity-informed ways of being and working. She welcomes an email or the opportunity to connect over coffee (with strong preference for an oat milk cappuccino).
Anne-Catherine Bajard, Executive Director
Anne-Catherine joined BCCIC in the position of Executive Director in May 2021. She comes from a background of activism and alliance with feminist, intersectional, indigenous and community development movements in Latin America, West Africa and Canada. She has accrued over twenty years of experience leading programs for Oxfam International, Crossroads International, International Media Support, and BC’s Justice Education Society among others. She has further managed university international cooperation projects at the University of Victoria.
Anne-Catherine’s journey began as a youth activist and continues as such, with an ever-increasing commitment to intergenerational and intersectional approaches. She believes in continuous learning, and credits the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon, the domestic workers’ movement of Bolivia, the youths of Liberia and community economic development initiatives in Western Canada for helping shape her vision.
Anne-Catherine is a long-time member of BCCIC and was a member of the Board in earlier years in representation of Crossroads International. She was a founding member of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network’s International Committee. She is committed to the development of local and global partnerships and alliances, and recently applied this to her work on Oxfam’s Knowledge for Impact Team.