Alexa Pitoulis (she/her)
Executive Director
Alexa is a creative strategist with over 20 years of experience leading teams and change initiatives in public, private and non-profit spheres. A change leader with an MBA in Sustainable Systems, Alexa is skilled at moving the whole working of an organization, and its effects on systems, in ways that illuminate potential and build capacity.
Good Food Farm Team
Camille Flanjak (she/they)
Good Food Farm Manager (ON LEAVE)
Camille is a farmer with experience in Urban, Community, and Homestead growing. She is known by many as ‘the mushroom girl,’ having connected people with the mycelial network for over 10 years.
Cheyanne Ripley (she/her)
Acting Good Food Farm Manager
Cheyanne has been working as a farmer since 2016, and is passionate about creating healthy and resilient communities through sustainable, small-scale farming. She studies western herbalism in her spare time and can be found crafting all sorts of herbal potions in her home kitchen.
Youth Empowerment Team

Tathali Urueta-Ortiz (she/her)
Youth Empowerment Manager
During the last 10 years, Tathali has been working in diverse capacities at the intersection of two worlds: Food and Education! Her professional experience in these years has been shaped by her interest and passion in sustainability education, garden-based learning, science education, and food studies.
Nicole Bruce (they/them)
SOYL Lead Facilitator
Nicole started their journey with Fresh Roots in 2016 as a SOYL participant as a SOYL participant and has since become a lead facilitator for the SOYL Program in Delta. Nicole believes that growing your own food is one of the most rewarding things you can do and wants to share that passion with as many youth as possible. Since working at Fresh Roots, they have changed career paths from engineering to sustainable agriculture with the hope to contribute to urban food security.
Experiential Learning Team
Kat Vriesema-Magnuson (she/her)
Director of Experiential Learning
Kat loves to help kids literally get their hands dirty, and seeing a kid hold their first worm is the highlight of her day. Kat has a Graduate Certificate in Education, Environment and Community from IslandWood, an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum from the University of Washington, and over a decade of experience in environmental education.
Andrea Lucy (she/they)
Experiential Learning Program Lead
Andrea enjoys the curiosity, wonder and play that comes from spending time on the farm, whether it’s digging in the soil or tasting plants where they grow. With a background teaching in museums and gardens, she is passionate about hands-on learning and environmental education.
Jaimie Rosenwirth (they/them)
Suwa’lkh Program Lead
Jaimie brings diverse work experience to the Fresh Roots team. Having worked with folks with autism since 2015 they bring qualities of patience and understanding. Jaimie’s relationship with Fresh Roots started out by volunteering with an individual at Suwa’lkh School who has autism in 2018 and has grown into the Environmental Education Lead role.
Engagement

Caroline Manuel (she/her)
Communications Specialist
Caroline is an East Coast transplant who spent her formative years spinning yarns and attending university in Halifax where she studied ethnolinguistics and anthropology. After living abroad in Asia and Europe Caroline finally put down roots in Vancouver where over the years she has owned and operated a diner, produced documentary TV, and in recent years has applied her communications and fundraising skills to increasing awareness about food insecurity through her work in the non-profit sector.
Operations
Vivian Cheung (she/her)
Operations and Digital Engagement Speacialist
Vivian gets excited by details and systems, whether it is life or data. Her curiosity for food systems began while working at her family’s restaurant and flourished as a 2016 Fresh Roots intern.
Accounting
Gillian Cofsky (they/them/she/her)
Accounting & Payroll Manager
Gillian is a former dancer, movement instructor, and entrepreneur who left the dance world for a career in the accounting industry. Gillian is the founder of Make It Count – bookkeeping, tax services, & financial education for creative entrepreneurs!