The Bowen Island Community Foundation’s success relies on a hardworking, passionate, and stable Board of Directors who collectively offer a range of relevant skills and knowledge to the Foundation’s mission and strategy.
Kate Thomas-Peter, Chair
Kate is now semi-retired as a director in the Child and Youth Mental Health Programs at BC Children’s Hospital. An experienced children and families social worker in the UK, Kate has managed and directed special projects in healthcare since coming to live in Canada. Her work has always been in public sector services with opportunities to teach and train others in her field of work. Over the last few years, Kate has developed a special interest in mentoring new and emerging leaders. British by birth, Kate married Brian, a Canadian, and, with their children grown up, decided to strengthen their connection to Canada. They discovered Bowen Island and moved to live here in 2010. It was a good decision and Kate has enjoyed living in and contributing to the Bowen community since then. She is an experienced not-for-profit director, being on the board of the Pacific Post Partum Support Society and on the board of The Hearth (Bowen Island Arts Council).
Richard Smith, Vice Chair
Richard Smith is a professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. Smith’s research focus is social inclusion (and exclusion) brought on by the introduction of new media. He has an ongoing interest in technology for education, privacy and surveillance in public spaces, online communities, and the wireless information society. With academic training in communication and law, Dr. Smith has degrees from Carleton University (BA) and Simon Fraser University (MA and PhD). He is a member of the Canadian Communication Association and former publisher of the Canadian Journal of Communication. He has lived on Bowen Island since 1995 with his wife, Deborah Kirby, and their two children, Eleanor and Maxwell (now grown and living off-island).
Leila Swann, CPA, CA, Treasurer/Secretary
Leila lives on Collins Farm with her husband and their two young children. She has lived on Bowen all her life, excluding five years in Penticton, where she articled for her CA. Now a CPA with over fifteen years’ experience between industry and public practice, she began her accounting career at a medium-sized firm doing audit and assurance for municipalities and First Nations, and has worked with owner-managed businesses of all sizes covering a range of industries including wineries, retail, manufacturing, insurance, trades and construction, as well as e-commerce. Leila started her working life on Bowen at thirteen as an ice-cream scooper at Union Steamship Marina and worked her way up to management there. She also worked in many of Bowen’s restaurants including Doc Morgan’s and Tuscany.
Dorothy Buckland, Director
Bio coming soon!
Margaret Butler, Director
Margaret Butler co-founded AMPLIFY Girls following more than fifteen years of involvement in international social-impact strategies, including spearheading innovative programming across a range of fields from gender equity and global development to health and wellness. Currently, the group serves more than 170,000 adolescent girls through a network of forty partners in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, and Uganda. Previously, Margaret was the founder and executive director of Komera, a leadership incubator that develops self-confident young Rwandan women through education, community development, and wellness.
Margaret has been honoured as the 2016 winner of Boston’s EXTRAordinary Women Campaign, nominated for the Global News Canadian “Everyday Hero” award, and profiled in “Canadian Courage: True Stories of Canada’s Everyday Heroes.” She also captained the national Canadian cross-country and track and field team, of which she was a member for seven years.
Margaret holds a BA from the University of Washington, a BEd from the University of British Columbia, and a master’s degree in international educational development from Teachers College, Columbia University. She grew up on Bowen Island and after several years away from home, returned with her husband, Jeb, two daughters, Mabel and Dela, and their dog, Lola.
Fiona Douglas-Crampton, Director
Fiona, her husband, Daniel, and their “Beaglier,” Henry, moved to Bowen in 2022 and quickly fell in love with the island, its people, and their new home in the Eagle Cliff neighbourhood. Fiona and Dan have two grown children living in the Lower Mainland, who love to visit them on Bowen. Not surprisingly, their home has become a popular destination for friends and family who come to soak up the special magic of the island.
When not hiking, playing disc golf, swimming, or reading, Fiona loves connecting with people and engaging in community life on Bowen. She is so grateful to be able to contribute to the board of the Community Foundation.
In her work life, Fiona is currently the interim executive director at the Sierra Club of BC—the province’s oldest environmental charity. Over the past fourteen years, she has held non-profit leadership roles for several organizations, including the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, Minerva BC, YWCA Metro Vancouver, and the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.
Steve Elves, Director
Steve is originally from Alberta, and as a child aspired to be a brain surgeon or an astronaut. These initial career plans were somewhat stymied by innate clumsiness and fear of heights, so minor compromises had to be made. He therefore attended university in Saskatoon with the intention of becoming a veterinarian, without really processing the fact that he was violently allergic to virtually anything in a fur coat. The resulting education in biology and physical chemistry naturally led to a brief stint as a commercial loans officer with a bank and then a longish career as a partner in an insurance agency in Parksville. While there, Steve was also a member of the volunteer fire department. He sold out his partnership in 1992 to go to school at BCIT, studying electronics and instrumentation—in hindsight, not as obvious a career move as it seemed at the time. After twenty-six years doing industrial control systems all over the world, he retired in 2016 to take up woodworking (i.e., sawdust creation) and home automation as continuing hobbies. Steve and his partner, Anji Redish, have lived full-time on Bowen since 2019, enjoying the quiet semi-rural lifestyle and strong connection to neighbourhood to be found here. Steve is a founding member and vice-president of the Bowen Island Men’s Shed and has taught STEM programs at IPS and BICS.
Gayle Farrell, Director
Gayle, her husband, Bohdan, and their very friendly Bernese Mountain dog, Gracie, moved to Bowen Island in spring 2022. Since then, she has greeted each day with deep gratitude that they chose Bowen and Bowen chose them.
Gayle continues to marvel at the fact that no matter how many times they take the same beach walk or forest hike there’s always a new discovery to enjoy. Gayle was first encouraged (voluntold?) to volunteer by her parents at the age of eight in her hometown of Montreal and has continued these activities as she moved first to Toronto, then to Vancouver, and most recently to Bowen.
In her day job, Gayle works for Siena Consulting, a company she founded in 2000 that focuses on strengthening not-for-profit organizations so they can continue to create and deliver programs that enhance the quality of life in their communities. She has also facilitated consultations involving public, private, and social profit sector representatives supporting the reimagination of primary health care in BC.
Gayle has four children and two grandchildren who live in the Lower Mainland and are increasingly frequent—and delighted—visitors to her place on Bowen Island.
Jennifer Hatfield, Director
Bio coming soon!
Jan Seaman, Director
Jan has been a full-time resident of Bowen Island since 2013. She made the island her retirement home following a highly successful twenty-seven-year real estate career in Kelowna. In her rare spare time, she also co-created the Spirit In Action Athletic Program that sponsored youth sports teams to travel, deliver donated equipment, and conduct camps for less fortunate children. Her desire to have a continued purpose, contribute to community, and fulfill a lifelong desire to work in the medical field led to her making a mid-life decision to become a qualified caregiver. She graduated with honours from the Capilano University program and joined Vancouver Coastal Health, where she passionately cared for Bowen Islanders for five years. In 2020, she accepted a new opportunity as the operations manager at Bowen Waste Solutions. However, despite this career change, she remains closely connected to Vancouver Coastal Health and continues her commitment to developing the most effective care giving for our community. Not surprisingly, her motto is “pay it forward and hopefully make a difference in people’s lives.”
Peter Wrinch, Director
Advocate. Connector. Culture builder. Peter has worked at the intersection of politics, advocacy, and connection for more than twenty years. As the executive director of Pivot Legal Society, he contributed to two landmark Supreme Court of Canada decisions in support of marginalized communities in Canada. As the director of politics and advocacy at NationBuilder, he worked on some of the largest political campaigns in the world. As the CEO of Hollyhock, he has worked to connect inner work to outer impact. Peter moved to Bowen in 2014 from Gastown and immediately fell in love with the wild spaces, the community, and quiet. Peter is an avid cyclist and runner who enjoys running and biking uphill.
Quentin Beck, Administrator
Bio coming soon!