Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing is a registered non-profit organization, based on Bowen Island, BC, Canada.
The society is made up of a volunteer board and an Executive Director:
Our Board:
Chair: David McCullum
David and his wife Emily have lived on Bowen for more than 30 years, raising their family here and have occupied both rental housing and their own home. David is committed to working to include as large a cross-section as possible of the socioeconomic strata in our community and, towards that goal, has been an involved community member, who supports many causes, organizations, and projects. He is neither a property developer nor a builder, and is passionate about meeting the need for all community members to be able live here securely. He is committed to building consensus in our community and in small groups.
David currently serves as the co-Chair of the Bowen Island Official Community Plan Steering Committee; Vice Chair of the Bowen Children’s Centre; served two terms on the BIM Advisory Planning Commission (six years as Vice-Chair); served on the board of Island Pacific School for eight years (five years as Chair; and served two terms on the board of the Cates Hill Neighbourhood Association (including one term as Vice-Chair).
Secretary/Treasurer: Aaron Davison
Aaron is proud and honoured to call Bowen Island his home. He lives in Tunstall Bay with his wife Harmony and daughter Maple, and they are expecting their second child this summer. He is a serial entrepreneur; having created several businesses ranging from a salon & spa to a home automation and robotics company and is now in the financial space as a mortgage broker. He loves numbers and problem solving as well as elegantly implementing systems. He is enormously passionate about BIRCH as diversified and affordable housing options are essential to any thriving community, and is excited about being a part of the positive impact of the organization.
Director: Philippa Gumley, MRICS
Philippa comes to BIRCH with a background in Real estate investment and development in London and Vancouver, working within both municipal government and the private sector. Her work has involved supporting policy development, securing public amenities, portfolio investment and land redevelopment.
She is passionate about secure housing as a human right and a necessary factor in combating social inequality. Having previously lived in a co-operative home in Vancouver, she is also interested in alternative housing models and how they can address other social issues such as loneliness and isolation. Philippa is very grateful to be able to call Bowen her home and has got involved with BIRCH to support the creation of a more diverse range of housing options on Bowen.
Director: Alex Jurgensen
Alex is the Director of Operations and Community Engagement at Camp Bowen, the division of the Canadian organization of the Blind and DeafBlind (not to be confused with CNIB) that runs the summer camp for the blind, DeafBlind, and low vision Canadians here on Bowen. He has extensive non-profit experience, having served in every seat on Boards of Directors, having been an Executive Director, having run camps, and having served as the Community Liaison Officer for Bowen Island.
In 2022 Alex was elected to the Bowen Council and serves as one of two Council Representatives on the BIRCH Board.
Director: Adam Lougheed
Adam lives with his partner in the Bluewater neighbourhood and is proud to call Bowen home. As a transportation planner with a focus on transit, walking and cycling, Adam is committed to a Bowen that is safe and accessible for all. Prior to Bowen, Adam worked in policy research and long-term strategic planning. As a Director, Adam is excited to contribute to the development of diverse and affordable housing on Bowen.
Director: Jack Resels
Jack is a member of the Belterra Cohousing Community and brings a deep interest in seeing more diverse housing options available for Bowen Island. He is now retired and enjoys traveling with his wife Soorya, and co-leading a monthly community chanting circle. In his professional career, he worked in commercial real estate and small scale residential development.
Director: Amy Seabrooke
Amy works as a project manager and sustainability professional delivering programs to improve the energy performance and climate resilience of homes and buildings in Indigenous communities across BC. These programs deliver co-benefits like affordability and occupant health and wellness and, for Amy, have served to demonstrate the critically important role that adequate and affordable housing plays in our lives. Amy and her partner moved to Bowen Island in 2018 in search of community and proximity to nature are happy to call Bluewater home.
Director: Tim Wake
Born in Toronto and raised in Quebec and Alberta, Tim attended Carleton University in Ottawa. With a degree in mechanical engineering, Tim spent twenty-five years as a staff member, manager and then an owner/operator of Lake O’Hara Lodge in Yoho National Park, where he was responsible for all aspects of running an off-grid business at an altitude of 7,000 ft.
After moving to Whistler in 1994 and managing a chocolate shop for a few years, Tim took an interest in affordable housing and worked as the Housing Administrator and then General Manager of the newly created Whistler Housing Authority (WHA), a municipally owned non-profit which partnered with the private sector to create more than 1,000 affordable price-restricted townhomes and apartments between 1999 and 2011.
Tim was elected and served as a municipal councillor in Whistler from 2005 -2008 and joined the board of the WHA as well as the Whistler Centre for Sustainability. He also began consulting on affordable housing with municipalities in BC, Alberta, and the Northwest Territories. Smart Growth BC published his Review of Best Practices in Affordable Housing in 2007, followed by Creating Market and Non-market Affordable Housing: A Smart Growth Tool Kit for BC Municipalities (with Deborah Curran) in 2008.
In 2009, Tim moved to Bowen to continue his affordable housing consulting and was contracted in 2010, CMHC contracted him to write A Guide for Canadian Municipalities for the Development of a Housing Action Plan.
In 2022 he was elected to the Bowen Council and serves as one of two Council Representatives on the BIRCH Board.
Working with these civic governments has given Tim a solid understanding of the impacts that the lack of affordable housing has on communities, as well as the vital role of a municipal council in facilitating effective solutions.
Executive Director:
Robyn Fenton, Architect, AIBC
Robyn Fenton is an architect, facilitator and affordable housing advocate, based on Bowen Island, BC. She is the founder and principal of Robyn Fenton Architect Ltd, working with residential, commercial and non profit clients.
Robyn holds the position of Post-Disaster Liaison with the Architecture Institute of BC (AIBC) and was the AIBC representative on the steering committee for the Post Disaster Building Assessment Framework project – a federally funded collaboration between the AIBC, Engineers & Geoscientists BC, BC Housing, and JIBC.
She has previously served on the steering committee for Vancouver’s Women in Architecture and the board of the Vancouver Design Nerds Society and the Vancouver Biodiesel Co-op. She was chair of the Bowen Island Municipality’s Housing Advisory Committee 2018-2024.