Our Team

Alicia is a settler of mixed European ancestry, raised in beautiful, sunny Southern California, where the original and current caretakers of the land, water, and air are the ancestors and descendants of the Cahuilla, Tongva, Luiseño, and Serrano peoples. Alicia graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a BA in Political Science, followed by an MA in Sociology at DePaul University. 

Professionally, since 2006, Alicia has been working with survivors of sexual, relationship, and gender-based violence, harassment and harm. Prior to arriving at UBC in 2020, Alicia most recently served as the Director for the University of California Los Angeles’ Campus Assault Resources and Education Program and before that as the Director for Harvard University’s Office of Sexual Assault Prevention & Response. 

Alicia contextualizes the work with personal and political queerness, an atypical brain, and a commitment to the active learning required to be an accomplice in the tremendous work of accessibility, decolonization and anti-racism. Alicia formerly served on the Vancouver City Council’s 2SLGBTQIA Advisory Committee and continues to be deeply passionate about the rights, autonomy, and celebration of trans, nonbinary, and two-spirit people.

Outside of work, Alicia can be found eating vegan tacos, devouring telenovelas, reading delicious fiction written by women, trans, and non-binary authors, cultivating streaming recommendations for “strong female leads,” smooshing the dog’s face, or FaceTiming with The World’s Cutest Niblings.

Althea is of Afro-Caribbean descent and was born in Toronto Canada, the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit River, the Anishnabeg, and the Haudenosaunee peoples.  She completed her degree in International Development Studies at York University (Toronto) in 2005.  

Althea now lives and works on the beautiful land of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm people. Her work with Jumpstart Charities brought her to Vancouver in 2013 as the Regional Manager of the Western Canada Jumpstart program, where she managed funding to support children from low-income families in sport and recreational activities.  In her 15 year professional career, Althea has been drawn to work that focuses on social issues in many facets of life.  She is inspired and excited every day to work with her incredibly talented and compassionate teammates at SVPRO.

In her free time, Althea roams the planet as often as she can, and has visited over 20 countries and 6 continents. She is a global citizen at heart and maintains her connection with the world by regularly getting lost in new places.  She also lives for road trips with friends, listening to the latest greatest podcast series, and taking pictures of absolutely everything from the beautiful to the mundane (which is beautiful too, in its own quiet way).

Ari is a queer, non-binary Korean adoptee, settler, and writer who is humbled to walk alongside individuals on their healing journeys. They have been involved in anti-violence work for over ten years in paid and volunteer roles and for many additional years in community.

Ari was born on Jeju Island, South Korea, and raised on the traditional and unceded territory of the Katzie and Kwantlen nations. Their academic background is in law, gender studies, and English literature. Prior to SVPRO, Ari worked at Salal Sexual Violence Support Centre supporting trans, gender diverse, and 2-Spirit individuals who had experienced sexual violence. In this role, they were a part of an organizational and sector-wide shift to increase access and safety for gender diverse individuals seeking support services.

Ari has also acted as an advocate in the Downtown Eastside, a legal researcher, and a board member with Ishtar Transition Housing Society. As part of an intervenor coalition of anti-violence organizations, they had the opportunity to provide legal support in a strategic litigation case at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Anti-oppression, decolonization, and collective liberation are core values for Ari, and they are grateful to ground their work and life in these frameworks. In their spare time, Ari loves to solo hike and camp, write short fiction, and brainstorm and then procrastinate working on creative projects. When not at work or in the woods, you can find them searching for backroads on their motorcycle, Tiny.

Ariana has been a professional in the anti-violence field for over 10 years. She is Ashkenazi Jewish with ancestors from Eastern Europe who were displaced by violence, and takes that to heart in considering the colonial displacement and active resistance of the Indigenous people on whose land she lives. She came to unceded coast salish territories in 2011 from Amiskwaciy-Wâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta) – Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakoda, Tsuu T’ina, Dene (Treaty 6) territory – to attend UBC’s Faculty of Education for graduate studies after completing a BA in Sociology at the University of Alberta. Her SSHRC-funded masters thesis was a critical analysis of representations of responsibility for sexual assault prevention in mainstream media and police discourse, countered in grassroots anti-violence activism.

Before joining SVPRO in 2018, she worked at WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre for 7 years, providing training and education for service providers across BC, crisis line operators, high schools, post secondary institutions, media outlets, touring theatre productions, and the public.

Ariana has also been a choreographer in dance, theatre, and choral productions for over 10 years, and spent 9 years as a feminist radio producer and host. She is keenly aware of how much can be done through the arts and media to question and shift cultural norms and beliefs around sexual harm as a seemingly inevitable part of life. Invested in how sexuality, sexual harm, queerness, race, trans and non-binary and BIPOC performers, and survivors are represented, she completed training in 2021 to become a certified intimacy coordinator for film and television.

Ariana believes that anti-violence movements, and all social justice efforts, are fueled by the unique gifts, talents, and perspectives we each bring to this collective work. Supporting and learning from the next generation of changemakers gives her life.

Ogake was born and raised in the city in the sun (Nairobi, Kenya) and is grateful for the serendipitous mix of luck, choice, and opportunity that has led her to call the beautiful lands of the Coast Salish Nations a second home.

An avid traveller, Ogake has been fortunate to live, study, and work in Wales, Canada, and France over the last decade. She completed her Bachelor in International Studies at Simon Fraser University in 2012 and her Masters in Social Policy at Sciences Po in Paris in 2018. Ever curious about the world and the human condition, Ogake constantly learns from those she is so fortunate to work with and for, and feels especially grateful for work that allows her to engage with people one-on-one.

Before coming to UBC, Ogake spent the last few years working in the anti-violence movement as a front-line worker and in team leadership, supporting and advocating on behalf of survivors of gender-based violence, interpersonal violence, and sexualized violence. Through various roles within transition housing and community-based victim services as well as in her current role, Ogake endeavours to meet her clients where they’re at, and to offer a safe and supportive presence while honouring individual agency and providing meaningful options. Ogake is grateful for the unique privilege of being able to witness, in her clients, shared humanity, vulnerability, pain, strength, resilience, and triumph.

When she isn’t working, Ogake enjoys frolicking in the outdoors, cultivating her love for interior decor, singing out loud, gazing lovingly at flowers, and reading through her growing collection of books and magazines.