Justice Education Society of British Columbia

Head Office Managers
Head Office Staff
Regional Offices Staff
Court Information Program for Immigrants Staff
Central American Staff
Volunteers

Head Office Managers

Rick Craig
Executive Director

Rick Craig has served as the Justice Education Society’s Executive Director since its inception in 1989. He has almost 30 years’ experience developing and delivering public legal education programs.

Rick holds a Master of Education in legal education and a Bachelor’s of Art degree from Simon Fraser University, as well as a Secondary Level B.C. Teaching Certificate. He taught at the senior secondary level for several years before moving into public legal education.

He is the author of numerous legal education curricula for all levels of the school system, including the mandatory textbook on law and government used in the senior school system in British Columbia. Rick has designed numerous public legal education programs, including materials for the minority communities, Aboriginal youth, the deaf community, the mentally challenged community, youth with special needs and programs for justice system personnel. He has also developed materials for national distribution in Canada.

Rick also has over 30 years of experience in international development and has worked on international legal education projects in South Africa, Guatemala, China, Ethiopia and Somaliland.   

Patricia Byrne
Deputy Executive Director/Provincial Programs Manager

Patricia has over 10 years’ executive-level experience in the association and not-for-profit sectors. Over these years her focus has been legal education both for lawyers and the general public. Called to the BC Bar in 1982, Patricia began her career as a lawyer and practiced business law for nine years. After that, she held positions in Vancouver as a Faculty Member with the Law Society’s Professional Legal Training Course and in Toronto as Director of Professional Development with the CBA-Ontario and with a national law firm. Her professional designations include BA (Dalhousie University), JD (University of Toronto) and MBA (SFU).

Evelyn Neaman
International and Special Projects Manager

Evelyn is the International Programs Manager for the Justice Education Society. She has been with the Society since 1991 and, since 2000, she has managed international projects in Montenegro, China and Ethiopia. She has also organized public engagement events in Canada on the Society’s international work including screenings of the documentary It’s Time: African Women Join Hands Against Violence.

Dave Nolette
Communications and Web Manager

Dave is the Communications and Web Manager, bringing over 20 years of marketing communications experience to the Justice Education Society. Dave manages public legal education projects and a dynamic communications team, which is responsible for promotion of the Society’s 100+ programs and resources, the development and maintenance of 25+  websites, the production of 50+ videos, and organizing numerous Society events.

Linda Windibank
Finance and Facilities Manager

Linda is the Finance and Facilities Manager for the Justice Education Society.  She has been with the Society since 2000.  Linda manages all areas of accounting, finance, facility operations and human resources.
 
 

Head Office Staff

Anne Catherine Bajard
Latin American Project Coordinator

Anne Catherine is the Latin American Project Coordinator for the Justice Education Society.
  
 

Danielle Clifford
Junior Financial Accountant

Danielle is the Junior Financial Accountant for the Justice Education Society. She has recently taken on the financial coordination of the Society’s international projects as well as assisting the Finance and Facilities Manager with many other accounting, finance and facility-related functions. We are pleased to announce that Danielle has just successfully completed her Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA).

Anastasia Gaisenok
Special Project Coordinator

Anastasia coordinates and assists with various projects, including supporting the work of the We Can End All Violence against Women campaign. She has a BA (Hons.) in Anthropology and is currently completing her MA in International Studies at Simon Fraser University.
 

Marylou Leung
Project Manager

Marylou has worked on a number of projects over the years, including Legal Quest, Explore the YCJA, Teachers’ Law Institutes and Courts of BC. Presently she is working on an online Parenting After Separation program and developing a toolkit for settlement workers about family law and domestic violence as part of the Immigrant PLEI Consortium. Part of her work includes writing and developing the content for teacher’s guides and for websites. She also facilitates workshops and has taught a variety of legal materials to students of all ages.

Edgar Morales
International Projects Assistant

Edgar is the International Projects Assistant for the Justice Education Society.

 

 Kathryn Rose

Administrative Coordinator

Kathryn is the Administrative Coordinator for the Justice Education Society. Kathryn keeps everything running smoothly at our provincial office in Vancouver and has recently begun supporting our Vancouver Law Courts regional office by periodically leading court orientations for school groups. Kathryn’s background is in non-profit work and the Society is very lucky to have her.

Kevin Smith
Communications and Events Coordinator

Kevin has put his skills to work on numerous projects since joining the Society in 2008. Among his responsibilities, Kevin creates the Society's newsletter, updates its websites, and edits and designs many of its resources. He also coordinates events for the Society, including the popular Justice In Our Times series.
 

 
Peter Szymczak
Web and IT Coordinator

Peter is the Society's resident web and IT guru. Since joining the Society in 2007, Peter has been the main developer and designer on most of the Society's website projects. He maintains all of our existing websites, manages IT operations, and keeps everything 'tech' running smoothly.


Margarita Virata Santos
Parenting After Separation Program Administrator

Margarita volunteered as the Communications Assistant for the society before becoming the Parenting After Separation Programs Administrator. She runs two programs for separating and divorcing parents - Parenting After Separation and Separated With Children – Dealing with the Finances. Margarita handles registrations for the attendees, schedules sessions in the Lower Mainland and Victoria, and supervises trained facilitators who lead the sessions.

Sandra Wilking
IPC Project Manager

Sandra Wilking, Project Manager, for the Immigrant PLEI Consortium Project, a collaborative project composed of 12 agencies with JES as the lead agency, aims to improve the delivery of public legal education and information for immigrants in Metro Vancouver. The overall goal is to enable immigrants to better address their legal needs and have a greater awareness of core Canadian legal values.

 
Court Information Program for Immigrants Staff

Gurveen Atwal
Court Worker: South Asian Community

Gurveen has been with the Society for more than a year as the South Asian Court Worker for the Society's Court Information Program for Immigrants. She is based out of the Surrey Provincial Court, one of the busiest courthouses in BC. Gurveen loves to help others by organizing workshops about Canada's justice system and networking with other agencies.
 

The Binh Luong
Court Worker: Chinese and Vietnamese Communities

Binh has worked for more than 10 years as a Court Worker for the Society’s Court Information Program for Immigrants. Based at 222 Main Street, Vancouver Provincial Court, Binh’s work extends to Richmond twice a month to serve new immigrants for the city’s expanding Chinese Community.
 

Lali Pawa
Court Worker: South Asian Community

Lali Pawa is the Coordinator for the Courts Information Program for Immigrants and also serves the South Asian Community as a Court Worker. Lali is based out of the Surrey Provincial Courthouse however her work extends out to many areas of the Lower Mainland. She is also actively involved with the We Can BC campaign.
 
 

 
Regional Offices Staff

Lower Mainland West/Provincial Court Region

Danielle Horwitz, Regional Coordinator

Danielle has been a Regional Coordinator for the Justice Education Society for the past 15 years. She is primarily based at the Vancouver Provincial Court in the Downtown Eastside, and also works part-time at the Vancouver Law Courts. Danielle's background is in social work & criminology, and she has worked extensively with high-risk youth in both Canada and South Africa.

Annette Russell, Aboriginal Programs Manager

Annette has lived in Prince George and Northern British Columbia for most of her life. She is Cree/Metis and is a member of the Bourque family from Lac La Biche, Alberta. Annette has coordinated the Society’s aboriginal programs since 1998. Her area of expertise is the development and delivery of pubic legal education programs for youth-at-risk and youth with learning difficulties.


Okanagan Region
Maria Bishop, Regional Coordinator

Maria has been with the Society since 1995.  She has implemented many programs, including Auto Crime Courtlink, Choices and Consequences, Teachers’ Law Institute and delivered many YCJA and Family Law Workshops. In 2005, she helped organize a very successful Community Justice Forum on Sentencing held in Kelowna. Maria attributes her overall success of these programs to her passion and dedication in working with people.

Vancouver Law Courts Region
Tiffany Lee, Regional Coordinator

Tiffany Lee has been with the Socity since 1990. She is a teacher and is pleased to have the opportunity to meet with students and community members who are interested in learning about the justice system. One of Tiffany's favourite memories is when a grade 7 class was performing a mock trial for Law Day and, as they started the mock trial, the Chief Justice (who was acting as judge) was standing out in the hallway.

Victoria Region
Sylvia Sangha, Regional Coordinator

 

 
Central American Staff

 Claudia Palencia
Claudia Palencia is the Regional Training Coordinator for the Society’s projects in Honduras and El Salvador. She coordinates the actual implementation of project training, in addition to the securing of resources, trainers, and logistics for the delivery of the program. She also plays a supporting role in the development of Central American project content.

Volunteers