Board & Staff

Based in Winnipeg, Kaye Grant has served as CWCF’s Communications and Member Services Manager since 2013. She is also the key Consultant with Reconnaissance Management Consulting Group Inc. Kaye has worked for over 25 years within the non-profit/social enterprise sector in a number of roles.  Kaye’s experience in working with the non-profit sector and local community groups enables her to maintain working relationships within the community. She has experience in training and facilitating workshops and courses in business related subjects.  Kaye is on the CCEDNet board and also on the Manitoba Co-op Association Board as the CWCF representative, as well as the Peg City Car Co-op Board in Winnipeg.

Kaye has long had a passion towards poverty alleviation and equality and has focused her work with organizations that contribute to this mandate. She was introduced to the worker co-op model by her then-teenage son, and found the variety of tasks he was performing as a member of one intriguing. She ultimately found a way to pursue this interest at CWCF, where she appreciates the opportunity to work with its members. 

Kaye’s two young adult children have shaped her work with their values of equity and collaboration, and she wants to help build up the worker co-op model so it offers more opportunities for young people to find fulfilling work. Increasing awareness of worker co-ops is one of her main goals. 

Kaye is an avid cyclist, biking wherever and whenever she can, and is also committed to making cycling possible for everyone.

Based in Calgary and bilingual, Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Textiles, and has had a varied career since, often working at museums and festivals, and most recently at a local grocery store.

“A lot of my career choices have been motivated by my interests and my values,” she says. “The one thread that ties all my work together is I wanted to learn something, or it allows me to kind of leverage what I’m good at to build something cool.”

Rebecca anticipates serving as “an extra set of hands” at CWCF, helping with a variety of tasks including planning the upcoming conference and AGM.  She believes her prior work experience in the arts nonprofit sector has prepared her well for this role, as it also required her to dabble in a little bit of everything. She sees the Executive Assistant role as a chance to contribute her organizational skills to the worker co-op movement and learn more about this sector at a time when its values are particularly needed.

“CWCF is an organization that’s already done so much to build awareness and community around a just economy,” she says. “I see a really great opportunity to leverage my admin skills to make the work more impactful.”

In her spare time, Rebecca enjoys spending time in her garden, going for hikes, and working on puzzles. Welcome, Rebecca!

Janielle is happy to be in a position where she can help improve access to viable long term business solutions for marginalized people. This will not only increase capital and economic stability in these communities, but contribute to solving the multi-factoral business succession dilemma Canada currently faces.

As a Black woman of colour who grew up amongst other equity seeking groups (other racialized individuals, people with disabilities, LGBTQx+ etc.); she is well aware of the inequities and barriers marginalized people face in social, academic, and professional spaces. Due to personal experience with all of the aforementioned contexts, she has developed a strong passion for true advocacy that catalyzes measurable change for the systematically underserved, underrepresented, and under-credited. 

She is currently completing her MSc in Rural Planning and Development at the University of Guelph; with a One Health Specialization. Her research focuses on farm-level best management practices (BMPs) amongst minority farmers; whether that be racialized or small-scale farmers. Due to the scale of their operations or cultural perspectives on land and food, most of these producers farm to increase food security and/ or food sovereignty. Thus, many of these farmer’s practices differ from the norm, as they usually implement some form of regenerative or holistic agriculture. It follows that such groups can be uniquely positioned as models for new or improved BMPs that are better suited to reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture. As an aspiring One Health practitioner, she also considers the interconnections between human, animal, and environmental health in this matter.

Apart from work and school Janielle is a HUGE foodie. She loves exploring international cuisines and is always following Mark Wiens, ‘The Taste Life,’ and ‘The Best Food Review Show Ever’  (traveling social media foodies) on their next adventures. Some international dishes she’s proud to have mastered so far are: Indian channa masala, Nigerian jollof rice, and Egyptian koshari. Accordingly, she is also an advocate for not only food security, but food sovereignty- as she does believe investment in these essentials has the potential to promote socio-economic development in communities our system has historically underserved. She currently volunteers at an organization that seeks to mitigate the negative effects of urban planning on marginalized groups and her hobbies include: poetry (she hopes to publish a book soon), herbal/plant-based medicine,languages (fluent in French and learning Spanish), exploring her culture, and all things self-care i.e. candles, crystals, aromatherapy.

Based in Kentville,  Laura MacDonald has served as CWCF’s RRSP Program Assistant since 2019.  When she’s not working at CWCF, Laura owns and operates Deep Hollow Print, a letterpress printing and graphic design studio in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. Laura has been running Deep Hollow Print for over 5 years now, and has won two East Coast Music Awards for her design work in the music industry. 

Laura has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from the University of Wisconsin, as well as a Certificate in Book Publishing/Editing from Humber College in Toronto. 

Laura has a couple of cooperative connections: she lived in an international housing cooperative in Madison, Wisconsin for three years, and her grandfather PD MacDonald was involved in the Antigonish co-operative movement in the 1940s. He started one of the first Credit Unions in Nova Scotia, which he managed until the late 1970s. She’s a big fan of the cooperative lifestyle and is proud to be working at CWCF!

Based in Toronto, Reba Plummer has served on CWCFs board since 2010, and as board President since 2016. The Co-executive Director of Toronto’s Urbane Cyclist, Reba started out as the proprietor of her own bike shop before joining Urbane in 2000. She attended her first CWCF conference in 2006, and has been present at every one since. She is currently on the board of The Co-operators, having been nominated by CWCF, and previously served as the Greater Toronto Area Co-op Network Regional Manager for the Ontario Co-operative Association.

Having been a sole proprietor, Reba appreciates the shared responsibility that comes with belonging to a worker co-op. She finds that the co-op’s members have particularly demonstrated their commitment during the Covid-19 pandemic and stepped up to meet the challenges arising from it. She believes that Urbane’s members are committed to living out the co-op values in their work, seeking to create fair and equitable employment for all.

Reba believes a lack of understanding within the wider community remains a challenge for worker co-ops, and hopes to make them better understood. She would also like to grow CWCFs membership, and to ensure it has more resources available to support the creation of or conversion to worker co-ops.

An avid cyclist, Reba has completed the Adventure Cycling Association’s leadership training and has led several bicycle tours including the Eastern Canada Adventure, a two-week tour from Quebec City to Gaspé. She is also a two-time Cycle Messenger World Champion (cargo bike racing division).

Evan Proven has served on CWCF’s board since 2019. A co-founder and longtime board member of Sun Certified, Evan has worked in the construction field for his entire career starting in concrete and moving on to wood framing, cabinet making, and super insulated renovation and new home construction. 

Evan achieved his Red Seal Endorsement in Carpentry in June of 2017, and is currently a Masters Candidate for the Management in Co-operatives and Credit Unions program at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. A married father of two and stepfather of two, Evan’s hobbies include beekeeping, gardening, cooking, snowboarding, sailing, and fixing things. 

A strong believer in Co-op Principle 6 (co-operation between co-ops), Evan believes Sun Certified has benefited from the networking opportunities membership in CWCF has offered, and wants to continue fostering these as a board member.  Although he’s a firm believer in worker co-ops, Evan is aware of the challenges the movement faces, something he’s experienced both as a member of Sun Certified and witnessed elsewhere. But he’s hopeful that promoting the benefits of worker co-ops will succeed in growing the organization’s membership and increasing the movement’s diversity.

“I just personally believe co-operatives are a way better model of running a business and potentially running an economy,” he says. “I think that co-operatives have a really, really important role in balancing the economy and making sure that people have opportunities for meaningful employment that also pay a decent wage.”

Jared is passionate about creating equitable and just societies. After completing a graduate degree in Vancouver in 2017, investigating contemporary economic issues and potential solutions, he cofounded The Allium Restaurant and Bodega Worker Cooperative (The Allium). Jared believes that by empowering workers and making them the directors of produced profits, we actively create more resilient and localized economies, and more ethical societies. Moreover, the non-hierarchical and consensus-based model of many worker co-ops directly help to co-humanize and empower those involved, and develop community cohesion with dynamic ripple effects. In the spirit of allyship, Jared is continually working to help other workers establish their own cooperatives. In addition to co-operating The Allium, Jared is also a manager at the Arusha Centre Society, a non-profit organization that works on a variety of social, economic and environmental issues in Calgary.

Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido, MBA, is a co-founder of Black Women Professional Worker Cooperative. She is a Strategist & Visionary of F.L.O.W initiative: Financial Literacy & Opportunities for Women, a syndicated, invite-only series of experiential sessions, retreats and podcasts for women leaders, professionals and entrepreneurs. Her other activities and accomplishments include:

Co-Founder, Whole WoMan Network and i.S.E.R.V.E.2050 social enterprises; Nwanyibuife for women/youths, with a mission to raise up a new generation of Transformational, Ethical & Creative African Leaders.

Founder, POETRY4Change & SEED4Her/SEED4Him Leadership Initiatives for African Youths.

Passionate social justice advocate for Gender Equity, Quality Public School Education, Financial Literacy & Empowerment programs, especially in the delivery of certification trainings, seminars and workshops on Self-leadership, Transformational Leadership, Community Development & Wealth creation.

Dynamic Speaker and Trainer on Social Enterprise, Transformational Leadership and results-based Coaching, with a focus on empowering rural women to build sustainable and resilient cooperatives and communities.

Strategic Interventionist, delivering Experiential workshops for Women Professionals and Entrepreneurs on Work-Life Choices, and how to achieve Excellence & Success in the New Empathy-Driven, Data-Value-Based Economy. Author of upcoming books: “UN-Locking Your HeArt of Leadership”; Collections of Short Stories and Poems: “Conversations With An Amichi GrandMother” & “Today, I Will Not Bow.” She is a Sun Life Financial advisor.