Sadhu is a thought leader on cities: how they work, how they can be improved, and how they are evolving to handle the myriad of challenges that they are forced to take-on.

He was the City Manager of Vancouver, BC from March 2016 until January 2021 where he was responsible for managing the operations of the City, including oversight of a budget of over $1.6B and over 7,000 staff.

As City Manager he spearheaded initiatives to address the growing housing, homelessness and climate change issues in Vancouver. As the Deputy City Manager (2009-2015), he oversaw the Emergency Management portfolio, including overhauling the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) team, the lower mainland fireboat program, the development and implementation of the city’s Earthquake strategy and the Climate Adaptation strategy.

During his time at the city, he has worked very closely with the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service on a variety of issues, including hiring of multiple fire chiefs. He was the Chief Environmental Officer of Chicago and Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley where he led the development of the first climate action plan in a major North American city.

He is co-author of “The Guide to Greening Cities”; published by Island Press in 2013 and is a co-founder of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN).

Sandra Wood has been a full-time resident of Cortes Island since 2008. During that time, she served as the Project Financial Manager for the original construction of six cottages in the Seniors Village and
coordinated the recent expansion of four additional cottages in 2019.

As a skilled grant writer, Sandra has contributed to raising millions of dollars for various non-profit organizations and community projects. Notably, she played a pivotal role in securing funding for the Cortes Housing Society, facilitating the purchase of Rainbow Ridge-a 51-acre property dedicated to affordable housing.

Her efforts also included overseeing the development of shovel-ready architectural and infrastructure designs, ensuring the project’s financial viability and long-term sustainability.

With a background in civil engineering, Bruen seeks to combine technical expertise with social creativity to build vibrant, resilient communities.

Specializing in structure and architecture, project management, and community development, Bruen focuses on integrating aspects of sustainability and cultural relevance into the infrastructure development process.

His work includes the design and construction coordination of homes, community buildings, and large-scale infrastructure, ensuring that each project excels functionally and has a lasting positive impact on the lives of people within those spaces.

As a new member to the community, Bruen is looking forward to collaborating, learning, and place-making alongside the many talented and inspirational people that call Cortes Island home.

Elizabeth’s early interest in art, architecture, and social equity lead to her graduating from the University of California with a double major in Fine Arts and Social Sciences with further course work at Grant MacEwan and JFK Universities.

Seeking an alternative lifestyle, she moved in 1972 to northern rural Alberta with her husband and two-year-old daughter where they learned how to live without amenities or close ties. Here they taught themselves carpentry from a book and rebuilt an abandoned log house, workshop, barn, and outbuildings.

Eventually moving again in 1994 with her two younger children and husband to Cortes Island and building another home, Elizabeth turned towards community building. She has served on the Cortes Island School PTA as well as the boards of the Cortes Island Business and Tourism Association (CIBATA), Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) 2015-23 as head of green sales plus 3 years as Treasurer, Cortes Island Seniors Society (CISS) 2009-23, as Liaison to their Housing Committee 2017-23 and on the CISS Capital Committee 2019-21 during the expansion of the Seniors Village, helped to initiate United Way’s “Better at Home” program assisting seniors to age in place, and a founding member of the Cortes Community Housing Society (CHS) of which she is currently serving as President 2020-23 since separating general family housing from the more focused Seniors Society’s housing needs.

Story crafter, journalist, community builder, Bill founded the Media that Matters conferences in 1999. He’s a media strategist/philosopher and a Peabody-Award-winning, 50-year veteran of television and radio in the US and Canada.

He has produced, directed, shot, and edited 10 television documentaries and numerous interstitials for Canadian television, he continues to create short films and organizational narratives for values-based business and social profits like Cortes Community Housing Society (CHS). Bill and his wife have lived on Cortes Island for more than 20 years.

He was past chair of the innovative youth program The Power of Hope, served on the Hollyhock board for several years, and is former vice chair of the Victoria Independent Film Producers Association.

A 40+ year full-time Cortes resident, who had a 30-year career as a Certified Public Accountant on Cortes & Quadra Islands, in Campbell River, Vancouver and Victoria. Over the years, Carol sat on multiple Boards, most often as Treasurer, including the Cortes Business & Tourism Association and the Economic Development Society. She has operated 2 small businesses that exposed her to housing needs/issues:

1) Cortes Island Vacation Rentals (representing seasonal owners who offered short term vacation stays that necessitated the move-out of winter tenants, and in some cases, rentals of their properties for longer term sabbaticals).

2) T’ai Li Lodge offering both seasonal and longer-term rentals. Both businesses involved the hiring of staff who inevitably faced housing shortages, and which also made her acutely aware of the number of people living in temporary or unsuitable situations on the Island.

Carol was heavily involved in coordinating the construction of buildings and infrastructure at T’ai Li Lodge. In 2019, she successfully completed the B.C. Housing “Owner Builder Authorization” course in preparation for building her current Whaletown home.

She is a founding member of the CHS. In addition to being the Secretary on the Board of the Cortes Island Museum and Archives Society, part of Cortes Island ESS Emergency Services team and part of the Compassionate Community team.

David’s current employment is as the facility design team lead for an international biotech company with branches in 16 countries. He has led design and construction of several major facilities in the US, and three in Europe.

Before that he worked extensively in international development aid in China, South Asia, and West Africa. In Canada he has led and participated in neighbourhood design and special needs housing projects utilizing a full community engagement process.

He previously had a small construction company doing unique design-build homes in the Discovery Islands. David had a home base on Cortes Island for 48 years and volunteered for many community projects including community halls, fire halls, a museum, and a health centre.

In 2008-2009 as a volunteer, he designed and managed the first stage of the Cortes Seniors Village; six cottage units for low-income seniors, expandable to ten units. David also was a co-founder of the Cortes Community Foundation and is a past board member of the CISS (Housing Committee).

He is a founding director of the Cortes Community Housing Society (CHS) with a special interest in guiding fundraising for, design, and construction of the Rainbow Ridge rental housing project.

Bruce spent his career in computing science. After one year of university in commerce, with an immersion in computing science, Bruce started writing computerized accounting systems at a time-share company. He was then hired to open an Edmonton office for Gandalf Technologies providing data communications solutions for businesses.

This was decades before the internet when each company had to provide for their own communications systems. His next job was to help build a mainframe data center for the Alberta Hospital Association, Information Systems Services. This was the beginning of computerized data management for hospitals in Alberta. Then Bruce joined four friends to open a computer services company to assist companies with their implementation of computerized systems.

After 5 years, Ikon Office Equipment bought this company, and Bruce retired for a few years. During this period, he became fascinated with scuba diving. After using the existing scuba dive computers, it became clear that there was an opportunity to make a better product.

Bruce spent the next 2 years building and writing the software for a dive computer, and a control system for closed circuit rebreathers. After 18 years of growth, Bruce hired the CEO of Mustang Survival to take over as CEO of Shearwater. The new management team structured the company for sale and sold the company, Shearwater Research, to BRS, a private equity company in New York. Bruce retired but continues to serve on the board of Shearwater Research and maintains an equity position.

Bruce’s wife, Lynn, first bought property on Cortes in 1995, and they retired to Cortes Island in 2020.

Huong has been visiting Cortes Island since 2010. During Covid, Huong and her family stayed on Cortes Island for an extended period of time, and it was during this time, Huong saw first-hand the housing crisis on the island.

Hoping to help, Huong joined the CHS to leverage her vast knowledge in real estate. She has over 25 years of real estate experience with property ownership, asset management and the use of non-traditional lending strategies. Huong believes everyone deserves a home of their own.

Huong Luu, P.Eng, PMP is a graduate from Ryerson University with a Chemical Engineering degree. She purchased her first property while in university. While working in the Engineering field, she dabbled in real estate during her free time and since then, has acquired several properties and businesses in Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

In 2016, Huong retired from Engineering and dived into real estate full time.

Mark has lived and worked on Cortes Island since 2007.

With a background in green building design and construction, Mark has designed and built two net zero energy single family homes on Cortes Island and Courtenay using natural materials, passive solar principles, and grid tied rooftop solar PV.

Mark has also designed and built several tiny homes and composting toilets, including the first approved site-built unit in the Comox Valley Regional District.

Mark is passionate about climate and ecologically focused practices in construction and forestry, and since 2017 he has been the manager of the Cortes Island Community Forest, which is a 50-50 Partnership between the Klahoose First Nation and the Cortes Community Forest Cooperative.

Karen is a professional working for ecological and human health.

She is currently working as an independent contractor focused on resolving systemic barriers to climate justice. She was born in Toronto Canada and now lives on Cortes Island in British Columbia.

Trygve is a second-generation islander, he was born and raised on Cortes 50 years ago. During that time he and his wife Laura have raised three boys, who in turn have created a fourth generation of grandchildren on the island.

As a highly skilled carpenter and professional builder for over 30 years on Cortes and the neighbouring islands, he knows first-hand the dire need for housing, in addition to the complexity and cost of building in a remote rural location.

After serving 20 years, he recently retired as a volunteer firefighter with the Cortes Fire Department. He is very interested in ways to make it possible for working residents of the island to be able to purchase property and looking forward to working with the CHS board to create affordable housing options.