West Coast LEAF staff
Alison Brewin, LLB, Executive Director
Feri Dehdar, Bookkeeper
Mahbuba Ergasheva, Office Coordinator
Kasari Govender, LLB, MSt (Oxon), Legal Director
Deanna Ogle, Education Manager
Shahnaz Rahman, Manager of Community Outreach - Family Law Project
Fiona York, Director of Communications
Sharon Xia, Fundraising Assistant
Alison Brewin, LLB, Executive Director
Alison Brewin received a degree in Law from the University of Victoria in 1991 and was called to the Bar in 1992. Before coming to West Coast LEAF in 2000, Alison worked in non profit management, women's services, community development, freelance education and writing and is co-owner of a successful toy store. She currently serves West Coast LEAF as Executive Director, guiding the organizations work to advance women’s equality rights in BC. She is author of a number of articles and reports including Legal Aid Denied: Women and the Cuts to Legal Services in BC. In addition, she is proud mother to her children Anders and Molly.
Feri has been working as the bookkeeper for West Coast LEAF for more than 2 years. On her own, she came from Iran and migrated to Canada in December 1998. She chooses to work at West Coast LEAF because it is dedicated to ensure women’s equality under and before the law, and in society. Her favourite hobby is traveling and reading.
Mahbuba Ergasheva, Office Coordinator
Prior to West Coast LEAF, Mahbuba worked for over twelve years in the field of gender equality (including at the United Nations, where she was an International level employee) and established the first women’s leadership NGO in her home country of Uzbekistan. She has a Masters degree in Social Sciences and has been a visiting scholar at New York University at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Mahbuba says she likes to work for West Coast LEAF because she is back in her field of expertise and is eager to contribute her knowledge and broaden her experience. Her hobbies are travelling and learning from other cultures, and she has visited about 27 countries.
Before joining West Coast LEAF, Kasari practiced constitutional, equality and aboriginal law. She earned her degree in law from the University of Victoria, and has recently completed a Master’s Degree in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford. Kasari is particularly interested in women’s rights and describes her position at West Coast LEAF as “a dream job”. In her spare time, Kasari enjoys yoga and travelling to new places.
Deanna Ogle, Education Manager
Deanna Ogle has been a feminist since the age of thirteen when she looked the word up in a dictionary and realized it applied to her. She has worked in various feminist and equality seeking organizations including four years as the Centre Coordinator at the North Shore Women’s Centre. Deanna has also worked in various international development organizations doing public education and developing campaign and policy materials on the importance of women’s equality in alleviating global poverty. In her spare time Deanna volunteers with Oxfam Canada and serves on the Board of Directors for the North Shore Women's Centre. This winter Deanna plans to learn how to properly quilt.
Shahnaz Rahman, Manager of Community Outreach - Family Law Project
As the Manger of Community Outreach - Family Law Project, Shahnaz is responsible for managing West Coast LEAF’s community based programming with a particular focus on family law.
In her recent experience as the Coordinator of Children’s Services for the B.C. Yukon Society of Transition Houses, she maintained coordination among service providers across British Columbia, conducted needs assessment on trainings, developed and managed Provincial Advisory Committees, managed research, project development and project evaluation, and planned and delivered training for anti-violence workers and community members. In 2004, Shahnaz co-authored a manual entitled “Violence Is Preventable” - Building Partnerships between Children Who Witness Abuse Programs and B.C. Schools.
Shahnaz’s wonderful mother continues to be her teacher on feminism and her two grown children are her hope that a world free of discrimination based on race, religion and gender is not very far away.
Fiona studied English at the University of Ottawa. She has learned much from her extensive background with non-profit organizations such as community radio stations (on a local and national level), social activist groups and unions. In her current position as Director of Communications, she draws on her years of proposal-writing, project development, communications and fundraising campaign experience. Fiona likes working at West Coast LEAF due to her long standing interest in women’s issues and interest in working in a socially relevant and progressive environment.
Sharon Xia, Fundraising Assistant
Sharon has an academic background in Labor Economics, and has worked for over a decade in non profit organizations and education institutions in China, Australia and Canada, doing project management, research and fundraising. She joined West Coast LEAF in 2009 as Fundraising Assistant, coordinating the Annual Equality Breakfast – West Coast LEAF’s largest fundraising event of the year – and managing the donors' database.
