Bios
Meet the Team
Alia Sunderji (she/her)
Alia is a social entrepreneur and lecturer at Simon Fraser University, where she teaches Sustainable Innovation and Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Passionate about the fields of sustainability, poverty alleviation and impact investing, Alia is the Founder of Luv The Grub, an emerging social enterprise that operates at a number of levels in the food system by capturing produce seconds that would otherwise go to waste, hires newcomer refugees and immigrants through a paid employment training program and produces delicious chutneys and spreads for the local market. In addition, Alia is also the Co-Founder of Liv & Lola, a fair trade home decor business that works with artisans in rural areas of Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Thailand where employment opportunities are scarce in an effort to lift them, their families and their communities out of poverty.
Bonnie Arthur (she/her)
Director
Bonnie joined the RADIUS team in 2018, bringing two decades of leadership development, adult education, and social innovation experience with her.
Bonnie believes in creating space for her team to ideate, problem-solve, and be human. As Director at RADIUS, Bonnie considers her role to be in service of the entire organization, ensuring there are the right people, processes, and resources in place to meet our goals, while mindfully ensuring our guiding principles are foundational in all that we do. A critical thinker and a logistical wrangler, Bonnie balances her analytical brain with a human heart, striving to lead with compassion, empathy, and curiosity.
Bonnie has been described by her colleagues as:
“someone who dives off a cliff first, then builds the parachute on the way down”,
“having the efficiency of a robot while motivated by a heart of gold”
“someone who weaves magic to make the most unlikely dreams and requests visible and possible”, and
“a pain in the a**”
Bonnie is new to these unceded Coast Salish lands, and is grateful to call them home. She has a music degree from Western University and sings with Vancouver’s reknowned adult treble choir, Elektra. Bonnie completed her Executive MBA with the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University in 2022.
Candice Day (she/her)
Manager, First Peoples Enterprise Accelerator Program
Candice is the manager of the RBC First Peoples Enterprise Accelerator Program (FPEAP). This program works in partnership with Indigenous-led organizations to co-create entrepreneurship programming that will best serve their communities. The FPEAP is committed to delivering entrepreneurship programming with an Indigenous lens, upholding Indigenous knowledge and worldview. Candice believes that an economy that is dynamic, just, sustainable, and resilient is one that supports and is informed by the wisdom of Indigenous entrepreneurs. She wishes to centre this wisdom and strength within the FPEAP, and work with partners who do the same. Candice brings a background in social enterprise development within urban Indigenous organizations to her role, as well as an MBA in Social Enterprise Leadership from the University of Fredericton.
Candice is of Secwepemc, Chinese and European ancestry. Growing up in northern BC has given her a deep appreciation for the wild parts of this province…and within herself 😉 She lives for exploring both while on her DRZ400.
Carnation Zhuwaki
Indigenous Business Stories Project Casewriter
Carnation is a native of Zimbabwe who came to Canada at the turn of the century. She has the privilege of serving and living in First Nations communities delivering health care services and capacity building as a Registered Nurse and a Band Administrator. Through both of these roles, she has witnessed the power of storytelling to heal, reprimand and motivate people. First Nations communities have traditional ways of knowing that are embedded in their culture and she believes it’s important to highlight these stories to decolonize dominant frameworks so that minority frameworks are also given the spotlight.
Carnation was drawn to RADIUS because of the principles that the organization upholds — they resonate with her passion for advocating for marginalized groups to have better access to services and equal community development. As a case writer, Carnation will bring exciting skills and experience to the RADIUS team, including a lifelong writing passion since grade school, her ease with writing academic papers since undergraduate studies, and her current studies as part of her MBA program.
During her limited leisure time, she enjoys listening to podcasts and TED Talks, watching period dramas, hiking, and making Jeff Bezos rich bargain hunting on Amazon.
Ilhan Abdullahi (she/her)
Manager, Health Promotion Lab
Ilhan is a Somali-Canadian whose parents’ migration journey brought her to these unceded Coast Salish Lands at a very young age. Stemming from her family’s experience of being racialized newcomers, Ilhan has been passionate about addressing social and health inequities and developed a commitment to social justice. Having spent some time in community activism, youth work and health promotion in the Lower Mainlands of Vancouver, Ilhan then moved to Toronto to pursue her Masters in Public Health and gain a critical intersectional analysis on what promotes vulnerability to health inequities. She has recently returned to BC and is ecstatic to get involved in health equity and community work. When she’s not working, you can find her embarking on solo travels somewhere in the world.
Jorge Salazar
Acticator, Curriculum Contributor
Jorge Salazar works as Project Director of the Inner Activist, a project of Tides Canada. The Inner Activist is a leadership education program that is part of a global movement rooted in social justice, equity, self-awareness and our place in nature. Jorge co-founded, in partnership with immigrant and refugee youth and allies, the Fresh Voices Initiative with Vancouver Foundation, where he worked as Project Manager. Fresh Voices gathers a network of more than 200 migrant youth to address systemic issues via policy change in BC. Jorge came to Canada as a refugee from Colombia in late 2000. He uses his own immigration journey, life experiences, and training to bridge communities and facilitate positive change.
Katrina Donald (she/her)
Developmental Evaluation Consultant
Based on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda (Bearspaw, Chiniki, Wesley) Nations, and the Métis Nation Region 3, in what is now known as Banff, Alberta, Katrina is a mother, daughter, sister, auntie, systems thinker, human-centred design advocate, developmental evaluator, program designer, a certified recruiter – and a certified coach. She has over 15 years’ experience working with individuals and teams across sectors, to facilitate innovative organizational learning and change strategies.
Katrina believes in the power of small steps forward toward new ways of being and doing, supported by low risk, real-time experimentation, and iterative feedback loops to reveal pathways that encourage and embolden us, and allow for greater impact. Her approach is relational, inclusive, and developmental. As the principal consultant at ever-so-curious, she works in partnership with people and organizations to co-design inclusive, collaborative and relevant strategies for meeting the complex challenges of our time. She committed to showing up for her own ongoing learning, and to being a resource in the development of humans and workplaces that are actively values-based and praxis-centered. Because change is a prickly bramble and should be navigated with care.
Miranda Eng (she/her)
Senior Portfolio Manager, Consulting & Training Services
Miranda joined the growing Consulting Services team at RADIUS in 2021. She is an experienced engagement specialist and project manager, from the tuberculosis and housing crises in Nunavut to campus action on the climate emergency. She is passionate about bringing together community, stakeholders, and decision-makers to make more people-centred, equitable and creative decisions, projects and policies. With a Masters in strategic management and planning from University College Dublin and ten years working in and consulting for public sector organizations, her interest is working with the messiness of human behaviour (emotions, power structures, etc.) in social innovation and civic leadership and engagement, and facilitating safe spaces for tough conversations and for underrepresented voices to shape their futures. Her worldview and ways of being have been rooted and influenced as a second-generation immigrant, her lineage of strong Chinese matriarchs, and as a settler born on Algonquin Anishinabe territory and spending the last 15 years on unceded Coast Salish territory.
When not working, she is an avid noodle-eater, runner, road tripper, outdoor adventurer with her little family, and founder and seamstress of a small clothing project nooi (a play on ‘neui’ 女, the Cantonese word for daughter) raising funds for community organizations. She is also the co-chair and board member of the hua foundation, a non-profit working towards racial equity and building civic engagement and capacity in the East Asian diaspora to work towards social change.
Nada El Masry (she/her)
Manager, Refugee Livelihood Lab (on leave)
Nada El Masry (she/her) is a Libyan-born Palestinian who came to the unceded land of the Coast Salish peoples just over 10 years ago. Due to her life experiences and education, Nada has fostered a deep passion for social justice and has shaped her life goals around values rooted in that field. She has been working with and engaging newcomers for several years, and currently manages the Refugee Livelihood Lab, which aims to build social, economic, and political capital for racialized refugee and migrant communities.
Nada is pursuing a Master’s in Equity Studies in Education at SFU, and was recipient of a 2019 BC Anti-Racism Award. She has also been nominated by the Future of Good as a 2020 Top 21 Founders to Watch, and received a 2018 Leadership Award from Voices of Muslim Women. In her free time, Nada enjoys playing and watching soccer.
Raphael Ochil (he/him)
Portfolio Manager, Consulting & Training Services
Born and raised in Ghana, West Africa, Raphael has over five years of experience managing and coordinating community development projects such as Hope For Life, an initiative he co-founded in 2015 that aims to provide mentorship, motivation, and networking opportunities for students in deprived areas in Ghana.
Raphael was the youth program coordinator for DIVERSEcity, where he created youth-led settlement programs for newcomer and refugee youth with a trauma-informed approach, overseeing the growth of the portfolio.
In 2019, Raphael worked with RADIUS’ Health Promotion Lab as a research and evaluation officer. He coordinated the work of five health-promoting ventures and supported the Lab with evidence-informed research and analysis, helping to create a theory of change and evaluation plan.Raphael believes that systems change can effectively be achieved with a community-driven, multi-faceted, and inclusive approach that centres equity.
He holds a master’s degree in Political Science from SFU, specializing in public policy and international relations, and in his leisure time, loves to watch and play sports, especially soccer, basketball, and table tennis.
Shikhank Sharma (he/him)
Participatory Grantmaking Lead
I am passionate about building a world where every person has access to opportunities to better their life while becoming an integral part of a vibrant and sustainable community and an innovative economy. My work focuses on equity-centred approaches to social innovation, impact investing, venture incubation and acceleration, and capacity strengthening. I also explore ways organizations can best structure themselves for listening and collaboration. In these contexts, I have experience working with capital providers, nonprofits, universities, social enterprises, and accelerators across North America and internationally.
My journey to grow and learn led me from my home in the vibrant city of Delhi in Northern India to North America. Since then, my migration journey has taken me to many different communities and brought me to the present, where I reside on the unceded lands of the Coast Salish peoples. I am grateful for the knowledge that those around me are willing to share to help me broaden my perspective on the world in all its brilliance and juxtapositions.
Véronik Campbell (she/her)
Co-Director, Labs
I am many things. It’s a mix of beautiful with some unresolved learnings.
Here at RADIUS, I am one of the Co-Directors. I get fired up when I witness or am part of teams that challenge the conventions and embrace what it means to centre each other’s and our communities’ health in our decisions. And I get peaceful and soft inside when I see the team truly and vulnerably hold each other and cry/laugh at the size of the work ahead. What is asked of me and what I genuinely love to offer is to be a listener of the venting, a problem solver when asked, a truth-teller to the greater powers, a convener of creativity, and an astute strategist (which sounds yucky but is actually powerful). In some ways, I help nurture the environment, the nest, needed for this team to thrive at work and beyond and for this team to create the systemic change they want to see. I am immensely proud of this. And yet, sometimes, the responsibility of it all keeps me up at night.
At RADIUS, I also bring with me all of these other foundational identities I have. I am the daughter of Yvan and Diane, who decided long ago to live their lives differently than what was expected of them. I am a granddaughter, a sister, a friend, a lover, a colleague. Most recently, I added mother to this list. It’s an identity that has completely turned my world upside down, and I’m still grappling with all of its immensity. I am a heterosexual, cis-gender, non-visibly disabled, francophone white human of French and Scottish ancestry. I reside, as an uninvited guest, on the territories of the Squamish people. What RADIUS taught me is that my actions, more than my words, are the proof of how I walk this earth aware of these identities and the impact they have.
Oh, and I love food.
Yara Younis (she/her)
Lab Manager, Refugee Livelihood Lab
Born and raised in Dubai (UAE), Yara is a Palestinian refugee who had felt detached from her ‘home’ in the Gaza Strip for the longest time. Now, having spent years contemplating and unlearning colonial narratives, she considers the meaning of statelessness, as well as how systems of power co-opt and shape refugee experiences. Prior to settling on unceded Coast Salish lands, Yara worked at the Delma Institute in Abu Dhabi as a MENA research analyst and as the deputy advisor and project coordinator for the UAE Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development. She completed her MA in International Studies at Simon Fraser University, where she was a Researcher for the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies. In her spare time, Yara enjoys reading sci-fi, listening to heavy metal, and walking for long hours to nowhere in particular.
RADIUS Founders
Shawn Smith
Shawn Smith is the co-founder and former Director of RADIUS, an Adjunct Professor at SFU's Beedie School of Business, and Director of Social Innovation at SFU. Having spent the last 15 years working with, in and on social impact organizations on three continents, he is also a founder at several other organizations including IMPAQTO (Ecuador), Global Agents for Change and Education Generation, co-led the ALT/Now Economic Inequality systems change program at the Banff Centre, and speaks and consults regularly on social innovation and entrepreneurship. Shawn is a top rated educator, Business in Vancouver top 40 under 40 recipient, and completed his MBA at the University of Oxford in 2010 as a Skoll Scholar in Social Entrepreneurship.
David Dunne
David Dunne is a Senior Lecturer Emeritus of Marketing and Co-Director of Rotman Teaching Effectiveness Centre. David is an award-winning educator, holding the President’s Teaching Award at the University of Toronto and the 3M National Teaching Fellowship. He has taught and directed several executive programs on marketing, innovation and strategy worldwide. David co-founded RADIUS and is Board Chair of Academics Without Borders and travels frequently to Nepal, where he is a volunteer professor with a medical school in Kathmandu. He is an avid yoga practitioner and loves to tour by bicycle.