Meet the ELC Team
Ann Duong
Ann (she/her) is the Chair of our Board. She was born in Ottawa to a Vietnamese refugee family and raised in Toronto where she learned the importance of being resourceful and sustainable at an early age. She left to do her undergrad at UNBC and is continuing her graduate studies in the Natural Resources and Environmental Science program. Currently, she is the Sustainability Manager at UNBC. She also sits on the Board of Directors of the Fraser Basin Council as a Youth Director and is Chair of FBC’s youth advisory committee.
Ann is excited to continue to be a part of Eco Living Community that provides youth a launchpad to create and lead grassroots environmental programs and endeavours to discover ways to encourage youth to become the leaders and thinkers of a more just and sustainable future.
Yihang Zhang
Yihang (she/her) is the Vice-Chair. She holds a Bachelor of Economics and a minor Bachelor’s degree in Broadcasting and Television Playwright Directing. Before moving to Canada, Yihang contributed to improving user experiences for tourism-related applications and websites at technology companies like Airbnb China, Hainan Airline, etc. Currently, she is a Master of Arts student in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies at UNBC. Her areas of interest include parks and accessibility, the tourist experience, and sustainable tourism, events and food systems.
Aside from work, Yihang enjoys traveling, hiking, and tasting various cuisines with friends and family. Having visited more than 20 countries, territories, and areas, she is interested in diverse cultures with inclusive insights. With ELC, she hopes to promote a sustainable lifestyle, prevent and reduce food waste, and contribute to sustainable community development in northern BC.
Rachel Pagdin
Rachel (she/her) is our Treasurer and Secretary. She is a student in the geography program at UNBC and has been volunteering with ELC’s Repair Cafe since 2024. She is also a member of Spark Lab.
She is excited to lend her skills to building sustainable community in PG and beyond. In her free time, she enjoys knitting, mending, reading, and getting outside!
Siobhan Klassen
Siobhan is a director-at-large and is a second year student at UNBC in the Environmental Science program. As a member of ELC, Siobhan has been part of our Climate Cook-ins, which were a wonderful opportunity to make connections and meet new people in the university, and to learn about the different challenges that come with sourcing sustainable and locally produced food in the north. Siobhan is the Youth Representative on the Environment Committee for the District of Vanderhoof (their hometown) and is a member of the Youth Advisory Committee with the Fraser Basin Council. Siobhan will be spending the summer working at the Nechako White Sturgeon Conservation Centre in Vanderhoof. They are very excited to continue working with ELC as we work towards sustainability and resiliency in our communities!
Scott Monroe
Scott (he/him) is a director-at-large. He is a recent graduate of UNBC’s Natural Resource Planning
program and an alumni of the Fraser Basin Council’s 2021-2022 youth cohort. During his time at
university, he served as student liaison for the Planning Institute of British Columbia and worked
as a research assistant on both policy analysis and Geographic Information Systems.
Scott hopes ELC will offer an effective grassroots approach to building food security, climate
resilience, and community in the heart of Prince George. When he finds free time, he enjoys
hiking, cooking, creating digital art, and building a plant army.
Belinda Larisch
Belinda (director-at-large) is trained as a Chemical Engineer and works in Prince George. In the past, she has taught into the Environmental Engineering program at UNBC, worked on various renewable energy projects, designed 1000 tonne-per-day air separation plants, and studied wastewater treatment for pulp mills.
Belinda enjoys walking in the woods with her dogs, skiing, taekwondo, weaving and spinning. She is interested in all things related to making, and is involved with the Northern BC Maker Collective. She hopes to further local sustainability efforts and support all who have the same goals.
Angelina Joiner
Angelina (she/her) is a director-at-large. She works at a non-profit in Prince George as an English Teacher and is a serial volunteer. She has many years of board experience and loves to share what she has learned with others. She is passionate about repurposing and upcycling and is interested in anything she can do to contribute to sustainability and generally anything that makes the planet a better place. She loves to learn new skills like sewing and she is a language knowledge hoarder currently learning German.
Ian Simpson
Ian Simpson (director-at-large) is a jack-of-all-trades. He has been an active community member in Prince George supporting a variety of initiatives and is a huge advocate for youth leadership. He, along with Belinda, are involved in the Northern BC MakerCollective.
Jhoan Chavez
Jhoan (she/her) is one of our Directors at Large, supporting mainly the Gleaning Abundance Project (GAP). She is an Environmental Engineer from Peru, studying the Natural Resources and Environmental Studies MSc program at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, Canada. Her research focuses on agricultural waste management and pyrolysis. After her undergrad, she researched Dry Forests Carbon Capture and Storage in Northern Peru. Later, she worked in in-situ plant domestication and management in the Peruvian highlands, with the agrochemical industry and within the planning & sustainability departments for different sectors. Overall, she is passionate about sustainability, climate change adaptability and mitigation, and environmental pollution & solutions.
She participates in volunteer organizations like the GAV-UNIR UNALM, Join for the Planet – Project, the Canadian Red Cross, and Jack.org. Jhoan is excited to be part of the ELC, which supports the PG community on achieving food security based on community capacity and local resources, which helps to preserve the environment by reducing our carbon footprint.
Eco Living Community 