Meet the team! Introducing the new members of Student Recruitment & Advising

Name: Kristen Davis
Pronouns: She/ her/ hers
Role: Community Liaison Manager, Indigenous Students
Campus: Vancouver

Favourite pastimes: Playing softball, hiking, and camping.
Favourite food: Salmon
Favourite movie/ TV show: Schitt’s Creek, Game of Thrones (minus the last season), The Witcher, Friends, and How I Met Your Mother. Can’t pick just one!
Favourite place to be: On the baseball field; with family on our traditional fishing grounds; outside in the forest near freshwater.
Do you have any pets? No pets. I have two sons, Trajan (14) and Talon (5), both of whom would LOVE to have a dog… I’m working on adopting!

Professional background: Previously an environmental consultant with First Nation clients, providing technical reviews for environmental assessment applications. Also worked for First Nations Health Authority in the Drinking Water Safety Program.

Personal background: I am from the Gitxsan and Nisga’a Nations near Terrace, BC. I grew up in Gitlakt’aamiks and Terrace, BC until I relocated to Vancouver for college. I am a first-generation University graduate in my family, transferring to UBC from Langara College, and graduating in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Environmental Biology. I am also in the middle of my Master of Science degree in Environmental Practice at RRU (online).

_____________________

Name: Ellie (Eleanor) Ball
Pronouns: She/ her/ hers
Role: Associate Recruiter Admissions Advisor
Campus: Vancouver

Favourite pastimes: Working out and having a cuppa (not simultaneously).
Favourite food: Dim sum
Favourite movie/ TV show: I’m currently obsessed with How to Get Away with Murder (the TV show, not the crime itself).
Favourite place to be: At Jericho Beach looking out at the water and the mountains… this never gets old.
Do you have any pets? No, unless you count my new spider plant. Plant care tips are welcome!

Professional background: Previously, I’ve worked in sales, administration and retail, most recently working for RYU Apparel. I have also been a CrossFit coach for over 5 years, including some periods as a lead coach. I moved to the ARAA position in August, having completed a cycle as an Admissions Coordinator on the international team.

Personal background: I grew up in a small town in England called Bromsgrove. In 2015, I moved to Vancouver for UBC as an ILOT recipient. I graduated with a BA in French. My passions include languages and cultures, fitness and cooking.

__________________

Name: Chloe Erlendson
Pronouns: She/ her/ hers
Role: Recruiter Advisor, Indigenous Students
Campus: Vancouver

Favourite pastime: Beading, camping, cooking and baking.
Favourite food: Sourdough bread (which I taught myself how to make last year).
Favourite movie/ TV show: Little America, Gilmore Girls, The Office, Broadchurch.
Favourite place to be: at home, beading, drinking tea, and re-watching Gilmore Girls for the 50th time; camping somewhere remote in BC; at home in Manitoba, walking the forest and fields with my family.
Do you have any pets? Yes, I have a cat named Pip – she is around 5 years old but hasn’t grown much bigger than a kitten.

Professional background: After university, I worked for a short time as a family support worker at a community centre in the Downtown East Side. I then started in 2016 with SRA as an Associate Recruiter Advisor, Aboriginal Students (now the Community Liaison Manager, Indigenous Students) to launch the Indigenous campus tours program. In 2018, I started a new role as an Enrolment Services Advisor and worked primarily on Indigenous financial and enrolment support initiatives. More recently, I began a secondment in February 2020 with the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology in the Indigenous Initiatives Unit as an Educational Consultant. While I have held a variety of positions at UBC, and am grateful for the experience and knowledge I gained in each of them, I am really excited to be re-joining SRA in this new position.

Personal background: I am Métis with Cree, Anishinaabe, French and Icelandic ancestry. My family lines stem from the Red River settlement in Treaty 1, but I was raised on Treaty 2 territory in rural Manitoba for most of my childhood. I went to high school in Guelph, Ontario and moved to Vancouver to attend UBC when I was 18. I majored in First Nations and Indigenous Studies with a minor in English Literature. I now live in Mount Pleasant and spend a lot of my free time doing beadwork, which I often gift to friends and family and also sell online. Beadwork is an important Métis and Indigenous artistic cultural practice that I have worked really hard to reclaim for myself and my family.

___________

Name: Amber Lesage
Role: Recruiter Advisor, Indigenous Students
Campus: Okanagan

Professional background: Amber is Anishinaabe from Garden River First Nation and brings experience working with Hockey Canada’s National Woman’s Under-18 program to the SRA team. Amber’s role focused on providing critical first point of contact support to high achieving individuals, ensuring they had the skills and knowledge to succeed at the National Team level. These experiences in youth development are directly related to our student recruitment efforts and will assist greatly to the achievement of our enrolment goals for Indigenous learners.