our leadership
Board Chair: Lourdes Juan
Lourdes is an Urban Planner and Calgary based entrepreneur. She is an alumna of the University of Calgary with a Masters in Environmental Design. She shares her time as the Director of Hive Developments, Soma Spa, and doing community work with non-profits she founded, the Leftovers Foundation and Moonlight Market Foundation. She is on the Board of Directors with Homespace, the Calgary Homeless Foundation and Calgary Planning Commission. Her work and career accomplishments have been awarded her as one of Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 under 40 in 2013, a cover feature in Business in Calgary Magazine in 2014, CBC's Top 10 Change makers in 2017, L’Oreal Paris’ Women of Worth award in 2018 and as a Distinguished Graduate from the University of Calgary in 2018. She continues to be involved with community work and give back to her profession.
Vice Chair: Ernest Hon
Ernest is a graduate of New York University and keenly interested in urban places. He’s a photographer by night, revealing fresh perceptions of built form from Shanghai to Calgary and many cities in-between.
Secretary: Darshan Tailor
Darshan is an Urban Planner at the City of Calgary. He holds a BA in Urban Studies from the University of Calgary and a MSc from Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Calgary born and raised, Darshan is passionate about urban planning, connections, and partnerships for an equitable and diverse city.
Treasurer: Shirley Tetteh
Shirley Tetteh is a finance professional with 20 years plus experience working in various positions and industries. She completed a degree in accounting at the University of Lethbridge and is a CPA.
She is currently working as a Finance Manager at Maxfield LP and a bookkeeper for d. talks. When she is not working, you can find her relaxing and watching movies, spending time with family and friends and working out.
Past Chair: Marta Sensidoni
Marta’s breadth of experience as an architect includes internationally recognized work in Miami, Hong Kong, Paris and Latin America. Fluent in English, Spanish and Italian, she brings expertise in the cultural, commercial, government, sports and residential market sectors. Marta has worked on the design of the Esker Foundation Gallery and the KOAC, both in Calgary, and the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, as well as the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York and the South Dade Cultural Arts Center in Miami.
director :Alex Ramadan
At my core, I am a people person. I believe relationships are the threads that bind us, and I thrive on cultivating meaningful connections. Solid relations and lines of communication between public, not-for-profit, and private sectors, no matter the industry, are integral to having mutually beneficial, positive outcomes for all parties involved and overall social good. I believe that progressive policy in conjunction with innovation can create culture shifts that create better futures. I thrive on contributing to a positive, team-oriented work environment, and am committed to fostering collaboration and culture that elevates and celebrates everyone.
director:Mark cooper
Mark Cooper is an Architect and Design Lead with Lemay. He has practiced in regions across Canada, ranging from tactical art installations to large trans disciplinary architectural projects, with a focus on the confluence of built form, technology, and lived experience. His work explores how architecture can play a participatory role in responding to wider social and ecological contexts, and exploring the use of computational design tools as a means to further architectural expression and innovation.
director:Morgan curley
Morgan is a co-founder of Public Eye, a Calgary-based identity and packaging studio focused on inventive and personality-driven design solutions. Over the last 13 years of her design career, Morgan has proven herself as a strategically minded designer, striving to understand her client’s needs by fostering clarity, insight and transformation. Sara Kassa I am a multidisciplinary in my passions. I sought out the intersectionality of architecture and film, when very little theory was dedicated to space in film. I sought out urban planning, when I found a lack of attention by architecture to the urban realm. I built multidisciplinary knowledge and more importantly teams due to my ability to learn fast, put myself in the shoes of others, and make connections where others may not.
director: Kelsey fraser
An illustrator, Kelsey Fraser has a BFA in Drawing from the Alberta College of Art and Design.