OCA Board of Directors

Alex McCumber and his family are new to Oaklands, having recently joined us from Vancouver! Alex brings his experience as an architect with extensive training and professional experience with land use and planning, public consultation, mediation, functional programming, as well as building planning and design. Alex is looking forward to making a valuable contribution to the Oaklands community.    

 Amanda and her partner, Jaime, have lived in the Oaklands neighbourhood for nearly 10 years and absolutely love it. They have two young boys busily enjoying every corner of the neighbourhood and Amanda can’t wait until her kids can help with her flower gardens. Amanda works for the provincial government.

Aneesa Blake holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and has built a successful career in the defense sector, specializing in project management. Outside of her professional work, Aneesa developed a three-unit passive house strata complex, reflecting her passion for sustainable design and community-focused living. She is also a proud mother of two young boys, committed to building a better future for the next generation. 

 Aleshia is mom of two very active toddlers. Professionally, she is a bookkeeper that has dedicated the last 10 years to helping businesses manage their finances effectively. 

With a B.A. from UVic, she has a background in food security issues (wrote my Honours paper on Household Food Security in BC, 2007) and worked with the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness to provide data for their 2011 GVCEH reports.

She enjoys camping with her littles and is passionate about supporting the community.

 Rieky, her husband Colin and daughter and son-in-law have shared a passive house in Oaklands since 2021. Her current passions are gardening and taking action on the climate crisis. Rieky is retired from over 50 years of experience in international development cooperation, as a leader, CEO and senior manager, as a consultant and evaluator, as a field worker, as a professor at St. Francis Xavier University, and as a trainer. She has worked primarily with voluntary organizations, and also with governments and the United Nations. She has been responsible for program planning and implementation, policy development and policy dialogue, evaluation and for capacity building. Her areas of special expertise are organizational management and change, and gender and development. She has worked in Canada, Asia, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Her strengths are in designing, managing, and evaluating innovation and change using collaborative approaches. In a voluntary capacity, as well as recently joining the Board of the Oaklands Community Association, she is currently on the steering committee of Climate Legacy and of Seniors for Climate and chairs the provincial team at West Coast Climate Action Network. She was previously a member of many voluntary sector boards. Rieky has master’s degrees in urban and regional planning and in management. 

 Ron lives on Roseberry Ave in Oaklands with his spouse Jill and one last remaining teenager at home.  He has worked as a mental health Occupational Therapist in Ontario and here in Victoria.  Most recently Ron worked with AVI's community-lead crisis response team.  Ron continues to be excited about developing and leading mindfulness and emotional awareness seminars for the community.  He enjoys hiking and rowing activities, and is hoping to explore every nook and cranny of this wonderful Island. 

Sam (They/Them) has been living on the unceded and traditional lands, waters and territories governed by the W̱SÁNEĆ and the Lekwung’athun-speaking Peoples for the past seven years. They were born and grew up on the unceded and traditional lands, waters and territories governed by the səlilwətaɬ,  Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Nations. Sam’s ancestry is German, Greek and Jewish. They are a youth-based health equity community researcher for mental health and substance use. They are an avid walker and enjoy befriending neighbourhood cats.

Over this past year, Sam has been a dedicated volunteer at the Oaklands Community Association. They are on the 2SLGBTQIA+ working group and advisory committee and are often supporting queer and trans events, such as co-hosting the monthly Queer Community Dinners. They are grateful to be on the governance board and meaningfully offer back to the entire community.

 I have been in Oaklands since 1992. I  worked at ABC Infant Care for 18 years before I bought it in 2010. Still here! Have seen changes throughout the neighbourhood in that time. Have been on the board since 2019. My role is to represent Oaklands at VCAN…the Victoria community association network. I have done it since I joined.  I enjoy the community dinners hosted at the centre. I go to the market nights and have also sat at the information table. 

Bio coming soon!