Our Team

Silvia is a passionate and experienced leader in the community through her work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  For over six years she has been training and consulting individuals and organizations with a focus on eliminating prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping by encouraging respect for diversity, inclusion and equity.

Silvia is the founder of both Kulea Culture Society and Kulea Love Inc., as well as the President of the BC Black History Awareness Society. Her focus is to help shape and implement the City of Victoria’s commitment to equity and diversity.

Deniz brings her experience in communications, project development and management to Kulea Culture Society. Deniz joined the board of Kulea Culture because she believes in the power of culture and communication to effect change, promote social justice and build inclusive communities.

Currently, she is an assistant professor at the School of Communication and Culture, at Royal Roads University. Deniz is also a board member of the Community Social Planning Council and holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University

Vandi joined the Kulea Culture Society Board in 2021 shortly after moving to Vancouver Island from Toronto.  She is looking forward to working with the Board to eliminate prejudice and discrimination through dialogue, learning and events. 
Vandi has been working in the Marketing and Communications field for most of her career since completing her MBA. She started her career in the private sector and over the last 15 years has focused on the public sector.  From North America across Europe and into Africa she has consulted with clients in all sectors.  Her expertise includes developing and implementing communication and marketing strategies, media training, event planning, market research as well as, traditional and digital dialogue. 

Tanya joined the Kulea Culture Board of Directors because she believes that understanding people and their backgrounds is crucial to personal and community growth. By encouraging respect for diversity through dialogue, education and cross-cultural events, she believes that we can build stronger, healthier, thriving communities and actively promote social justice.

Tanya has experience in the public, private and not for profit sectors in various regions across Canada. Her expertise includes program planning, stakeholder engagement, public consultation, relationship building, policy development, program evaluation, and project management. Tanya’s current work in the public sector is focused on improving access to justice for some of the most marginalized members of our communities, through the development and transformation of legal access and legal aid policy. Tanya holds an MA in Sociology.

Griselda currently serves as an administrative associate in a national financial institution. Previously she was a manager in a national fashion boutique, where she enjoyed working directly with people and in fashion.

Griselda moved to Canada in 2001 with part of her little family. And her family immediately fell in love with Victoria and the Islands and they decided to leave her place of birth to grow new roots in this beautiful land.

Griselda was born in Caracas-Venezuela, another beautiful country, with a variety landscapes, beautiful beaches, tropical jungles, mountains, friendly people, delicious food and the spectacular Angel Falls the world’s highest waterfall.

Griselda is passionate about serving and assisting people and the community. And to help fulfil this passion she founded ‘Alfajores for Hope’ and the ‘Sharing is Caring’ charity events; the first was to support Venezuela with medical supplies during the pandemic and the second was a food drive to provide food for people in need.

Griselda met Silvia who introduced her to the wonderful work she does to teach the community about all the delicious foods from different countries around the World. Griselda participated in the Kitchen & Culture cooking series as a chef for Venezuela. After this wonderful experience she decided to join the Kulea Society in support of the wonderful work Silvia and the rest of the board are doing for our Vancouver island Community.