Our board of directors

Brenda Knights is a capacity builder, with board experience, who serves Indigenous people in Canada. She has experience in various leadership positions advocating for social housing for Indigenous people and is currently the CEO of the Vancouver Native Housing Society. 

Previously, Brenda worked for the Kwantlen First Nation’s economic development arm, and Coast Mountain Bus Company, a subsidiary of TransLink, where she held a variety of management roles. She is also on the board of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Metro Vancouver Zero Emissions Innovation Center, the New Relationship Trust, Elizabeth Fry Society, and Tourism Langley.

Brenda lives by her nation Kwantlen’s seven traditional laws which have been around since time immemorial: health, happiness, humbleness, generations, generosity, forgiveness, and understanding. Brenda descends from Grand Chief Wattlekanium, who met the Simon Fraser expedition in present-day New Westminster. Indigenous teachings tell us it takes seven generations for change and Brenda’s daughter represents the seventh generation since Grand Chief Wattlekanium. 

Raji Mangat has over 20 years of experience in constitutional, administrative, and human rights law. Her career spans roles in private practice, international human rights, and the not-for-profit sector. Prior to her current consulting work, Raji worked at West Coast LEAF as the executive director, a role she took on after serving as the organization’s first director of litigation.

Raji is active in the community, serving on the boards of Health Justice and Salal Sexual Assault Support Centre. She also serves on the advisory committee for the Law Commission of Canada and teaches a course on civil liberties and the Charter at the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law. Raji has also served on the boards of the Vancouver Public Library and Access Pro Bono. Active in pro bono work, Raji has a long-standing commitment to ensuring equitable access to justice for members of marginalized communities. 

Raji holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia; a Master of Arts degree from Carleton University; and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Victoria. Born and raised on Treaty 8 lands in northern Alberta, Raji now resides on the homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sə̓lílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Tracy Porteous’s commitment to survivors of gender-based violence and those who support them began when she started at the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre at the age of 19. Her experience there was so meaningful that she decided to dedicate her life to the cause. 

Now, 40 years later, Tracy is credited for numerous innovative programs and initiatives; among them, growing the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre from a staff of 2 to 22; founding and leading the 300-program strong Ending Violence Association of BC; co-creating and leading a cross-sectoral program ensuring BC’s legal, health, child protection and anti-violence response systems are working collaboratively; creating the award-winning Be More Than a Bystander: Break the Silence on Gender-Based Violence, a prevention initiative that engages youth in schools across the province and men in male-dominated workplaces with the goal of having people speak up to violence, disrespect and abuse; co-founding the Ending Violence Association of Canada, a national body working to advance policy; and co-creating the gender-based violence policy for the Canadian Football League. 

Tracy is a Registered Clinical Counsellor and holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws and the Order of British Columbia.

Sarf brings diverse board, senior executive and consulting experience in the BC public sector. He is currently also a member of the Board of Directors of Land Title and Survey Authority of BC (LTSA) and Knowledge Network Corporation. He also chairs the Finance and Audit Committee at LTSA. 

Additionally, he provides management consulting services to public sector organizations in strategic planning, financial and corporate management, procurement, real estate, facilities management and executive recruitment. He also volunteers for the BC Government Retired Employees Association.

Sarf is a Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal recipient with a distinguished career in the BC Public Service spanning 26 years, including five years as an Associate Deputy Minister and member of the Deputy Ministers Council of BC. A position from which he retired in 2018 with a meritorious service award from the Premier of BC. During this period, he led the real property function for the Province for eight years and co-sponsored/led the development of the current Information Management Act for the Province.

He has provided leadership in financial and corporate management for large BC Government ministries, BC Housing and briefly assisted Legal Aid BC as Interim CFO in 2022. 

Prior to joining the BC Public Service, Sarf worked in the accounting profession and private industry for 15 years. He is a chartered accountant by profession and is married with one adult son. He lives in Victoria.

Tom is a trial and appellate lawyer engaged in complex criminal matters including homicide, serious crime, cybercrime, extradition, fraud/​securities, and administrative and professional proceedings. He appears before the BC Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Canada, and many administrative tribunals, and has been lead counsel on some of the most well-known and complex criminal proceedings in British Columbia over the past decade. 

He also represents First Nations and many First Nation persons, and has been active in addressing issues concerning Indigenous interaction with the criminal justice system. He was involved in the original Gladue case that has helped to shift attitudes in respect of reconciling Indigenous concerns in relation to sentencing.

Tom has been engaged with BC’s legal aid system since working in the Legal Aid Appeals Department while at UBC Law School in the early 1990s. He is passionate about ensuring quality access to justice amongst criminal justice participants and works actively in a mentoring capacity for the criminal bar. He teaches often at UBC Allard School of Law and for various CLE-related classes, speaks at conferences for judges and lawyers, and is a founding member of the BC Criminal Defence Advocacy Society.

Salima Samnani is a Kenyan Indo-Canadian Muslim immigrant. Her experience as a litigator and as a lecturer focuses on public law and civil law including family, child protection, and employment law. 

Salima is a lecturer and Legal Services Director at the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic, which is located in the Downtown Eastside community of Vancouver on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sə̓lílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and is a Tribunal Member on the Civil Resolution Tribunal. 

Salima has served Indigenous groups for more than a decade, first as Associate Counsel for the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry and then as counsel for the Union of BC Indian Chiefs at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. 

Salima earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Victoria, and a Master of Laws from the University of Fribourg in conjunction with the University of Bern and University of Neuchâtel. Her thesis, written for and in conjunction with the World Trade Organization and the Aga Khan Agency of Micro-finance, explored the impact of micro-finance banking under-regulation on people made vulnerable by society.

Jill Kot has more than 30 years of experience in the public and private sectors, including 14 years at the executive level in the BC public service where she served as deputy minister of strategic initiatives in the premier’s office and as deputy minister of citizens’ services. Prior to those roles, she was an assistant deputy minister for ministries serving in the areas of information technology, education, and social services. 

Jill holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science from the University of Calgary, and she completed the Royal Roads Leadership program. Active in her community, Jill is a director of the Tula Foundation, an independent charitable foundation rooted in British Columbia but with global interests in health, habitat protection, and life sciences. She is also a commissioner with the BC Housing Commission.

Andrew has more than a decade of experience resolving disputes for corporations and individuals through negotiated settlements, tribunal hearings, arbitration and litigation. 

Before launching his own firm, Andrew practised for several years with a national law firm as well as a litigation boutique. After law school, he clerked for five justices of the British Columbia Supreme Court. Prior to law school, he spent time working at the British Columbia legislature. 

Andrew is passionate about pro bono, and has acted for Pivot Legal Society in its defence of those without adequate housing. Andrew is a board member of the BC Indigenous Housing Society and a former board member of the Vancouver Bar Association. He is a member of the Spuzzum First Nation.

Nancy Carter has over 31 years of public sector experience spanning work on Indigenous issues, in the Crown corporation sector, the health sector, the public service agency, and, for the past 25 years, the justice sector. Prior to her retirement in 2024, she was the Executive Director of Family Policy, Legislation and Transformation with the Ministry of Attorney General. Nancy is recognized as a leader in family justice reform and innovation, having led the development of the Family Law Act, the Provincial Court Family Rules, and the Early Resolution Model. She also worked for the Ministry of Attorney General in the areas of civil legislative reform and legal aid. Prior to her public sector career, Nancy was a lawyer in private practice.

She was designated King’s Counsel in December 2020, and in 2024 she was inducted into the BC Public Service Hall of Excellence. She is a recipient of the Premier’s Legacy Award, November 2024 and the leader of the team that was awarded the Premier’s award for Evidence-Based Design in November 2024.

Nancy holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria and a Juris Doctorate from Osgoode Hall Law School.