Kyle Sam

Community Relations Coordinator

Kyle is a Nakazdli Whuten member. Kyle has been working a traditional way of life for 20+ years with nations, institutions, and people living their own ways of life on the streets in a slow and good way. Raised by his grandmother as a teen he had the opportunity to learn from many elders, he includes a lot of his teaching and learnings from many other nations in a respectful manner. Kyle brings Traditional Knowledge that he openly shares to anyone in need.

Grant Barton

Executive Director

Grant Barton is from the Nisga’a Nation, residing in Vancouver BC and a resilient first-generation survivor of Canada’s residential school system. Grant has worked for more than 20 years in the DTES, in progressive leadership roles, housing, and transformative justice.

Frank Cohn

Co-Director

Frank has more than 20 years of experience in managing and evaluating Community Development, Social Impact, and Education Programs, in 22 countries; with leadership capacity building work with over 10,000 people in over 100 rural villages and urban neighbourhoods. Frank also serves as the Exec. Director of the Vancouver Association for Survivors of Torture.

Leona Lu

Operations Manager

As the operations manager for DUDES Club Society, Leona has demonstrated exceptional leadership and organizational skills, driving significant improvements in the organization’s overall efficiency and effectiveness. Leona holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and comes from a Han Chinese background. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and spending time with her dog and two cats.

Jason Fitzpatrick

Vancouver Coordinator

Bio coming soon

Cruz Rodriguez

Sr. Web Designer

Cruz is a jack of all trades. He’s a web designer, UI expert, talented artist, app store and advertising creative design legend. He also has experience working with Big IPs. Cruz is someone who has the creative flair that every client loves. While his talent is in his creativity, his output and speed of high quality deliverables is his forte.

Robert Chippeway

Champion of Vancouver DCS

Peer Indigenous research associate in the HIV community.

Robert has utilized his lived experiences to support the men in the DTES community over the years in a good way. Robert is always working to support the community and wellbeing of others by walking the road in a good way and sharing knowledge from his vast past experiences and teachings.

Rome Mahdavi

Administrative Coordinator

​​Rome (They/Them) is a first generation immigrant with a variety of lived and professional experience. They find their best self in creative and challenging spaces. Rome always looks forward to developing their worldview and knowledge through community connections and meaningful conversations. In their spare time, you can find them with their cat Babylon, playing video games, or chilling at the park.

Francis Baptiste

Social Media Specialist

Francis is of Syilx ancestry from the South Okanagan Valley. A member of the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB), Francis grew up on the OIB reservation before moving to Vancouver for college. For the past twenty years Francis has lived in Vancouver, where he’s working in Marketing and Communications for organizations like Indigenous Tourism BC and Sacred Trust. He is also a musician and a music journalist who writes for Exclaim magazine. 

Dakota Ferguson-Hall

Food Coordinator

Dakota is the Food Coordinator with DUDES Club Society. Dakota is from Nuxalk and Qayqayt First Nation – Qayqayt is in New Westminster and Nuxalk is in Bella Coola. He is currently working on building the ClubHouse into a food hub location to help feed our community. Dakota enjoys the colour lavender, music, video games, and rock climbing.