Hello! My name is Melisa Tang Choy (邓梅英), and I’m so very excited and honoured to join Embark’s team of sustainability change makers as the new Programs Manager! 

Photo cred to Helena Vallès

I’m a second-generation Chinese-Peruvian, and I grew up in Lima, Peru. My yeh-yeh (爷爷) and my mah-mah (嫲嫲) taught me to not waste any food (none at all!), and that’s where I was introduced to climate and sustainability… Though I didn’t know it was considered a sustainable practice when I was 5!

I’m very passionate about continuing to discover the intersectionality in the environmental movement, and how we access it with our different lived experiences. It can look very different for many of us, and I look forward to continuing the dialogue and the learnings on this! 

My work background has been in working with volunteers and managing programs in non-profit. I’m also an SFU alumni, so it’s great to be back and doing work with this community!

When not at work, or wondering how to keep my veggies and herbs going, I can be found paddling outrigger canoe, cooking, and trying to learn too many things. I also spend my time on Shades of Sustainability (https://www.shadesofsustainability.com), a youth-led, co-created community project that seeks to centre BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) experiences of sustainability through intergenerational stories and dialogue. 

And I love potatoes and can talk about them quite a bit – we have over 3,500 types of them in Peru. If you’re ever curious about that and many other things, feel free to give me a shout!