Heartwood supports the new growth of Canada's Green Movement

Heartwood is a political think-tank whose purpose is to support the success of Green politics in Canada.

As Greens find paths to success, Heartwood Institute is there to learn, train, and share the lessons of hard-won campaigns. Through skill-sharing, policy development and networking the institute helps solidify and grow the Green political movement.

Board of Directors

• Liz Lilly - Chair

  Liz joined the party after 25 years working for the BC Government in various different ministries, including Economic Development, Environment, Treasury Board Staff and Community, Sport and Cultural Development. She has a passion for good public policy and was the architect of the 2017 BC Greens Platform as well as being consulted on the federal platform in 2019. Liz has worn several hats for the provincial party over the years, including Interim Executive Director and Chief Economist.

• Scott Mullenix - Secretary

  Scott was a founding member of the Heartwood Institute and led the Green Party of Canada’s record-breaking fundraising efforts in the lead-up to the 2019 election. He was the GPC’s Deputy Director of Communications during the 2020 Leadership Contest. Scott has been the Director of Communications at Nature Canada since December 2020.

• Emily McMillan

  Emily has been involved in Canada’s environmental movement for her whole career. She led the Green Party of Canada as Executive Director from 2011-2019. She was the Atlantic Chapter Director of Sierra Club of Canada and currently serves as Deputy Executive Director at Nature Canada.

• Becky Smit

  Becky was the Executive Director of the Green Party of Ontario from 2009-2018. She went on to serve as Chief of Staff to GPO Leader Mike Schreiner following his election. She is currently the Green Party of Ontario Campaign Chair for the next provincial election.

• Sean Yo

  Sean Yo has been leading political campaigns since 2014 at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels in regular and by-elections. Sean has built 500+ person teams, enabled his teams to full-fundraise every campaign he's run, and achieve top-of-class outcomes such as making 40,000 calls in 20 days and growing vote share by more than 25% in a single election., Sean has led historic wins, lost more than he's won, and advised and trained campaign teams across the country. Sean's leadership practices are centred on emotional safety and inclusion, putting campaign culture first so that the people of the campaign are put first. Sean works in Tech as a Software Product Leader. Sean has worked in EdTech, Enterprise IT, Start-Ups, and Higher Education sat on international technical standards groups and shipped software to 15 million users. Sean has built product teams for small organizations and a Big 4 accounting firm. Sean is a professional speaker, coach, and the Product and Technology Executive-in-Residence for the Toronto-Waterloo Founders Institute. Sean is a fellow of the International Software Product Management Association and has a master's in Digital Media Studies. Sean owns more t-shirts than is strictly "reasonable." And mugs as well. Definitely too many mugs.

• Dave Bagler

  Dave Bagler is a former President of the Green Party of Canada, a former Young Greens Council member and the 2011 and 2014 Green Party of Ontario candidate in Ottawa–Vanier.