Meet the SFU Public Square Team: Kim Regala

Meet Kim Regala! Kim is one of the newest members of our team, joining us as a Communications and Marketing Assistant. She’s a recent SFU graduate with a BA in Communication and a minor in Film Studies, and she’s also part of the marketing committee for TEDxSFU’s 2020 conference. Fellow communications team member Chloe Sjuberg sat down (virtually) with Kim to get to know her and chat about what gets her excited when it comes to communications, podcasting, community engagement and more.

Chloe: What drew you to want to work with SFU Public Square?
Kim: I was immediately intrigued when I saw that SFU Public Square was hiring. I’m passionate about creating space for crucial dialogues – I think this is a really important part of community engagement and I wanted to be part of that. I love that SFU Public Square provides a platform for these important conversations.

C: What are you most excited to get to work on at SFU Public Square?
K: We have a lot of events coming up that I’m excited about – they are all events that I would genuinely be interested in attending outside of work, so I’m excited to work behind the scenes to see how they come together and how to use each platform in an effective way, collaborate with the team and get creative on each project. The event I’m most looking forward to is the Sterling Prize ceremony and lecture with Tamara Starblanket.

C: Since we’re all about convening engaging conversations, what topics of conversation get you most excited to talk about?
K: When I start talking about a topic I’m interested in, I get so excited and can’t stop. I love films – I can’t even get into it right now because I won’t stop talking about it! [Interviewer’s Note: We did, however, go on to have a delightful conversation about Blade Runner, Jurassic Park and the films of Alfred Hitchcock.]

C: Readers should watch for your name on the bylines of our blog in the future. What are some of your favourite things to write about?
K: I love writing about the arts. I started out at The Peak writing music reviews, then I picked up a pitch about an art exhibition and from then on started writing about every single pitch for art exhibits that came my way. The Peak staff nicknamed me “Gallery Queen!” I also enjoyed writing reviews of hiking trails — as a staff writer at The Peak, you have to write for each section, so I had to get creative to use my arts background to write for the sports section!

C: One of the skills you bring to the team that we’re very excited about is your podcasting experience. Tell us more about this!
K: I got into podcasting when I started volunteering as social media director for SFU Surge, a tech club at SFU. After the pandemic began, we were brainstorming ways to keep the tech community more engaged. We decided on a podcast and determined that we wanted to reach an audience of younger students by interviewing students in the tech community, so Surge Spotlight was born. I had a bit of audio production experience, but I also had to think about the logistics, outreach and promotions. I screen potential interviewees by chatting with them to see if they were a good fit for the podcast and hash out their ideas before recording. One of my favourite guests on the podcast was SFU Surge’s co-president Hilal Asmat who talked about imposter syndrome. We also recently started reaching out not just to students but to professionals in the tech community, so another highlight was Chris Pereira, co-founder of West Coast Opportunity Accelerator, who brought in a global perspective on tech. It’s been interesting coming at podcasting and tech from the perspective of my arts background. It’s a challenge, but it’s fun learning something new! I’ve been talking to a friend now about collaborating on a music podcast.

C: What are some of the things you’re watching, reading or listening to these days?
K: I’m starting to watch the Dark Knight film trilogy. I also want to get into reading more philosophy, like Plato’s Republic, which I found as part of a collection of free classics on iBooks!

C: What’s a unique talent you have?
K: I play quite a few different instruments – guitar and ukulele, I used to play flute and would like to pick it up again, I’m learning piano, and I want to learn violin. I feel like the violin is the most unusual of those instruments so maybe that’ll be my future unique talent!

Please join us in giving Kim a very warm welcome to the SFU Public Square team!