Podcast Host & Producer: Steve Tornes

Steve Tornes (he/him) has an inexhaustible passion for all things related to urban planning, data, politics, and literature. With a Master of Urban Studies degree from Simon Fraser University and a thesis on the Vancouver Bike Share Program, they look at the region through an environmental and equitable transportation perspective. Besides being a founding member of LightWork, a workers co-op focused on fostering justice and belonging through safer, inclusive, and more diverse work environments, Steve also worked as a data specialist at a tech company focused on augmented reality. He is currently working to publish a collection of short stories.

A North Vancouverite on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, Steve currently sits on the City’s Advisory Planning Commission after having served as Chair of the Social Planning Advisory Committee. He can usually be found at their local library reading or getting immersed in some new subject, such as R Programming or wildlife photography.

Audio Editor: Paige Smith

Paige Smith (she/her) is an experimental filmmaker and visual artist on xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) territories. She holds a BFA in Film from SFU and is currently pursuing a Post Baccalaureate Diploma in Visual Arts. Paige has previously worked with a variety of local arts organizations before joining the SFU VOCE team in 2019 as the Program Assistant. She enjoys utilizing her technical experience to produce the Below the Radar podcast and her event management skills to support our community partners’ events.

Outside of her work with the Office, Paige also produces the podcast Film Formally and creates her own artwork. Recent presentations of her artwork include the Audain Gallery (21), Vines Art Festival (20), Dawson City International Short Film Festival (20), and the Victoria Shorts Film Festival (19)

Cover Artist & Audio Editor: Kathy Feng

Kathy Feng (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, born in Guangzhou, China, and is a guest living and working on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. As an immigrant and child of immigrants, she grew up between cultures in a constant process of learning, unlearning, and relearning. This framework informs the central themes to her work: in which memory and nostalgia are expressed through images, text, and the aesthetics of the temporal.

Kathy holds a BFA in Visual Art with a minor in Art and Performance Studies from SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts. She began working at SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement January 2020 as a Research Assistant for the Below the Radar podcast. 

COPYWRITer: MELISSA ROACH

Melissa Roach (she/her) is a writer, mediamaker, and communicator on xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) lands. She has worked as Communications Coordinator for SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement (on and off) since 2016, promoting public programming and producing podcasts in collaboration with community and university partners.

Melissa is a founding member of the media collaborative, Grounded Futures, where she supports the creation of podcasts and multimedia works that amplify voices from below. She holds a B.A. in English from SFU, where she worked as an editor for SFU’s independent student newspaper. Her work is grounded in horizontal collaborations and a passion for sharing stories that challenge systems of power. She also loves textile art, container gardening, and walking the dog.

Secondary Copywriter: Alyha Bardi

Alyha (she/her) is a passionate Sociology & Labour Studies student. Her areas of interest include capitalist critiques, environmentalism, and human rights. Throughout her academic career, she’s written essays that focus on immigrant workers, women in work, settler-colonial Canada, and ritualistic practices of consumer capitalism. Her recent Spring 2021 Honours Essay, ‘Front of House Experiences During COVID-19: An Analysis of a Coffee Shop in Vancouver’, explores how work-related changes due to COVID-19 have been felt and experienced by Front of House Coffee Workers throughout the pandemic.

Alyha was born and raised on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Music Composition: Alex Masse

Alex Masse (they/them) is a writer, musician, and Communication student residing in what is colonially known as Surrey, BC. Arts and media are longtime loves of theirs, and their work has been everywhere from the Scholastic Writing Awards to Vancouver Pride. They’re also a neurodivergent nonbinary lesbian, which greatly affects their process.

When not working at SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement, they're probably working on some other passion project. When not working at all, they can be found pressing flowers or reading a good book.