The John Humphrey Centre is proud to have a staff that is versatile, dynamic and visionary. To contact any staff, please visit the contact us page.
Renée Vaugeois, Executive Director
A small town farm girl, Renée is an example of someone who has moved beyond the boundaries of rural Alberta to become a change leader and human rights advocate. In her efforts to address injustice and inequality, Renée has made it her life’s work to break the chains of apathy and open people’s eyes… to take them beyond their box to view the world through the eyes of others and to build a world that is compassionate. She has a true passion and belief not only in the human spirit and the dignity of all people, but the value of human relationships.
Along with her role as Executive Director of the John Humphrey Centre, Renée is also the Founding President of Ainembabazi Children’s Project, a charitable organization focused on improving the rights of orphans and vulnerable children affected by AIDS in East Africa through education, health and community economic development.
She has her Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Alberta and has had the experience of coordinating various international projects for both the University of Alberta and the Government of Alberta in numerous countries around the world. Her areas of experience include human rights, international political economy, armed conflict’s impact on children as well as HIV and AIDS, Aboriginal issues as well as racism and discrimination.
Renée is currently a member of the National Commission for UNESCO in Canada, the ONEdmonton Leadership Initiative, as well as sitting on the Board of the South Sudan Development Foundation. She is also the recipient of the Top 40 under 40 by Avenue Magazine in its inaugural year in Edmonton.
Carrie Malloy, Education Programs Coordinator
Having grown up in rural Saskatchewan, Carrie finished high school ready to see the world. After graduating with a Bachelor of Education, she spent one year backpacking on a ‘round the world’ ticket. With the travel bug having a firm hold on her, she promptly left for South Korea to teach English for several years. She returned to Canada to complete her master’s degree in International/Intercultural Education at the University of Alberta. During her master’s program, she was fortunate enough spend a year in South Korea doing her thesis research on ‘human rights of youth’ as well as volunteering at an educational research centre in Nepal.
Upon completion of her master’s degree, she spent several years lecturing on global issues at an international university in southern Japan. While living in Japan, Carrie spent her winter and summer breaks traveling, studying languages and volunteering in Asia and South America.
Carrie was incredibly excited to discover an organization like the John Humphrey Centre where she could share her passion for human rights with the many students, teachers, volunteers and program participants involved with the JHC programs. She has served as the Education Programs Coordinator since early 2005.
Chelsea Rutkowski, Intercultural Programs Coordinator
Chelsea grew up on the outskirts of Edmonton in Fort Saskatchewan as a pseudo small town kid. She received her first degree in Elementary Education and worked for the Edmonton Public School Board – briefly – as a teacher and then returned to university to complete her Master of International/Intercultural Education. The majority of her time and effort during her master’s degree was divided between Indigenous Peoples’ rights and the cultural politics of English as an international language/language loss. In the end, Indigenous Peoples’ rights won.
Following her master’s degree, she spent time in SE Asia working for an Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Organization, where she created, organized and delivered capacity-building workshops to Indigenous Peoples in SE Asia in the area of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity.While she was working in SE Asia, she had the opportunity to conduct the same workshop for Indigenous Peoples from East Africa in Kenya.
Chelsea has been the Intercultural Programs Coordinator for the John Humphrey Centre since January 2009.
Amy Lambe, Ignite Change Now! Program Coordinator
Born in Sherwood Park, Alberta – otherwise known as “The Bubble” – and schooled in French Immersion, Amy comes to us with a BA in Political Science, minoring in History, with a certificate in Peace and Post-Conflict Studies. Her studies focused on WWII and the Holocaust – especially on the personal experiences of those who lived during, fought in and died because of the war and their identity.
In 2008, she took part in a cross-cultural Human Rights Delegation to Rwanda where she learned with, but mostly, from her Rwandan peers about peace building, development and the role of the international community therein. She has said that the passion, power and resilience of her Rwandan friends inspired her to help them tell their story to as many youth as possible – and so, she has worked for Global Youth Connect, guiding others through their first experience with the country that captured her heart.
In her position at the John Humphrey Centre, Amy is able to further connect youth to organizations and each other as they strive to create change in their own communities.
Udeni Jayasinghe, Financial and Office Administrator
Udeni was born in Sri Lanka and grew up and was educated in the commercial capital (Colombo) of Sri Lanka. She earned a bachelor degree in Accountancy and Financial Management (2002) from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. She is also a member of the Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka. She started her career life as an Internal Auditor while she was in her 4th year of university and then worked as an Accountant for almost 5 years in her motherland before coming to Canada in 2009 (her dream country). After coming to Canada, Udeni decided to upgrade her qualifications by doing an Accelerated Accounting Course at NAIT and at present she is continuing her education as an advanced level CGA student.
Udeni was excited to join the John Humphrey Centre as the Financial and Office Administrator since she likes to work with a team with compassion towards humanity and human rights. In her free time, she enjoys listening to classical music (Sinhalese songs), eating gourmet food (Sri Lankan and South Indian) and reading novels. Udeni’s only expectation is to live a very simple life as much as possible in this highly dynamic and enormously changing world.
