submitted by Linda Hill

Brandy Gallagher, Inclusive Leader and Leading Edge Ecovillage Thinker and Leader is an ambassador for the Global Ecovillage Network. Their February 2020 Communities for our Future summit welcomed 20,000 people from over 200 countries in a telepresence conference.

Brandy is also a member of the Inclusive Leadership Co-operative and one of the original founders and developers of O.U.R. Ecovillage, Shawnigan Lake (Vancouver Island) BC, Canada.

O.U.R. Ecovillage is one of 300 Ecovillages around the world that are connected with the Global Ecovillage Network : The organization that hosted the Communities for our Future Online Summit.

Born and raised in community, Brandy is a designer, educator and visionary community-builder. She has spent over 20 years exploring the complexities and doing what is involved in working with local, regional, national and international decision makers to create a collaborative model of living, learning and leading that is rooted in social, ecological, and economic well being. The outcome is O.U.R. Ecovillage and TOPIA: The Sustainable Learning Community School which operates onsite at O.U.R. Ecovillage. At the heart of her work is an invitation to individuals & communities to step aside from our ranks and roles to enter into a more connected sense of community building based on respect for biodiversity and social diversity.

Brandy says, “I am sitting with the Global Ecovillage Network as an Ambassador, on GEN North America & The Alliance Team, and Ecovillage Canada (formerly Ecovillage Network of Canada).  So much of this work is coming to the forefront after years of many people in this bio-region, if not Canada entirely, having no working knowledge of this all happening around the planet. 

I am deeply grateful for the loving mentorship I have had from a number of folks you see in the Summit’s videos, from the wondrous holders of GEN and Gaia Education, and from you yourself Linda.  The road is a long one ahead and is humbling to say the least.”

Because of Brandy’s ability to reach out and connect, the Inclusive Leadership Co-operative often has opportunities to partner with O.U.R. Ecovillage to develop and facilitate life-enriching and life-sustaining community-building projects.  Here is an especially awesome collaborative project in the visioning stage: “We are working on a project titled ‘Awakening the Dragon; reSTORYing Our Collective Future’ and we will be partnering doing public art installations which will bring youth/community folks together to talk about the United nations Sustainable Development Goals and the future of youth leadership… focusing on projects that work with Global South. ” (Brandy Gallagher).