Andrea Reimer, Adjunct Professor of Practice at UBC’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA), hosted an ‘Ask Me Anything’ initiative over the summer 2020, inviting UBC students, faculty, staff, alumni, and interested members of the public to ask her the questions that they’ve been pondering about power and practice, and the practical challenges of policy-making.
Background on Andrea: During her decade on Vancouver City Council, Andrea initiated a number of initiatives, including the City of Vancouver’s award-winning effort to be the Greenest City on earth and Vancouver’s nationally significant municipal framework for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. She has been a strong public voice in Vancouver and the metro region, with a focus on working with residents to build green, reconciled, engaged communities and making government easy for the public to access.
As SPPGA’s first Policy Practitioner Fellow (her Fellowship term ended August 2020), Andrea engaged with the community on Twitter from @andreareimer with the hashtag #AMASPPGA and by email at sppga.fellow@ubc.ca. Andrea shared insights and answering questions on power and public policy from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm on Tuesdays throughout the summer. Andrea invited former and current policymakers, artists, UBC students, and directors as guests to join her in conversation.
Past guests included: David Miller, former mayor of Toronto; Maria Cabildo, Senior Fellow with the Advancement Project California; Joshua Diemert, Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs student; Doug Ragan, Specialist, Urban Children and Youth, UN-Habitat, Nairobi; Karen Ward, Drug Policy Advisor & Community Information Coordinator for the City of Vancouver; Farhan Mohamed, former Daily Hive Editor-in-Chief; Meaghan Thumath, Public health leader & Trudeau Scholar at Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence Based Intervention; Commissioner Camil Dumont, Chair, Vancouver Park Board; Barinder Rasode, Founder and CEO Growtech Labs; Will Shelling, incoming MPPGA student; Professor Max Cameron (Political Science), Acting Director, UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs; Tonye Aganaba, multidisciplinary artist; Ange Valentini, Political Strategist & Government Relations Specialist; Andrea Woo, Journalist, The Globe and Mail; Khelsilem, Squamish Nation Councillor & Vancity Board Member; Chuka Ejeckam, Researcher, writer, and trade unionist; Tesicca Truong, CityHive Vancouver Co-Founder; GreenPAC Parliamentary Intern, and SFU Centre for Dialogue, Dialogue Associate; Jeana Dunlap, Community Investment Specialist, Louisville Coordinated Community Investment Project, and Allison Macfarlane, Director, School of Public Policy & Global Affairs.
