Carla’s vision is to help organizations and communities imagine new possibilities and ways to realize them. Her core work experience spans almost two decades as an administrative professional in the communications, marketing, and nonprofit sectors. Today they are actively involved in work that centers and embodies liberation for Black, Indigenous, racialized, 2SLGBTQ+ and disabled communities in Canada, and environmental, human rights, and Indigenous issues in their homeland of the Philippines. Carla’s life and work are grounded in the concept of “ka”, which is a prefix used in many Filipino languages to denote relation of self in the other.

As VOP’s Organizational Development Manager, Carla is helping to set a sound and intentional foundation for the organization in the areas of operations and systems planning and implementation so that VOP may grow and deepen our community impact.

In recent years, Carla’s work has grown to embrace an active practice of decolonization and applies this to her work in community engagement and organizational development. They have given storytelling-based presentations for community organizations in York Region, Toronto, and to US audiences on the topics of identity and culture in the Filipino/a/x diaspora. Carla also facilitates cultural experiences for both Filipino and broader communities through arts workshops and conversational Filipino language lessons.