2024-2025
Alayna Miller
President
Alayna is a graduate of Harvard College (AB 2003 English and American Literature and Language) and of Western University (LL.B 2006). She has an Executive Certificate in Conflict Management through the Stitt Feld Handy Group and currently serves as Legal Counsel at the House of Commons. She has been a long-term Member of the Harvard University Club of Ottawa and regularly facilitates book club discussions. She is also involved in the community as a Venturer Advisor through Scouts Canada and is on the Council of the Ontario Bar Association. She has particular interest in human rights, employment law, outdoor adventure, dance, and ultimate frisbee.
Sharelle Samuel
VP of Communication & Secretary
Sharelle is a born and raised Ottawa native and a graduate of Harvard College (AB ’22 Economics and Secondary in Psychology). She is currently working as the Head of Business Strategy for the Canadian Track and Field League (CTFL) and on her own start-up ventures.
Sharelle currently serves as the Treasurer for the 2022 Harvard College Class Committee and as the 2022 Class Agent for the Harvard Track and Field Team.
While at Harvard, Sharelle took on numerous organizational leadership positions within the Harvard Athletics Black Varsity Association, Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Harvard International Undergraduate Student Advisory Group, and Harvard College Crimson After Dark.
She was also a member of the Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business Club, and a member of the College’s Track and Field Team. Sharelle had the wonderful opportunity of working in the Dean of Students Office and serving as a member on the Harvard College Deans’ Advisory Panel.
She is keen to help out and give back to the younger members of her community!
Chris Goodhew
Treasurer
Chris (MLA, HES ’15) is a Canadian military officer, currently posted to the military police headquarters in Ottawa. Previous positions have included foreign liaison officer (Asia), various levels of command, instructional staff, and recruiting. He has a BA from Carleton University (2002) and a Master of Liberal Arts in general management from Harvard University (2015) extension school. He resides in Ottawa with his son Cameron.
Jordan Weston
VP Community Engagement
Jordan (Meimei) Weston, from Vancouver, Canada, is a Harvard College graduate in History of Science and Government, ’23. She works on Parliament Hill in Communications for the Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs, MP Michael Chong.
In the past, Jordan served a Harvard Alex G. Booth research fellowship in Bergen, Norway, learning how Canada can model its energy and sustainability systems and policies after Norway. Passionate about educating, inspiring and empowering youth, she has experience working in Senegal on a women empowerment project, in rural Vietnam teaching in an area with low education and graduation rates, and mentoring underprivileged children in rural Boston through the Harvard Education Portal.
Jordan is a founding advisor of the Canadian Health and Fitness Institute, worked at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, served as the Prime Minister of the Harvard Canadian Club, rowed on Harvard’s Women’s Varsity Lightweight team, and enjoys training for marathons in her free time. She speaks French and studied Mandarin in Greater China, and is eager to learn more about international affairs, energy politics, and public service through a career of research, foreign service, and politics.
Rebecca Barnes
Vice-President
Rebecca (HKS ’17) is a Canadian Foreign Service Officer who has worked in diplomatic missions in Washington D.C., Australia, China and Singapore, her most recent tour. An international trade specialist, she has held numerous positions at Foreign Affairs headquarters including working on the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto. Rebecca has a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University, Canada.
Jose Gerstl
HBS President
Bio forthcoming.
Natalka Roshak
Director
Natalka (A.B. ’99) is an award-winning Canadian author and translator, who writes as N. R. M. Roshak. She graduated from Harvard College in ’99 with an A. B. in Philosophy and Mathematics, and in addition to writing fiction, has written code and wrangled databases for dot-coms, Harvard, and Oracle. You can find her work at http://nrmroshak.com and http://rdbms-insight.com .
Meghan Sullivan
VP Digital Media + Communications
Meghan Sullivan (MPP, HKS ’12) is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she majored in International and Global Affairs. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Wellesley College, incorporating one year at Oxford University.
Since graduating from Harvard in 2012, Meghan has worked for the Government of Canada. Currently, she is a Senior Advisor and Manager at Environment and Climate Change Canada.
In the past, Meghan worked at the Conference Board of Canada, conducting research on a range of public policy issues. She also interned at the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC, reporting on key environmental developments across the United States.
In her spare time, Meghan enjoys volunteering for local environmental groups and the Wellesley Club of Ottawa. She also works part-time for Opinions4Good, a non-profit. Finally, she is an avid athlete, playing both basketball and volleyball.
Kinga Petrovai
Past President; Chair, Nominating Cmte.
Kinga (PhD (Oxon), MEd ’12) is a learning specialist with a doctorate from Oxford University. She earned a master’s degree from Harvard University in Technology, Innovation, and Education and is certified as a secondary mathematics and physics teacher by the Ontario College of Teachers in Canada. Prior to formally entering the field of education, Kinga earned a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Carleton University and worked as an engineer for over six years at a Canadian Crown Corporation.
For over fifteen years, Kinga has worked and volunteered on a variety of educational projects, spanning across North America and the UK. Her passion for education led her to design and run a successful and innovative mentoring program for high school girls, volunteer in a school for dyslexic students, and tutor mathematics and physics to senior high school students. At the university level, Kinga worked on a variety of funded research projects at Harvard University and Oxford University. She has also designed and taught workshops on the use of technology in teaching to teacher education students (PGCE) at Oxford University. While working towards her doctorate, Kinga was also a Junior Dean at St Catherine’s College, Oxford.
After almost a decade of living outside of Canada, Kinga was happy to return to her home town of Ottawa. Since her return, Kinga has led the evaluation strategy at the Digital Academy in the Canada School of Public Service, consults on learning design in the workplace and in educational institutions, and is the producer and host of The Art & Science of Learning podcast.
Sheema Khan
Director
Sheema Khan (AM ’87, PhD ’89) holds both an A.M. in Physics (’87) and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics (’89) from Harvard, where she served as a Resident Chemistry Tutor at Lowell House for 4 years. She has been a Globe & Mail columnist since 2002 writing on such topics as Reconciling Muslim practices with Western principles. A collection of her columns was published in her book “Of Hockey and Hijab: Reflections of a Canadian Muslim Woman”. She co-founded the Toronto-based think tank The Tessellate Institute and The Family Honour Project in London (Ontario), which is devoted to eliminating honour-based violence in Canada and abroad. She is currently a Board Member of the United Nations Association in Canada and a life-long fan of the Montreal Canadiens.