Threading Change is an ambitious and fully youth-led international organization.
We need industries to step up, polluters to pay up, and all hands on deck.

Scroll down to see the dedicated team behind the scenes making it all happen.

Meet Our Founder & Executive Director, Sophia Yang

Sophia is the Founder & Executive Director of Threading Change, the world’s leading for youth, by youth ethical fashion organization, working at the intersections of climate, gender, and racial justice in alignment with the necessary transition to a circular economy. Threading Change specializes in facilitating creative events, convening unlikely allies, and initiating valuable industry and citizen connections to co-create a global and local fashion industry that is equitable, youth-driven, and climate-resilient.
Originally born in Northern China but raised in Calgary, Alberta, Sophia draws on her multitude of diverse work and volunteer experiences, alongside her upbringing as an immigrant child as the drivers for her holistic approach and perspective on the protection of our environment. As a dedicated climate justice changemaker, Sophia has worked for over a dozen notable environmental organizations ranging from federal government agencies (Parks Canada, Natural Resources Canada), NGOs (Nature Conservancy of Canada, Society Promoting Environmental Conservation, Prince's Trust Canada, CityHive), industry (CNRL), and academia (UBC, SFU). Sophia currently also dedicates her time to working as a Senior Corporate Campaigner at the award-winning ENGO Canopy Planet, collaborating alongside the world's leading fashion, booking publishing, and consumer packaged goods brands to ensure that Ancient Endangered Forests are kept out of supply chains, with a robust focus on implementing Next Generation fiber solutions.
Sophia is the recipient of numerous awards both local to Vancouver and globally. She received the City of Vancouver's Greenest City Leadership Award in 2022, Corporate Knights’ Top 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leaders in Canada list in 2021, the No.9 Contemporary Art & The Environment and Harrowsmith Magazine's inaugural Youth Changemaker Award in 2023, Starfish Canada’s Top 25 Under 25 Environmentalists award in 2017 and 2018, has attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24 & 25) twice as a British Columbian Youth Delegate with BCCIC, COP27 as part of Environment and Climate Change Canada's delegation, led the Threading Change Youth Delegation to COP28, and DJs as 'KALEIDO' in her spare time.
Threading Change was born because Sophia wanted to help raise young people’s voices in one of the world’s most polluting industries—the fashion industry, doing so for our planet, and people.

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Central Coordination Team

Sara McQuaid

PROGRAMS & PARTNERSHIPS DIRECTOR
Sara McQuaid (she/her) is a writer, activist and teacher currently working in Montreal, Quebec. She has a Honours Bachelor degree in History from Trent University and a Master's Degree in History from KU Leuven. She has been fortunate to have worked and taught across the world in Finland, South Korea, Vietnam and Belgium, where her love for international cooperation and development blossomed.
Her appreciation for contemporary challenges and love of fashion has inspired her to shift into the sustainable industry. Sara's aim to shape history by helping to change the future of fashion into one that is fossil-free and equitable.
Aish Mann

DEVELOPMENT & IMPACT DIRECTOR
Aish (she/her), an economist and writer turned environmental advocate, brings a wealth of diverse experience to the realm of sustainability. Currently mastering Green Business and Sustainability Management at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, she is at the forefront of youth-led environmental initiatives, championing engagement and education. Passionate about a circular economy and clean technology, Aish's work with TC reflects her commitment to social and environmental justice. Aish's multifaceted background, from Kuala Lumpur roots to academic and activist pursuits in British Columbia, fuels her dedication to a sustainable future.
Isabella Hamilton

COMMUNICATIONS & ENGAGEMENT MANAGER
Isabella (she/her) is a recent graduate of Queen’s University, where she completed a Bachelor’s of Science, majoring in Life Sciences and minoring in Global Development. Her undergraduate thesis, titled “An Assessment of the Current Strategies for Addressing the Global Textile Waste Crisis: Biomaterials & Student Engagement,” reflects her commitment to sustainability initiatives. Isabella is passionate about advocating for a more equitable fashion industry and has a particular interest in sustainable textile innovation. With prior leadership experience as Co-President of Queen’s University’s premier sustainable fashion club, she is dedicated to fostering youth engagement in sustainability initiatives.

North America Volunteers

Hannah Stoyanov

COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT
Klara Huebsch

NETWORK MAPPING ASSISTANT
Kieran Wilkins

OTTAWA EVENTS COORDINATOR
Micaela Yawney

GISM COORDINATOR
Anthony Bacho

MONTREAL EVENTS ASSISTANT
Angela Xu

STRATEGY & OUTREACH COORDINATOR

Africa Coordination Team

The Threading Change Africa Coordination Team is responsible for leading, managing, and planning creative events and activations in the African continent that amplify Threading Change’s mission and values. Our Coordinators are creatives, researchers, policy analysts, event planners, and textile artists full of experience and knowledge.

Chemitei (she/her) is an environmentalist and slow fashion educator who enjoys storytelling through writing and content creation. She has experience working in environmental education as a trainer in sustainable waste management; working with different initiatives to engage primary school children on how to upcycle waste to art, and empowering the local community youth groups in Nairobi on climate justice and advocacy.
She currently leads Threading Change’s African regional work. Chemitei dedicates a lot of her time highlighting the reality of the fashion industry in Kenya and urges everyone to be mindful of our clothing habits. Her goal is to share African stories and encourage youth development through creative innovation in sustainability and fashion.

Africa Regional Director

Africa Creative Lead

Toni (she/her) is a creative designer seeking to be an active voice for the future of innovative and sustainable solutions. She is currently studying towards a degree in Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Cape Town. With a passion for environmental sustainability, waste management, and artistic mediums, she strives to create content centered around circularity. This led to the founding of her platform and business, Totostry, a creative space on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook that serves to educate and raise awareness for eco-friendly, low-waste concepts and ideas through the arts of upcycling, mending, and slow fashion. Toni was also a contestant on the first season of an international YouTube challenge show called Next Top Upcycler.

Barbra is an environmental and climate activist. She has been actively involved in environmental conservation, climate justice, and fossil-free campaigns to advocate for better policies and sustainable practices. She is the Research Lead for the Africa Regional Coordination team at Threading Change. She is a community trainer and climate educator. She expresses her passion for addressing the climate crisis through training youth groups, initiatives, and organizations on climate change, its spill-over issues, and ways in which they can be more resilient and adaptable in the climate crisis. Barbra is also the founder of Last shade Initiative which focuses on creating awareness of environmental conservation and climate change and increasing resilience in the local communities through behavior modification.

Africa Research Lead

Book a meeting with our Africa Team

Global Coordination Team

South America Regional Coordinator

Celeste (she/her) was born and raised in Guayaquil, Ecuador. She moved to Saskatoon, Canada in 2016 to pursue a major in Environmental Science and Sustainability. During her spare time, Celeste loves being involved with the community. She founded the Latin American Students Association at the University of Saskatchewan and was elected as president for 2 years (2017-2018). In 2019 and 2020, Celeste was part of the executive team of the Environmental Studies Student Association, as the Vice-President and Event Planner respectively. In 2020, Celeste started her podcast Latinas in Stoon which she co-hosts with a friend. Currently, Celeste works as the executive director of a non-profit organization in Ecuador that promotes circular economy, environmental education, and sustainable food production.

India Regional

Coordinator

Alisha (she/her) is a Fashion Design graduate with a passion for sustainable fashion and slow fashion practices. She is working towards building a market place for sustainable fashion to make it more accessible and voice her passion for it. She also advocates for garment workers’ rights and fair fashion practices. Her interest in sustainable fashion started when she got involved in this space in her college’s last year graduation project. Alisha’s commitment to sustainability spoke through her work. She worked with artisans on a self-initiated project to develop products from post-usage textiles for 13 months in rural parts of India. She even worked with a startup that works on the segregation post-production textiles waste. She expresses her love for fashion and the environment through actively volunteering in organizations such as Fashion Takes Action. She wants to address fashion’s waste problem and work on Circular Fashion.

Europe Regional Coordinator

Leah (she/her) is a creative student at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, where she focuses on connecting her passions for sustainability, fashion, and art.
Having grown up bilingual, now speaking five languages, different cultures have always shaped her personality and way of thinking. She followed a year of International Business and Intercultural Studies at the University of Passau, Germany, where she was able to gain an extensive knowledge of ethical business practices and intercultural communication.
Besides her studies and volunteering work, Leah loves dedicating her time to different crafts like sewing, crochet, or calligraphy.

Board of Directors

The large gender inequity present in the fashion industry today is completely unacceptable. Of the top ten fashion companies in the world, only one CEO is woman-identifying, and only one is a Person of Colour (POC). Millions of garment workers around the world today are women of colour, subject to various forms of abuse and unfair pay. Threading Change believes that as a young organization, we will do everything possible to uphold our ethos of a Feminist, Fossil-Fuel-Free Fashion Future that fights for gender equity. We proudly present our growing Board of Directors, mainly women of colour, from garment-heavy producing countries.

Puninda (she/her) is a climate justice advocate and a consultant specializing in sustainability strategy development and implementation. Previously, she worked in sustainable investing in the commercial real estate sector, where she led portfolio-wide initiatives focused on climate resilience and sustainability reporting. Puninda holds a Bachelors of Environment and Business from the University of Waterloo. She is active in her local community as a member of the Global Shapers Community and as an organizer with Climate Justice Peel. Puninda has been recognized as one of Canada’s top 30 under 30 sustainability leaders and as a Clean50 honouree.

Board Chair

Jessica C. Poitras, Esq. (she/her) is an American legislative and regulatory attorney focused on advancing and promoting sustainable and ethical fashion and beauty policies, both domestically and internationally. She has dedicated her career to supporting causes and missions related to the advancement of women, the rights of persons of color, and international trade policy. Her expert opinions have been featured on NPR, presented before the Equal Justice Center and ACLU, and as an expert witness in many state legislatures across the US. Additionally, she enjoys volunteering to support her local community and freelance writing.

Secretary

Treasurer

Léandre (she/her) mobilizes resources to drive community and social impact. Through her grantmaking work in the philanthropic sector, Léandre has supported national Canadian Foundations to address challenges related to education, employment, racial equity, gender equity and youth wellbeing.
As Partnerships Manager at the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) Léandre is dedicated to network weaving, partnership building and community investments. She is also a devoted volunteer, serving as a Youth Advisory Member for the Michaëlle Jean Foundation and an Ambassador for Remake. The convergence of labour rights, women and children’s rights, climate justice and racial justice all serve as motivators for Léandre’s journey towards an equitable future.

Director at Large, Fundraising

Director at Large, Expansion

Rachel recently merged her community-based circular fashion business, Reclypt, with FABSCRAP, joining the team as its Community Director. Rachel is an award-winning leader with a global perspective, leveraging her experience in the Peace Corps and sustainable finance, to become a key player in the circular fashion space in New York City. Fueled by her passion for waste reduction and exceptional community building skills, she has a proven track record of engaging diverse peoples in the mission of waste reduction through community action, volunteerism, and education.

Carol (she/her) has held leadership positions in innovation, strategy and communications across Canada, the U.S. and Europe within a variety of industries and sectors. She's a seasoned brand builder, management consultant, lecturer, and board member, with a strong commitment to social and environmental justice.
Most recently, Carol has been with Canopy on a mission to scale up alternatives to wood-based fibres in the textile supply chain and steer companies away from climate and biodiversity-critical forests. You can connect with her here.