Meet the team
Andrea Reimer
Founder and Chief Strategist
If there's one thing Andrea (she/her) has learned in life, it's that good strategy requires power literacy, and both are skills anyone can learn.
Her work is informed by three decades operating and governing complex public institutions — four terms in elected office in the City of Vancouver including serving as Vancouver's first permanent Deputy Mayor, a decade on Metro Vancouver Regional District's board, ten years as executive director of Canada's largest membership-based environmental organization, and appointments to major infrastructure and financial governance boards including TransLink and the Green Municipal Fund. This experiences sits alongside her background as a community organizer and volunteer service on advisory bodies and community non-profit boards.
Before any of that, she learned about power as a young child in a lower middle-class household and subsequently as a street-involved youth. She learned early that understanding how systems work matters, and that while hard work is a given, hope without strategy doesn't advance issues. Time and again she's seen that even the most talented, committed leaders stall because they don't understand how power actually works, and that gap is the opportunity for big change.
Since leaving elected office in 2018, she's supported courageous leaders taking effective action on the biggest public policy challenges of our time through a number of concurrent pathways which you can learn more about on this site. It's the evolution of work she's always done: from wielding power on behalf of communities to teaching others how to build and use power themselves.
Roan Reimer
Senior Operations & Project Manager
Roan Reimer (they/them) is an expert at finding balance. In most situations, people understand what they're working toward - there's just often need a little support needed to sort through the noise, and bridge strategy with execution to reach the vision.
Their work is informed by a decade of working in governance, service design, research, technology, project management and facilitation with organizations like Code for Canada, the Province of BC, the Government of Canada, First Peoples' Cultural Council, UBC and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation. This is complemented by volunteer organizing with various groups in art, technology and engagement.
With a degree in Interaction Design from Emily Carr University, they started working as a service designer with the Government of BC prior to graduating, and in 2019 they were fortunate to be granted a fellowship with Code for Canada to create durable technology and policy practices to build more equitable and accessible digital services, not just for the fellowship term but for many cycles of government.
Since then they've worked to share tools across deeply meaningful projects with lasting impacts. It's a privilege to connect and navigate the systems that weave through our lives, and help daily reality catch up to their clients big dreams.
Roan is a two spirit urban indigenous nehiyaw-métis with Red River roots. They are a citizen of Métis Nation Saskatchewan.
Lyndsay Poaps
Power Literacy Educator
Lyndsay Poaps (she/her) has a long history of building and transforming organizations that serve a strong social purpose. She works with Tawâw on power training, as well as in her own consulting practice.
Her passion for engaging people in social and environmental policy to improve community-building and decision-making has led her to work that spans non-profit leadership in organizations like Leadnow and the Recycling Council of BC, as well as in elected office in Vancouver’s municipal government. She was also an Urban Fellow with the City of Toronto, founded the youth education network Check Your Head and the women’s campaign school Frontrunner. Her work is complemented by community organizing and volunteer work with groups like Light House Building Society and the Share Reuse and Repair initiative.
Lyndsay recently completed her Associate Certificate in Emergency Management and brings these new skills to the conversation of community resilience, climate change and emergency preparedness.
Since taking on consulting full time she’s been able to deepen her work, collaborating with mission-driven organizations to transform their leadership, connect with their communities, and strategize to keep the future within reach.