Sandra Allen

Board Member

Sandra Allen is an experienced organizational leader with more than 15 years of supporting senior leadership across public, non-profit, and private sectors. She brings expertise in executive operations management, strategic planning, project management, stakeholder engagement, and governance.

Sandra currently serves as Division Coordinator for First Nations Relations at the Capital Regional District. In this role, she supports cross-functional collaboration, liaises with Indigenous and municipal leadership, coordinates complex engagement processes, oversees procurement and finance administration, and contributes to data-management and systems-innovation initiatives across the division.

A seasoned administrator with a strong background in project management, Sandra leads from her values and is known for her ability to manage workflow, ideas, materials, and people with clarity and purpose. Her experience working in dynamic, matrixed organizations during periods of disruption has strengthened her capacity to navigate complexity, identify new paths forward, and consider the broader system impacts of decisions.

Sandra has held leadership positions with the Canadian Red Cross, the Vancouver Board of Trade, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), and Royal Caribbean International. Her professional background includes coordinating high-profile initiatives, facilitating culturally grounded engagement processes, supporting disaster response and recovery efforts, and advancing reconciliation-informed practices.

Sandra also serves as Co-Chair of the Capital Regional District Food and Agriculture Roundtable and the Victoria Community Food Hub Society. She brings a strong commitment to service, transparent leadership, the Collective Impact model, and relationship-based collaboration across the regional food systems network.

She holds a Bachelor of Tourism Management with a major in Recreation and has extensive experience in organizational development, event coordination, and team leadership. Sandra is passionate about fostering resilient, equitable, and community-led systems that strengthen the wellbeing of the region.

CRFAIR promotes healthy and sustainable food systems.  This considers our relationships with each other, and the land and waters of this region.  We endeavour to honour the land and its treaties by strengthening our relationship and responsibilities to them. We live and work on unceded Coast Salish Territories*, specifically of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees) and Xwsepsum (Esquimalt) Nations here in the core area, the W̱SÁNEĆ Nations {W̱JOȽEȽP (Tsartlip), BOḰEĆEN (Pauquachin), SȾÁUTW̱,(Tsawout) W̱SIKEM (Tseycum)} out on the Saanich Peninsula and Gulf Islands, to the west Sc'ianew (Beecher Bay), T’Sou-ke, and Pacheedaht, and MÁLEXEȽ (Malahat) and Pune’laxutth’ (Penelekut) Nations.

The presence of settlers (non-Indigenous peoples who live on these lands) is not neutral; it has had and continues to have devastating impacts on many aspects of life for Indigenous peoples. Many of our practices, including the seeds we plant, the ways we educate, and our methods of growing food came to these lands through the ongoing process of colonialism. Settler colonialism has suppressed local well-being by harming Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ food systems, whether they be land-based or of the sky and sea. We hold this understanding in our interactions and engagements with this land and its people. 

There is important work being done by many nations and allies to ensure the continued thriving of these food systems, communities, and knowledge systems. Those of us who are settlers need to recognize that our knowledge and way of doing things may not be the priority as we work towards food security for everyone in this region.

* The term Coast Salish is used to encompass a number of Indigenous peoples, including Esquimalt, Hul’qumi’num, Klahoose, Lekwungen, MALAXEt, Musqueam, OStlq’emeylem, Pentlatch, Scia’new (Beecher Bay), Sliammon, Shishalh, Skxwú7mesh-ulh Úxwumixw, Stó:lo, Straits, Tsleil-Waututh, T’Sou-ke, W̱SÁNEĆ, and Xwemalhkwu.