Brandy Svendson

CEO, Creative Director, Co-Founder

Affiliations

Forum for Women Entrepreneurs

International Association of Business Communicators

International AIDS Society

Awards

Pacific Northwest Film Festival Judge’s Award for Directing (A Love Story)

2021 Finalist, YWCA Women of Influence in the Entrepreneurship & Innovation category

2022 Winner, International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Gold Quill Award of Merit

2022 Winner, RBC Women of Influence (WOI+) 2022 Social Change: National Impact Award

Bio

Brandy is responsible for overseeing our entire team, ensuring they are inspired and supported, and that all deliverables meet the highest standard. Her dynamic leadership style has grown from over ten years of experience in executive management. She is passionate about everything she does and provides our team with on-the-ground direction, leadership, and innovative vision on every project. Brandy is also known as our in-house fashion analyst and trend spotter: she ensures that no yoga pants are worn to the office. Ever. You are welcome.

Her expertise is also rooted in more than 18 years of experience in the health sectors, working locally, provincially, nationally, and internationally, specializing in population and public health. Her work began in the HIV community, which helped shape her understanding and passion for equity-driven work that is community-driven.

In addition, she has 11 years working in the education and climate change sectors. Brandy has provided strategic direction and led creative and consulting services for clients, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the BC Centre for Disease Control, Jhpiego (a Johns Hopkins University affiliate), the BC Centre for Substance Use, Interior Health, Vancouver Coastal Health, the Gulf States Health Policy Center, and Skills and Education Group.

Brandy also has over 20 years of experience in the creative field, including as a professional photographer and an award-winning director, receiving a director’s award for her work on The 30 30 Campaign. The campaign pieces together the dynamic history of HIV in Vancouver, told by and for those who were there. For over 10 years, she has led design and development teams as a creative director, launching digital projects, campaigns, brands, and everything in between.

In 2012, she co-founded Be the Change Group because there was a gap in public and population health work. Researchers conducting high-value research weren’t effectively communicating their findings to broader audiences. Creatives who could communicate this research in innovative ways that would reach those audiences didn’t have a deep understanding of the communities impacted. They were operating on parallel lines.

She knew that if we brought academics and creatives under one roof, compassionate, evidence-based, and multi-faceted solutions would be possible.

Brandy’s work has not gone unnoticed. In 2021, she was a finalist for the YWCA Women of Influence in the Entrepreneurship & Innovation category, and in 2022, she was a winner of the 2022 International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Gold Quill Award of Merit. Alongside her co-founder, Natalie Chan, she won the RBC Women of Influence (WOI+) 2022 Social Change: National Impact Award.

Brandy graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BA in Cultural Anthropology.