Navigate Conference 2025

Dr. Steve Brown is the President of Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford. A sought-after communicator and gifted teacher, Steve is the author of Jesus Centered – Focusing on Jesus in a Distracted World, Leading Me – Eight Practices for a Christian Leader’s Most Important Assignment, and Great Questions for Leading Well.

An avid student of leadership, Steve’s real-time education has flown from twelve years as President of Arrow Leadership and thousands of hours of walking alongside exceptional leaders worldwide. Steve earned his Doctor of Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Master of Divinity from Tyndale Seminary, and Honours Bachelor of Business from Wilfrid Laurier University. He is credentialed with the British Columbia Mennonite Brethren.

Married to Lea and dad to three young adults, Steve lives in Abbotsford, where he likes to run, hike, and bike.

Brenda has been in the insurance industry for over 40 years, owned her own agency for 10 years, and has been with Westland Insurance for 16 years. As Senior Account Executive, she helps clients navigate their insurance needs and provides risk management advice and assists, if needed, with claims.  Her specialized knowledge of Westland’s exclusive programs that include Education, Church and faith-based organizations, Healthcare, Community Living and Social Services means that she fully knows the operations of clients and understands their requirements.  She is committed to excellence in service at all times. 

BBA CPA CA

Sandra is a Chartered Professional Accountant with 40 years of experience spanning various industries as a Chief Financial Officer, Director of Finance, contract internal controller and senior external auditor.  She has extensive experience with development projects, financing proposals, building and maintaining responsibility for financial statements, budgets and forecasts, government reporting, payroll and all operational financial controls in high-growth private company environments and charities, including independent schools and a seniors housing village. Sandra led the finance department at Elim Village in Surrey, BC, for 14 years before retiring in 2023. She also serves on the board of trustees of the Christian Education Benefits Solutions, the pension and benefits plan that serves most of our SCSBC schools. Sandra will share her knowledge and experience drawn from leading teams of audit and finance staff throughout her career.

As President of Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver, Dean brings drive and compassion to his work. With a background in pastoral and nonprofit leadership, Dean is motivated by the inherent personhood of everyone he meets. “I believe that everyone has worth, value, and is deserving of dignity. I want to see community members experience life to the fullest, to lead a life of wellness and independence.”

Dean started his career as a grade 6 teacher at Rocky Christian School, before becoming a pastor for 17 years. He then served as Executive Director for The Mustard Seed in Edmonton and later as Chief Regional Officer, overseeing programs and operations for teams in Edmonton, Kamloops, Red Deer, and Medicine Hat. He thrives in an environment where he can unite people around a common purpose.

Dean holds a Master of Arts in Christian Studies from Ambrose University and a Bachelor in Secondary Education from the University of Alberta. He has been married for 28 years to his wife, Sasha, and they have three adult daughters and two dogs. After 50 years in the Edmonton area, Dean and his family are enjoying life in BC’s lower mainland since moving to North Vancouver in 2022. Dean enjoys hiking, sitting by the ocean, riding his e-bike, podcasts and live music. And he follows sports—especially the Oilers.

Mike began with Westland Insurance in 1992, giving him over 32 years of experience in Commercial Insurance Sales and Service. As a Director of BC Commercial services for Westland, Mike’s responsibilities include serving in an advisory role supporting Account Executives and client services.   Mike has always been committed to the highest level of customer support and service for Westland clients including professional insurance advice, specialized risk management support, and serving as active partners in insurance claims situations. Mike’s areas of specialty include Education, Healthcare, Community Living, Social Services sectors, Professional Liability insurance, Directors and Officers Liability Insurance, and Cyber Risks Insurance. Mike has been married to his wife Elaine for 37 years; he is a father of four and has (at last count) 6 grandchildren. 

As a talented storyteller with over 10 years of experience in the film industry, Josh has a diverse range of experience in storytelling and creating content. As a co-founder of cmyk Productions, he worked with labels such as 604 Records to produce and direct over 30 music videos, which received multiple awards. He also worked as a Marketing Videographer for the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity for several seasons. Josh’s most recent credits include directing and editing the 25 x 30 broadcast series, Strong by NM (2020), directing, editing, and DP’ing the digital series Movement by NM Season 1-4 (2021–23), and the short documentary, The Adaptive Athlete (2021) for the Vancouver-based production company Omnifilm Entertainment. Independently and alongside other innovative production companies, Josh has been involved with developing, directing, shooting, and editing major audiovisual marketing campaigns, brand storytelling and promotion, instructional programming, and documentary productions. He has also worked on titles such as Jonathan and Jesus, Practicing the Way, Alpha, and more. Josh received his bachelor’s degree in motion picture arts at Capilano University and lives in North Vancouver.

For the last 18 years, Andrew has been the project manager leading the implementation and support of MyEdBC for independent schools across the province. Together with his team, they provide training and ongoing support to over 275 schools and over 1000 front office staff. Since 2017 they have been using AI to speed up and improve their internal office processes and provide faster and more accurate solutions to the schools they support. In 2022, they began re-designing their tools to use generative AI to enhance the training and support we provide schools, resulting in AI systems doing 1/3 of our workload. Andrew is passionate about how front-office users can use technology to provide better and faster answers to their customers.

After graduating from SFU and working for a national retailer managing renovation projects, Jeannie started her insurance career in 2003. She traded in looking at blueprints all day to reading policy wordings. Since then, she’s done almost every facet of insurance, from auto, homeowners, farms, aviation, marine and cargo. Jeannie joined Westland in 2020 and now leads their exclusive School Program as Director, Commercial Programs. When not at work, Jeannie enjoys the outdoors- whether it’s camping or hiking with her husband and two boys. She has also recently become a first-time doggy mom to the family corgi, Biggie.