Admin Team

Mike is a Nikkei Sansei (third generation) and has been involved in the Japanese Canadian community in both Ontario and Victoria, maintaining close ties with Japan. He is past president of the Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society, serving as president for 8 terms. He has been involved with the National Association of Japanese Canadians' Victoria chapter and was the editor of the Victoria Nikkei Forum from 2001-16. He worked in the tourism industry for over 20 years, marketing and promoting Victoria and British Columbia as a world class tourist destination and holds a B.Sc. degree from McMaster University.

Mike was the project manager for Landscapes of Injustice (2014-2021), a multi-partner research project housed at CAPI exploring the forced dispossession of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War.

Anthony R. Auchterlonie, comes to lək̓ʷəŋən territories from the traditional unceded territories of Pentlatch, Ei’ksan, Sahtloot and Sasitla people of the K'omoks First Nation (Comox Valley). Anthony has an interdisciplinary academic background having completed a double major in Environmental Studies and History with a minor in Political Science at the University of Victoria (UVic) in 2018. He is currently a graduate student in the department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at UVic working towards the completion of his thesis examining memorialization practices in relation to the Holocaust and Canada’s Indian Residential School System under the guidance of Dr. Helga Thorson and Professor Carey Newman. Anthony’s research interests include transnational understandings of human rights abuses, human rights education, ethnoecology, traditional food systems, and Indigenous resurgence and (re)conciliation.

Anthony has previously had the pleasure of working on the Landscapes of Injustice (2021) and is excited and thankful for the opportunity to now support the Past Wrongs, Future Choices project, in his capacity as Project Manager (Acting) for a one-year term while Michael Abe is seconded to another project in the community.

Katie has been working at CAPI since 2018. She emigrated to Canada from Scotland after graduating from DJCAD (Dundee, Scotland) with a BFA in Fine Art Printmaking. She worked as a Master Printer in Vancouver for many years before becoming a printmaking technician at Capilano University and UFV, and discovered the joys of working for Universities.

Since 2010, Robyn has facilitated over 100 international internship placements for UVic students and graduates from across Canada in more than 20 countries. She is responsible for program and partnership development across the Asia-Pacific region, selecting, training and mentoring interns, and program monitoring and evaluation. CAPI’s international internship programs have focused on governance, development, education and migrants’ and refugee rights.

Robyn has an extensive background in experiential learning and curriculum development as it pertains to global and international education. She started her career in Indonesia in her work with street entrenched youth and continued on with social change movements focusing on reproductive rights and justice in the Czech Republic. She has an undergraduate degree from UVic in Geography and a MA in Adult Education and Global Change from Linkoping University in Sweden.

Noelle joined CAPI in 2022 as the Events and Program Coordinator. She coordinates the Korean Program which brings visitors from Korea for professional development in Victoria where they engage in research collaboration and knowledge exchange with UVic staff and faculty.

Noelle has extensive experience in event and program planning and has enjoyed a career association with many cultural and academic institutions in BC, including a role in the establishment of the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. She has lived and studied in both China and Taiwan and has travelled throughout Asia. Most recently, Noelle worked as a donor relations and events coordinator in Victoria’s cultural and performing arts community and as a volunteer conversation partner for international students in UVic’s Global Community program.

Noelle is an alumnus of UVic in Pacific and Asian Studies and completed her Masters’ degree in Modern Chinese Literature at UBC. A lifelong passion for culture, community and the Asia-Pacific region has guided Noelle to her role here, and she is delighted to be working at CAPI.

Dulma joined CAPI in the fall of 2021 as a program coordinator. Dr. Karunarathna was a Lecturer with the Department of Archaeology at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka from 2002-2021. She was a Commonwealth Scholar and completed her PhD at Newcastle University (UK) in 2015 with a focus on the "social archaeology of gender as depicted in visual art forms in South Asia." Her current research project is a cultural examination of a Sri Lankan palm-leaf manuscript that unveils the hidden history of color and the shared cultures, cultural diversity and socio-cultural geography of South and Southeast Asia.