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Meet our Team
Our team at LevelUp Planning Collaborative Inc. brings more than 40 years’ experience in applied research, community planning and well-being service delivery to each project. Each member of our team has worked directly with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities using a healthy communities approach, with a strong emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion. We have worked with a variety of types of communities across Canada - from large urban centres to small towns, rural areas, and Indigenous communities. At the same time, we have been part of policy development and evaluation at the local, provincial and national levels.
Victoria Barr
MHSc PhD (Planning)
(she/her)
Principal | Co-Owner
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Dr. Victoria Barr brings 30 years of expertise and passion as a planner and community well-being practitioner, specializing in the connections between equity and community planning. She holds a master's degree in public health and a PhD in planning and brings out the best of both fields in her practice.
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Victoria is an Adjunct Professor at both the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria and the Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources at the University of Manitoba. She has taught courses in healthy communities, equity in planning, applied research, program evaluation and local governance for 11 years at five different Canadian universities. Victoria has also been a consultant, specializing in building healthy and equitable communities, for more than 20 years. In that role, Victoria has prepared many resources for local government staff, and she has worked with both urban and rural communities across Canada, supporting them to use research to address key social planning questions. Victoria has presented this work at several conferences, including those of the Planning Institute of BC, the Canadian Institute of Planners, and the World Health Organization's International Healthy Cities initiative.
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Victoria has held management roles in two provincial-level non-profit organizations (Public Health Association of BC and BC Healthy Communities Society). She lives and works on the homelands of the Lekwungen peoples, now known as the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations (Victoria, BC).
Lavleen Sahota
BSN, MPH
(she/her)
Community Health and Equity Specialist | Co-Owner
Lavleen has 11 years of experience advocating for underserved populations in her role as a community mental health nurse in Vancouver where she utilized an upstream approach to promote the health and well-being of her clients. Lavleen understands the importance of one’s environment in informing health outcomes, and is passionate about fostering strong, healthy, connected communities where everyone has the same opportunities and resources to thrive.
Lavleen has experience working on a wide range of healthy community projects in partnership with local governments, the Ministry of Health, and health authorities. She has extensive experience in project management, conducting research, community engagement, and evaluation.
Lavleen resides on the traditional, shared, and occupied territories of the hÉ™nÌ“qÌ“É™minÌ“É™mÌ“ speaking peoples including the scÉ™wÌ“aθÉ™n (Tsawwassen) and xÊ·mÉ™θkÊ·É™yÌ“É™m (Musqueam) First Nations and is grateful for their stewardship of the land since time immemorial.