At 21, Shauna was CEO of a Calgary retail giftware store and gourmet bakery. At 24, she was operating two food businesses. By 30, she was ready to pack it all in and head for the hills. She and her family decided to unplug (literally) and move to a remote and pristine valley in the West Kootenays, where they have spent the last 7 years building a home and a connected (and delicious) life from their small holding named Tricycle Acres. Shauna grows and preserve a significant portion of her family’s food, all the while teaching fermenting and preserving to WWOOFers’s interns, family, and community members alike.

Wearing many hats, Shaun has designed, produced, and marketed numerous community development projects in the Kootenays, including Farm Food Fork: An annual local food forum; Kootenay Food: A local food web resource; Homesteading 101: The essential skill-building educational series; The Slocan Valley Food Hubl; Pickle Palooza: An annual preservation festival; and Press Fest: A celebration of falling fruit. Her current project is the building and development of a Community Food Centre in the heart of the Slocan Valley.

Shauna is passionate about local food and community building. Currently she is Chair and a founding member of the West Kootenay Permaculture Co-Op and Kootenay Food. As an experienced graphic designer, Shauna uses her skills to build beautiful brands while delivering creative marketing messages for clients and community initiatives.

Shauna’s business, rBrand, is a branding, marketing and digital design company that focuses on supporting businesses that work in areas of sustainable food, farming, and community development. It holds a special place for permaculture-based services and non-profits striving to make positive impacts in their communities. rBrand strives to build beautiful and thoughtful designs by working with clients to explore the values they have built their business around, even if they themselves don’t know it yet. Over the years, Shauna has developed a process for the branding journey, combining business planning, visioning, word-smithing, and a huge dose of creative energy. Far from being a one-woman show, she draws upon a network of peers that work with client needs, from dynamite copy writers, precise programmers, social media wizards, and enthusiastic marketing experts. Simply put, rBrand helps clients hone in on their unique features to craft messages for their intended audiences and offer design solutions with a sound understanding of food and farm business models.