Founder

Krista helps organizations prevent, navigate, and recover from moments of conflict and crisis. Krista works with organizations in every economic sector to help them create stronger and more functional workplaces, networks and communities. Before founding Root & Branch in 2020, Krista practised labour and employment law for 10 years. She is a certified workplace investigator and a perpetual student - particularly in aspects of non-profit leadership and governance, organizational behaviour, systems change, inclusion and belonging, and trauma-informed practices and interviewing techniques.

 

Krista recently finished a one-year term with Human Rights & Equity Services at Dalhousie University, where she updated and refined their Sexualized Violence, Harassment, and Discrimination Policies.

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These days, Krista divides her time between Root & Branch, volunteering with Be the Peace Institute, and writing about a variety of emergent issues, such as (1) how members of community sector organizations and social movements can more authentically hold one another to account without cancelling or shaming; (2) decolonizing governance structures in community sector organizations; and (3) how to help white folks find the courage to honestly reflect on their privilege and heal their fragility and denial. 

 

From 2021-2023, Krista served as a full-time senior policy lawyer with the Mass Casualty Commission. Krista holds an LL.B. from Schulich School of Law, an M.A. in Journalism from Indiana University, and a B.A. in history from the University of California, Riverside, where she studied the colonial and post-colonial histories of sub-Saharan West Africa, Latin America, and the Black diaspora. Krista also minored in creative writing and economics, with a focus on the social impacts of neoliberal economic restructuring in recipient countries by the International Monetary Fund in the 1980s and 1990s.