Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin has introduced some fresh perspective to her file among the 17 staffers so far confirmed in her office, including with her choice of policy director, Matthew Paisley.
“We have a strong and experienced director team coming from across government,” noted Dabrusin’s director of communications, Jenna Ghassabeh, in an email to Hill Climbers.
As previously reported, Caroline Lee is chief of staff to the first-time minister.
Paisley was last working on the Hill as deputy director of infrastructure policy to then-housing, infrastructure, and communities minister Sean Fraser—a title he took on last September after a little more than a year as a senior policy adviser in the office. Paisley previously worked in Fraser’s office as then-immigration minister, and followed him to housing in the wake of the July 2023 cabinet shuffle. Paisley first began working as a policy adviser in the immigration office under then-minister Marco Mendicino in early 2020, and is a former assistant to Mendicino as the then-MP for Eglinton–Lawrence, Ont.
Also currently tackling policy in the office are senior policy advisers Isabelle Hurley and Brenna Walsh, and policy and North regional affairs adviser Natalie Woodland.
Hurley was previously a policy and North regional affairs adviser to then-environment minister Steven Guilbeault, having first joined the office as a special assistant for the Atlantic after the 2021 federal election. Before then, she’d been a research associate with Dalhousie University’s Future of Marine Ecosystems Lab. Hurley holds a master and bachelor of science degree from the university.
Walsh was previously a policy and Atlantic regional adviser to then-energy and natural resources minister Jonathan Wilkinson, whose office she joined at the start of 2024 after almost a year and a half working for the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax. Walsh is also a former project manager with SPARTAN, a global surface particulate matter network, among other past jobs.
Woodland, meanwhile, first joined the environment office under Guilbeault in December 2023 as an Ontario regional affairs adviser, starting a few months after the end of a year-long internship as a field organizer with Green Corps in Denver, Colo. According to her LinkedIn profile, she spent this past election managing communications for now Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden in his re-election race in Burlington North–Milton West, Ont.
While Woodland is focused on the North, other regional desks in Dabrusin’s office are covered by Nicole Ellement, senior regional adviser for British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan; Alex Kondakov, senior regional adviser for Ontario and Manitoba, and assistant to the parliamentary secretary; Noah Fon, Quebec regional adviser; and Sarah Gingles, Atlantic regional adviser.
Ellement spent the last year working as a regional adviser in the ministers’ regional office in Calgary, one of 16 such offices across the country which support all of cabinet. Before then, from early 2022 until the start of 2023, Ellement worked on the Hill as executive assistant to both then-tourism and associate finance minister Randy Boissonnault and his chief of staff. Her LinkedIn profile notes she was deputy campaign manager and field organizer for Calgary Centre, Alta., Liberal candidate Lindsay Luhnau this past election. Luhnau ultimately came second behind Conservative incumbent Greg McLean by a margin of roughly 4.4 percentage points. Outside of politics, Ellement has also previously worked for the Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre Society.
Kondakov previously worked as an Ontario and Prairies regional adviser to then-fisheries and oceans minister Diane Lebouthillier. Prior to joining Lebouthillier’s team in the fall of 2024, Kondakov spent a little more than seven years working for Ontario Liberal MP Sonia Sidhu. He’s also previously interned with the Manitoba Liberal caucus at the provincial legislature, amongst other past experience.
Fon just wrapped up his time as a 2024-25 Parliamentary Internship Programme intern, and brings some experience working at Quebec’s national assembly for the province’s education minister. Among other things, he’s also a past intern in the Québec Government Office in New York, and with the Centre de solidarité internationale du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Fon is currently working towards a master’s degree in public and international affairs at Université de Montréal.
Gingles is another ex-Guilbeault staffer, having first been hired as an executive assistant last fall after wrapping up a 2024 Liberal Summer Leadership Program internship in the office. She, too, spent this year’s election on the campaign trail, in her case supporting a local race in Surrey, B.C.
Kieran Steede is director of operations and international affairs to Dabrusin.
Steede has spent the last four years working for Wilkinson, most recently as operations director in his office as then-energy and natural resources minister. Steede started out as an assistant to Wilkinson as the MP for North Vancouver, B.C.—the riding has since been renamed North Vancouver–Capilano, B.C.—in the spring of 2021, and switched offices to instead work as a ministerial aide to Wilkinson in the fall of that year. He was subsequently promoted to operations and communications adviser in 2022, and then to senior adviser for both files in 2023 before being elevated to director status in April 2024.
Steede spent this year’s election as campaign manager to Wilkinson, who was re-elected with 59.8 per cent of the vote.
Also tackling operations for Dabrusin is Richard Mavin, senior operations and executive adviser. Mavin likewise comes from Wilkinson’s old energy and natural resources team where Mavin last worked under Steede as a B.C. regional affairs and executive adviser. Mavin was first hired as an operations adviser and executive assistant to the parliamentary secretary and chief of staff to the energy minister in the fall of 2023, and before then had spent roughly a year as an assistant in Wilkinson’s MP office.
Nyagua Chiek is director of parliamentary affairs and issues management. Prior to going on leave last fall, Chiek had done the same for then-women and gender equality minister Marci Ien. Chiek was first hired to the role under then-women and gender equality minister Maryam Monsef in April 2021, and before then was parliamentary affairs manager to Mendicino as then-immigration minister. Chiek is also a former parliamentary affairs adviser to then-immigration minister Ahmed Hussen, and a past special assistant for outreach in the Liberal research bureau.
Jumping to the communications team, director Ghassabeh is a former lead press secretary for then-prime minister Justin Trudeau, and was a Liberal campaign spokesperson during the recent election. Ghassabeh first joined Trudeau’s PMO as a special assistant for communications in December 2022, and was promoted to press secretary almost one year later. She was bumped up again to “lead” status at the end of last year. Ghassabeh is also a past assistant to Ontario Liberal MP Karina Gould—in both Gould’s Hill and Burlington, Ont., constituency offices—among other things.
Supporting Ghassabeh is press secretary Keean Nembhard. Nembhard was last working on the Hill as press secretary to Wilkinson as then-energy minister, but exited for the start of the 2023 school semester after being awarded the Chevening Scholarship to study a one-year graduate degree, in his case, a master of environmental change and management degree at the University of Oxford.
After completing his studies, Nembhard returned to the Hill at the start of this year, and until recently has been busy working in the Senate as a ceremonial and protocol co-ordinator in the office of the Usher of the Black Rod. Prior to being hired by Wilkinson back in early 2022, Nembhard had worked in the office of then-Senate Speaker George Furey. He’s also a past Senate page and former guide for both the Library of Parliament and Rideau Hall, among other things.
Emily Jackson is now a senior communications adviser to Dabrusin, coming fresh from the government House leader’s office. Jackson first joined that office under then-House leader Gould as a special assistant for communications in August 2023, having earlier interned in Gould’s MP office. Jackson was subsequently promoted to digital communications adviser, then to senior communications adviser last fall.
Malachy Schwartz is senior digital communications adviser to the environment minister. Schwartz previously did the same for the federal health minister, having first been hired as a digital communications adviser by then-minister Mark Holland in September 2023. Before then, he’d spent roughly a year as a special assistant for digital media to then-heritage minister Pablo Rodriguez. Schwartz is also a former communications intern in the Liberal research bureau. According to his LinkedIn profile, he spent the recent election as a digital adviser and photographer for the federal Liberal campaign.
Finally, Derek Felizarta has been hired as executive assistant to Dabrusin. He spent most of the last year working as an assistant to Wilkinson as a Liberal MP, having been hired last September. Felizarta worked under Steede as part of Wilkinson’s re-election campaign team this past spring, with his sights focused on field work and volunteer management.
The Hill Times