Emily Wagner is a cis-gender White woman and uninvited settler living and working on the stolen and occupied ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples, colonially known as Vancouver.  

Emily is a research and evaluation professional with more than two decades of experience across academia, healthcare, and the non-profit settings. She focuses on advancing equity, evidence-based decision-making, and system-level change in the mental health, substance use, and public health sectors. 

Before joining Changemark, Emily served as Executive Director at the Community Action Initiative, where she led the organization through a period of renewal and strategic growth - securing a five-fold increase in provincial investment for community-led mental health and substance use programs and embedding trust-based, relationship-centred approaches to grantmaking. She previously served as Senior Medical Writer at the BC Centre on Substance Use, leading the development of provincial and national clinical guidelines, and as Research Program Manager at the Women’s Health Research Institute, overseeing more than 20 clinical studies and national research collaborations. 

At Changemark, Emily leads strategic initiatives that strengthen the company’s research and evaluation infrastructure, grant development strategies, and cross-sector partnerships. She brings a breadth of experience that spans policy, program design, and operations, helping teams build systems that advance equitable outcomes and sustain meaningful, community-led change.