Sunshine Chen

Sunshine immigrated to Canada with his family from Taiwan. He grew up in Waterloo, where his grandparents owned one of the city’s first Asian variety stores, and his parents opened the first Chinese fast-food restaurant between The University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Sunshine was trained in architecture at The University of Waterloo and went on to work for the City of Waterloo in Urban Planning, Architectural Design and Downtown Redevelopment. After leaving the City, Sunshine founded Urban Imagination & Design Co. in 2001 and then Storybuilders Creative Communications and Media in 2003 to tell stories with video and photography. He has worked with clients across Canada, including: The Region of Waterloo, The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, The University of Waterloo, The Institute for Quantum Computing, The City of Swift Current, The Suncor Energy Foundation, Reconciliation Canada, and Action Lab, Edmonton.

In 2020, Sunshine evolved his practice and founded Sunshine Creative Agency with his partner Linda Whittaker. Sunshine Creative Agency works with organizations and knowledge experts to turn their knowledge into impact by producing digital content that is relevant to viewers, reaches and grows audiences, and generates revenue using channels like YouTube, online learning platforms like Thinkific, and organizational Learning Management Systems (LMS).

Sunshine is a published author of “Overtime: Portraits of a Vanishing Canada” and illustrator for “Flowing Over The Land and Water: A Setter’s Reflection on the Decolonization of Self and Systems.”

Sunshine currently serves as board member of the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement and has served on the boards of Leadership Waterloo Region, The Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, and The Editorial Board of The University of Waterloo’s Alumni Magazine.