SPEAKERS 

Dr. Mike Ananny

Associate Professor Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California

 

Mike Ananny is an Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism and Affiliated Faculty of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

He studies how people build the digital news infrastructures, algorithmic systems, and artificial intelligences that create public life — and tries to show how these cultures and systems can better serve public interests.

He co-directs the interdisciplinary USC collective MASTS (Media As SocioTechnical Systems), the Sloan Foundation project Knowing Machines (with Kate Crawford and Jason Schultz), and the USC Center on Generative AI and Society, and is on the Steering Committee of USC’s Center on Science, Technology and Public Life.

He was a 2022 Visiting Professor at the University of Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities, a 2018-19 Berggruen Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and has held fellowships and scholarships with USC’s Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Harvard’s Berkman-Klein Center on Internet and Society, Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, LEGO, and Interval Research.  He was a founding member of Media Lab Europe, a postdoc with Microsoft Research’s Social Media Collective, and has consulted for LEGO, Mattel, and Nortel Networks.

He is the author of Networked Press Freedom (MIT Press, 2018), co-editor (with Laura Forlano and Molly Wright Steenson) of Bauhaus Futures (MIT Press, 2019), and is preparing a manuscript on the public power of silence (under contract with Yale University Press). He publishes in various interdisciplinary academic venues including Journalism & Media Studies, Science & Technology Studies, and Critical Internet Studies, and regularly gives expert commentary to national and international media on contemporary events and controversies.

He holds a PhD from Stanford University (Communication), a Masters from the MIT Media Laboratory, a Bachelors (Computer Science & Human Biology) from the University of Toronto, and writes for popular press publications including The Atlantic, WIRED, Harvard’s Nieman Lab, and the Columbia Journalism Review.

Dr. Liz Carlson-Manathara

Associate Professor School of Social Work at Laurentian University

 

Dr. Elizabeth Carlson-Manathara is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Laurentian University and a non-Indigenous scholar whose work focuses on the roles of non-Indigenous peoples in decolonization and Treaty relationships, and on anti-colonial methodologies and decolonial change through public education and film. She is a co-author of the book Living in Indigenous Sovereignty and a filmmaker with the Stories of Decolonization Film Project.

Dr. Andrew Parkin

Executive Director Environics Institute

 

Andrew Parkin is the Executive Director of the Environics Institute for Survey Research, a not-for-profit agency created in 2006 to conduct in-depth public opinion and social research on the issues shaping Canada’s future. 

Prior to joining the Institute, Andrew served as the Director of the Mowat Centre and Associate Professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (2017-19), Director General of the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC) (2010-14), Associate Executive Director and Director of Research and Program Development at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation (2004-10), and Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Information on Canada (2000-04).  He has also worked as an independent public policy analyst and consultant, providing strategic advice, issue analysis, and policy research to a variety of national and international clients in the areas of education and skills development, social and economic policy, and public opinion research. 

Andrew has convened, informed, and led national and international discussions on a wide range of public policy issues and acted as an authoritative public spokesperson on education, federalism, and the Canadian political community in both official languages.

A political sociologist by background, he completed his post-doctorate at Dalhousie University, his Ph.D. at the University of Bradford (U.K.), and his B.A. (Honours) at Queen’s University. He has received several academic honours, including a Commonwealth Scholarship and a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship, and has authored or co-authored numerous publications on Canadian public policy.

Dr. Gladys Rowe

Host Indigenous Insights

Dr. Gladys Rowe (MSW) is Swampy Cree from Fox Lake Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba and also holds relations with ancestors from Ireland, England, Norway, and Ukraine. She currently resides on the occupied lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish peoples in Washington State with her family. Gladys’ research focuses on fostering decolonization and Indigenous resurgence at individual, organizational, community, and systems levels. This has included her work in social work, maternal child health, Indigenous full spectrum birth work, interdisciplinary arts practices, systems transformation, Indigenous innovation, and Indigenous evaluation.

Gladys is a Scholar, Filmmaker, Poet, Author, Facilitator, Researcher, and Evaluator. She takes an interdisciplinary approach to her work and loves to think inside the circle when it comes to transforming the futures we are living into. She is the host of Indigenous Insights: An Evaluation Podcast – where she sits in conversation with Indigenous leaders across Turtle Island and beyond. She has collaborated on many projects including the Stories of Decolonization Film Project and the book, Living in Indigenous Sovereignty. 

Professor Bukola Salami

Full Professor Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Black and Racialized Peoples Health Department of Community Health Sciences

Professor Bukola Salami currently holds the rank of Full Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Black and Racialized Peoples’ Health in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Professor Salami’s research program focuses on policies and practices shaping migrant, Black and racialized people’s health. She has been involved in over 90 funded studies totalling over $230 million. She founded and leads the African Child and Youth Migration Network, a network of 42 scholars from four continents. She led the establishment of the Institute for Intersectional Studies at the University of Alberta. In 

2020, she founded the Black Youth Mentorship and Leadership Program. Her work on Black youth mental health informed the creation of the first mental health clinic for Black Canadians in Western Canada. She has presented her work to policy makers (including to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health). Her work has contributed to policy change, including that related to Black people’s well-being. She is an Editor for the Canadian Journal of Nursing Research and Associate Editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). She is an advisory board member of the CIHR Institute for Human Development, Child and Youth Health and Scientific Advisory Committee on Global Health to the Government of Canada.

 

Shauna Sylvester

Founder and Lead Convenor Urban Climate Leadership, a project of MakeWay Senior Fellow, Definity Foundation

Shauna Sylvester, believes that the best anecdote to increased polarization is authentic engagement, informed dialogue, and deep listening. With 35 years of experience as a dialogue practitioner and facilitator, Shauna seeks to build relationships among diverse groups to solve complex problems.  Shauna is Senior Fellow of the Definity Foundation, Founder and Lead Convenor for Urban Climate Leadership, a project of MakeWay, and the Lead Facilitator for Resilient Point Roberts: Going Solar a community-led initiative to bring solar to this small US exclave community. Shauna is the former Executive Director of the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, the Urban Sustainability Directors Network – US and Canada, and Co-Founder of five local and international dialogue initiatives: the SFU Public Square, Renewable Cities, Carbon Talks, Moving in a Livable Region. and the IMPACS – the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society.

Professor Rebecca Taylor

Pro Vice-Chancellor (ASEAN) and CEO (Malaysia) University of Southampton

 

Professor Rebecca Taylor is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (ASEAN) and CEO (Malaysia) at the University of Southampton. Her research interests lie in the field of International Economics and Developments in Economics Education. 

She has designed and directed a number of Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded projects focussed on innovative approaches to the teaching and learning of mathematics and statistics in Economics. She has also worked with the Economic and Social Research Council and the Higher Education Academy on addressing the identified skills deficit in quantitative methods across the social sciences. 

Rebecca is the Vice President of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and the Chair of the LUISS Business School International Advisory Board. She also chairs the European Online Course Certification Board and regularly contributes to conferences and workshops related to developments and innovation in higher education.

Dr. Modupe Tunde-Byass

President Black Physicians of Canada (BPC)

Dr. Modupe Tunde-Byass is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of the UK and The Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. She is an active staff at North York General Hospital and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Toronto.

Dr. Tunde-Byass is the President of the Black Physicians of Canada (BPC) and her work focuses on advocacy, mentorship of Black learners, community building, leadership, and collaboration with key national organizations. 

She is passionate about maternal mortality, morbidity, and birthing experiences in the Black population. She has made many media appearances and recently she was featured in an episode of the CBC documentary series For the Culture with Amanda Parris exploring Black maternal deaths. She is the co-author of Achieving equity in reproductive care and birth outcomes for Black people. CMAJ 2024.

Dr. Tunde-Byass is involved in key quality initiatives in the province like Vagina Birth After Cesarean Section, Early Pregnancy Loss and low risk pregnancy QBP. She is co-founder of Women’s Health Education Made Simple (WHEMS) an on-line evidenced based educational tool for women. 

Dr. Nel Wieman

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) First Nations Health Authority (FNHA)

Dr. Nel Wieman is the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) in British Columbia, where she has worked since 2018.  She is Anishinaabe (Mishi-Baawitigong First Nation, Treaty 5 Territory) and lives, works and plays on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples – the səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. 

Dr. Wieman completed her medical degree and psychiatry specialty training at McMaster University. Canada’s first female Indigenous psychiatrist, Dr. Wieman has more than 20 years’ clinical experience, working with Indigenous people in both rural/reserve and urban settings. Her previous activities include co-directing an Indigenous health research program in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and the National Network for Indigenous Mental Health Research, being Deputy Chair of Health Canada’s Research Ethics Board, and serving on CIHR’s Governing Council. She has also worked and taught in many academic settings, has chaired national advisory groups within First Nations Inuit Health Branch – Health Canada, and has served as a Director on many boards, including the Indspire Foundation and Pacific Blue Cross.  Dr. Wieman served as the President of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada (IPAC) from 2016-2022. She was one of the 6 Indigenous physician founders of the National Consortium on Indigenous Medical Education (NCIME).  She was appointed to the BC Provincial Task Team charged with beginning implementation of the recommendations arising from the “In Plain Sight” report. 

 

Dr. Jiaying Zhao

Associate Professor Department of Psychology and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia

Dr. Jiaying Zhao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Zhao is also a faculty affiliate with the Center for Effective Global Action at University of California, Berkeley, and an invited researcher at J-PAL at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Zhao a Killam Research Prize recipient and the UBC Sauder Distinguished Scholar. She uses psychological principles to design behavioural solutions to address financial and environmental sustainability challenges. Specifically, she examines the cognitive consequences of poverty and designs interventions to alleviate the psychological burdens in low-income individuals. In addition, Dr. Zhao develops behavioural interventions to encourage climate actions, recycling, composting, and biodiversity conservation.