PROGRAM

Anjali Appadurai

Anjali Appadurai is a climate justice campaigner and political strategist. She got her start organizing youth movements from around the world to ensure that Global South social movements’ demands were heard in the halls of power. Today, Anjali is Campaigns Director at the Climate Emergency Unit and runs the Padma Centre for Climate Justice, a project that brings together diasporic communities to build power around issues of climate and economic justice. Anjali has also engaged with the electoral system, running as an NDP candidate in the 2021 federal election and as a candidate in the 2022 BCNDP leadership race.

Thomas Homer-Dixon

Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon is one of Canada’s foremost public intellectuals and a bestselling author. He is considered among the world’s leading experts on the intricate links between nature, technology, and society, with his current research focusing on threats to global security in the 21st century. Tackling subjects such as economic instability and climate change as well as how people, organizations, and societies can better solve complex problems, Homer-Dixon shows audience how to adapt and prosper in a world of ever-increasing complexity.

Homer-Dixon is currently the founder and executive director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. Previously, he directed the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto for nearly two decades. In 2008, Homer-Dixon joined the faculty at the University of Waterloo where he founded the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation. He retired from his faculty position as a University Research Chair in 2021.

A bestselling author, Homer-Dixon has written multiple award-winning books, including The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization; The Ingenuity Gap: Can We Solve the Problems of the Future?; and Environment, Scarcity, and Violence. His latest book, Commanding Hope: The Power We Have to Renew a World in Peril, was published in 2020. Homer-Dixon also writes regularly for the Globe and Mail and has been published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Scientific American, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Financial Times. He’s been called “one of the best-informed and most brilliant writers on global affairs today,” by The Guardian.

A sought-after speaker, Homer-Dixon has spoken at leading universities, to government agencies, and to major industry associations throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe. He has also provided briefings to the Privy Council Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Department of Defence in Canada; the Foreign Office in the United Kingdom; and to the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, and the State Department in the United States.

Homer-Dixon received a Bachelor or Arts in political science from Carleton University and a PhD from MIT in international relations, defense policy, and conflict theory.

Shauna Sylvester

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.

Andrew Cardozo

Senator Andrew Cardozo is a recognized expert on public policy, a columnist, and an artist. His policy areas of expertise span Canadian government and politics, broadcasting and cultural policy, skills development especially the future of work, multiculturalism and diversity.

He was appointed to the Senate on the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2022, before which he was the President and co-founder of the Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy.  Over the past decade he worked to elevate open public policy dialogue by bringing together thought leaders from all political backgrounds, from business, labour, NGOs and the broader public to address the major challenges facing Canadian society.  Prior to that he has been Executive Director of the Alliance of Sector Councils working on skills development across some 30 economic sectors, and Executive Director of the Canadian Ethnocultural Council, where he worked on policies and legislation in employment equity, immigration, multiculturalism and the Canadian constitution.

Senator Cardozo has been a columnist for the Toronto Star and Broadcast Dialogue, and since 2014, a regular contributor to the Hill Times.  He was also an Adjunct Professor and Lecturer at the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University.

He has served as a Commissioner of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) where he championed Canadian content, diversity in broadcasting, and played a key role in the licensing of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).  Since then, he has volunteered as an adjudicator for the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.

Senator Cardozo was a stay-at-home dad when his children were young. An immigrant from South Asia, with origins in Goa, India and Karachi, Pakistan, he has worked on the successful integration of diversity issues in the mainstream of Canadian public policy.  He was a board member of the Catholic Centre for Immigrants (Ottawa), the YMCA-YWCA of the National Capital Region, Media Awareness Network, the Institute of Media Arts, Policy and Civil Society (Vancouver) and has been active with Big Brothers Big Sisters (Ottawa).

He has been the recipient of several awards: the 2023 DreamKeepers Citation for Outstanding Leadership award commemorating the historic role of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal, the Reelworld Film Festival Guardian Angel Award (Toronto), le Prix annuel du Centre de recherche-action sur les relations sociales, CRARR (Montreal), and Big Brother of the Year (Ottawa).

Senator Cardozo holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Science from York University and a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Carleton University.  He has also studied art at the Ottawa School of Art and is an accomplished artist, generally of abstract landscapes and has been featured in several art shows in the Ottawa area, while his art hangs in many countries. He has two adult children who live and work in Ottawa.

Trevor Hancock

Dr. Trevor Hancock is a public health physician and health promotion consultant. He ‘retired’ in 2018 from his role as Professor and Senior Scholar at the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria. He is one of the founders of the (now global) Healthy Cities and Communities movement and co-founded both the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment & the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, and was the first leader of the Green Party of Canada in the 1980s.

His recent focus has been the combination of his two main areas: The relationship between human health and the natural environment and linking the healthy and sustainable community approaches through the concept of a ‘One Planet’ region. In retirement he has started a new NGO, Conversations for a One Planet Region, to explore and popularise these ideas locally.

Courtney Howard

Dr Courtney Howard is an Emergency Physician in Yellowknives Dene Territory in Canada’s subarctic, a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Calgary, and a Community Research Fellow in Planetary Health at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research.

The Vice-Chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, Dr Howard has researched menstrual cups and wildfires, and led policy work and advocacy regarding social tipping points and the health sector, ecoanxiety, vaccine equity, active transport, plant-rich diets, fossil fuel divestment, carbon pricing, coal phase-out, hydraulic fracturing and with regards to Canada’s Oil Sands. She led the 2017-2019 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change Briefings for Canadian Policymakers and was the 2018 International Policy Director for the Lancet Countdown.

Dr Howard was the first woman president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and is the President-Elect of the Northwest Territories Medical Association. She recently completed a Master of Public Policy Degree at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University where she focused on using a planetary health lens to facilitate the transition to economies centered around wellbeing. She is part of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Lancet Planetary Health and the Journal of Climate Change and Health. She has two young daughters and loves to dance.

TEDX: Healthy Planet, Healthy People
Drcourtneyhoward.ca

Paul Kershaw

Dr. Paul Kershaw is a farmer morning and night. By day, he is an academic, public speaker, media contributor and volunteer.  At the University of BC, he founded the Generation Squeeze Research and Knowledge Mobilization lab to be a centre of scholarly activity about generational equity, the conditions into which Canadians are born, grow, play work and age, and the public policies that shape those conditions like housing, child care, parental leave, work-life balance, taxation, retirement, etc.

Dr. Kershaw was recognized as “Academic of the Year” in 2016 by the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC in honour of the outstanding scholarship and knowledge mobilization that he leads from his Generation Squeeze lab.

Kershaw studies and mobilizes knowledge about these themes in the Faculty of Medicine’s School of Population & Public Health because research shows that health doesn’t begin with health care.  Health begins with the social, economic, environmental and policy factors that shape the conditions into which we are born, grow, play, work and age.  These are often called the social determinants of health.

Before joining the Faculty of Medicine, Paul earned tenure at UBC in 2010 in the College for Interdisciplinary Studies, publishing routinely in political science, sociology and health related journals, and earning two national prizes from the Canadian Political Science Association for his scholarship regarding gender and public policy.

Guided by scholarship about how to mobilize academic knowledge into action, Paul launched the Generation Squeeze lab in response to frustration that peer reviewed literature was having too limited influence on how Canadian governments budget for the social determinants of health, particularly for younger generations.  In response, Kershaw now devotes considerable time to the community engagement commitment in UBC’s Strategic Plan, Place and Promise, to “Be a leader in fostering public understanding of societal issues and in stimulating action for positive change.”  He therefore currently targets a lot of his publications and other scholarly activity for the broader public and decision makers so that existing academic evidence has greater potential to influence Canadian government budgets, along with political platforms from across the ideological spectrum which shape those budgets.

To support this aim, Kershaw founded Generation Squeeze, co-hosted at his Lab at the University of BC, the Vancity Community Foundation and the non-profit Association for Generational Equity (AGE).  Generation Squeeze is building a powerful organization to speak up for younger Canada in the market place and the world of politics, and is intended to become the largest community engagement initiative ever launched from a Canadian university.  With numerous partners, Kershaw has designed the campaign to be a rigorously evaluated pan-Canadian population health initiative that responds to the recommendation of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health to tackle the inequitable distribution of power.

There is presently an unintended power imbalance between older and younger generations in Canada as it relates to government budgeting.  For example, whereas the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) exists to advocate for the aging population, there had been no pan-Canadian organization to speak up for younger generations until Generation Squeeze started.  Younger generations are also a third less likely to cast a ballot during elections compared to older generations, even though political parties shape their platforms around who shows up.  As a result, there is a generational spending gap in Canadian budgets which largely accounts for why international comparisons position Canada near the bottom of OECD countries when it comes to investing in the social determinants of health for the generation raising young children.  Kershaw is researching and evaluating the degree to which supporting younger Canadians to mobilize equal generational power alongside their parents and grandparents can mitigate the political-cultural factors which currently result in Canada’s poor international ranking, and slow pace of implementing the existing research about the social determinants of health for younger generations.

Dr. Kershaw is recruiting graduate students who are keen to work and study as part of the Gen Squeeze Research and Knowledge Translation Lab.  Students interested in working with Dr. Kershaw should first review the Gen Squeeze website, and explore whether their interests overlap with policy areas identified at http://gensqueeze.ca/policies.  Alternately, students interested in the scholarship of Knowledge Mobilization are also invited to contact Dr. Kershaw’s lab to explore the possibilities for collaboration.

Shannon Waters

Dr. Shannon Waters is Coast Salish and a member of Stz’uminus First Nation on Vancouver Island. She completed the First Nations Family Practice program at the University of British Columbia and worked as a family doctor in Duncan, BC.

While honored to work close to home, Shannon became frustrated with seeing people when they were unwell, and wanted to focus on maintaining health and well-being. She returned to school and completed her specialty training in Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

Shannon worked as the Director of Health Surveillance at First Nations and Inuit Health Branch and, at First Nations Health Authority as the Acting Senior Medical Officer for Vancouver Island Region. She has worked with Vancouver Island Health Authority as a Medical Director and with the Ministry of Health as the Aboriginal Physician Advisor.

She is currently honored to have come full circle and to be working in her home territory as the local Medical Health Officer with Island Health.

Peter Singer

Dr. Singer is the former Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada. He is also Professor of Medicine at University of Toronto, Director at the Sandra Rotman Centre at University Health Network, and Foreign Secretary of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

In 2007, Dr. Singer received the Michael Smith Prize as Canada’s Health Researcher of the Year in Population Health and Health Services. In 2011, Dr. Singer was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for his contributions to health research and bioethics, and for his dedication to improving health in developing countries. In 2014, he was named by the UN Secretary General’s Office as Co-Chair of the Every Woman Every Child Innovation Working Group.

Dr. Singer is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, and The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS). Dr. Singer has published over 300 articles and mentored hundreds of students and staff. He studied internal medicine at University of Toronto, medical ethics at University of Chicago, public health at Yale University, and management at Harvard Business School.

Andrew Chunilall

Andrew joined Community Foundations Canada in 2013 and became CEO in 2017, following a six-year tenure as Vice-President of Finance for the London Community Foundation and his long-standing service as a finance and regulatory expert for Canada’s philanthropic milieu. Now at the head of the community foundation movement, Andrew is working closely with the Community Foundations of Canada Leadership team, Board and foundations in Canada and abroad to help the philanthropic sector transform, innovate and meet the new challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. An increasingly active public speaker, Andrew is helping raise awareness for how the philanthropic sector’s convening power, leadership and action around targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals can help Canadian communities reach their full potential.

Outside of Community Foundations of Canada, Andrew has been highly active in the nonprofit community for 15 years, serving on numerous boards including Community Living London and Art for AIDS International. In 2014, he was appointed to the Board of the Southwest Local Health Integration Network by former Minister of Health, Deb Matthews. In 2015, he was among 250 selected emerging leaders to participate in the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference. He recently joined the Board of WINGS, the global network of grantmaker associations and philanthropic support organisations.

With a background in education in economics and commerce, Andrew obtained his chartered accountant designation in 2002 and began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as a manager in the Assurance and Advisory Group.

Arti Freeman

Arti has nearly 20 years’ experience in the philanthropic sector leading granting programs and strategies, organizational change initiatives, and business process improvements. In 2003, Arti joined the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), one of Canada’s largest grantmaking foundations. Most recently, she was the Manager of Partnership Investments at OTF, where she led the successful rebuilding of the Partnership Investment program that connects the non-profit, public, and private sectors to build a stronger non-profit sector in Ontario. While at OTF, Arti served in a variety of roles. Her work resulted in the design and implementation of innovative philanthropic models and investments that build local communities across Ontario. Prior to joining OTF, Arti led the training and consulting offerings at the Centre for Community Leadership at Niagara College, where she concurrently served as a consultant for Niagara’s non-profit sector. Her community service experience includes Board of Trustees, Brock University, Board Member, Bethlehem Housing and Support Services, and Big Sister, Big Brothers and Sisters of North and West Niagara. Arti received a Bachelor of Science in International Business from Assumption College in the Philippines and a Master of Science in Poverty Reduction and Development Management from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Dara Parker

Dara is a social impact executive with over 20 years’ experience working in purpose-driven organizations. She currently runs a leadership consultancy, helping change-makers navigate complexity to get things done.

She recently served as the Vice-President, Grants and Community Initiatives at the Vancouver Foundation, where she led a team of 26 and was responsible for deploying $50M annually in grants. Previously Dara has served as Executive Director of SVP Vancouver and the Executive Director of QMUNITY, BC’s Queer, Trans and Two-Spirit Resource Centre. Dara sits on the Board of Forward Global, and is the co-founder of Lezervations, a nonprofit facilitating networking events for queer and trans women.

Dara lives with her partner in Syilx Okanagan territory, and spends her down time chasing her French bulldogs, Mr. Bumper and Sir Waffles.

Graham Singh

Graham is TCF’s founder and CEO. For the past 20 years, he has specialized in working with closed churches, including as a Priest in the Anglican Church in England and Canada. He is a regular speaker and author in areas of urbanism, social finance, heritage, adaptive re-use of churches and social purpose real estate. Graham has studied at the University of Western Ontario, St Mellitus College (Cambridge University / Ridley Hall), the London School of Economics, Asbury Theological Seminary and the Saïd Business School at Oxford University.

Jim Hayhurst

Jim is a business leader, non-profit champion and advisor to impactful organizations. For more than 30 years, he has helped start, fund and grow companies in cleantech, digital marketing and leadership development with clients and operations on four continents.

Jim currently works with a private family office creating a program for their rising generation and other families define purpose, align capital and create a more meaningful generationallegacy. He is also an advisor to entrepreneurs, social profit founders, venture investors, and foundations seeking to drive impact in innovative ways. Jim has lately been an ardent supporterof Dan Pallotta and Stephen Gyllenhaal’s efforts to bringing greater awareness to their documentary, Uncharitable.

With his late father, Jim co-founded Trails.ca, a charity that has been recognized as one of the most successful programs working with at-risk youth in Toronto. Jim has served on the boards of Pearson College UWC and Upper Canada College and is currently Chair of the Trails’ Board of Governors.

Jim is the recipient of several awards for his leadership in Victoria’s tech and business communities and is a regular speaker, panelist and writer on business, leadership and socialimpact. A lifelong adventurer, he was a member of expeditions to Mt. Everest and the Canadian/Russian High Arctic, the former being the subject of his father’s bestselling book, The Right Mountain: Lessons from Everest on the Real Meaning of Success. He is a graduate of the University of King’s College and has lived in Victoria with his family since 2005.

Claire Carver-Dias

Claire’s professional life has straddled the worlds of sport, business and academia. A PhD specializing in English and Communications as well as an MBA (Cornell/Queens), Claire has won medals in synchronized swimming at the Olympic (bronze), Pan American (two gold), World Championship (two bronze) and Commonwealth Games (two gold).

In 2004, she launched Clearday, her own communications coaching consultancy, combining her appreciation of effective business coaching techniques; strategy road-mapping; and keen understanding of teaming, performance management, and communications, to help corporate leaders and their organizations achieve their full potential. Her corporate clients have included large multi-national corporations, as well as not-for-profit foundations and sport organizations. Claire is an adjunct professor in the Management department at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Claire served twice as Chef de Mission for Team Canada – at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, and as Co-Chef at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Formerly, Claire was a Director on the board of the Coaching Association of Canada, a member of the Editorial Board for the Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching, and President of AthletesCAN. She was elected by her fellow Olympians to serve as Chair of the OLY Canada Commission. She holds a coaching certification from the International Coaching Federation.

Claire resides in Oakville, Ontario with her husband and four children.

Carson Ebanks

Carson Ebanks is a Justice of the Peace, a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, and a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES Hons. Urban and Regional Planning – Peace and Conflict Studies Minor) Dean’s Honour Roll, from the University of Waterloo, Ontario Canada, and a Master of Arts – Planning in Community and Regional Planning (MA, PLA) from the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Mr. Ebanks was the Director of Planning for the Cayman Islands from 1991 – 1997. Since 1997, he served the Cayman Islands Government as a Permanent Secretary and Chief Officer, for the Cayman Islands Government, until he retired in 2011.

He is a founding trustee of the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands and has also served on the Boards of the Central Planning Authority of the Cayman Islands as Executive Secretary, the Cayman Islands Civil Service Co-operative Credit Union (VP), the Housing Development Corporation, the Water Authority-Cayman, the National Roads Authority, Cayman Turtle Farm, the Cayman Islands Port Authority, the Cayman Islands Airports Authority, Cayman Airways, and the National Trust of the Cayman Islands.

Mr. Ebanks is the President of the Cayman Islands National Karate-do Association, the Cayman Islands Weightlifting Association, and the Secretary General of the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee. He is also the first Vice President of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) and chairs their Sustainability Commission. Mr. Ebanks also serves on the Sustainability Commission and the Legal Commission of Centro Caribe Sports, and was on the Co-ordination Commission of Pan Am Sports for the 2023 Pan American Games. He has a black belt in Wado Ryu Karate Do, and is a three-time Olympic Sailor.

He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Consolidated Water Co., and its Compensation and Corporate Governance Committees, as well as its Subsidiaries Cayman Water Company and OCEAN Conversion (Cayman), Consolidated Water (Honduras), Consolidated Water (Rotan), and Desalco Ltd. With a keen interest in life-long learning, Mr. Ebanks is also a member of the Board of Governors of the University College of the Cayman Islands, and its Academic and Administrative Committee, and its Human Resources Committee.

David Grevemberg

David Grevemberg is founder and director of Grevemberg Strategies Limited (GSL) and provides strategic advice to companies in the public, private and third sectors. David has extensive experience in delivering complex, high profile, multi-stakeholder projects and has a track record of effectively managing government relations, community engagement and regeneration initiatives, corporate governance and leadership transformation projects, public relations and crisis management and contract negotiations. Additionally, he has specialist expertise in environment, social and governance (ESG) impact strategic planning and management. David also works part-time as the Chief Innovation and Partnerships Officer for the Centre for Sport and Human Rights (CSHR) based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Prior to April 2021, David served for six and half years as the Chief Executive Officer for the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), the organisation responsible for the Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Youth Games and various sport development and social change initiatives. He joined the CGF after the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games where he was the Chief Executive Officer of the Organising Committee and oversaw the hugely successful international multi-sport event. He was previously the Executive Director of Sport and International Federation Relations at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) headquartered in Bonn, Germany from 1999 to 2009. Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States – David is a former collegiate and international competitive wrestler in the United States and is currently a Brown-Belt Brazilian Jiu-jitsu practitioner.

Over his 26 years professional career he has worked as team manager, athlete agent, coach, independent consultant and a Board director to numerous charities and foundations. David has received several accolades and honours – including, amongst others, he was awarded a UK Honour as a Commander of the British of Empire (CBE) for his leadership and innovation in delivering the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Ava Hill

Ava Hill, whose traditional name is Iohahatie, was born on the Six Nations Reserve and is a Mohawk, Wolf Clan.  Ava was the Elected Chief of the 56th and 57th Six Nations Elected Council. Prior to holding the Office of the Elected Chief, Ava was a Councillor for District Two for three terms, a total of nine years.   After serving for fifteen years as a member of the Six Nations Elected Council, Ava did not seek re-election in 2019.

During her tenure as Chief, Ava represented the Chiefs in Ontario on the Ontario Provincial Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion up until June 2018.

In the 80s and 90s, Ava spent time working with the Chiefs in Ontario as the Executive Director of the Chiefs in Ontario Office and also at the Assembly of First Nations as the Executive Assistant to the National Chief.  Subsequent to her work at the AFN, Ava was the Executive Assistant to the Co-Chair of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

Ava is a former member of the Board of Governors at the University of Waterloo.  She is currently a member of the National Consortium for Indigenous Economic Development at the University of Victoria and a member of the Advisory Council for Victoria Forum 2020.  She is also the Co-Chair, along with the President of the International Commonwealth Games Federation, for a Working Group that is working on a Declaration on Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples Through Sports.

Ava is a Board Director for Commonwealth Sport Canada.  As well, she is a member of the Canadian Advisory Board for Right to Play.

Ava is currently one of the Co-Chairs for the Capital Campaign Committee which is raising funds for a New Museum and Art Gallery at the Woodland Cultural Centre.

She is also a member of the Amethyst Selection Committee for the Ontario Public Service and was invited to be a Witness Ambassador for the Four Host First Nations/Canadian Olympic Committee Bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler.

She was awarded with the YMCA Peacemaker Medal for 2020, which was presented by the YMCA of Hamilton, Burlington and Brantford, and also received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Brock University in October 2021.

Wilton Littlechild

Wilton Littlechild, Ph.D., is a Cree chief, residential school survivor, and lawyer who has worked both nationally and internationally including with the United Nations to advance Indigenous rights and Treaties. He has also – through leadership with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – raised awareness of former Canadian policies that decimated the livelihood and culture of Indigenous Canadians.

Born in Alberta, Wilton Littlechild was raised largely at residential schools from 1951 to 1964, where he spent 14 years surviving through study and sport. After leaving residential school, he studied physical education at the University of Alberta and law at the University of New Mexico, where he continued his balance of academics and hockey.

Chief Littlechild was a member of the 1977 Indigenous delegation to the United Nations (UN), and worked on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He organized within the UN to increase Indigenous input in the economic and social issues the UN tackles. In the 1980s, he worked on the lawsuit to prevent patriation of the Canadian Constitution until the Aboriginal and Treaty Rights were protected and, in more recent years, has been a regional and International Chief on Treaties No. 6, 7, 8.

Chief Littlechild has been a member of parliament, Vice-President of the Indigenous Parliament of the Americas, North American representative to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and a chairperson for the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Commission on First Nations and Métis Peoples and Justice Reform.

In addition to his ongoing work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he’s continued to run his own law firm in Erminiskin Reserve, Alberta, and maintains his commitment to sport. He has been inducted into seven Sports Halls of Fame.

He has been awarded the Order of Canada and in 1993, the Canadian government awarded Chief Littlechild the Canada 125 Medal. He is a 2015 Laureate of the Indspire Awards and was recently honoured with the Alberta Award of Excellence.

Tewanee Joseph

Tewanee Joseph leads Tewanee Consulting Group, a First Nations-owned-and-operated company focused on delivering meaningful partnerships, communications strategies and planning, and training in communications and inclusivity. Joseph is a member of the Squamish Nation and is half Maori.  He served eight years on the Squamish Nation Council and as executive director and CEO of the Four Host First Nations Secretariat for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Keith Joseph

Brian McPherson

Lara Mussel

Kevin Sandy

Marcie DeWitt

Marcie DeWitt is a consultant who has been engaged in systems and social change initiatives for over a decade. She has had the privilege to be involved with projects leading multidisciplinary networks, conducting community engagement, planning, and advocacy initiatives aimed at increasing health equity and addressing complex social issues.

Marcie has a passion for social justice and creativity. Her background in psychology, project management, public policy, and facilitation have combined into a rewarding career building and facilitating community driven process.

Anur Mehdic

Anur has been a planner with the City of New Westminster Community Planning team since August 2019. His responsibilities are to support both current and long-range planning initiatives related to the City’s diverse social planning portfolio. Fountain pen in hand, advancing anti-poverty work through equitable civic engagement and policy development for those most disadvantaged or excluded in his community, is the topic most close to his heart.

Danya Pastuszek

Danya (she/her) grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She worked first at the International Rescue Committee, where she worked with resettling refugees, and then at The HOPE Program, working with individuals impacted by systems of criminal justice.

In 2012, she began a decade with United Way of Salt Lake (UWSL), as it transitioned to focusing solely on facilitating multi-sector, multigenerational partnerships designed to support economic mobility. She supported community schools, neighborhood roundtables, and regional partnerships and co-created data and storytelling strategies that center people’s experiences and reflect the transformations that systems must make. She left UWSL in February 2022 to join Tamarack. Tamarack supports tens of thousands of people to build the skills to change systems; catalyzes nearly 200 local place-based and deploys the wisdom of changemakers and communities to impact public policy. Tamarack’s work is to contribute to social connection and economic, climate, and education equity.

Her volunteer work is mostly in her local community, where she’s sat on the boards of Wise Owl Daycare and Renfrew County Family and Children’s Services and on the Corporate Services Committee of United Way East Ontario. She is currently the volunteer co-chair of a local school board’s parent involvement committee. She loves to read, bike, run, and watch young people discover both the beauty and the unrealized potential of the world around them.

Margaret Wanyoike

Margaret (she/her) is a spirited advocate for affordable housing and anti-racism education in New Westminster, the unceded and unsurrendered land of the Halkomelem-speaking peoples. She was inspired to get involved in community work in order to raise up the voices of people with lived experiences of poverty and instability. Since graduating from a NewWestminster CAN cohort, Margaret has immersed herself in a variety of opportunities to be involved in her community. Facilitating webinars and community meetings, liaising with the New Westminster school district regarding anti-black racism, and representing the voices of newcomers, renters, and those who have experienced poverty on a municipal Advisory Committee are just a few of the many ways Margaret has shown leadership in her community. Margaret is seen as a bastion of knowledge in New Westminster, often spending her time helping folks navigate community services, either informally or through the Community Resource Team at the NewWestminster Library. In her personal time, she enjoys swimming, going for walks, and singing. She is available to connect in English, Kikuyu, and Swahili

Njoki Mbũrũ

Among multiple intersections of identity, Njoki Mbũrũ is a storyteller, poet, and imagination alchemist from Kenya. Having completed the LEVEL Youth Public Policy Program through the Vancouver Foundation in 2020, she continues to advocate for policies, projects, and partnerships that uplift the leadership of Indigenous and Black people and communities.

Between November 2022 to August 2023, Njoki completed a storytelling fellowship with the Community Foundations of Canada; an experience which propelled her to explore the relationships between public policy, emerging technologies, storytelling and power. She currently works at the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement where she is focused on building belonging and also co-creating a Pan-Canadian Strategy of Belonging. As a foundational framework for her practice and thought, she is guided by the question: “What else is possible?”

George P.R. Benson

George P.R. Benson is a globally recognised leader on economic development, cities, and climate action. He has worked across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors and currently leads the Zero Emissions Innovation Centre (ZEIC)’s economic development team. George’s team supports businesses, especially small ones, in finding profitable ways to join or expand the zero-carbon economy. Outside of ZEIC, George has previously been involved with the Canadian and American urban planning associations, work with the World Economic Forum, and as a ministerial advisor on BC’s Climate Solutions Council. 

Curran Crawford

Dr. Curran Crawford is the Executive Director of the Accelerating Community Energy Transformation (ACET) initiative, led by the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems (IESVic) at the University of Victoria. He also co-directs the Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery (PRIMED) with Dr. Buckham, focusing on assisting community energy planning and demonstration projects to integrate marine renewables into remote Indigenous community micro-grids to displace diesel. His core research is focused on energy system modeling, optimization and control, with a particular focus on machine learning and multi-disciplinary/fidelity optimization techniques applied to energy systems digital twins. He leads projects partnered witha range of industrial, local/provincial/federal government/Indigenous and academic partners to innovate in the area of renewable energy systems. Particular technology foci include wind energyand tidal generation, e-transportation, energy storage systems and microgrids, and carbon capturewith many projects involving multi-disciplinary collaborations and working with community partners to understand real-world deployment options including social acceptance and policy implications.

Dan Wicklum

Dr. Dan Wicklum has spent more than 25 years performing and managing research, driving innovation, and fostering collaboration between industry, government, academia, and civil society. He is the CEO of the Transition Accelerator, a pan-Canadian charity that works with groups across the country to solve business and social challenges while building in net zero emission solutions. Dan was also the inaugural co-chair of Canada’s Net-Zero Advisory Body (NZAB), the statutory independent body that advises the federal government on setting interim emission reduction targets on the way to a net-zero emission Canada by 2050 and on the most likely pathways to net zero.

Prior to joining the Transition Accelerator, Dan was the CEO of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, Executive Director of the Canadian Forest Innovation Council, and a senior manager at Environment and Climate Change Canada and at Natural Resources Canada. He was a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Montana, and holds a PhD in Aquatic Ecology from the University of Montana. His initial career was in professional football, as a linebacker for the Calgary Stampeders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Mark Zacharias

Mark is currently the president of Clean Energy Canada, an initiative based at the Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. Prior to this he completed a 25-year career with the British Columbia public service where he most recently served as deputy minister of environment and climate change strategy. Mark holds a PhD in zoology from the University of Guelph and has published extensively, including Marine Policy: An Introduction to Governance and International Law of the Oceans and Marine Conservation Ecology. In addition to holding a Fellowship at the Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Mark also holds an adjunct professor appointment at the Simon Fraser University School of Public Policy.

Stephanie Cairns

Stephanie is the Director of Strategic Policy at the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions. Over the last 30 years she has worked on circular economy, sustainable communities, climate and carbon pricing policies with leading climate change and environmental non-governmental organizations, research institutes, and expert panels, including the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative, the Smart Prosperity Institute, and the Pembina Institute. She was the first woman appointed as National President of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, is past Chair of the Galiano Conservancy Association, and is currently a Coordinating Lead Author for the North American Biodiversity and Climate Change Assessment.

Stephanie has advised political leaders at every order of Canadian jurisdiction, and held the 2022/23 Kinross Chair in Environmental Governance at the University of Guelph. She has a Clean50 Lifetime Achievement award and shares a Harkin Conservation Award.