Preconference Primer Learn what to expect from the conference, how the conference will be run, what you will learn, how to ask questions, how to get involved and more.

Speakers coming soon.

Land Acknowledgement: To ground the day of learning in an acknowledgement and to honour the Indigenous lands which we are gathered on; to remember the historical oppression Indigenous communities have and continue to experience in this country, and to commit to continuous learning and action to advance equality.

To set the stage for the two days of GBA Plus unlearning and learning. To build a foundation for the conference rooted in the urgency and importance of intersectional GBA Plus work. To clearly demonstrate why GBA Plus matters or should matter to all.

Keynote Speaker:

Wakefield Brewster

Since January 1999, Wakefield Brewster has been known as one of Canada’s most popular and prolific Performance Poets. He is a Black man born and raised in Toronto, by parents hailing from the island of Beautiful Barbados, and he has resided in Calgary since 2006. He has spoken across Canada, and several States, and makes countless appearances on a regular basis in a variety of ways, for a myriad of reasons, throughout each and every single year.

In 2022 he was appointed Calgary’s 6th Poet Laureate, the Calgary Poet Laureate produces literary work that is reflective of Calgary’s landscape, cityscape, and civic identity and that may raise awareness of local issues.

In 2019, he was appointed as the very First Resident Poet & Spoken Word Artist of The Grand Theatre House in Calgary, Alberta. The significance of this honour is the timing, as it came to pass while The Grand was recovering from well-publicized toxic workplace issues and a historic lack of diversity and inclusion

Finally, Wakefield sits on the Board of Directors of the E.A.R. Society – Emergency Artist’s Relief Society, providing emergency relief funding and affordable Health Care for Artists.

Wakefield is a community builder through engaging in volunteering, leadership, and mentorship for youth and through the arts. He is an active advocate for literacy and the humanities; Healing arts & alternative medicine; alcoholism & addictions; mental wellness & recovery.

To equip participants with tools and methods for gathering qualitative and lived experience data and stories using creative, trauma-informed approaches, and innovative methods of analysis.

Speakers:

Yolanda Muñoz (she/her)

Yolanda Muñoz (she/her) is an academic and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. As a full-time wheelchair user, she has explored the social arrangements behind the unquestioned exclusion of people with disabilities. She was born in Mexico and is currently a guest in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal, which is situated on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst many First Nations.

In the field of disability rights, she has served as a volunteer with several grassroots organizations in Mexico and Quebec. Professionally, she has served as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank, as Program Officer with the Disability Rights Fund, as an external consultant for Global Greengrants Fund and currently as Coordinator of the Disability Rights and Climate Justice Advisory Board. She is co-founder of the Disability-Inclusive Climate Action Research Program, with the Faculty of Law at McGill University. Yolanda is an external consultant for the Ford Foundation and has been collaborating with the Centre de recherche de Montréal sur les inégalités sociales et les discriminations (CREMIS) to identify the barriers faced by women with disabilities who wish to break a cycle of intimate partner violence. In the academic field, she completed a MA and a PhD in Japanese Studies, with speciality in the Ainu women of Northern Japan. Her knowledge on feminist theory and practice has been the motivation to design and teach the course “Gender and Disability,” offered every two years since 2006 at the McGill Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies.

For more information, visit her website.

Abel Koka

Abel Koka is a young gender equality champion from Tanzania. He is pursuing a Joint Masters Program in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Manitoba. Abel is volunteering as a co-lead of the Education in Emergency (EiE) working group at Transform Education, a coalition of young feminist-led networks working to transform education for gender equality through advocacy under the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI). He is a member of the Leadership Steering Committee with Canadian Women in Global Health (CWIGH), where he advocates for advancing the well-being and rights of women and girls, especially in the health sector. Abel is also a member of the Institute for International Women’s Rights – Manitoba (IIWR-MB).

For the past five years, Abel has unleashed youth power to conduct data-driven accountability against decision-makers to improve access to Youth Friendly Reproductive Services and make gender equality a reality in Tanzania. Abel has continued challenging social norms and policies perpetuating child marriage, teenage pregnancy and denying girls access to education through social media activism. He has built the capacity of hundreds of boys and girls in schools and communities to understand and demand their right to grow, learn and succeed. Abel has participated in several regional and global gender equality forums and played a critical role in amplifying the voices of women and girls in the future they want.

Lionel Migrino

Lionel Migrino is a proven community leader and inclusion facilitator. He graduated with a Bachelor of Management degree from the University of Lethbridge, majoring in Human Resources and Labour Relations. Lionel is currently working at Pembina Pipeline, supporting Peoples Programs and EDI initiatives.

Lionel always brings his lived experience as a Filipino- Canadian living with cerebral palsy to the forefront to promote accessibility, diversity, inclusivity, equity, and justice. He enjoys speaking on social issues such as mental health, disability rights, and anti-racism. Lionel is a confident public speaker with experience facilitating inclusion training in a not-for-profit and corporate setting. He also has experience presenting stories to groups as large as 500 and doing interviews for local news media outlets. His goal in life is not only to spread awareness of IDEA but to empower action towards change.

Lori A., Chambers (she/her/elle); Core Partner, 7.10 Stories; Producer, Because She Cares Project

Lori A. Chambers, Ph.D., a social worker and community health advocate, uses arts-based methods to generate and mobilize knowledge that conveys gendered, racialized, and neocolonial narratives of living with health complexities in Canadian contexts. As a 2^nd generation Canadian of Jamaican heritage, she recognizes the power of “back home knowing” in making sense of one’s experiences of marginality, survival and thrival. Her culturally grounded approach to knowledge generation and mobilization was featured in the 2021 edited book “Africentric Social Work,” a foundational text on African-centered service provision written with, for, and by Black Canadian social workers.

Lori has collaborated on participatory research and creative arts projects with several ethnoracial and feminist organizations in the Greater Toronto Area. Projects include “Storysharing for Sexual Health” with The Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention, “Women Are Changemakers” with the Women’s HIV/AIDS Initiative, and “Celebrate:  Love, Life and Laugh Together” with the Committee for Accessible AIDS Treatment. Her most recent work uses poetry and performance arts to mobilize research findings from her Ph.D. In collaboration with Black community advocates, she is a co-author and producer of “Because She Cares,” a performance narrative project that uses spoken word theatre and film to mobilize stories of (un)caring/care-full work in HIV service organizations as experienced by Black immigrant women living with HIV.

Lori received her Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) at York University, her Master of Social Work (MSW) at the University of Toronto, and her Ph.D. in Social Sciences from McMaster University School of Social Work. In 2022, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto.

Social Media

Websites:  www.becauseshecares.com; www.710stories.com

Email:  [email protected]

Instagram; Twitter; Facebook: @bscaresca

To provide a concrete understanding of intersectional data gathering and analysis leading practices, including quantitative intersectional analysis. This session will equip participants with tangible tools and methods for innovative and inclusive data gathering.

Speakers:

Angie Rajani, she/her/hers – Digital Accessibility Program Advisor at the Canadian Human Rights Commission

Angie Rajani is currently a Digital Accessibility Program Advisor to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, where she has led inclusive consultations informing an enterprise-wide strategy for improving accessibility and inclusive design for policies, programs and services offered at the commission. She is a woman of colour, first generation Canadian, and a person who lives with neurodiversity and disability. In her previous roles, Angie has served as an Inclusive Design Strategist at organizations like the TTC, Canada Post, and CIBC, where she has led a series of workshops on inclusive leadership for senior management, developed an organizational strategy for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which included establishing best practices for organizational transformation and communicating DEI. She has also led community consultations engaging people with disabilities for digital and enterprise transformation. Engaging with stakeholders and strategizing for inclusive change is where Angie leverages the GBA Plus framework. Angie holds an Honours Bachelors Degree from the University of Toronto specializing in linguistics with minors in religion and Spanish, as well as a Masters in Religion and South Asian studies. Her education has been the foundation for an interdisciplinary approach to DEI and employing GBA plus in her career. When Angie is not working or consulting, she is a volunteer tutor at Literal Change.

To debrief key takeaways and learnings from day one.

To match conference participants in small group networking sessions to build community, learn from each other, and participate in creative problem-solving on common GBA Plus challenges in a supportive environment.

To kick-off the second day of learning with an inspiring presentation on the power and impact of GBA Plus.

To discuss the common challenge of how to evaluate, monitor and report on GBA Plus outcomes. This session will provide participants with key performance indicators (KPIs), evaluation and monitoring strategies, and methods to effectively communicate impact while generating buy-in.

Maame De-Heer

Maame De-Heer is an adept Public Health Professional with 9 years academic and professional expertise in healthcare. Maame recently got promoted to her new role as Socio-Economic Research Analyst with the Impact and Innovation Unit of the Privy Council Office at the Government of Canada. Prior to this, she served as a Policy Analyst with the Government of Canada in the Public Health Agency of Canada division, as a Policy Analyst is with the Mental Health for Black Canadians Initiative, where Maame contributed to building evidence and enhancing community-led, culturally focused mental health interventions that address mental health and its determinants for diverse Black communities across Canada. Within the Government of Canada, Maame engages in diverse leadership and executive roles where she supports the Co-Leads for the Black Employees Matter chapter within the Government of Canada, and is also an Inclusive Staffing Working Group Member where she imparts concepts and tenets that address challenges in a bias-free appointment process and identify areas in the appointment process where bias-related problems can occur. Recently, Maame was appointed Associate Editor for the Canadian Review Editorial Law Proposal, where together with the Advisory Board and Senior Editors, she assesses and examines Canada’s National Undergraduate Law Journal. Remarkably, Maame is the Founder of a grassroots initiative called the Power of Love Foundation Canada. This organization provides services and resources to Black women and girls in  low-income setting, with the aim of improving their overall wellbeing. Maame acquired a Masters of Public Health in Social and Behavioural Health Sciences,  from the University of Toronto, alongside a Collaborative Specialization in Global Health, Health Services & Policy Research. Maame De-Heer is currently pursuing a Doctor of Public Health degree at Loma Linda University in California United States, where she is specializing in Health Policy and Leadership.  Comprehensively,  Maame’s lifelong goal is to impact members of the society through community engagement, mentorship, and service. Her life is guided by a famous quote from Muhammed Ali, which reads, ‘if your mind can conceive it and your heart can believe it, then you can achieve it.

Michelle James, she/her, Public Policy Specialist, Women’s Centre of Calgary 

Michelle is a settler living, working, learning and playing in Calgary (Moh’kinsstis) within Treaty 7 territory and the traditional lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Piikani and Kainai), TsuuT’ina and Îyârhe Nakoda (Goodstoney, Bearspaw and Chiniki) First Nations, as well as the Métis Nation of Alberta Region III. Michelle is a passionate public health professional and has over 10 years of experience working with equity analysis and decolonized public policy, social services, and evaluation methodologies in diverse settings, including the District of Squamish, Miskanawah Community Services Association, the World Health Organization, and presently the Women’s Centre of Calgary. In her current role, Michelle develops and analyzes social policy solutions through community-driven GBA+ and equity lenses by engaging with the diverse community of women served through the Women’s Centre every day.  Michelle holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Victoria, where she specialized in Social Policy. When not at work, Michelle can usually be found enjoying the outdoors with her two young children and is a volunteer member of the City of Calgary’s Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee.

To discuss and discover how the equity tool, GBA Plus, can be employed to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and anti-racism within organizations and in broader communities.

Christopher Khaalid Scipio

• Christopher Khaalid Scipio (he/him) is a federal public servant and presently the Deputy Director of Black Executives Network (BEN/REN) Secretariat. Previously he was the Senior Gender-Based Analysis Plus Policy Advisor and Team Lead at the Department of National Defence. Christopher specializes in Black inclusion, anti-racism, and gender-based analysis plus. He is active in collective efforts to dismantle systems that oppress individuals and groups due to their identity factors.

• Since joining the federal public service in 2010, Christopher has worked primarily in strategic policy on a wide range of files including: change management, justice and security, talent development, digital government, and performance reporting. Christopher has a master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from Saint Paul University (Ottawa) and has received numerous awards for his contributions to create a more inclusive and equitable public service.
• Outside of his day job, Christopher is a father and a past volunteer with Family Services Ottawa, the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment, Ottawa Community Immigration Settlement Organization and is presently a board member for the Institute of Public Administration of Canada-National Capital Region, the Great Canadian Theatre Company, and the Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce.
• Social Media:
  • Twitter https://twitter.com/ScipioCk
  • Medium – https://medium.com/@ScipioCk
  • LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-scipio-bbaa1a76/

To equip participants with effective case studies and outcomes of successful GBA Plus projects in order to ‘make the case’ for GBA Plus sustainability; as well as to share lessons learned along the way. This session also aims to outline how to effectively introduce and roll-out GBA Plus to an organization while ensuring its sustainability in the long-run.

Speakers:

Richard Sharpe

Richard Sharpe has been a human rights advocate for 30 years, both at the community and institutional levels. Until recently, he worked within the Canadian Federal Public Service where he held several national positions representing employees as both a union representative and as a leader in employee-led organizations. In 2017 he co-founded the first Black employee network in the federal government, the Federal Black Employee Caucus, to tackle anti-Black racism in that institution. For the last two years, he held the position of Director of Equity, Anti-racism, Diversity and Inclusion at the Department of Justice Canada, where he spearheaded department and enterprise-wide initiatives to address long-standing discriminatory practices in the federal government. He is currently the Director of the Black Equity Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat in the Ontario Public Service. 

At the community level, Richard was instrumental in forming the 613/819 National Capital Region Black Hub to bring together Black community members and organizations to collectively address anti-Black racism in areas such as education, policing, and mental health. He has also been involved in leading initiatives to realize the objectives of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (UNDPAD), including securing government support for Black Economic Inclusion initiatives and being part of Black community efforts to create the National Institute for People of African Descent (NIPAD). In December 2022, he was part of the Canadian civil society delegation at the United Nations Permanent Forum for People of African Descent. 

Richard has championed disaggregated socio-demographic data collection efforts at all levels and in all sectors. His work regionally and nationally is intended to improve the condition of Black and African diaspora communities in Canada. Richard is a sought-after speaker for his frank commentary on systemic racism, anti-black racism and allyship, and for his concrete solutions for action and results. His opinion pieces have been published in the Ottawa Citizen and LinkedIn. 

 Richard is proud to be a child of immigrants of Jamaican ancestry, and the eldest of six. His roles as father and partner are the two that he holds most dear. 

To debrief key takeaways and learnings from both days of the conference.