Speakers and moderators
Onome Ako
President and CEO, Action Against Hunger Canada
Onome Ako is the Chief Executive Officer of Action Against Hunger Canada, leading efforts to combat hunger and its root causes in over 50 countries. With more than 20 years of experience, she has worked with organizations including Amref Health Africa and World Vision Canada, advancing community-driven solutions grounded in equity and justice.S
he holds degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ahmadu Bello University, and the London School of Economics, along with an ICD.D designation from Rotman. Onome serves as Chair of Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health and is a member of the International Women’s Forum.
She is the author of I Am Cherished / Mon nom est Kikelomo, a celebrated children’s book that affirms identity and belonging and is used in classrooms and university courses across Canada. She is also a contributor to Embracing Ambition.Born in Nigeria and based in Canada, she is committed to building a more equitable world.
Karina Benessaiah
professor, Department of Geography, University of Guelph
Dr. Karina Benessaiah a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Guelph. As a human–environment geographer and sustainability researcher, her work examines how people adapt to rapid social‑ecological change and how these shifts reshape livelihoods, landscapes, and possibilities for more equitable futures.
She is also committed to creative forms of research communication and has been recognized as a 2010 Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow. Part of her research focuses on how small, community‑driven sustainability initiatives, also called “seeds”, can spark broader systemic change.
In Montreal, she studies how grassroots efforts influence transformational dynamics and food loss and waste governance within wider decarbonization efforts. Internationally, through the Seeds of Good Anthropocenes initiative, she worked with partners in Accra, Mombasa, and Cape Town to understand how locally rooted food‑system innovations open pathways toward more just and sustainable futures. Together, these projects build a comparative, place‑based understanding of how small‑scale actions can drive large‑scale sustainability transformations.
Marta Berbes-Blazquez
Caivan Communities Professor in Planning and Environment at the University of Waterloo
Dr. Marta Berbes-Blazquez is the Caivan Communities professor at the School of Planning and the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, where she is part of the Future Cities Initiative. Her research considers the human dimensions of environmental change in urban and regional social-ecological-technological systems with an emphasis on perspectives from marginalized populations.
Dr. Berbes-Blazquez leads the Blackward to the Future project is a community-led, participatory action research initiative to reclaim the past, present, and future of the African American community in Phoenix, Arizona. The project responds to the erasure of Black histories from the urban and cultural landscape of Phoenix, a city where dominant narratives often depict African Americans as newcomers and where archival materials documenting African American experiences constitute only 1% of historical records.
By engaging community youth and elders in an intergenerational dialogue, the project aims to counteract these omissions, creating a space where Black voices are centered in developing a social memory and co-producing future urban visions.
Drawing on the Adinkra concept of sankofa—the principle that looking to the past is essential for moving forward—the project takes a justice-oriented approach that combines historical documentation with future visioning and documentary film-making. Importantly, the project shifts away from damage-centered narratives.
Instead, the Blackward to the Future projects explicitly foregrounds joy, resistance, and self-determination in understanding Black life in Phoenix.
Valerie Berseth
Postdoctoral Researcher
Valerie Berseth is a social scientist with over a decade of experience in community-engaged research. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of British Columbia, where her work explored how human relationships with salmon are evolving in response to emerging science, technology, and environmental change.
Valerie’s research focuses on climate adaptation, knowledge production, and how communities perceive and respond to new technologies in conservation and natural resource management.
Born in Toronto, A recipient of the Early Career Prize in Environmental Sociology from the International Sociological Association, Valerie has published her research in outlets such as Environmental Sociology and Public Understanding of Science, contributing to global debates on climate adaptation and social justice.
Chiara Camponeschi
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Guelph
Dr. Chiara Camponeschi is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Guelph, where she works with Dr. Benessaiah on research examining the role of small-scale sustainability initiatives in food loss and waste governance in Canada as part of an NSERC funded Alliance project and the global Seeds of Good Anthropocenes project.
Through previous work as a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Camponeschi envisioned the co-design of ‘infrastructures of care’ to stimulate innovative thinking at the intersection of climate resilience, community engagement and planetary health.
Bettina Cenerelli
President and CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
President and CEO since May 2024, Dr. Bettina B. Cenerelli’s mandate is to lead the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
She completed her studies in Germany (FU Berlin; Universität Siegen) and France (Université de Pau; École normale supérieure, Paris; Sorbonne, Paris). Dr. Cenerelli holds a doctorate in French Literature from the Universität Siegen and a First State Examination (1. Staatsexamen) in French and History from the FU Berlin.
Prior to her current mandate, Dr. Cenerelli was the Senior Director of Strategic Academic Planning and Student Affairs in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Simon Fraser University (SFU), British Columbia.
From 2011 to 2015, she served as Associate Director at the Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs at SFU, overseeing the French Cohort Program. Before her tenure at SFU, Dr. Cenerelli was Program Director at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in Montréal, QC, editor at the University of Montréal Press, and Assistant Professor at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick.
Peter Dinsdale
President and CEO of YMCA CANADA
Peter Dinsdale is the President and CEO of YMCA Canada, where he leads one of the country’s largest and most trusted national charities, serving millions of people annually across health, employment, child care, community well-being, and newcomer integration. An Indigenous leader with experience operating at the highest levels of Indigenous governance, public policy, and institutional leadership, he has built a career at the intersection of reconciliation, nation-building, and complex organizational stewardship.
Peter currently serves on multiple national and corporate boards spanning insurance, standards, sport, reconciliation, and Indigenous economic development. His governance work focuses on strategy, risk, capital stewardship, and long-term institutional credibility. Throughout his career, he has frequently been the first or only Indigenous person in senior executive and boardroom settings, bringing both perspective and responsibility to systems not originally designed for Indigenous participation.
A committed mentor, Peter has supported emerging leaders in every role he has held, with particular emphasis on helping Indigenous and equity-deserving professionals navigate power, governance, and influence while remaining grounded in their values and communities. His leadership is shaped by a belief that reconciliation is not symbolic work, but structural work, and that strong institutions matter deeply to the future of Canada.
Lisa Helps
Executive Lead, Project Acceleration at BC Housing, former Mayor of Victoria
Lisa Helps was a 2006 Trudeau Scholar. She was co-president of the Alumni Committee and also served on the Foundation Board of Directors from March 2020 to November 2021.
Lisa is currently working as Executive Lead, Project Acceleration at BC Housing. Prior to this, as Executive Lead BC Builds Project Origination, she co-led the development and implementation of BC Builds, a housing funding, financing and acceleration program that uses public land, low-cost financing, and other innovative tools to get more housing built more quickly for working people in B.C. Previously she was the Housing Solutions Advisor to British Columbia Premier Eby. Prior to that she was a two-term Mayor of Victoria, British Columbia. As Mayor, Lisa worked hard to create deep collaboration across the community to get Victoria ready for the future. She also built strong connections across the province as founding Co-Chair of the BC Urban Mayors Caucus to advance shared priorities for cities. Areas of focus included economic development and prosperity, housing, climate action, resilient infrastructure, and reconciliation.
Lisa is also a Canadian Urban Leader the University of Toronto School of Cities and teaches Leading Urban Change at the University of Toronto. She is vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Urban Institute. She is also chair of the board of the Fernwood Community and Arts Association which runs the Little Fernwood Building, a neighbourhood-scale arts, culture and performance venue and community gathering space.
FRAN HUNT-Jinnouchi
Executive Director of the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness
Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi, a member of the Kwakiutl and Quatsino First Nations on Vancouver Island, is CEO of the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Society (ACEH), where she has grown the organization from 1.5 staff in 2016 to more than 110 in 2026.
She developed the Dual Model of Housing Care (DMHC), combining Housing First principles with culturally supportive housing, decolonized harm reduction, and land-based healing, while leading the creation of innovative housing and support programs across Vancouver Island.
A former elected Chief, School Trustee, entrepreneur, and inaugural Director of Indigenous Affairs at the University of Victoria, she has received numerous honours, including the City of Victoria’s Honorary Citizens Award and an Honorary Officer Award from the Order of the Diocese of British Columbia, and will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws from UVic in 2026.
Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi holds a Bachelor of Social Work (with distinction), a Master of Adult Education, and has completed PhD coursework in Educational Psychology and Leadership.
André Juneau
2025 Mentor
Contrasts and continuity make up André Juneau’s professional and personal lives. In the Government of Canada, where he began working in 1975, he divided his time over 30 years between two “central agencies” responsible for managing priorities, the Department of Finance and–three times–the Privy Council Office, and three socially driven sector departments (employment, immigration, and health), responsible for advancing their priorities. Finally, he was the first Infrastructure and Communities Deputy Minister.
Having left Ottawa in 2006, André held three entirely different positions: in London, as representative of Canada and Morocco on the resident Board of Directors at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in Kingston as the Director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen’s University, and in Windsor as Interim President and CEO of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, a federal crown corporation.
The continuity stems from his specialties: federal-provincial-municipal relations, national unity, social policy, decision-making, and policy development. His career was highly focused on domestic issues with a significant international component: it included work on immigration and refugee files, membership on the World Health Organization’s Executive Board, the EBRD, and overseeing aspects of an international bridge initiative.
A final professional contrast: André is a practitioner of politics and administration, but he was very much involved in research in his first job in 1974, as a research assistant at Washington’s Brookings Institution, as head of several research teams, and as an active participant in the federal initiative for research in politics.
Since 2021, he has been a member of the University of Ottawa’s Board of Governors.
He is particularly proud of several generally team-based accomplishments: at the Office of the Privy Council, his support of the enactment of the Canada Health Act in 1984, including the production of all briefing notes for Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, the development of an immigrant integration policy, new tobacco control legislation that greatly contributed to lowering tobacco consumption, the founding of Infrastructure Canada, and his leadership on the EBRD Board during the 2007-08 financial crisis.
On the personal side: Since his return from Washington in 1975, André has lived in Ottawa. His family life takes place mostly in English, because he speaks English with his spouse, who is also a former senior federal official. He has always spoken English and French fluently, the latter being his first language. Additionally, he still considers himself a Montrealer, having grown up in that city, where his large family still lives. He is very Canadian, and he has friends and contacts all over the place. He and his spouse have four children and six grandchildren, who live in London, Gatineau, Montreal, and Quebec City.
JACK MINTZ
President’s Fellow, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary
He has chaired and served on numerous federal and provincial advisory panels, including on business taxation, healthcare innovation, economic recovery, and post-secondary financing, and has advised governments, businesses, and international organizations such as the World Bank, IMF, OECD, and Inter-American Development Bank.
A regular Financial Post contributor and former corporate director, Dr. Mintz is a Member of the Order of Canada and has received several honours recognizing his contributions to Canadian tax and economic policy.
erin mooney
International Expert in Humanitarian Affairs and Forced Migration
Erin Mooney is an internationally recognised senior expert adviser, advocate, and researcher on forced migration, human rights, protection of civilians, humanitarian affairs, and peacebuilding, with over 30 years of UN and other international professional experience, both at UN Headquarters and in more than 30 conflict and disaster contexts in Africa, the Middle East, Europe (Ukraine, South Caucasus, Western Balkans), Asia and the Americas.
Her extensive work experience with the United Nations since 1995 includes serving as Chief of Civil Affairs for the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2024-2025), Senior Protection Adviser with the UN’s Protection Capacity (2006-2023), a Senior Adviser to successive UN Representatives of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons (1996-2006), and with a wide range of UN offices including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF, the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN peacekeeping mission for Darfur (UNAMID) and as a senior expert to the UN-African Union peace process for Darfur, Sudan.
She also has served as a consultant on human rights and humanitarian issues to several Governments (e.g., Switzerland, US, Canada), regional organizations (e.g., Council of Europe, African Union), international NGOs, universities and thinktanks, including serving as Deputy Director of the Brookings Institution Project on Internal Displacement (2001-2006), Deputy Director of the Centre for Displacement Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (2002-2004), and Deputy Team Leader of the first-ever UN Independent Review on the Global Humanitarian Response to Internal Displacement, undertaken by the U.K.’s Overseas Development Institute (2023-2024), at the request of the UN Secretary-General.
From 2008-2010, she was Professor (Adjunct) of International Relations at the University of Toronto. Since 2024, she is a Senior Fellow of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History and a non-stipendiary Professor of International Practice at the Institute for the Study of International Development at McGill University.
Her more than 100 publications on human rights, humanitarian and peacekeeping issues include both academic publications and numerous official guidance published by the United Nations and regional organizations on a range of specific crises and on thematic issues including: internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, durable solutions to displacement, protection of civilians, children and armed conflict, education in emergencies, electoral rights, gender mainstreaming, and genocide prevention.
Jennifer Moore Rattray
CEO, End Homelessness Winnipeg
Jennifer Moore Rattray is a public sector leader and changemaker dedicated to advancing equity, reconciliation, and transformative social impact. She is the CEO of End Homelessness Winnipeg.
Throughout her career, Jennifer has driven transformative change across sectors – from government and education to national Indigenous initiatives. She served as Executive Director of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and was appointed Ministerial Special Representative to the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, where she led national engagement on Call for Justice 1.7 to advance the creation of a National Indigenous and Human Rights Ombudsperson.
Previously, as an Assistant Deputy Minister with the Province of Manitoba, Jennifer challenged entrenched systems and policies to reduce inequity and improve outcomes for marginalized people. At the University of Winnipeg, she broke new ground as Associate Vice-President, where she championed access to post-secondary education for low-income and under-represented students for more than a decade.
Jennifer began her career as an award-winning journalist, working in Canada and the United States to hold governments and public institutions to account – a foundation that continues to inform her values-based leadership.
She holds a BA and MPA (with distinction) and is a graduate of the ICD.D Program and the Executive Leadership Program at the Rotman School of Management.
In 2025, Jennifer was honoured to be named a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Mentor. She serves on the boards of CBC/Radio-Canada, The Gordon Foundation and Canada’s National History Society, as well as on the RCMP’s Joint Action Circle and the Advisory Circle for the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime. She is a proud citizen of Peepeekisis Cree Nation.
She is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond and Platinum Jubilee Medals in recognition of her contributions to public service.
David Morley
Former President and CEO of UNICEF CANADA
David Morley, CM, is the former President and CEO of UNICEF Canada, a leading humanitarian organization dedicated to helping children around the world survive, thrive and reach their full potential.
A prolific international speaker, commentator, human rights advocate and mobilizer, David has more than thirty years of experience advancing children’s rights and sustainable development on the world stage. David is a passionate voice for the world’s most vulnerable citizens, and has dedicated his career to improving the lives of children and communities in Canada and around the world.
An internationally recognized expert on humanitarian response, sustainable development and child well-being, David also sits on UNICEF’s Global Management Team, lending his expertise to the organization’s worldwide efforts to achieve meaningful progress for children.
Prior to joining UNICEF Canada, David served as Executive Director of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders Canada, as President and CEO of Save the Children Canada and was the founding Executive Director of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.
A recognized leader in the field, David has taught at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, sits on the Advisory Council of the Institute for the Study of International Development at McGill University and is Co-Chair of the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
An award-winning author of two best-selling books, including Healing Our World: Inside Doctors without Borders, David’s career has taken him around the world. In recognition of his dedication to global sustainable development, David has been appointed to the Order of Canada. As Canada’s highest civilian honour, the Order of Canada recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. David has been invested into the Order “for his leadership in international development and for his humanitarian commitment to improving the lives of children and families around the world.”
val napoleon
Professor of Indigenous Law and Founder of the Indigenous Law Research Unit
Val Napoleon is Cree from Saulteau First Nation, and she is adopted into Gitanyow [Gitxsan]. She is the co-founder of Juris Doctor and Juris Indigenarum Doctor (dual law degree program in Indigenous and Canadian law), and the founding director of the Indigenous Law Research Unit.
She is the academic lead for the major national Next Steps Rebuilding Indigenous legal orders initiative. Napoleon researches and publishes on Indigenous legal traditions and methodologies (e.g., lands, waters, governance, gendered violence, human rights, pedagogies, and families), Indigenous legal theories, intersocietal legalities, Indigenous feminisms, legal pluralism, Indigenous democracies and civil societies, and Indigenous intellectual property.
She is a professor and former acting dean (law), and she teaches Canadian and Gitxsan property.
Her books include
With Debra McKenzie, eds., Intersocietal Pedagogies (UofT, forthcoming 2026).
- Val Napoleon, Emily Snyder, Rebecca Johnson, and Debra McKenzie, eds. Raven Talks: Indigenous Feminist Studies (UofT, 2025).
- With Rebecca Johnson, Richard Overstall, and Debra McKenzie, Indigenous Intellectual Property: An Interrupted Intergenerational Conversation (UofT, 2024).
- With Angela Cameron and Sari Graben, eds., Creating Indigenous Property [UofT, 2020].
- With Cathy Bell, eds., First Nations Cultural Heritage and Law: Case Studies, Voices and Perspectives (UBC, 2008).
Selected awards include:
- 2025 King Charles III Coronation Medal (June 2025)
- 2024 Royal Society of Canada Yvan Allair Medal
- 2024 Honorary Doctorate in Law, University of Queens
- 2021 Honorary Doctorate in Law, UNBC
- 2021 Indspire Award (National) for Law and Justice
- 2016 Indigenous Peoples’ Council Award
- 2010 University of Victoria’s Governor General’s Gold Medal for Outstanding Dissertation
devin naveau
Elected Councillor of Mattagami First Nation and Chief Financial Officer of Mattagami Aki
Devin Naveau is an Anishinaabe leader from Mattagami First Nation who has served as an elected Councillor since 2019. Beginning his leadership journey at a young age, Devin now holds the portfolio on economic development, community infrastructure and sustainability, where he guides projects that balance economic growth, cultural integrity, and long-term stewardship of community lands and resources.
Devin also serves as the Chief Financial Officer of Mattagami Aki, the Nation’s economic development corporation. In this role, he advances strategic partnerships and investments across various sectors, including construction, mining, and food sovereignty, ensuring that growth is directly tied to community benefit and generational wealth. His work is deeply rooted in Anishinaabe governance, incorporating cultural values into modern governance and business practices.
Beyond his role in economic development, Devin is committed to community service and safety as an active member of the Mattagami First Nation Fire Department, which supports both his community and the surrounding region.
At the core of all his work, Devin strives to uplift community and build bridges between Indigenous Nations, governments, and industry partners, creating prosperity that honours tradition while embracing innovation. Devin is a 2019 Preparing Our Home graduate and Preparing Our Home Board Member.
ALEX NEVE
former Secretary General, Amnesty International Canada
Alex Neve is a visiting and adjunct professor in international human rights law at the University of Ottawa and Dalhousie University, and a Senior Fellow with the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.
He presently serves as a Member of the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela.
He was Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English Branch from 2000 – 2020.
Kate Parizeau
Professor, Department of Geography, University of Guelph
Dr. Kate Parizeau is a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Guelph, where she researches waste management policies and practices, both in Canada and internationally.
For Dr. Parizeau, the study of waste is a means to interrogate the ways that societies prioritize various environmental and social concerns; this topic also serves as a source of insight to the politicization and governance of everyday life.
Themes that Kate addresses in her research include urban inequality, environmental justice, political redefinitions of public spaces, and dimensions of social difference.
Elisa Privitera
Researcher at CERC NEST, University of Toronto Scarborough
Elisa Privitera is a transdisciplinary researcher and practitioner working at the intersection of community urban planning, environmental justice, and political ecology. She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Canada Excellence Research Chair Network for Equity in Sustainability Transitions (CERC NEST) at the University of Toronto Scarborough.
There, she co-led the Just Transitions in Action project, a community-based initiative collaborating with local partners to advance equitable sustainability transitions. She holds a PhD in Urban and Environmental Planning and Design from the University of Catania (Italy), where her research examined embodied knowledge and small data in industrial risk landscapes.
Her work has been supported by several competitive grants, including a Fulbright Scholarship and the 2025 Courageous Scientists Award for Environmental and Climate Justice. She contributes to international academic communities as an associate editor of Critical Sociology, as a member of the plaNext editorial team and the editorial collective of Resistance.
Paty Romero-Lankao
Canadian Excellence in Research Chair’s Network for Equity in Sustainability Transitions
Paty Romero-Lankao is a Canadian Excellence in Research Chair of the Network for Equity in Sustainability Transitions (CERC NEST).
She is a Professor at the University of Toronto and was a distinguished research scientist at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Paty has extensive experience as a sociologist working across disciplines and at the science-policy interface in Canada, Mexico, the U.S., and internationally.
She has examined how people and decision-makers can embrace and why they fail to adopt climate and energy solutions and how these shape inequities in sustainability and resilience. She is committed to reimagining how city populations, community organizations, and governments can approach climate change through equitable, inclusive, and robust approaches to research.
Paty is widely cited in her field. She was the co-leading author of Working Group II of the 2007 Nobel Prize-winning IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.
Peter Sahlas
Chair of the Board of Directors
Peter Sahlas is an Attorney and Counsellor at Law in the State of New York, and a Foreign Legal Consultant of the Quebec Bar. He specializes in the resolution of complex international disputes involving public authorities in emerging markets. He builds and manages litigation teams and supervises their work in jurisdictions across Europe and North America, and handles government relations and public advocacy on behalf of his clients. He also designs and implements international advisory projects on law reform in countries experiencing major political transition and marked by ongoing political risk and economic instability.
For over a decade, he served the Office of the President of the Russian Federation as an adviser and coordinator of international involvement in Russian legislative reform. He has a substantial pro bono practice in human rights law and frequently engages with academic experts in his fields of expertise.
He holds a degree in international relations from the University of Toronto and two degrees in law from McGill University. In 1989 he received the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award, a national award granted in Canada in recognition of ideals and qualities of citizenship and humanitarianism.
From 2002 to 2005 he was the inaugural Executive Programme Director of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. He has been a Regular Member since November 2008. On 27 February 2017, he became a director of the Foundation elected by the members representing the Estate of the Late Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Christina Sharpe
Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Black Studies
Christina Sharpe is a writer, Professor, and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Black Studies in the Humanities at York University in Toronto.
Her writing has appeared in many artist catalogues and journals including Small Axe, Frieze, Paris Review, Harpers, BOMB Magazine, and The Funambulist.
In 2024 she was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize for the Sciences and Humanities, a Windham-Campbell Prize in Nonfiction, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2025 she received the Killam Prize.
She is also a Research Associate, at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS), University of Johannesburg. Sharpe is the author of Monstrous Intimacies: Making Post-Slavery Subjects (2010), In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (2016), and Ordinary Notes (2023)—winner of the Hilary Weston Writer’s Trust Prize in Nonfiction and the Hodler Prize and a Finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction.
Ordinary Notes was also named a Best Book of the Year by: The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, NPR, New York Magazine, and Granta, among others. Sharpe is currently working on What Could a Vessel Be? (FSG/Knopf, Canada 2027), Black. Still. Life. (Duke 2027) and To Have Been to the End of the World: Essays on Art. She is one of the editors of the forthcoming Thinking from Black: A Lexicon.
Tammara Soma
RPP, MCIP, Associate Professor at the School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University (SFU)
Tammara Soma, MCIP, RPP, is an Associate Professor in Planning at Simon Fraser University’s School of Resource and Environmental Management, as well as Research Director of the Food Systems Lab. Her work focuses on food loss and waste, food systems planning, food security, food systems resilience, and Indigenous food sovereignty.
In recognition of her work, she received the 2026 Ehor Boyanowski Award for Distinguished Academic of the Year. Her research has been featured in local and international media, including The Guardian, BBC, CBC, TVO, and CTV. She is also co-director of the CBC documentary Food Is My Teacher.
Christine St-Pierre
Political analyst, Montreal Institute of International Studies
Christine St-Pierre is a political analyst and Fellow at the Montreal Institute of International Studies (IEIM-UQAM).
She left political life behind in 2022, after sitting in the National Assembly of Québec for 15 years as Member for the riding of Acadie. Over the course of that time, Christine St-Pierre held the post of Minister for Culture, Communications, and the Status of Women in addition to being responsible for the enforcement of the Charter of the French Language from 2007 to 2012, for the government led by Jean Charest. From 2014 to 2018, Premier Philippe Couillard entrusted her with responsibility for International Relations and La Francophonie besides being the Minister Responsible for the Laurentides region.
Prior to going into politics, Christine St-Pierre had a 30-year-long career as a journalist with the Société Radio Canada. Throughout that time, she primarily covered the political scene whether at municipal, provincial, federal, and international levels. Consequently, she was a correspondent in Quebec City, Ottawa, and Washington. Ms. St-Pierre had the opportunity to cover a number of governments at various places on the political spectrum.
In 2020, éditions Septentrion published her memoirs titled “Ici Christine St- Pierre, de l’école de rang au rang de ministre.”
Christine St-Pierre graduated with a Bachelor degree in Social Sciences from the Université de Moncton in New Brunswick, where she lived from 1971 to 1976. In 2011, the university awarded her the Alumna of the Year award.
Rob VanWynsberghe
professor, Department of Education, University of British Columbia
Dr. Rob VanWynsberghe is a professor in the Department of Education at the University of British Columbia. In 2016, he established the Education for Sustainability MEd program that partners graduate students with the City of Vancouver to tackle complex social issues in the community according to successful model created and honed by the CityStudio.
He has also overseen the first sustainability cohort in the Teacher Education program at UBC, which trains pre-service teachers to integrate sustainability into their practices and curriculum.
His current interests are in regenerative practice and Indigenous-led decolonial and care-based approaches to education and co-creation, and he is spearheading an interdisciplinary research program, international speaker series and research institute broadly focused on creative knowledge mobilization, reciprocity and service in times of polycrisis, and place-based experimentation for social and civic innovation.
Lily Yumagulova
Program Director, Preparing Our Home
Lily Yumagulova is a Bashkir woman and an immigrant and settler in Canada. Lily’s academic and professional background includes emergency management, risk analysis, and a PhD in planning with a focus on urban equity and resilience. Lily brings over 20 years of experience in government, NGOs, media, Indigenous communities, and international organizations in Europe and North America.
She is the Program Director for the Preparing Our Home Program, which empowers Indigenous youth leadership in community resilience. Founded in 2016, it provides intergenerational training, capacity building, mentorship and community building.
Lilia’s research as a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, Indigenous Studies, University of Saskatchewan, focused on Indigenous self-determination and the role of women in disaster risk reduction, climate displacement, and planned relocation. She is a Research Associate at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, where she leads projects on crisis management and resilience planning.
Xiang Zhang
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto Scarborough
Xiang Zhang is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research uses quantitative approaches from economics, geography, and sociology to examine the interactions among development, the environment, and equity.
He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto Scarborough, working with Prof. Patricia Romero-Lankao on the Canada Excellence Research Chair project for the Network for Equity in Sustainability Transitions (CERC NEST).
He leads several research projects focusing on the quantitative assessment of climate vulnerability, energy dynamics, and commute equity in urban sustainability transitions, using comparative analyses across multiple cities.
Before joining the University of Toronto, he earned his PhD in Geography from McGill University, where he examined the well-being impacts of the household energy transition in rural North China. His work has 5 been published in international journals across multiple fields, including energy, environment, transportation, and health.
