Odelia Bay is a doctoral student at Osgoode Hall Law School. Her dissertation project examines self-care and workplace accommodations for people with episodic disabilities—that is, disabilities characterized by unpredictable and fluctuating impairments.

Odelia completed her Master of Laws degree at Columbia Law School, where she was also awarded a Graduate Student Fellowship with the Future of Disability Studies Project at Columbia University. She is called to the Ontario Bar and has taught a number of law school courses, including labour law and critical race theory.

Odelia is a co-author of Law and Disability in Canada: Cases and Materials (LexisNexis, 2021) and is working to help create and build the Canadian Association of Lawyers with Disabilities – Association canadienne des juristes en situation de handicap.

Jill is the Diversity and Inclusion Lead at the City of Edmonton. With over 25 years of domestic and international experience in the non-profit, private and public sectors, Jill has developed in-depth knowledge within the fields of intercultural competence, equity, and diversity and inclusion.  At the City of Edmonton, Jill is responsible for the development and implementation of The Art of Inclusion: Our Diversity & Inclusion Framework, leading D&I strategy and policy development including GBA+, design and delivery of training, program development and coordination, as well as employee engagement via vehicles such as diversity & inclusion committees and employee resource networks. She is the Founding Chair of the Edmonton Business Diversity Network and the National Municipal D&I Network (Canada). She is a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), and a Senior Facilitator of Personal Leadership ©.

Karen Craggs-Milne, Head of Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (ADEI), ThoughtExchange. In this role she uses an intersectional approach to address ADEI across policy, culture and practice, while also supporting inclusive product enhancements and offering strategic advice to support customers on their ADEI efforts.

A Certified GBA+ Expert and Certified Diversity & Inclusion professional, Karen is a leading go-to expert for organizations that are serious about ‘getting equality work RIGHT’. A proud Kenyan Canadian, Karen Craggs-Milne is an award-winning global expert with over 20 years of international experience promoting equity, diversity, anti-racism, gender equality and inclusion. Karen is an Obama White House recognized Gender Equality Changemaker (2016), a Global Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Goals (2018), #LinkedinGlobalSuperHero (2020) and is a Top 100 Canadian Professional (2020).

Karen has extensive experience working globally with NGOs, Corporations, and Governments to deliver on their equality mandates intentionally and with real impact. Karen’s passion is to educate and equip others on this work. Whether it is under a tree in a rural village in Ghana or in a boardroom with C-Suite Executives, Karen’s authentic and engaging approach promises to educate, transform and inspire you into meaningful action.

Colin Druhan is a business strategist with more than fifteen years of experience working with 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. He has served as Executive Director of Pride at Work Canada since 2014.

Pride at Work Canada empowers employers to build workplaces that celebrate all employees regardless of gender expression, gender identity, and sexual orientation through dialogue, education and thought leadership. In 2021 he was elected Chair of the Board of Directors of Volunteer Toronto, Canada’s largest volunteer centre, where he has served as a Director since 2018. He also sits on the Advisory Board of the Diversity Institute at the Ted Rogers School of Management at X University (formerly Ryerson). In 2020 Colin was named a DiverseCity Fellow by CivicAction, joining a diverse group of rising leaders who are passionate about shaping their communities within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Originally from Cole Harbour, NS, Colin received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University and has completed executive education programs at both the Rotman School of Management and at Harvard Business School.

In February 2018, Geoff Dubrow chaired and facilitated Infonex’s inaugural GBA+ conference. He has participated enthusiastically in every subsequent Infonex GBA+ conference, as chair and/or presenter.

Geoff is Founder and Principal Consultant at Nexus PFM Consulting Inc. As an experienced, results-oriented consultant and high-energy facilitator, Geoff has provided training and capacity development for civil servants, parliamentarians and civil society organizations in over 40 countries on six continents as well in every province and territory in Canada.

Specializing in Public Financial Management (PFM), Geoff’s experience related to gender-responsive budgeting includes:

• Applying Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) to public policy proposals;
• Providing strategic advice related to the rollout of GBA+ tools across the Government of Canada;
• Developing an Action Kit on Gender Responsive Budgeting and Parliaments for UN Women, which will be published in early 2022; and
• Providing strategic advice regarding the alignment of Canada’s PFM programming in the Caribbean to the objectives of the Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP).

Stephanie was born and raised in the James Bay coastal community of Moose Factory, Ontario. Stephanie is a proud mother to her daughter and a grandmother to her two grandsons. She is a member of the Moose Cree First Nation and is deeply influenced by the resilience and perseverance exhibited by her family and Inninew (Cree) community.

Stephanie has a commitment and passion to make positive contributions to the lives of Indigenous Peoples. She has worked and volunteered in the Indigenous community for the past thirty years. As a result, she has a wide breadth of knowledge and extensive personal and professional experience on issues related to Indigenous Peoples, culture and communities.

Stephanie’s distinguished career includes a Bachelor Administration degree from Lakehead University, working with First Nation’s, Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), and provincial Ministries (MNR, IAO, MAG.)

She was a founding board member for the Indigenous Sport & Wellness Council of Ontario, both a team member and later Assistant Chef-de-mission for Team Ontario at the 2014 North American Indigenous Games and believes in the healing power of sport and active living.

Stephanie is the recipient of numerous awards while working at Canada Revenue Agency and Indigenous Northern Affairs Canada, recognizing her professional contributions to the development of policy, frameworks and relationship building.

In 2009, she received the Northwestern Ontario Aboriginal Achievement Award for community involvement. Nominators stated, “Stephanie has given up her own time to provide opportunities for our youth to be engaged in healthy activities – She is well-spoken, outgoing and willing to help others attain their educational and personal goals – Her passion for helping the Indigenous community is evident in her dedication locally and nationally in providing guidance to Indigenous peoples.”

Motivated by the traditional teachings of her grandparents and mother immersed in traditional Inninew values; she has committed her life journey to supporting and strengthening the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of Indigenous Peoples.

Stephanie currently resides in the city of Toronto, Ontario where she operates her independent consulting business. Providing a range of advisory and consulting services from an Indigenous lens to a diverse clientele of Indigenous community groups, service providers and political leadership. Stephanie is recognized as being keenly intuitive in multiple challenging opportunities, to read crowds and situations with deep empathy, a sharp mind, and a powerful expansive well-practiced planning mind.

Stephanie can be reached at email: [email protected]

Angel Kennedy is a Research Manager for the Research for Eco-Social and Equitable Transformation (RESET) Team at Simon Fraser University (SFU), the coordinating Early Career Representative and Secretariat for Ecohealth International, a research associate for the Environment, Community, Health Observatory (ECHO) Network, a research assistant for the REAFFIRM Collaborative at the Center for Gender and Sexual Health Equity and the BC Alliance for Monitoring Mental Health Equity, and a PhD student at SFU. As a research manager for the RESET team, Angel has actively engaged in the dynamic space of GBA+ research and practice nationally and provincially, including on a contract with Women and Gender Equality Canada. Driven by health equity, GBA+, and climate change, the RESET Team has projects underway addressing climate change communication and mis/disinformation, intergenerational justice, and the use of art to develop resilience in equity deserving school-aged children impacted by climate change.

In early 2019, Karine Morin joined NSERC as Director, Policy and Interagency Affairs where she is responsible for the implementation of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion initiative. She recently returned to Ottawa after being an Executive Director at Alberta Innovates, overseeing a number of initiatives related to clinical research and ethics. Previously, she has served as Genome Canada’s Director of the “GE3 LS” program, overseeing activities related to the ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social aspects of genomics research. Earlier, she was a Senior Ethics Policy Advisor at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). She also conducted research on ethical, legal and social issues related to genomics at the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Science, Society and Policy. Karine is a graduate of McGill University School of Law; she also completed a Masters in Law at the University of Pennsylvania, and worked in the US for more than 10 years. She has broad expertise in science policy, has published widely in bioethics and law, and has taught as an adjunct at several universities in the US and Canada

Richard has worked within the Canadian Federal Public Service for over 25 years. He is currently the Director of the Equity, Anti-racism, Diversity and Inclusion Leading the Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Secretariat at the Department of Justice Canada where his work focusses on ensuring equity and inclusion for all equity seeking groups within the organization. Over the years, his work has involved leading initiatives in support of Government of Canada commitments to the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent. Richard is one of the founders of the Federal Black Employee Caucus that has been working with federal public service and union leadership to address anti-black racism in the federal public service. Richard’s work regionally, nationally and within the federal public service is intended to improve the condition of Black and African diaspora communities in Canada. Over the last few years Richard has been a speaker on addressing systemic racism, anti-black racism and how to be an ally within the Black Lives Matter movement.

Jane Whynot joined GGI as a partner in 2021 after finishing her doctoral studies at the University of Ottawa. Jane’s passion includes ensuring representations of diversity in performance stories which was heightened in the 20 year period she has been providing performance measurement and evaluation expertise to public and voluntary sector clients at national, provincial and local levels. Over these two decades, she has worked on over 75 applied research and evaluation projects.

Jane is an experienced evaluator and researcher, with particular expertise in qualitative approaches to complexity, theory-based evaluation and GBA+ and brings these strengths together in her work as a contract instructor at Carleton University. Jane is able to communicate effectively with clients to ensure that their needs are met and believes in open transparent communication to provide high quality products that are useful for decision-makers. She is actively involved in the domestic evaluation community serving as an editorial team member for the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation (CJPE) and as a judge for the Canadian Evaluation Society’s Educational Fund Student Case Competition. She was recognized by the Canadian Evaluation Society in 2020 with the National Service to the Society award, and in 2021 with the Karl Boudreault award for Leadership in Evaluation.

Jane holds a Masters of Assessment and Evaluation (MAE) from the University of Melbourne, as well as a graduate certificate in Policy and Program Evaluation (DPE) from Carleton University.