Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair is Anishinaabe (St. Peter’s/Little Peguis) and an Associate Professor at the University of Manitoba. He is an award-winning writer, editor and activist who was named one of Monocle Magazine‘s “Canada’s Top 20 Most Influential People” and he won the 2018 Canadian columnist of the year at the National Newspaper Awards for his bi-weekly columns in The Winnipeg Free Press. He has written national curriculums for Indspire and the Assembly of First Nations and is a former secondary school teacher who has trained educators and students across Canada.

Well known as a film critic and broadcaster in Toronto and across Canada, Jesse Wente was the first nationally syndicated Indigenous columnist for the CBC, covering film and pop culture for 20 local CBC Radio programs. He has also been a regular guest on CBC Newsworld’s News Morning and Weekend Edition, as well as Q.

Jesse is Ojibwe, and his family comes from Chicago and the Serpent River First Nation in Ontario. He is an advocate for Aboriginal Arts, most notably on screen. He draws attention to the imagery used by Hollywood in portrayals of indigenous peoples and stresses the need for a culture to have influence on their own depiction. His pieces on The Revenant, Beyonce and sports mascots were among the most shared on CBC.ca

In 2017 Jesse was appointed to the Canada Council for the Arts.

I am a mother, a daughter, an auntie, a niece, a cousin, a granddaughter and a sister. I am a coach and a lifelong learner who seizes every opportunity possible to grow as a person. Currently, my interests are focused in decolonizing instructional practice to create amazing spaces for learning for all (especially Indigenous youth). I know this is a journey and have to acknowledge that this is rooted within the colonial/ western structure we have all adopted as a system in public education. I believe with intentional practice, learning and facilitation we can support leaders to shift their pedagogical practice to better serve our students.

I love working alongside and in service of our youth and I am committed to being a strong advocate and accomplice for them.

Dr. Avis Glaze is a well-known international education adviser, school system reformer, teacher, capacity builder, leadership coach and public speaker. She has worked in a variety of K-12, college and university settings, advised governments and worked with teachers, principals and policy makers to improve education systems and schools worldwide. She is known for her work in helping to close achievement gaps and ensuring that all students achieve regardless of personal, social or economic backgrounds. Her extensive experience acquired over 40 years in education leaves those with whom she works with new insights, inspiration and strategies to take their organizations to new heights of attainment.

 

For Avis, excellence and equity must go hand in hand.  Variables such as poverty, gender, race, social class of postal code should not truncate the life chances of students, narrow their career choices, nor determine their destiny in any way.  She focusses on teaching both hard- and soft skills and on the research-informed strategies that are known to be effective in school and system improvement efforts.   She believes that educators have both the will and the skills to improve their systems and that parents, community and business partnerships play an essential role in education reform.  She urges educators to build upon their successes and redouble their efforts to ensure that all children achieve success in our schools. We must prepare them to think critically and analytically, feel deeply and empathically, and act wisely and ethically.  For her, graduates of our schools must become solution finders – confident, productive and engaged citizens of character –who contribute to nation building. There can be no ‘throw-away-kids,’ she asserts.

 

Dr. Glaze has worked with educators in some 50 jurisdictions across the globe. She knows what world class education systems look like. She served as Adviser to the Minister of Education in Ontario and New Zealand and was engaged to reform the administrative governance system in Nova Scotia.  Currently, she is working as consultant to the review of the Manitoba education system and is also serving as one of the International Education Advisers working with the First Minister of Scotland on their mandate to improve their education system.

 

Visit her website at:  www.avisglaze.ca