Teeanna Munro is the Project Coordinator for the Black Perspectives Office (BPO). Her role most directly serves Black students at Concordia and she leads all of the BPO’s student programming. Teeanna has over 12 years of community organizing and building experience across communities in Vancouver, Montreal, and San Francisco. Key highlights of her career include being the founder and co-designer of the Justice Program at DESTA Black Youth Network. At Captive Minds Teeanna created popular education workshops for Black youth on understanding the prison industrial complex and systemic anti-Black racism. She also connected Black youth with incarcerated mentors through their pen pal program.
Teeanna holds a Bachelor’s in English literature from Concordia, 2016, and a Master’s in teaching and learning from McGIll, 2018. Teeanna thereafter worked in Nunavik as a secondary teacher and classroom management coach. As a first-generation university student, community organizer, and teacher, Teeanna’s approach and work is very much guided by equity and dismantling all forms of oppression and systemic discrimination in the educational system so that Black students can thrive as their authentic selves.
Val is the CEO and Founder of Val Shah Corp., an organization designed to energize, motivate, and inspire people through fun, easy and adaptable movement and mindfulness experiences. As a result of Val’s belief that anything is possible and her desire to help people live their best lives, she created a practice called DRōM™ – drumming combined with meditation (the “OM”). Val Shah Corp. specializes in helping people of all ages – from 2 to 96 – relieve stress, have fun and foster personal growth through movement and mindfulness experiences. Val is also a sought-after international presenter who promotes the importance of mental health and well-being through DRōM. No matter the size of the audience, she engages people to move, think creativity and feel a renewed sense of empowerment. No stranger to entrepreneurship and innovation, in 2006, Val followed her dream and co-founded DrumFIT®, a cardio drumming program (drumming on fitness balls). Since 2006, Val has worked with thousands of people across North America sharing her passion for movement and drumming. Val Shah Corp is a culmination of her vast experience and strong desire to empower people of all ages to “come alive”, play and have fun through movement and mindfulness — all through the DRōM™ experience.
Keith Leclaire is an Indigenous Health and Policy Consultant who brings 41 years of knowledge and experience to the field of Indigenous health. Chairperson of the Pathways Indigenous Advisory Circle, he also acts as a key member of the Board of Directors for the Onen’to:kon Healing Lodge, the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation and the Indigenous Certification Board of Canada.
Keith's Master of health studies from Athabasca University and Bachelor of science in chemistry from Bishops University were useful jumping off points to better understand the policies, issues, and community planning involved with working in the Indigenous health field.
Community engagement and leadership were central to his previous positions as Director General of the CLSC Naskapi at Kawawachikamach, Director of Health Policy at Kahnawake Shakotha’takehnhas Community Services, Director of Auxiliary Services at the Kateri Memorial Hospital Center of Kahnawake, and the Executive Director at Onen’to:kon Healing Lodge in Kanesatake. In 2019, Keith’s work and dedication was acknowledged by the First Nations Health Managers Association and the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement when he was awarded the Excellence in Health Leadership Award.
For 22 years now, Pauline Wiedow has been involved in creating MWCN, a non-profit community organization, first with a few friends in Châteauguay, then later in the Montérégie Ouest region serving five MRCs. Pauline Wiedow’s vision, generosity and determination have never ceased to attract and mobilize friends, collaborators, volunteers and now a dozen employees who all work in unison to offer services to a community happy to meet and be together in English. As neighbours of Kahnawake, an indigenous community, we continue to find ways of working together to support this very valuable community partner. The MWCN serves an area with over 85,000 English speakers.
Helena Burke has been the Executive Director of the Council for Anglophone Magdalen Islanders (CAMI) since January 2007. Born and raised in Grosse-Ile, she has always had a strong sense of belonging to her community and is very familiar with the challenges they face as a minority. Helena has been successful in leading community strategic planning and visioning exercises, building and nurturing vital relationships (both government and non-government), and in leveraging resources to provide for the needs of the English-speaking community.
President of the Regional Access Committee for Health and Social Services in English, Helena also sits on local committees and tables (notably the CISSS board of directors from 2013-2017) and is well known for bridge building and collaborating with the Francophone majority.
Born and raised on the South Shore of Montreal, Christian Lapointe retired from the Canadian Armed Forces after 25 years of service as a Physician Assistant (Clinical Nurse). He later trained as a massage therapist geared toward sports medicine, and in 2010 moved into community work at the Megantic English-speaking Community Development Corporation (MCDC) as an Outreach Coordinator. Christian found himself living once more in the South Shore of Montreal in 2018 where he became the Executive Director of the Assistance and Referral Center (ARC).
Dr. Kate Dupuis is the Schlegel Innovation Leader in Arts and Aging at the Sheridan Centre for Elder Research. With a nearly 20-year history in both research and clinical settings, Kate is passionate about improving the quality of life and well-being of older adults and those who care for them. Her current focus is on the benefits of the arts for older individuals, identifying and helping overcome barriers to participation in recreation and leisure activities, and exploring what being “artistic” and “creative” mean to us across the lifespan. Kate’s specialties include project development and co-ordination, stakeholder relations, and working with and managing collaborative and interprofessional teams. She is a registered Clinical Neuropsychologist with the College of Psychologists of Ontario and Professor in the Faculty of Applied Health and Community Studies at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario.