Policy Community Conference 2022: Speaker Directory

Feature speakers, moderators, and panelists:

Kristen Worley – Human Centred Design Consultant, Author and Professional Speaker

Dr. Yabome Gilpin Jackson – Organizational Development Professional, Author and Speaker

Dr. Yabome Gilpin-Jackson, PhD is an award-winning facilitator and organization development professional. She is a trusted partner for leaders and professionals working to develop people and build organizational capacity for change. She has proven expertise in the areas of leadership development, organizational development, facilitating strategic change and systematic organizing for social change and transformation. She works, consults, teaches (undergraduate and graduate) and conducts research in the areas of leadership, human systems/organization change and development, transformative learning and posttraumatic growth. In addition to being Founder and Principal at SLD consulting, she is currently an Executive Leader for People and Culture within the British Columbia Public Sector and Adjunct/sessional faculty at Concordia University and Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business & the lifelong learning/Executive Education program. Yabome has worked in organization development in the private, public and non-profit sectors. Her private clients have included: Lululemon, Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, South African Public Service/UNDP and the Royal College of Canada among others. Yabome was named an Institute for Social Innovation Scholar at Fielding Graduate University, CA for her published research and has a ground-breaking book that followed called, Transformation After Trauma, The Power of Resonance. She is a contributor to: Dialogic Organization Development: The Theory and Practice of Transformational Change and continues to write and speak on Grey Zone Change. She was named International African Woman of the Year, received the Emerging Organization Development Professional award and the prestigious Harry Jerome Professional Excellence Award in Canada. She is the 2021 Chair of the Organization Development Network.

Bonnie Brayton - National Executive Director at DisAbled Women's Network Canada

Bonnie is the National Executive Director of the DisAbled Women’s Network (DAWN), who recently celebrated 35 years in service . Bonnie is a recognized leader in both the feminist and disability movements in Canada and internationally.  Ms. Brayton is also a founding member of the Ending Violence Association of Canada  and served on the Steering Committee of La Maison Parent-Roback, from 2008-15.  Ms. Brayton serves on the Advisory Committee for the Jarislowsky Chair in Families and Work at Live Work Well Research Centre at the University of Guelph. She is also the Partner Liaison for a seven-year initiative based at the University of Guelph called “Engendering Disability-Inclusive Development” (EDID). From 2016 to 2021, Ms. Brayton served as a member of the Federal Minister’s Advisory Council on Gender-Based Violence (WAGE).  During 2020 and 2021, Ms. Brayton also served Disability Advisory Group the DAG for Minister Carla Qualtrough. Bonnie has also contributed to several anthologies including A BOLD VISION and LIVING THE EDGES, a DisAbled Women’s Reader and the newest release (2021) from Inanna publications STILL LIVING THE EDGES.

Angela Bains - Graduate Program Director at OCAD University

Angela Bains is a designer, strategist, businesswoman and educator. She is Co-Founder and Strategic Director of TransformExp, an award-winning design firm. At the Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCAD U), Angela holds the position of Graduate Program Director of the Strategic Foresight & Innovation Master’s Program and is a professor in the Advertising Program specialising in the decolonisation of advertising. Throughout her teaching career Angela has been nominated for seven teaching awards of distinction including the nationally recognised, Canadian Design Educators Award of Excellence. Originally from the UK, Angela has over 25 years of experience in the design industry working on social change, including the Free Nelson Mandela and the first World Aids Day Campaigns. Angela’s commercial accounts have included; BBC Television, Swatch Canada, Westinghouse Canada, and The Ritz-Carlton. She has been a speaker and host of many events including; the Design Management Institute, the International Council of Design (ico-D), Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), Registered Graphic Designers of Canada (RGD) and Vancouver Design Week.

Yves-Marie Abraham - Associate Professor at HEC Montréal

Yves-Marie Abraham est professeur à HEC Montréal, où il enseigne la sociologie de l’économie et mène des recherches sur le thème de la décroissance. Après avoir co-dirigé la publication de Décroissance versus développement durable : débats pour la suite du monde (2011) et de Creuser jusqu’où? Extractivisme et limites à la croissance (2015), il a publié récemment chez Écosociété une synthèse personnelle sur la décroissance, intitulée Guérir du mal de l’infini. Il est par ailleurs co-responsable de la spécialisation en gestion de l’innovation sociale au sein de la Maîtrise à HEC Montréal, où il offre un cours sur la « décroissance soutenable » depuis 2013. Yves-Marie Abraham est également membre du collectif de recherche indépendant « Polémos décroissance ».

Jean Teillet - Senior Counsel at Pape, Salter, Teillet Law

Dr. Rachel Zellars - Senior Research Fellow and Assistant Professor at Saint Mary's Univeristy

Shiobhan Harty - Assistant Secretary to Cabinet at Privy Council Office

Gail Mitchell - Assistant Deputy Minister at the Department for Women and Gender Equality

Mark Schaan - Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

Mark Schaan is an Assistant Deputy Minister in the Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. Mark’s policy career has spanned a diversity of files and organizations, including work on retirement income and pensions, life sciences, public service renewal, the modernization of key economic frameworks, and positioning Canada for an innovative future. A prairies-born member of the LGBTQ2+ community, Mark’s passions are many, but he is a policy wonk at heart with a continued commitment to art, education, and community-building.