ADRIENNE CHAN
Adrienne Chan has been a workshop leader, trainer, instructor, and community and adult educator for over 10 years. She has been active in the areas of diversity, equity, and cross-cultural understanding and has written curriculum, coordinated instruction projects, and delivered training and workshops in these areas. She has worked on such projects as Equity and Multiculturalism (1992) and Towards Cross-cultural Sensitivity in the Human Services (1993). Adrienne is Coordinator and Consultant for the Implementation Strategies Project for the Lower Mainland Multicultural Education Consortium of School Districts and Colleges. The project works with educational institutions to provide training, strategic planning, policy development, and consultation to implement organizational changes in multiculturalism, anti-racism, and diversity. In 1993, Adrienne worked on contract as a Project Manager and Senior Consultant Trainer with the Hastings Institute.Ms. Chan has also worked with a number of municipalities, colleges, school districts, non-profit organizations and crown corporations in the areas of diversity training, planning and cross-cultural understanding. She sits on a number of committees and task forces on issues related to community education, community empowerment, diversity, multiculturalism, and equity. She holds a Masters degree in Social Work from the University of British Columbia and is working on her doctorate at the University of Kent, England, in the area of diversity, adult education and institutional change.
NORA CURRY
Nora Curry has had a long and distinguished career in the field of social planning. Most recently, she was the Ministerial Assistant to the BC Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, where she managed the Minister's office and was involved in the development of the Regional Growth Strategies Act of BC in 1995. She has also worked as a social planner for the City of Victoria; as a manager of social development for Indian and Northern Affairs in Nanaimo; a Project Manager for the Strathcona Area Housing Society in Vancouver; and as a Community Development Social Worker with the BC Ministry of Human Resources. Nora also helped prepare the Canadian contingent to the United Nations Summit on Social Development and Habitat II. She has been a Board Member of the Victoria Street Community Association, President of the Social Planning and Research Council of BC, and Chair of the Vancouver City Planning Commission. She has worked in such areas as housing, poverty, neighbourhood planning for children, youth concerns, social assistance, child welfare, public housing, day care, and community organizing.
WAYNE HELGASON
Wayne Helgason has worked in the field of social services field throughout his career. He is currently Executive Director of the very active and ever-expanding Social Planning Council of Winnipeg. He is also serving a second term as President of the National Association of Friendship Centres and was recently appointed Chair of the Aboriginal Technical Committee of Social Policy Renewal which advises the federal government on the implementation of a national child tax benefit. He is on the boards of the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg, the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg, and the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre. He was the founding Chairperson of Pritchard Place Drop-in centre where he continues to maintain close ties.Wayne is respected for his ability to work with a variety of different stakeholders. He is frequently asked to speak on many subjects, including Aboriginal self-government, children at-risk, poverty, employment and training, human rights, and social security reform. Recently, he lectured at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine and at the Canadian Centre for Management Development.
For five years, he was Executive Director of the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, an innovative Aboriginal child welfare agency, and has also worked for Northwest Child & Family Services, Child and Family Services of Winnipeg, and other human services organizations. He is a graduate of Carleton University, with a major in clinical psychology.
ROBERT FERN
Robert Fern is the Coordinator of the Organizational Culture Change Initiative at the Department of Canadian Heritage. This Initiative seeks to make employees and managers more aware of the benefits of a diversified workforce, and of the ways to answer the needs of a diversified clientele. Prior to this, Robert was Chief of the National Access Program of Parks Canada, overseeing a $20 million initiative to make 118 national parks, historic sites, and canals in Canada accessible to persons with disabilities. He has participated in many workshops on access and media design, access in architecture and maintenance, and sensitivity to diversity issues. He is the Chair of a National Seniors Advisory Council which deals with issues of concern in heritage areas, and Chair of a National Advisory Council of Persons who Have Disabilities, for Parks Canada.Robert is a member of numerous national and international committees on accessibility, and was part of the panel that wrote Canada's Barrier Free Design Standards, released in 1990. He has degrees from the University of Waterloo in History and Urban and Regional Planning.
AUDREY KOBAYASHI
Dr. Audrey Kobayashi is a well-known academic, active in advocacy issues in Canada. She has been a speaker, workshop facilitator, and consultant to government on such topics as multiculturalism, immigration, racism, employment equity, and gender issues. She is currently Director of the Institute of Women's Studies and a Professor of Geography at Queen's University. She was recently elected Chair of the Urban Geography Speciality Group of the Association of American Geographers, and Honorary President of Queen's University's Alma Mater Society. Dr. Kobayashi has published extensively, and in 1995, she received the Marion Porter Prize for the most significant feminist research article from a journal or anthology. She co-authored Urban Studies Research on Immigrants and Immigration in Canadian Cities for the Metropolis Project, and has written on multiculturalism, ethnicity statistics, ethnicity in Canadian cities, immigration law, race and gender in geography, the racialization of labour, and the Japanese-Canadian Redress Settlement.This year, she was elected Chair of the Canadian Ethnocultural Council's Board of Presidents, an organization with which she has been involved for the past 10 years. She has been a committee member of the National Association of Japanese-Canadians negotiating the Japanese-Canadian redress, and helped establish the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. Dr. Kobayashi has been a frequent commentator on CBC and other radio and television programs. She holds a PhD in geography from the University of California at Los Angeles, and an MA in geography from the University of British Columbia.
DIANNE PATYCHUK
Dianne Patychuk has been involved throughout her career in research on public health and related issues, and she is well-known for her efforts in community-based and collaborative research initiatives that support action and advocacy in equity and social justice issues. Dianne is currently a Social Epidemiologist for the City of Toronto's Public Health Department, where she designs equity and health research, facilitates the development and use of research information in city, health and community policies, and provides action planning on such topics as poverty, inner-city issues, homelessness, access barriers, and social service cutbacks.Dianne often helps to develop innovative projects using a variety of data sources. One project involves various institutional partners in providing data mapping for community health planning. In another project – KidsTrack – she is helping develop a template of indicators, and a process to facilitate the tracking of issues and the response to them, in order to promote the well-being of children at the neighbourhood level. Dianne is co-editor of Tracking Bits and Bytes, a monthly report on how the impact of funding cuts and funding policies is being reported and dealt with. She co-authored the report, Towards a Conceptual Framework of Ethnoracial Research and Data Collection.
From 1991 to 1995, Ms. Patychuk was the Research Coordinator for the Healthy Toronto 2000 project, where she developed a local resource base on health determinants and facilitated the use of the information through community consultations. She holds an MA in Sociology from Queen's University and a nursing diploma from the University of Alberta Hospital School of Nursing.
ROXANA NG
Dr. Roxana Ng is a leading feminist researcher in the areas of immigrant women and Canadian institutions. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, where she has taught for the past nine years. She has served on the board of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women for six years, one of them as President. She has lectured at to the Department of Women's Studies at Waikato University, New Zealand, and at the Department of Sociology at the University in Bergen, Norway.Dr. Ng has been published on an extensive range of topics, including immigrant women and education, racism and sexism, and community organization and the Canadian state. She has worked with immigrant women's groups across the country. Among her current research projects is a study on labour adjustment programs and their impact on immigrant women working in the garment industry. Her most recent book is The Politics of Community Services: Immigrant Women, Class and State.
JOANNE ST. LEWIS
Joanne St. Lewis enjoys a remarkable career in public speaking and advising governments and organizations on human rights and race relations. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa, teaching a variety of courses such as: Torts; Legislation and Public Law; History of Legal Thought; Criminal Justice Administration, Selected Problems in Legal Practice; Advocacy and Social Responsibility, and Civil Liberties. She is Co-Chair of the Canadian Bar Association's Working Group on Racial Equality in the Legal Profession.Prior to her academic appointment, Joanne was Executive Director of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF). She has been a Special Advisor on Race Relations to the Deputy Attorney General of Ontario; Director of the Educational Equity Program for the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa; Executive Assistant to the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission; and Special Assistant on Government Affairs to the Grand Chief of the Cree of Quebec. She has also been involved in a number of workshops and training programs for judges, crown attorneys, police officers, correctional officers, and staff in corporate and institutional settings.
ROOPCHAND SEEBARAN
Roopchand Seebaran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of British Columbia, teaching generalist social work practice, social and community development, multicultural policy and cross-cultural practices.Since the beginning of his professional practice, Professor Seebaran has been interested in the idea of "community." His research focuses on different concepts of community and on how to engage citizens in the building of healthy communities. Multicultural policy and programs, organizational development, and effective teamwork are other areas of interest. Roopchand is frequently asked by government and non-governmental organizations to make presentations, train staff, and lead workshops on these topics. He has been a Co-Chair of the Task Force on Multicultural/Racial Issues of the Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work, and Chair of the Advisory Council on Multiculturalism in BC which reports to the Provincial Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism and Human Rights. Roopchand has delivered keynote addresses at the Human Rights Coalition of BC Conference, the Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work Annual Conference, the Multiculturalism and Municipalities Provincial Conference in BC, and at the Regional Conference of Art Museums of North America.