Bios of Session Leaders

Diane Abbey-Livingston
Diane, principal of Diane Abbey-Livingston & Associates, Inc, is best known for her work in three areas: multi-stakeholder engagement and citizen consultation, organization development and leadership development.  She is also known for her willingness to collaborate and sense of fun. Diane and her associates support clients who want to engage their stakeholders in strategic plannning, strategy, policy and program development. Working locally and internationally with business, government and non-profit organizations, Diane has been an advocate, designer and facilitator of processes for meaningful engagement of people in decisions that affect not only their lives but also the lives of others. A pioneer in convening large group meetings as well as an ardent learner, she is a seasoned developer of unique designs for engagement.  She has developed curricula and on-line materials to support change projects. Understanding the power of conversations to generate change is always part of her leadership courses for managers and executives, as well as for leaders in industry and the voluntary sectors. 
Dianne is the conference Master of Ceremonies and will be leading the opening night!

Manon Abud
Manon is a high-energy, results-oriented public engagement professional, with a broad base of expertise and experiences in both the public and private sectors. As a partner and senior project lead with Ascentum, Manon has spearheaded a variety of online and in-person public engagement projects – always with a focus on implementing innovative approaches that foster informed participation and allow new voices to be heard in new ways. In addition to designing and implementing public engagement initiatives, Manon also has a proven track record as a communicator, facilitator and writer.  She holds a B.A. Communications and an MBA from the University of Ottawa.
Session:  103 Developing a Mental Health Strategy for Canada – through Dialogue and Deliberation

Action for ANC-SLAM
Action for ANC-SLAM has a core group of residents who work closely to make positive changes in their neighbourhood. This core group is guided by the neighbourhood mission and vision created by a larger group of residents. Over the last 3 years the residents have worked on many projects and initiatives that directly addressed the neighbourhood priorities and vision. Many of the core group members who will be present have been dedicated to this neighbourhood for many years and have or are currently leading their own projects or initiatives.
Session: 302  Creative Engagement – Using Mosaic Arts to Build Resident Connection

Genevieve Adams
Kick starting a career in Health Canada as a public involvement advisor with the intent of connecting and building strong ties within and outside of government.  Bringing a youthful and innovative perspective on public engagement, learning from and teaching others essential skills for optimal involvement.  
Session: N3  Courage as a practice of freedom for open conversations

Shahid Akhtar
Shahid Akhtar is trained in Law and in addition to having practiced as International Corporate Lawyer, has worked as a journalist, TV host, literary critic, mediator and conciliator, workplace and harassment prevention coordinator and human resources specialist. For the past eighteen years Shahid Akhtar has worked as a Coordinator of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Policy for the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services.  He has trained more than 10,000 managers and staff in techniques to prevent harassment and discrimination and resolve workplace conflicts.  Currently Shahid is the Executive Director of Conciliators Without Borders. Shahid is the founder and co-chair of the Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims established in 1996.
Session: 305. Together in Hope – the Importance of Having Courageous Conversations (Field Visit)

Hania Amad
Hania Amad is recognized for her expertise in the areas of business process development and continuous improvements, program management, product/quality assurance, software engineering, infrastructure development and tools, compliance verification and governance. Hania is a member of Together in Hope, a Jewish- Arab dialogue group founded in 2009 with the purpose of bridging gaps, and presenting a model based on cooperation, interfaith tolerance and understanding of issues affecting both communities.  Hania holds a B Eng from McGill University and an MBA from University of Western Ontario Richard Ivey School of Business.

Shaheen Ariefdien
A former MC for the pioneering South African group Prophets of da City and a hip-hop producer, Shaheen toured and performed with artists that include James Brown, Afrika Bambaata, Spearhead and the Fugees. He has worked on numerous youth education projects focusing on the use of hip-hop as a tool for social justice in both South Africa and abroad.  Some of these projects included voter education campaigns, creative writing for imprisoned youth, and educational workshops in Northern Ireland, Holland, Switzerland, Norway, and Angola, to name a few. Shaheen is a recent graduate of York University’s Master’s programme in Social Anthropology.
Session: 602  Youth Consultation Sessions: Conversational Limits and Critical Arts-Based Possibilities

Joanna Ashworth
Joanna Ashworth is the director of Dialogue Programs, Continuing Studies, Simon Fraser University. Prior to joining SFU she worked in educational planning, community development, and management positions with the United Nations in Latin America and in Canada. Seeking new ways to communicate and educate through media has led her to produce video and audio documentaries for diverse types of learning needs. Joanna’s research interests include innovations in leadership education, dialogue and deliberation as hermeneutics, and uncovering tacit knowledge through reflective practice and narrative.
Session: 706  Hosting Dialogues on Harmony and Inclusion

Keresa “KC” Bailey
KC exhibited musical talent at an early age, performing at church, and in front of family and friends. Since then KC has taken part in various community projects and youth programs with organizations such as Urban NOISE and The Royal Conservatory of Music. She has performed at multiple community events and festivals. She is currently a student at York University, studying communications and sociology, while continuing to grow musically. KC, along with several of her peers, is currently designing a program in hopes of giving other youth the opportunity to express themselves through music and feel a sense of empowerment.
Session: 602  Youth Consultation Sessions: Conversational Limits and Critical Arts-Based Possibilities

Brie Barker
Brie Barker is the Artistic Director of Sanitas Playback Theatre (www.sanitasplayback.com) in Ottawa, Ontario.  A founding member of Toronto Playback Theatre in 2002, Brie was awarded the 2004 International Fellowship from the School of Playback Theatre in New York and has been a guest performer with National Playback Theater (USA).  Beyond playback, Brie is an actor, a writer and a corporate communications consultant who develops and delivers training programs throughout North America.  He invites you to be authentic.
Session: 301  Playback Theatre:  Setting the Stage for Empathic Deliberation

Karen Barkley
Karen Barkley has worked in International Development in Asia and Africa, and is co-founder of CORE International, a Canadian NGO with current projects in Nepal. Karen will start her Masters degree in January with a focus on Global Change - environment and social. 
Session: 204  World Wide Views Canada: Citizen Voices in a Global World

Victor Beausoleil
Victor Beausoleil is a facilitator and lecturer on youth engagement and indigenous cultures. As a youth advocate he has been dedicated to decriminalizating marginalized and under-served Toronto youth. Victor developed and implemented the African Book Collaboration in Scarborough, a grassroots community-based library service coprised of 450+ books on the culture, story, and life of African peoples. He has committed himself to restorative justice programming on a weekly basis for young men in need of focused reintegration work through the “Rites of Passage program†. Victor has worked as a Provincial youth outreach worker and a youth engagement coordinator for the past seven years, is currently the Project Coordinator of a youth space feasibility study and the Involve Youth engagement coordinator for Tropicana Community Services.
Session:  507  Rites of Passage

Karen Bonner
Karen Bonner is a Canadian federal public servant who has, over the last ten years, been creating space for human potential and workplace communities to grow and emerge throughout several fields of practice.  With 20 years of experience as a manager, Karen comes to the conference with a willingness to share the truth of her experience of stepping into a context that is opening space for her to move through her workplace in a very different and life enhancing way.
Session: 306  Conversation Readiness:  are you willing and able to speak the truth of your experience?

Pat Bonner
Pat Bonner has been doing public engagement from the local, regional, national through international levels since 1971.  After starting San Diego’s County’s environmental information and citizen involvement program, Pat spent 11 years as Information Director for the International Joint Commission in Windsor, 6 years as Communications Director for EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program and 2 as External Affairs Director in Seattle before being detailed to the White House to support intergovernmental work in coastal areas.  She led development of EPA’s Public Involvement Policy and in 2001 coordinated a two-week Internet-based Dialogue for 1,166 individuals from 50 states and six nations. Pat developed EPA collaboration training and recently has been EPA’s point person on Open Government.
Session: 405  The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Open Government and Web 2.0

Jennifer Boyko
Jennifer Boyko is currently the Lead of Evidence Synthesis and Evaluation with the McMaster Health Forum. Her 10 years of experience includes management and consulting roles on projects related to knowledge translation and exchange. She has worked with a spectrum of community-based, provincial and national organizations spanning public health, primary care and health policy. Jennifer has a MHSc in Health Promotion from the University of Toronto, a diploma in Health Services and Policy Research and is currently completing a PhD in the Health Research Methodology at McMaster.
Session: 401  Deliberative Dialogues as a Knowledge Translation Strategy for System Level Decision-making

Linda S. Campbell
Linda S. Campbell works on BMP’s Social Service and Social Change project, with groups in her community of Detroit Michigan, and throughout the US and Canada. Linda is an Independent Consultant providing consulting and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations in strategic planning; program planning and development; nonprofit start-up; board training and leadership development. She has provided technical assistance in capacity building to a variety of community and faith based nonprofit organizations. Linda served as Executive Director for one of NYC oldest AIDS service organizations, Minority Task Force on AIDS; and as Senior Director at the Michigan Public Health Institute and the National Center for Health Education. She has also served as a founding board member for several community based nonprofits beginning in 1985, and during the past two years, has provided planning assistance to local African American health institute initiatives in Michigan. Linda holds a Masters Degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan.
Session: 605  Learning Circles as a Tool for Moving from Social Service to Social Change

Cathy Carmody
Cathy Carmody, is an educator, author, WEL-Systems Catalyst™, and creator of the Finding Your Voice initiative. Cathy holds a deep belief that our individual potential is limitless, and is our birthright.  Cathy has over three decades of organizational experience in opening and creating space for individuals to find and reclaim their voices, acknowledge the truth of their experience, and use their truth to ignite and accelerate powerful, life changing conversations.
Session: 306  Conversation Readiness:  are you willing and able to speak the truth of your experience?

Karen Charnow Lior  
Karen Lior has been involved in analysis and research related to labour force development policies and programs for the past 15 years. She was a panellist at the OECD Metropolitan Review of Toronto and a key informant at the Global Strategies: Improving Working Conditions for the Working Poor, McGill University, May 2008. Karen is the Executive Director of the Toronto Workforce Innovation Group (formerly the Toronto Training Board). The organization’s mandate is to “support sustainable jobs in a vibrant economy” and is known for the ability to develop innovative solutions to complex issues through strategic partnerships.
Session: 104  Where Will We work? Matching Supply and Demand to Grow Toronto’s Labour Force

Community Builders Exchange (CBE)
CBE are residents from various neighbourhoods involved with Action for Neighbourhood Change (ANC), across Toronto.. ANC is a community development initiative funded by United Way Toronto that aims to increase resident involvement in the life of their neighbourhoods and increase their influence over neighbourhood conditions. ANC is based on the belief that resident leadership is an essential building block of strong and healthy neighbourhoods.
Session: 809  Community Builders Exchange - Creating Sustainable Communities

Jacquie Dale
Jacquie Dale is the President and CEO of One World Inc – a company that specializes in consultation and engagement processes based on the principles of productive dialogue.  A Canadian pioneer in the use of Deliberative Dialogue, she has won major awards for her work in public engagement.  She loves the challenge of designing and managing complex consultation and dialogue initiatives. A Certified Management Consultant, Jacquie has more than 20 years of experience in public consultation, organizational and community development, adult education, and capacity-building, both in Canada and internationally. She has presented at a number of conferences, including C2D2, IAP2 and NCDD conferences.
Session: 403  The Goodness of Fit – Matching Values and Policy Priorities

Robert Davis
Robert Davis has been practicing civic engagement and public consultation for 22 years.  Currently on secondment to Toronto City Clerk’s Office, Robert is assisting with developing and enhancing Web 2.0 processes related to Toronto Council’s outreach activities.  When not on special assignment, Robert manages the Public Consultation Unit, which provides full-service public consultation to environmental assessment (EA) and non-EA projects for Toronto Water, Solid Waste Management Services, Transportation Services, the Toronto Environment Office and the TTC.  
Session: 705  Facebook and Other Social Media as a Civic Engagement Tool

Rachel Dhawan
Born and raised in a socially active immigrant household in Toronto, Rachel Dhawan spent most of her youth raising awareness about student rights and discrimination in schools.  Rachel was the youngest member of the inaugural Youth Committee for the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. Aside from running a peer training and mentorship program at her high school, Rachel was trained and volunteered as a counselor for a youth help line in her community. She has also spoken at high schools around Ontario about self-esteem for young women. Rachel has been conducting Youth Friendly Guide workshops since 2006.
Session: 707  Young Canadians @the polls: Engaging youth in Canadian Democracy

Jason Diceman
Jason is a member of the C2D2 Board of Directors.  He is a full-time stakeholder engagement consultant for Lura Consulting (lura.ca)  in Toronto where he works to empower citizen sector organizations with simple methods for facilitating constructive consultation and deliberation among diverse stakeholders.  Along with having extensive knowledge of various engagement methodologies, Jason has created his own innovative paper based advanced Dotmocracy (dotmocracy.org)  materials and techniques for conducting efficient participatory decision making within large numbers of people in a variety of face-to-face and out of meeting environments. Jason has researched consensus cultures in eco-villages in Denmark and spent six months in Venezuela investigating their evolving participatory democracy.
Session: 804  Conference Consensus Document Workshop

Karen Dixon
The Conflict Resolution Service (CRS) at St. Stephen’s Community House has been proving community mediation in downtown Toronto since 1985 and training individuals, communities, and organizations in conflict management techniques since 1988.  We work with people in many different types of disputes in their private lives, communities, businesses and government. Improving communication and strengthening relationships is at the heart of our work. Karen Dixon coordinates our community mediation service, doing case management and supervising approximately 50 volunteer mediators. She has a background in youth services and community work.
Session: 503  Community Mediation as Dialogue

Brenda Doner 
Brenda Doner has thirty years experience in the community benefit sector, including time working with arts groups and in Africa and Asia. Employers include CUSO, the Mennonite Central Committee, IMPACS – the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society, the Canada Volunteerism Initiative and Tamarack, an Institute for Community Engagement. She has managed several national and provincial cross-sectoral initiatives focusing on citizen engagement and how civil society contributes to public policy. She is the Learning Coordinator for Tamarack’s Vibrant Communities, a poverty reduction movement, and Coordinator of Food Secure Canada, the national organization where agriculture, environment, food, health and justice intersect.
Session: 202  Communities of Practice: Tamarack’s (and your) Experience

Melissa Elliott
Melissa Elliott is also one of the co-founders of Y.O.U., is a full-time student in the Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa – Mohawk Language program on Six Nations, and has extensive experience organizing and advocating for youth with such groups as the Indigenous Youth Caucus of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Native Youth For Life, Spirit of the Youth Working Group, the Aboriginal Students Association at York, etc.
Session: 606  Seeing through our eyes: Experiencing Dialogue and Deliberation through the Indigenous perspective

Jim Faught
Jim Faught is Lura’s Director of Community Engagement. Jim has over 20 years experience in the design and delivery of multi stakeholder processes, strategic community engagement, environmental policy development and business management planning. Jim previously served as the Provincial Stewardship Coordinator for the Ministry of Natural Resources, and as Executive Director of Ontario Nature. Currently, Jim is the project manager and facilitation lead for York Region and the renaming of Highway 7. He also serves as the Project Director for Community Based Social Marketing projects for Great Lakes Phosphorus Management and Rondeau Bay.
Session: 601  Community Collaboration for the Severn Sound Sustainability Plan

Adam Fritz  
Adam Fritz is a policy advisor in the Aboriginal and Stakeholder Affairs Division of Environment Canada and a canada@150 participant.
Session: 806  Overcoming Complexity through Collaboration: Web 2.0, foresight and the canada@150 experience

Andy Garrow
Andy is on a two year interchange with the Legacy of Hope Foundation and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Working for these organizations as a Senior Advisor/Senior Research Office, he has been responsible for coordinating a number of projects including a think tank on civil society engagement, and the 1000 Conversations Across Canada on Reconciliation initiative. In the previous 6 years, he held various positions with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, most recently as Senior Advisor (Partnerships) in the area responsible for implementing the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.  
Session: N1  Reconciliation: Redefining relationships and building a new Canada

Kim Hannah
Pursuing a career in Health Canada for the past 24 years, including experience as a public involvement practitioner and advisor, with a passion for bringing the theory of deliberation, dialogue and public engagement to life to support the enhancement of employee and organizational knowledge, skills and abilities.
Session: N3 Courage as a practice of freedom for open conversations

Peter Jones
Toronto’s Peter Jones heads a US-based design firm, Redesign Research, and is managing partner of Dialogic Design International, a “strategy by design” consultancy. Peter is a faculty member of OCAD, an advisor and instructor in their new Master’s in Strategic Foresight and Innovation. He wrote We Tried to Warn You!  Innovations in Leadership for the Learning Organization (2008) and is researching Design for Care: Making Design a Critical Healthcare Profession (Rosenfeld, 2010). He is a board member of the Institute for 21st Century Agoras, which applies dialogic design for inclusive, multi-stakeholder participation for democratic solutions to complex and widely-shared concerns.  
Session: 704  Artful and Disciplined Dialogue for Today’s Wicked Problems

Cathy Ann Kelly
Cathy Ann Kelly is Manager of Restorative Approaches Programming for YOUCAN. She is a trainer and student of the dialogue process. Cathy Ann is a graduate of Carleton University and a former graduate student of Saint Paul University’s MA in Conflict Studies. She is a conflict resolution practitioner, specializing in the circle and dialogue processes. Cathy Ann has a love of inquiry, questioning and exploring the possibilities for understanding through dialogue. While working in Europe she explored finding ways of working together in a multi-cultural context.  Her work with YOUCAN involves creating safe spaces for difficult conversations in federal institutions, schools and communities. 
Session: 701  Victims, Offenders and Community:  In dialogue for change.

Usman “Blitz” Khawaja
Growing up in an environment where music or any art form was not thought highly of, Usman  kept his love for music to himself. One day, while volunteering at his local library, Usman came across an organization that had singing/song writing workshops called “UrbanNoise”. Through that, he realized there were other similar groups/organizations that supported such things. After UrbanNOISE, Usman has been invoved with The Royal Conservatory School’s Sound Connections project, Beat.Mind.Movement, and Beatz 2 Da Street. Usman is currently working on his album that will contain songs written by him and mostly produced by him as well.
Session: 602  Youth Consultation Sessions: Conversational Limits and Critical Arts-Based Possibilities

Raja G. Khouri
Raja G. Khouri is managing consultant at The Knowledge Centre, specializing in organizational development and capacity building in the non-profit sector. He is a Commissioner at the Ontario Human Rights Commission, co-chair of the Advocacy Committee of Human Rights Watch Canada, and co-founder of the Canadian Arab-Jewish Leadership Dialogue Group.  Raja formerly served on Ontario’s Hate Crimes Community Working Group for the Attorney General and Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, and was on the Minister of Education’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy Roundtable.  He is a former president of the Canadian Arab Federation and board member at the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs.  
Session: 305  Together in Hope – the Importance of Having Courageous Conversations

Isabelle Kim
Isabelle is an educator and researcher interested in community-based arts, action research, and popular education. She is a recent graduate from The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (OISE/UT), where she authored the multimedia Ph.D thesis Youth Videomaking Projects: a Spoken Word Study (2007). Her work explores the role and potential of community arts and education to effect social change. Isabelle is currently managing outreach programmes at The Royal Conservatory School.
Session: 602  Youth Consultation Sessions: Conversational Limits and Critical Arts-Based Possibilities

Pattie LaCroix
Pattie LaCroix has more than two decades of strategic planning and stakeholder engagement experience in Canada, the US, Africa and south Asia. Pattie has most recently developed an online strategy to support TransLink’s first online public consultation in Metro Vancouver.  She has provided strategic leadership services to organizations such as the National Learning Community on Youth Homelessness, the Positive Women’s Network, Choices for Youth, Make Poverty History, the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and the National Peace Corps Association.
Session: 105  Consultation 2.0 - Best Practices to Create Your Online Engagement Plan

Shari Laliberte
Shari Laliberte is a Ph.D. student at the UBC School of Nursing. Building on previous research and a cross-jurisdictional review of whole systems governance models for the B.C. government in 2009, Shari has been exploring economic justice/democracy as a determinant of the socio-environmental determinants of child and youth mental health. Dr. Bernie Pauly is an assistant professor at the University of Victoria. Building on her dissertation and post-doctoral research in  inequities in access to health care for those who are street involved, Bernie’s program of research focuses on ethics, health inequity, homelessness and substance use.
Session: N2  Economic Justice: The foundation of healthy democracies?

Miriam Lapp
Miriam Lapp joined Elections Canada in 2002. In her current position as Assistant Director, Outreach and Research, she is responsible for managing outreach programs and research, and providing policy advice on electoral participation and voter outreach strategies, with a particular focus on youth engagement. Previously, she managed research and logistical support for Elections Canada’s international activities, including the international monitoring missions for the 2005 elections in Iraq and the 2006 elections in Haiti. Prior to joining Elections Canada, she was an assistant professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Université de Montréal, with a specialization in electoral participation.
Session: 707  Young Canadians @the polls: Engaging youth in Canadian Democracy

Caroline Lee
I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Anthropology & Sociology Department at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. My research interests include social movements, deliberative democracy, and the democratic potential of new technologies. I am currently researching the public deliberation field, with a focus on process facilitators and deliberation associations like C2D2.  
Session: 402  D&D Practitioners Survey Report: What is the State of the Field?
 
Mary Pat MacKinnon
Mary Pat is a research practitioner with deep experience across community, public and private spheres in Canada and abroad, with a focus on bringing people and policy together to strengthen democratic institutions and practices. She combines management, research/writing, policy, government affairs, facilitation and design, and public speaking expertise. Joining Ascentum in 2008, Mary Pat has led and co-led innovative citizen and stakeholder dialogue projects for a variety of clients. She is also Senior Fellow, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa. She has a BA (Hons. Political Studies & History) and an MPA from Queens’ University. 
Session: 103  Developing a Mental Health Strategy for Canada – through Dialogue and Deliberation

Diane Mandell
Diane Mandell is former Director of Programs and Communications at the Ontario Social Development Council, where she worked to promote more equitable public policies and programs, and to empower vulnerable populations to participate fully in civil society. During a career spanning some forty years, Diane gained experience in a wide range of policy areas including immigration, deinstitutionalization, micro enterprise, sustainable development and youth justice. Developing innovative partnerships among the private, public and voluntary sectors was a key part of her efforts as was her involvement with the Interfaith Social Assistance Review Coalition (ISARC).  Diane holds an Honours B.A. in Political Science and a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Toronto. She is a member of Together in Hope, an Arab/Jewish women’s dialogue group in Toronto.

Catherine Martell
Catherine Martell (Essence Communications, Vancouver, BC) is a communications specialist & community engagement facilitator with extensive training in conflict resolution & group harmonics.  She has completed the International Association for Public Participation Certificate Program in Public Participation  & has worked extensively in a variety of advocacy & coalition-building capacities.  Authentic engagement of diverse communities to inform government & equitable social policy development has long been a hallmark of her work. Catherine is particularly interested in trans-generational community engagement which includes youths, especially those who are called to serve as social transformation agents in these challenging times.
Session: 101  Authentic Engagement of Marginalized Communities

Jennifer Medlock
Jennifer Medlock is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Communication and Culture. Her research interests are in the area of public involvement in science and technology issues, specifically the use of deliberative models of consultation and the institutionalization of public participation practices into policy development processes.
Session: 204  World Wide Views Canada: Citizen Voices in a Global World

Anthony Michel
Anthony Michel is a policy advisor in the Strategic Policy Division of Canadian Heritage and a canada@150 participant.
Session: 806  Overcoming Complexity through Collaboration: Web 2.0, foresight and the canada@150 experience

Karen Mock
Karen Mock, a psychologist, teacher and human rights consultant, is former Executive Director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, and of the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada. Considered a pioneer in the field, she developed the first course in multicultural teacher education in Canada. She has developed and delivered training programs at all levels of the criminal justice system, and has been qualified by the Canadian courts and human rights tribunals as an expert on hate groups, racism, discrimination and antisemitism. Dr. Mock chaired the Hate Crimes Community Working Group that reported to the Attorney General and Minister of Community Safety and Corrections in December 2006, and was Senior Policy Advisor on Equity and Diversity to the Minister of Education for the development and delivery of Ontario’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy, launched in June 2009. She is a founding active member of the Anti-Racism Multicultural Educators’ Network of Ontario, the Women’s Interfaith Dialogue, Muslim/Jewish Dialogue, Black/Jewish Dialogue, and Arab/Jewish Leadership Dialogue Group.
Session: 305. Together in Hope – the Importance of Having Courageous Conversations (Field Visit)

Gillian Mulvale
Gillian is a member of the team that is developing the Mental Health Commission’s Mental Health Strategy for Canada. Gillian contributes to developing the public and stakeholder engagement process, the development of the strategy itself, and research to support the strategy. Gillian interfaces with members of the MHCC’s eight advisory committees and governments and stakeholders across the country. Gillian holds a PhD in Health Research Methods and a B.A. and M.A. in economics. Her studies focused on methods in health economics and policy analysis as applied to the mental health sector. Gillian is also a mental health consumer
Session: 103  Developing a Mental Health Strategy for Canada – through Dialogue and Deliberation

Evelyn Murialdo
Evelyn Murialdo is the Director – Strategic Alliances of Toronto Community Housing Corporation. Over the years, Evelyn has specialized in adult education, organizational development and community development within an anti-racist, multicultural and multilingual context.  Evelyn has worked in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Canada. In Canada, she is best know for introducing study circles as a learning setting for staff training and organizational development.  She is also known for her work in developing anti-racist anti discriminatory policies and practices as well as consumer input systems with public institutions, the community-based voluntary sector as well as citizen organizations and groups. She has volunteered in numerous community-based organizations, voluntary agencies and advisory boards.
Conference Co-Chair

Peggy Nash
Peggy Nash is Assistant to CAW president Ken Lewenza. She is a senior CAW negotiator responsible for bargaining in the transportation and education sectors. She was the first labour woman in North America to lead bargaining in the auto sector prior to being elected as the first New Democratic Party Member of Parliament in the Toronto riding of Parkdale-High Park. She was a member of the House of Commons Committee on Industry Science & Technology.  Peggy has pioneered programs for women within the union, at the bargaining table and in the community for which she has been recognized by the City of Toronto and the YWCA with a Women of Distinction Award. She was an international elected observer during the fist post apartheid election in South Africa in 1994 and twice observed elections in Ukraine. She is the recipient of two environmental awards from the Sierra Club of Canada for her work in helping create the NDP Green Car Strategy with Greenpeace and the
Canadian Auto Workers. Presently, Peggy is a member of the Board of Directors for Invest Toronto.  Peggy holds an Honours BA in French Literature and Language. She and her husband Carl live in Toronto and have three sons.
Session: Friday Morning Plenary

Participatory Budgeting Group
We are a group of engaged tenants who are interested in Participatory Budgeting. Some of us are members of the Toronto Community Housing (TCH) Tenant Engagement Reference Committee (TERC), working to improve tenant engagement at TCH. We have all actively participated in the Participatory Budgeting process for several years and believe that through making decisions about how capital dollars are spent in our community; we become engaged, we strengthen our voice, build community pride and create positive change in our community.
Session: 702  Participatory Budgeting: How we got there

People for Education
People for Education is an independent, parent-led organization occupying a unique position in Ontario’s educational landscape. We understand the needs of parents, but we also work with policy-makers, community organizations, academics and educators. We have extensive experience working with multiple partners to promote positive change and achieve common goals. In the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail, we have been referred to as “the most credible source of information on education in the province” and “the best public education advocacy organization in Ontario.” The session will be led by Marie-France LeFort, Sue Winton, Annie Kidder and Gay Stephenson.
Session: 504  Transforming schools for the 21st century

Jay Potter
Jay Potter, a canada@150 participant, joined the federal public service in 2007 where he worked at the Treasury Board Secretariat. He is currently on leave and is attending law school at the University of Toronto.
Session: 806  Overcoming Complexity through Collaboration: Web 2.0, foresight and the canada@150 experience

Jeff Potts
Jeff Potts is the Manager of the Hepatitis C Prevention, Support and Research Program.  For half of his life, Jeff’s professional work has been in the infectious diseases domain, and for more than a decade in public service, almost exclusively in positions within the health portfolio, and almost entirely in policy and program areas associated with hepatitis C prevention, support and research.  He brings to his current position extensive domestic and international experience, a true passion for public health work, and a steadfast perspective on life – and on living life to its absolute fullest potential.
Session: 805  A Public Health Response to Hepatitis: Let’s Talk About It

Arujan Ravindran
Arujan “Crow” Ravindran became interested in music in his pre-teen years and since then has worked on improving his musical abilities in order to pursue a career in music. Seeking help and mentoring, Arujan got involved in community programs such as “Urban Arts”, “Elevated Ground” and The Royal Conservatory of Music’s Sound Connections Project. He is currently a student at Ryerson in the Radio and Television program. Arujan is hoping to contribute to positive change on society with his music.
Session: 602  Youth Consultation Sessions: Conversational Limits and Critical Arts-Based Possibilities

Kate Raynes-Goldie
Kate Raynes-Goldie is an online community expert and PhD candidate at the Curtin University of Technology internet studies program in Australia. Her thesis examines the impact of Facebook on privacy, identity and communication. Previously, she worked as an online community engagement ninja at a number of technology-focused NGOs. She also holds a BA (hons) in semiotics and philosophy from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s New Media program. Her work has been featured in variety of venues, including the Globe and Mail, CBC radio and the MacArthur Foundation series on digital media and learning.
Session: 106  Facebook: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Judy Rebick
CAW-Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University in Toronto. Judy was the founding publisher of rabble.ca, Canada’s most popular progressive online publication. She is the author of several books, the most recent of which is Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution. For most the 1990s, Judy was the host of a national TV show on CBC Newsworld. Previously, she was president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Canada’s largest women’s group.
Session: Plenary on Sunday October 25 - Social Media:  Democratic Participation, Citizen Journalism and Dialogue and Deliberation

Chandra Rice
Chandra is a visual artist, a storyteller, and an educator.  In her role as a Community Engagement Advisor at the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant (HNHB) Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), she gets to bring her passion for these forms of creative expression to engaging the public in dialogue and deliberation about health care.  She believes strongly that it is our differences that lead to a stronger whole - and thus focuses her engagement work on bringing people that hold different ideas about health care together to share their experiences, their needs, and their vision of the future of health care.
Session: 102  Let’s Talk: How Conversations Shape the Health Care System

Safe Engaged Environments Disability (SEED)
SEED is a community based partnership that sees a world where all people participate fully in life without fear or preventable harm. Through dialogue and deliberation SEED builds bridges and understanding between people from different disability sectors to identify common barriers to community safety, develop community capacity and prepare an action plan to bring about systems level change on safety. SEED is a diverse collaboration in terms of disability, age, class, culture, gender, income, race and sexual orientation and is funded by the City of Toronto’s Community Investment program and Toronto Community Housing’s Social Investment Fund.
Session: 304  Safe Engaged Environments Disability Project: Building Bridges and Breaking Barriers

Michelle Sanders
Michelle Sanders is a policy advisor in the Legislative Governance Division of Environment Canada and a canada@150 participant.
Session: 806  Overcoming Complexity through Collaboration: Web 2.0, foresight and the canada@150 experience

Wardah Sardar
Wardah has always seen herself as an artist, but she never had the confidence to express herself in front of everyone. Ever since she joined Flemo City Media (FCM) in the summer of 2007, she found “Eva.” Eva is the fearless lion that resides in Wardah, and it is her biggest strength, because she has the capability of using it whenever she feels the need to. Through her involvement in various extracurricular activities, including acting, singing, and radio broadcasting, Wardah has gained the ability to express herself in ways that she couldn’t have even imagined before.
Session: 602  Youth Consultation Sessions: Conversational Limits and Critical Arts-Based Possibilities

Simone Samuels
Is a Tenant who has lived in TCH for 8 months. She is a mother and one and a very active community organizer.  Her efforts have resulted in setting up a new commuter program in her local community center which services underprivileged children
Session: 607  A Direct and Honest Conversation with my Landlord, “from 8 months to Life”

Sakura Saunders
Sakura Saunders is an organizer for ProtestBarrick.net, an all-volunteer online network of groups researching and organizing around mining issues, particularly involving Barrick Gold. It contains news articles, testimonies, and backgrounders about Barrick’s operations worldwide. Ms. Saunders came to Protest Barrick as an independent journalist and activist, whose radio/tv work has appeared on Democracy Now! and Sprouts radio and whose writing is published regularly on CorpWatch.org and The Dominion paper in Canada. Every year, Sakura organizes a tour of impacted communities in Canada, to learn from each other’s campaigns as well as bring their stories to Barrick’s shareholders, Parliament, the public and the UN.
Session: 604  Creating Accountability for Transnational Industry: multi-level dialogues for social change

Save Our Structures: Everyone Deserves a Decent Home
We are tenants and community members supporting a campaign to address the issue of capital repair funding for Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). As tenants, we volunteer our time to address this matter to improve the conditions in the buildings we call home. Between 2004 and 2006 over 400,000 requests for repairs were made by tenants to TCHC. As tenants, we stress that the need is immediate and we urge the government to address this issue with a dedicated funding strategy.  Our emotional and physical well being depends on prompt action.  Save Our Structures because everyone deserves a decent home.
Session: 807  A Successful Journey: How Conversations and Dialogue Saved Our Structures.

Shadman Shababa
Shadman has been involved in many programmes both for herself and for the community she resides in. She has co-created a mural within the local youth centre and a representation of her police division to be unveiled as part of a mosaic at the police training academy. Shadman has also volunteered for children’s programmes. She is currently co-designing a music education program that will gather youth from all around Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods, while at the same time developing her own music skills. Shadman is studying to become a graphic designer and has a music project on the side
Session: 602  Youth Consultation Sessions: Conversational Limits and Critical Arts-Based Possibilities

Amanda Sheedy
Amanda Sheedy loves good food, good conversation and any process that deepens our democratic culture.  Currently, she coordinates the People’s Food Policy Project, which aims to unite the voices of Canadians to develop the People’s Food Policy, a national policy platform based in the principles of food sovereignty that will provide the framework for a just and sustainable food system in Canada.  She brings to this work a decade of experience in participatory democracy, community development and food activism. She wrote a “Handbook on Citizen Engagement: Beyond Consultation” in 2008.
Session: 502  Using dialogue and deliberation to strengthen the food movement in Canada

Silent Voices
The members of the silent voices workshop are engaged citizens who are part of the Tenant Engagement Reference Committee (TERC). TERC worked with staff to analyze the results of over 15 tenant consultations, which then informed the creation of an enhanced system combining broader engagement and governance.
Session: 205  Silent Voices: How Conversations are Vital to Neighbourhood Wellbeing and Development

Jennifer Smith
Jennifer Smith is the President of JLS Management Consulting Inc. and is an active member of the Canadian Evaluation Society and is an expert in program evaluation.  Jennifer has been working in the area of evaluation since 1994 and is particularly interested in finding new ways of demonstrating results from complex initiatives that ultimately aim to change attitudes and behaviours.  Over the years, Jennifer has led the development and testing of new and innovative methodologies for measuring and evaluating outcomes from initiatives involving complex, multi-jurisdictions and multiple stakeholders, including those in the areas of public consultation, deliberation and dialogue.
Session: 802  Discovering Ways to Measure and Demonstrate Outcomes from Dialogue and Deliberation Activities

Tabatha Soltay
Tabatha Soltay is a canada@150 participant who currently works for the Policy Research Initiative, an organization working to facilitating inter-departmental collaboration.
Session: 806  Overcoming Complexity through Collaboration: Web 2.0, foresight and the canada@150 experience

Speak On It
Speak On It is a collective of young people from diverse    backgrounds who came together for the first at the Canadian Council for Refugees’ 2009 Spring Consultative Conference. We are part of the next generation of leaders advocating for the rights of immigrants and refugees. We are passionate on these issues because we all share the experience of witnessing the challenges of making Canada a new home.  We are the next step, and a far cry from success, but a positive image of integration. We are determined to advocate for the unification of Canadians to support the cause.
Session: 603  Speak On it: Immigrants & Refugees Lost in Translation

Isabella Tatar
Isabella Tatar has worked on issues affecting Aboriginal Canadians for over ten years.  She is currently the Executive Director of the Legacy of Hope Foundation, an organization that seeks to raise levels of awareness and understanding of the legacy of Canada’s Residential School System.  Prior to joining the Foundation in 2007, she held a number of senior roles within the federal government where she worked on issues related to Aboriginal land claims, treaty rights, and mental health and wellness.   Ms. Tatar holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration, with a specialization in social policy.
Session: 501  Coming to terms with a difficult history, one conversation at a time.

TCH Human Rights Ambassadors
In 2005, 11 marginalized youth living in Toronto Community Housing/TCH traveled to Ghana to participate in an intercontinental dialogue on race, class, gender, HIV/AIDS, international development and access to education and health. Two of the youth built on their learningss to become facilitators that formed the basis for the TCH Tenant Ambassador Model. Through the use of stories, animation and engagement they worked with a core group of 12 TCH tenants to become Human Rights Ambassadors. The group fosters change through knowledge exchange of human rights topics with a goal to share this with other tenants and staff of TCH.
Session: 107  Two Cities Connect – Fostering Human Rights Culture/Dialogue in TCH

Trish Tchume
As the Director of Civic Engagement for the Building Movement Project, Trish Tchume supports the Project’s ongoing work of integrating social change values and practices into nonprofit service organizations. Prior to joining the Building Movement Project in April of 2008, Trish served first as a Campus Organizer and then as a Community Outreach Manager for Action Without Borders/Idealist.org. Additionally, she serves as a member for the national board of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network. Through each of these roles, Trish has had the privilege of helping to strengthen the social justice work of inspiring individuals and nonprofit organizations by connecting them with resources and networking opportunities.
Session: 605  Learning Circles as a Tool for Moving from Social Service to Social Change

Tenant Engagement Reference Committee (TERC)
The Tenant Engagement Reference Committee (TERC) worked with staff to analyze the results of over 15 tenant consultations, which then informed the creation of an enhanced system combining broader engagement and governance.
Session: 809  Tenants can be seen and heard

The Anti-Ableism Committee (AAC)
The ACC is committed to raising awareness, improving accessibility and enhancing the quality of life for all tenants of the TCHC.   Members advocate for a barrier free environment and involvement in decisions affecting tenants and the community in cooperation with the Tenant Participation System.  We strive to make accessibility a priority in all TCHC planning. It is the AAC’s mandate to educate tenants, staff and the community on unfair conceptions and practices towards tenants with disabilities in order to create a better living environment. The AAC also addresses and supports the needs of tenants aging in place.  
Session: 201  Discussion with the TCHC Anti-Ableism Committee’s Mental Health Workgroup

The Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter (CCNCTO)
CCNCTO is an organization of Chinese Canadians in Toronto that promotes equity, social justice, inclusive civic participation, and respect for diversity. We achieve this by conducting activities in the areas of: public education, systemic advocacy, community development, and coalition building. Yishin Khoo is currently working with a group of Chinese Canadian youth at CCNCTO on a civic engagement, and alternative social planning project about Toronto’s Chinatowns. The project aims to document best practices for promoting intergenerational dialogue within the Chinese community in Toronto as well as civic participation of Chinese Canadians with different backgrounds.
Session: 303  Tok and Wok Chinatown: Unpacking Stereotypes through Conversation

Joslyn Trowbridge
Joslyn is a graduate of the Master of Public Policy (2009) program at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, Germany.   She concentrated in Democratic Theory and Innovation, particularly deliberative democracy as a method of public decision-making, and interned with AmericaSpeaks in Washington, D.C.  Prior to completing her MPP, Joslyn studied Women’s Studies and Political Science at McGill University (B.A. ’04), founded and directed a youth organization, helped her MP engage youth in Sault Ste. Marie, ON and managed violence-prevention programs for young women at the Girls Action Foundation in Montreal, QC.  She is currently working with MASS LBP in Toronto.
Session:  Marketplace

Adam Vaughan
Before being elected to City Council as representative of Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina in 2006, Adam Vaughan worked as a political journalist at CityTV, CBC Radio and TV, CKLN, and has also written for various publications such as Toronto Life, the Toronto Star, and Eye Weekly.  He has always lived in the downtown Toronto area, where he continues to live with his wife in the Queen and Bathurst neighbourhood. Adam has two children aged 5 and 11.
Session: N4 How Dialogue and Deliberation has Helped the Revitalization Efforts in the Alexander Park Community

Rosa Venuta
Rosa Venuta is the Senior Advisor for Citizen Engagement for the Partnerships and Citizen Engagement Branch at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).  Rosa is responsible for developing tools and resources to ensure that CIHR adopts a cohesive and consistent approach to engaging citizens in its research processes, including participating in decision-making and informing strategic priorities. Rosa graduated with a B.A. Applied Human Sciences/The School of Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University, Montreal and more recently completed a Certificate program from the School of Management, University of Ottawa.  Rosa`s previous career in the voluntary sector included managing volunteer programs with community support organizations.
Session: 404  Implementing a Citizen Engagement Framework at CIHR

Voices from the Street (VFTS)
Voices From the Street (VFTS) works with people who have lived experience with homelessness and other issues of marginalization to inform and influence public decision-making at various levels. With a keen desire to change the system, members are involved in a number of community initiatives and continue to speak with students, social service workers, government officials, medical professionals, and other marginalized people about their experiences with poverty and homelessness and how they feel the system needs to change. Our session combines the lived experience of VFTS members with that of our special guests, professionals in the addiction and mental health fields.
Session: 808  Housing Matters - Building A Foundation From the Ground Up

Ellis Westwood
Ellis is a Senior Consultant with Ascentum, Canada’s leading public involvement firm.  As a practitioner, Ellis has designed and delivered over 20 public engagement projects across Canada.  He is a project lead with both Ascentum’s online involvement and social media services.  Ellis was the external lead for the North West LHIN’s Share Your Story, Shape Your Care engagement project, which received the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)’s inaugural “Innovation of the Year Award” for 2009.  Passionate about community service, Ellis is a volunteer with Big Brothers and a Board member for Personal Choice Independent Living, a nonprofit organization that provides community-based housing for persons with disabilities.
Session: 203  Share Your Story, Shape Your Care: Using online technologies to involve local communities.

Tahnee Wilson
Tahnee Wilson is one of the co-founders of Y.O.U., and has experience working with youth . She also has extensive personal life experiences dealing with the issues that are affecting Native people. She has been advocating for Native youth rights and social change for a number of years.
Session: 606  Seeing through our eyes: Experiencing Dialogue and Deliberation through the Indigenous perspective
 
Miriam Wyman
Miriam Wyman is principal of Practicum Limited, a Toronto-based consulting firm specializing in public consultation and facilitation. Her work, for close to 30 years, has focused on involving people and communities in decisions that affect their lives and on ways that citizens can contribute to enhancing democracy. She has worked at local, national and international levels to promote dialogue and deliberation in practice and in policy. One of the founding board members of C2D2, she also co-chaired the first C2D2 conference and was Program Co-Chair of C2D2 2007. She has presented at a number of conferences, including C2D2, IAP2 and NCDD conferences.
Session: 803  Is dialogue measuring up to our expectations - the challenge of evaluation

Charlotte Young
Charlotte, a facilitator and evaluator, has worked for over 25 years to promote environmental and natural resource solutions by involving the public and stakeholders in decisions and improving how governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operate.  She develops evaluation tools and carries out evaluations for organizational change, conflict management and stakeholder engagement programs. She has taught program evaluation for public participation practitioners, and for masters’ students at University of Toronto. She has led the facilitation for numerous public policy initiatives, including a research meeting on biodiversity, and Canada’s Fifth National Forest Strategy.  
Session: 505  Evaluating dialogue: What can we learn across disciplines?

Young Onkwehonwe United (Y.O.U.)
Young Onkwehonwe United (Y.O.U.) is a grassroots Onkwehonwe (Indigneous or Native) youth founded, organized & run movement based out of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. The focus of Y.O.U. is to engage, involve & uplift youth within the community of Six Nations and inspire them to create positive change within our nations. This is done primarily through discussions, cultural activities, the creation of positive opportunities, and especially ACTION.  Y.O.U is actively doing work to unify & heal our nations through the youth by way of building a Six Nations Youth Centre and organizing a Six Nations Youth Rally 2008 & 2009.
Session: 606  Seeing through our eyes: Experiencing Dialogue and Deliberation through the Indigenous perspective

Youth4Water
Youth4Water is a youth led environmental movement created in 2008 by the United Nations Associations in Canada in partnership with Toronto Community Housing and Havergal College to raise awareness about issues concerning water locally, nationally and globally. The group is one of the first of its kind specifically focusing on the concerns of youth and utilizing youth engagement to promote awareness and change. Youth in Toronto were not given many opportunities to learn about various water issues and to provide their input. Youth4Water has provided a platform for youth to promote water awareness and positive change, demonstrating effective youth engagement.
Session: 703  Youth Dialogue

Sandra Zagon
Sandra remains as active in retirement from Canada’s federal public service as she was throughout her 32 years working in the Government of Canada, during which she developed policy experience and networks in consultation, official languages, and learning. She co-founded the Canadian Community for Dialogue and Deliberation (C2D2) in 2006, after its first conference in 2005, which she also co-chaired.  She co-chaired C2D2’s 2007 conference, is co-chair for the 2009 conference and remains a C2D2 Board Director. Sandra is also a senior associate with Ascentum, an Ottawa-based company dedicated to informed participation, specializing in engagement approaches integrating both face-to-face and online methods.
Conference Co-Chair