Team Category: Advisors

As a PhD prepared sociologist, June Webber has focused her professional life on national and global policy, practice and leadership issues committed to values of social justice, equity and women’s rightful place in society. She has over 35 years of experience in global health, development and leadership, many of those as a successful senior executive, researcher and consultant in education, health and development sectors in Canada and around the world. As a researcher and senior consultant, June works with a range of civil society, government and multilateral agencies to support program development and management, social and public policy development, strategic leadership and planning. June is passionate about supporting the next generation of young women, who she recognizes are well-placed to bring transformative socio-political change that establishes equitable leadership paradigms and strong voices in Canada and around the world.

John Simpson holds a PhD (Alberta 2010) in philosophy based on research into rational behaviour using agent-based simulations. He is currently the Humanities & Social Sciences Specialist for Compute Canada and is leading development of a national strategy to engage these communities in High-Performance and Advanced Research Computing.

Relatedly, he is the Canadian Coordinator for Software Carpentry, a regular instructor at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute, and ex officio member of the Canadian Society for Digital Humanities Executive. Outside of academia he is a manipulator of strings on screens, in hands, and on ukulele and banjo fretboards.

Heather Scoffield is Senior Vice President Strategy at the Business Council of Canada. Previously, she was the Ottawa bureau chief and economics columnist  for the Toronto Star. She also worked at The Canadian Press, where she spent almost 10 years as a social policy reporter and Ottawa bureau chief, and The Globe and Mail. Over the course of her 25-year career in journalism, she covered monetary and fiscal policy, economics, trade policy, social policy, aboriginal affairs, environment and energy, and several different political parties. Heather has a Master’s degree in journalism from the University of Western Ontario and a BA in international relations from York University.

A multiple award winning non-profit professional with expertise in fundraising and nonprofit governance, Ann’s experience includes work in both Canada and the US. She has taught nonprofit strategic planning, fundraising, and volunteer management at Georgian College for 8 years, and is one of only four people in Canada certified as a Master Trainer by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Sought after as conference speaker, Ann has spoken on philanthropy across Canada and internationally. She serves as a Mentor through the Association of Fundraising Professionals Inclusive Giving initiative. She has a strong understanding of the governance, financial, and legal regulatory requirements for running a charity.

Ann’s MBA focused on NonProfit Management and she has completed the Institute for Corporate Directors Not For Profit Governance Program. She is also an active volunteer for Endeavour Volunteer Consulting, is the 2018 Chair for Association of Fundraising Professionals Congress, the largest fundraising conference in Canada, and recently served as Board Secretary for Rainbow Railroad. Currently Principal for Charitably Speaking, she’s overseen major gifts, and personal and corporate giving for large organizations like CNIB, and small groups like the WoodGreen Foundation. She also serves as Editor for Hilborn Charity eNews, Canada’s largest weekly charity sector professional publication.

Her work has won awards in five fundraising domains and she is proud to have led the acquisition of more than $100M in ongoing giving by networking, partnering, and building high-performance teams. In her spare time, she is a Supreme Gleaner for local fruit charity Not Far From The Tree.

Isabelle is a business transformation and marketing executive with 20 years of experience. She has spent her career helping business leaders understand technological disruption and what they can do to survive and thrive in this new era of exponential change.

Isabelle is President and Founder of Differly, a boutique Digital Transformation consultancy based in Ottawa. Prior to that she launched and led one of the first Digital Transformation Practices in Canada with Stratford Managers and was head of Digital Strategy and Director of Marketing for the Ottawa Senators, NHL Hockey Club.

She is a Board Member of the Ottawa Youth Services Bureau Foundation as well as Boxing Canada and a past President of the International Association of Business Communicators, Ottawa Chapter. She is a member of Women in Communications and Technology and a Certified ScrumMaster®, member of the Scrum Alliance. Isabelle is also the mother of three young girls and a champion for women in tech and sports.

Sandra Gionas is an award-winning journalist now dedicated to service and community. She spent most of her career at TVOntario, having produced TVO Today Live, a town hall series on the future of democracy, the flagship nightly current affairs program The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Studio 2 and More to Life. She covered Ontario politics extensively, particularly health care reform. Sandra led TVO’s journalism intern program for many years and has mentored a generation of young journalists. She now spends her time volunteering with nonprofit organizations and working on public history projects, including the award-winning podcast series HHF Presents. She brings her journalism expertise to Informed Perspectives and is committed to boosting female and diverse participation in the public square.

A long-time Vancouver resident, Barbara has 30 years’ experience as a successful senior executive and consultant in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors across BC and nationally. Prior to her current role as President and CEO Vancouver General Hospital and University of British Columbia Hospital Foundation, she held executive positions with the Vancouver Foundation, Streetohome Foundation, BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Canadian Mental Health Association. Barbara also has extensive experience as a senior consultant, excelling in strategic planning, organizational assessment, project management, board governance, financial sustainability, and public policy issues. Barbara is a proud member of the Board of Directors of YMCA of Greater Vancouver, the largest ‘on the ground’ social service organization in BC, and the Board of jack.org, a national organization working to revolutionize the conversation for Canada’s young people around mental health. She lives in Vancouver with her family and their loyal golden lab Rosie.

Dr. Naila Keleta-Mae is Black and free. She is a Professor of Theatre and Performance and a Dorothy Killam Fellow, the Tier 2 SSHRC Canada Research Chair in Race, Gender and Performance at the University of Waterloo. Naila has written eight articles for the media – one a top-trending-worldwide article for VICE Network and another a record-breaking op-ed for The Globe and Mail. She has also appeared as a pop culture critic for the BBC, CBC, CTV, The Canadian Press, The National Post, The Toronto Star, and The Fader.

Her forthcoming book, Performing Female Blackness (Wilfrid Laurier UP) and her book Beyoncé And Beyond: 2013-2016 (Routledge UK, 2023) respectively argue that performance is part of the ontology of female blackness in Canada and examines Beyoncé Knowles Carter’s exploration of feminism through three specific works. A singer/songwriter and recording artist with three full-length albums (Fire Woman (2020); Bloom (2009) and Free Dome: South Africa (2001))) she is also a published poet and playwright.

Naila’s scholarship appears in a variety of academic journals and books, and she has received a number of awards including the Lois Claxton Humanities and Social Sciences Award (University of Waterloo), the New Scholars’ Prize (International Federation for Theatre Research), the Mary McEwan Award for Feminist Scholarship (York University), the Abella Scholarship for Studies in Equity (York University), and a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship. www.nailakeletamae.com

David J. Mitchell has a broad professional background, spanning the private, public and education sectors. Most recently, he was Vice President, College Advancement & Chief External Relations Officer with Bow Valley College. From 2009 to 2015 he led Canada’s Public Policy Forum, an NGO dedicated to improving the quality of government through multi-sectoral dialogue.

Before that he served as vice president at three universities: Queen’s, Ottawa, and Simon Fraser, directing fundraising and external relations at each. David served as a Member of the BC Legislature from 1991-1996, where he was Opposition House Leader and a watchdog on a broad range of issues. He also gained experience in parliamentary procedure and legislative processes as Deputy Clerk of the Saskatchewan Legislature, and held executive positions within Western Canadian resource industries. An award-winning writer and author, he is a Governor and Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and previously served on the boards of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, the Great Canadian Theatre Company, the Parliamentary Centre, the Vancouver Aquarium and Marine Science Centre, and the Vancouver Art Gallery.