CFOJA Expert Advisory Panel
The CFOJA research team is supported by a passionate and committed interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral expert advisory panel (EAP) with representation from various groups and regions across the country. Their knowledge and expertise on this issue is vital. Click on the links below for more information on members of the EAP.
Wendy Aujla
Wendy Aujla (she/her) holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Alberta, where she is currently the Criminology Program Advisor and Field Placement Coordinator. Her research interests include gender-based violence, “honour”-based crimes, forced marriages, policing, qualitative research methods, critical race feminism, and intersectionality. As an applied sociologist and community-based researcher, she applies creative knowledge mobilization activities to inform various stakeholders and the general public about violence against women. Dr. Aujla’s published work has explored police perspectives of “honour”-based crimes, forced marriages, and South Asian immigrant women’s experiences of domestic and family violence, including (re)victimization and intimate partner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work has been published in journals like Victims and Offenders, Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology, Family Violence, and the International Journal of Qualitative Methods, among others. Her most recent co-authored chapter, Femicide in Canada, is in the co-edited Routledge International Handbook of Femicide and Feminicide. Her research collaborations have focused on mothering in the context of family violence and intimate partner violence service providers’ experiences supporting trans and immigrant women. She has also consulted for community-based projects on family violence prevention and strengthening relationships with new immigrant families. In addition to being actively engaged as a researcher, Dr. Aujla is an activist that is passionate about building safer communities free from violence. She founded an annual gift card campaign that supports women and children fleeing violence while accessing shelter services. In the past, she was involved with a collaborative initiative in the South Asian community known as PARIVAAR (Peaceful Alliance Rejecting Injustice and Violence and Advocating Respect) and served on the annual Diverse Voices Family Violence Conference as a co-chair and planning committee member. She proudly serves on the Immigrant Family Violence Prevention Committee (IFVPC). She is also frequently invited to speak to the media, professional organizations, and national and international conferences on issues related to gender-based violence.
Fay Blaney
Fay Blaney is a Xwemalhkwu woman of the Coast Salish Nation. She has devoted a lifetime of work to issues affecting Indigenous women. As an educator and community organizer, she has committed her heart and knowledge to educating and mobilizing Canadians to better understand the impacts of colonization, capitalism and patriarchy on First Nations women. As a founding member of the Aboriginal Women's Action Network (AWAN), Blaney has focused, for several decades, on ending male violence against women and took leadership on preventing cases of male violence from being brought through the restorative justice process. AWAN has obtained intervenor status in some high-profile court cases including the appeal of the Bradley Barton case (Cindy Gladue) and the Canadian Allian for Sex Work Law Reform case. Fay appeared as an expert witness before the National Inquiry on ‘murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls’ and continues to advocate on these issues. While AWAN work remains a central part of her work, Fay is employed by her community as “Wellness Coordinator” to address sexual violence and other safety issues.
Marie-Marthe Cousineau
Marie-Marthe Cousineau has been a full professor at Université de Montréal's School of Criminology since 2006, and was Vice-Dean of Graduate Studies, Professional Partnerships and Training at Université de Montréal's Faculty of Arts and Science from 2017 to 2022.
Over the course of her career, Marie-Marthe has received a large number of grants from the three major councils and other sources, including a SSHRC-Partnership that has led to some ten years of research and partnership initiatives on trajectories of life, violence, help-seeking and the use of services by female victims of domestic violence in a context of vulnerability (Trajetvi.ca, 2013-2022) and more recently an FRQSC-partnership team supporting the SAS-Femmes intersectional, interdisciplinary and intersectoral collective to ensure the safety, autonomy and health of all women (SAS-Femmes.com) through its research and action.
Marie-Marthe is the co-holder of the McConnell-Université de Montréal Chair in creative research on Reclaiming motherhood: liberating women's voices and bodies. Trajetvi's activities notably led to the publication of a collective work entitled Pratiques et recherches féministes en matière de violence conjugale : coconstruction des connaissances et expertises (‘Feminist practices and research on domestic violence: Co-constructing knowledge and expertise’) by Presses de l’Université du Québec in 2022, with 22 chapters featuring contributions by 55 authors from academic circles – researchers and students, practitioners and real-life experts. Trajetvi also gave rise to the Summer Schools on Violence against Girls and Women (the fifth annual program scheduled for summer 2023), which bring together students from a variety of disciplines, as well as practitioners and administrators from the community, schools, health and social services, police and legal sectors, as part of a continuing education program.
Trajetvi’s work has also significantly influenced many of the recommendations of the Expert Committee on Support for Victims of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence of the Government of Quebec, which informed the 2020 report Rebâtir la confiance (‘Rebuilding Trust’) and the 2018-2023 Government Action Plan on Domestic Violence. This work, carried out in a partnership-based, intersectional approach combining academic, practical and experiential knowledge, focuses on all aspects of violence against girls and women, its consequences for victims and society, and the measures to be put in place to prevent or respond to it, with the ultimate goal of eliminating it.
With a host of collaborators, Marie-Marthe has produced around a hundred articles, book chapters and scientific and popularized reports, and trained just as many research students at bachelor's, master’s, and doctoral levels, including ten doctoral or post-doctoral students who have gone on to become professors at various universities (UQAC, UQTR, UQO, Laurentian, Moncton) or senior researchers at health and social services research institutes. As such, her contribution to the training of the next generation is substantial.
Maria Crawford
Maria Crawford has extensive experience in the shelter sector in Ontario, working for over 30 years in the violence against women sector and the homeless youth sector. She has a BA (Sociology), an Honours degree in Social Work, and is a graduate of Schulich’s Non-Profit Management and Leadership Program. A member of the Women We Honour Action Committee, Maria was lead researcher and co-author of the original femicide research in Ontario, entitled Woman Killing: Intimate Femicide in Ontario, 1974-1990, as well as the second phase of the project which updated data on all intimate femicides in Ontario (1991-1994). This study laid the groundwork for more focused and continuing research on femicide in Canada by drawing attention to previously unexamined patterns in the killing of women. Maria recently retired after serving for the past 20 years as the Executive Director of Eva’s Initiatives. During her tenure, she led the growth and development of that organization from a single shelter to three unique shelter programs with an expanded portfolio of specialized services for homeless youth, pioneering programs in harm reduction, employment, education and training as well as family reunification work. She also led the development of a successful national program, focussed on capacity building and assisting other Canadian communities to develop effective models to prevent, reduce and end youth homelessness. The success of this national program resulted in its evolution into an independent organization. Maria currently serves as a board member and chair of the Governance Committee for the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.
- Email:mariacrawford@rogers.com
Myrna Dawson
Myrna Dawson is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Public Policy in Criminal Justice and Director of the Centre for the Study of Social and Legal Responses to Violence (CSSLRV), University of Guelph. Her research focuses on trends/patterns in and social/legal responses to violence with emphasis on violence against women and femicide. She is the author/co-author/editor of numerous publications and reports including Woman Killing: Intimate Femicide in Ontario, 1991-1994 (1997); Violence Against Women in Canada (Oxford University Press, 2011); and Domestic Homicides and Death Reviews: An International Perspective (Palgrave Macmillian, 2017). Dawson serves as member of Canada’s first Domestic Violence Death Review Committee implemented in Ontario and is Co-Director of the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative. She has been an international visiting scholar at the Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne (2011), the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland (2012) and at the University of Griffith Criminology Institute, Queensland (2016) where she currently holds an Adjunct Professor position. She has published in various journals; most recently, in Trauma Violence & Abuse, Child Abuse & Neglect, Violence Against Women, Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency, and the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. She has presented her research and delivered keynotes in Australia, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- Email:mdawson@uoguelph.ca
Anuradha Dugal
Anuradha Dugal is Vice President of Community Initiatives at Canadian Women’s Foundation and has worked there since 2008. She was previously Board Member (2002 – 2007) and Chair of the Violence Prevention Committee. Prior to joining the Foundation, Anuradha worked in youth violence prevention programs in Quebec and on the World March of Women, a transnational grassroots initiative launched by the Federation des femmes du Quebec. She is currently responsible for national strategies related to achieving gender equality. She leads the team that focuses on grant making, knowledge mobilization, program enhancement, convening, and coalition building, and she continues to focus on addressing policy issues that will bring about systemic change for women and girls in Canada. Anuradha is very involved in social issues and she is President of the Conseil des Montrealaises, appointed by the municipal council of Montreal, and on Minister Monsef’s Advisory Council for the Strategy on Gender-based Violence. She is an immigrant who lives and works in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal, the traditional unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawks), an area that has long been a place for meeting and exchange for many Nations.
Nicole Eshkakogan
Nicole Eshkakogan (Morning Star) is Anishnawbe/Blackfoot from Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, Ontario and the Piikani Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Southern Alberta. Nicole is a proud decendent of the Ni'taiitsskaiks (Lonefighter’s Society). As a Niitsitapiiaaki and grandmother, she is dedicated to protecting and honoring Mother Earth. Nicole holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Alberta, where she is also completing her PhD on the experiences of Indigenous Grandmothers raising children of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Nicole’s work and research background is in Indigenous social epidemiology, anti-oppression praxis and racism, health equity, family violence, and gender and wellness. Over the last 15 years, she has worked in Indigenous health systems management and as an independent research/evaluation specialist for a number of academic institutions, non-for-profit agencies, and community-based organizations throughout Canada. Where she has worked collaboratively to integrate Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Gender-Based Analysis, Anti-racism and 2SLGBTQIIA+ to scale up health systems and policies to improve the health of all Canadians. Nicole has been a recipient or co-recipient of various research and evaluation grants focused on these issues and has completed several publications dedicated to improving the national agenda on understanding colonialism and anti-racist praxis. Nicole has also served as the Director of Health, and Indigenous Scientist with the Population, Public and Indigenous Health Strategic Clinical Network at Alberta Health Services. Nicole is currently working as the Vice-President of Health Equity and Priority Populations – North Region at Ontario Health as well as Scientific Director at Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society. Nicole also serves as a member of the Sagamok Anishnawbek Chief and Council.
Jordan Fairbairn
Jordan Fairbairn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at King’s University College at Western University in London, Ontario. Her research focuses broadly on gender, feminist criminology, violence, and media, with a focus on the role of media in gender-based violence prevention. Recent publications have focused on the role of news media in femicide prevention, preventing domestic homicides among vulnerable populations, the role of social media in gender-based violence prevention, and developing stronger social responses to youth dating violence. Previous and ongoing work explores Canadian news portrayals of femicide, including the SSHRC-funded Insight Grant Project, “Representing intimate femicide in Canada: Understanding media framing of gender-related killings of women and girls, 2010-2024”.
- Email:jfairba4@uwo.ca
Crystal Giesbrecht
CFOJA
Crystal Giesbrecht has served as the Director of Research at the Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan (PATHS), the member association for domestic violence shelters and counselling centres, since 2011. Her work at PATHS includes conducting research relating to intimate partner violence (IPV) and delivering training for professionals. She is a member of Saskatchewan’s Multi-Sector Review Committee for Clare’s Law and was a case review team member for Saskatchewan’s most recent Domestic Violence Death Review. She has published research relating to IPV intervention programs; newcomer women’s experiences of IPV; the intersection of IPV, animal maltreatment, and animal safekeeping; the workplace impact of IPV; coercive control; and addressing data gaps in the study of domestic homicide. Crystal completed her PhD in Justice Studies at the University of Regina in 2024. Her doctoral research related to typologies of perpetrators of IPV.
Carmen Gill
Carmen Gill, Ph.D., is professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick and led the Canadian observatory on the justice system response to intimate partner violence from 2006 to 2016. Her research focuses on police intervention in intimate partner violence, domestic homicide and treatment of perpetrators and victims through the criminal justice system. Dr. Gill is leading the development of the Canadian Centre for Policing Intimate Partner Violence; a research project on the police response and assessment of IPV involving coercive control. She is a member of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Crime Prevention, Community Safety and Wellbeing Committee and a member of the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee in New Brunswick.
- Email:cgill@unb.ca
Isabel Grant
Isabel Grant is a Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. She is a former director of the Centre Feminist Legal Studies at the Allard School of Law. She specializes in male intimate partner violence against women, femicide and sexual assault. She teaches courses in Criminal Law, the Law of Homicide, Sentencing and Mental Health Law. She is a member of the Law Program Committee for LEAF National and has been involved in a number of interventions in cases involving violence against women. She has published extensively in the areas of sexual assault, criminal harassment, homicide, and HIV nondisclosure prosecutions. She recently completed a study for the Department of Justice on sentencing for male intimate partner violence against women.
Catherine Holtmann
Catherine Holtmann is Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department and the academic chair of the Religion and Violence research team of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research at the University of New Brunswick. Her areas of expertise include religion and gender, family violence, and immigrants. Catherine is a co-investigator with the Canadian research team on the project Violence Against Women Migrants and Refugees: Analyzing Causes and Effective Policy Response. She is a co-editor of Ending Gender Based Violence: Harnessing Research and Action for Social Change (Captus Press, 2023).
- Email:cathy.holtmann@unb.ca
Heidi Illingworth
Heidi Illingworth is the Executive Director of Ottawa Victim Services, a community-based agency that provides emotional support, practical assistance, referrals and advocacy to victims of crime and tragic circumstances. She has extensive experience in the victim services and anti-violence fields. She served as the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime from 2018-2021, providing recommendations to federal Ministers of Justice and Public Safety. Prior to this, she spent 20 years in front line service delivery supporting survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual violence and other serious crimes. She served as the Executive Director of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime for over 11 years and also developed and taught courses in the postgraduate Victimology program at Algonquin College for 7 years. She has created resources to help support victim service providers, as well as programs to support individual victims of crime and their families. Most notably, Ms. Illingworth is the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her service to Canadians.
Vathsala Illesinghe
Vathsala Illesinghe, MD, is a PhD Policy Studies student at the Yeates School of Graduate Studies, Ryerson University, Toronto. She is a 2017 Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Joseph-Armand Bombardier Scholar. As an experienced violence against women researcher in Sri Lanka and a new immigrant woman in Canada, Vathsala brings a deep understanding of South Asian women’s vulnerability to violence in their home countries, the complexities surrounding their migration experiences, and the gaps in services and responses to addressing violence experienced by immigrant and refugee women in Canada. Her current research is aimed at seeking a better understanding of the complex intersections of gender, violence, and immigration policy in Canada.
Beverley Jacobs
Dr. Beverley Jacobs is recently appointed as Senior Advisor to the President on Indigenous Relations and Outreach at the University of Windsor and she practices law part-time at her home community of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. Her research focuses on Indigenous Legal Orders, Indigenous Wholistic Health, Indigenous Research Methodologies, and Decolonization of Eurocentric Law. Beverley has obtained a Bachelor of Law Degree from the University of Windsor in 1994, a Master of Law Degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 2000 and a PhD from the University of Calgary in 2018. Dr. Jacobs is a former President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (elected 2004 to 2009). Beverley is also appointed as Indigenous Human Rights Monitor with the Mohawk Institute Residential School Survivors’ Secretariat which was established in 2021 to organize and support efforts to uncover, document and share the truth about what happened at the Mohawk Institute during its 136 years of operation. Beverley is also a consultant/researcher/writer/public speaker. Her work centres around ending gendered colonial violence against Indigenous people and restoring Indigenous laws, beliefs, values, and traditions. A prolific scholar, her published work has earned her numerous awards; her research combined with her advocacy has translated into national and international recognition. Dr. Jacobs received the Laura Legge Award from the Law Society of Ontario in 2021 and she was inducted as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2018. She received two awards from Mohawk College in 2018: Alumni of Distinction Award and Distinguished Fellow – Adjunct Professor. In her first year of teaching at the Faculty of Law, University of Windsor in 2017, she received an Office of Human Rights, Equity & Accessibility, Human Rights and Social Justice Award. In 2016, she received a Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law from the Governments of France and Germany for her human rights fight for the issues relating to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada. In 2008, she also received a Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Person’s Case, an Esquao Award from the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women and a Canadian Voice of Women of Peace Award from the Canadian Department of Peace Initiative and Civilian Peace Service Canada.
Yasmin Jiwani
Yasmin Jiwani is Professor Emerita in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University, Montreal. She is the author of Discourses of Denial: Mediations of Race, Gender and Violence, as well as lead editor of Girlhood, Redefining the Limits, and co-editor of Faces of Violence in the Lives of Girls. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of journals and anthologies. Her research interests include mediations of race, gender and violence in the press, as well as representations of women of colour in popular media. She was the Concordia University Research Chair in Intersectionality, Violence and Resistance (2017-2022).
- Email:yasmin.jiwani@gmail.com
Julie Kaye
Dr. Julie Kaye works as an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan and is a Co-Founder of Standing Together where she works together with relations and grassroots organizers of MMIWGT2S+ and decolonial, anti-violence organizing and research alongside Indigenous-led responses to colonial gendered violence. Julie was taught by her mentors to ground her work in loving accountability and the embodiment of decolonial relations and transformative change through enduring strength in honesty, transparency, and kindness. Her connections to community are deep and longstanding, particularly in working by and with survivors of colonial gendered and sexualized violence and MMIWGT2S+ relations. Julie works alongside individuals who trade and sell sexual services, including writing international comparisons of legislation affecting sex industries, and the effects of such legislations on sex workers, migrant workers, and human rights. Dr. Kaye’s work also examines settler-colonialism and colonial gendered violence and racialized policing as well as harm reduction, consent, and body sovereignty. Her book, Responding to Human Trafficking: Dispossession, Colonial Violence, and Resistance among Indigenous and Racialized Women, published by University of Toronto press, examines anti-trafficking responses in the context of settler-colonialism. Julie is passionate about systemic accountability and coordinated collaborative interventions in cases affecting the rights of Indigenous women, including the treatment of Cindy Gladue in R v Barton and the Inquiry into the treatment of “Angela Cardinal” following R v Blanchard. Julie lives with her life partner and children in Misâskwatôminih, Kisiskâciwan (Saskatoon) in Treaty 6 territory and Métis homelands.
- Email:julie.kaye@usask.ca
Jane Ledwell
Jane Ledwell is the current executive director and past researcher/policy analyst of the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women, where she began work in 2004. Since 2008, she has led the Equality Report Card project to assess the provincial government’s progress towards gender equality markers. The Council also leads the annual PEI Purple Ribbon Campaign against violence against women and hosts the annual Montreal Massacre Memorial Service. Through her work, Jane is also a member of the PEI Premier’s Action Committee on Family Violence Prevention. Outside her full-time work, Jane is also a writer, poet, and editor. She previously worked at the Institute of Island Studies and English department at the University of Prince Edward Island. She is a graduate of Mt. Allison University in Canada and University of Waikato in New Zealand, and holds a certificate in conflict resolution from UPEI. She has co-edited two academic books, L.M. Montgomery and War (MQUP, 2017) and Anne around the World (MQUP, 2013) and has produced three books of poetry, Last Tomato (Acorn Press, 2005), Bird Calls (Island Studies Press, 2016), and Return of the Wild Goose (Island Studies Press, 2019). She is working on a forthcoming creative non-fiction project called Gold Cup Girl, a memoir of abuse survivor Lynn MacNeill, around whom the life-saving intervention called a Circle of Safety and Support was invented. She is a past recipient of the award for Distinguished Contribution to the Literary Arts in PEI. She is a parent of two children with her partner, visual artist Stephen MacInnis. They live in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Stephanie MacInnis-Langley
Stephanie MacInnis-Langley is recognized as a social justice advocate with a history of experience in non-profit organizations and government. Her career is marked with a series of ‘firsts’ designed to improve the lives of women, families, and communities across Nova Scotia. Key accomplishments include being the first Manager of Special Initiatives for Victims of Crime; the first Director of Crime Prevention in Nova Scotia and serving on the design team for the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (NSHCC) Restorative Inquiry. Stephanie most recently served for over a decade as Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women until her retirement in 2022. She championed the development of Standing Together, Nova Scotia’s coordinated approach to prevent gender-based violence, and collaborated with partners on the first National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. She co-led the implementation of Nova Scotia’s first Domestic Violence Action Plan (2011) and held a key leadership role in the development of the province’s first Sexual Violence Strategy (2015). Prior to joining the public service, she developed and implemented a shelter service for abused women and their children in rural Nova Scotia. She holds a Master’s Degree in Adult Education from St. Francis Xavier University and is a registered social worker. She is a recipient of the Senate of Canada Sesquicentennial Medal in 2017 and the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal Nova Scotia in 2022.
Angela Marie MacDougall
Through her community-based organizing, frontline work, and activism over three decades, Angela Marie MacDougall has been deeply involved in movements for social justice. Since the 1990s, Angela has developed training curricula from an intersectional and anti-oppression framework while her work as a trainer with community-based organizations, systems players, universities and in the larger public sphere has always emphasized the influence of a community-based response toward gender, racial, and economic justice. Angela’s impact includes the development of empowerment and advocacy-based program and service delivery models that address gender-based violence and violence against women that are grounded in strong theoretical frameworks that include feminist trauma-informed analysis that integrate the role of substance use and mental wellness. An ever-present theme and focus of her work has been the range of social inequities and environmental problems associated with colonialization and the generalized criminalization of communities of colour that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. Angela is a founding member of Feminists Deliver a provincial coalition dedicated to shedding a light on the urgent issues facing marginalized communities in British Columbia and the grassroots struggles leading the way for transformative change while building transnational connections between grassroots intersectional feminist movements; and re-envisioning the global women’s agenda as one that centers a diversity of grassroots intersectional feminist voices. She is a long standing member of Vancouver’s February 14th Women’s Memorial March and is founding member of Intersectional Feminist Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative that brings together researchers, academics, data and policy analysts, students and community organizers to provide critical research, data, policy and strategic support for the ending violence, gender equity and social justice movements. Angela was named a Remarkable Woman by the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Magazine named her one of Vancouver’s most powerful people. Angela is currently the executive director of BWSS Battered Women’s Support Services Association. Established in 1979, BWSS works to end gender-based violence through the delivery of support services and working for institutional and systemic change.
- Email:endingviolence@bwss.org
Nneka MacGregor
VNneka MacGregor, LL.B. is co-founder and Executive Director of the Women's Centre for Social Justice, better known as WomenatthecentrE, a unique non-profit created by and for women, trans and gender-diverse survivors of gender-based violence (GBV). A Black intersectional abolitionist feminist, international speaker & trainer, she is an expert advisory panel member of the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability and sits on several advisory Boards and committees, including the Federal Advisory Council on the Federal Strategy Against GBV, and co-founded the Black Femicide Canada Council. Her research focuses on Black femicide, sexual violence, and the intersection of strangulation, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Inter-personal violence. She received the 2019 PINK Concussions Award and the 2020 YWCA Toronto Women of Distinction Social Justice Award. She is founder and Managing Partner of Nneka & Co, a consulting firm of BIPOC activists that focuses on Stakeholder-Centric EDI© - a unique and comprehensive framework to engage organizations in equity, diversity & inclusion work. Her expertise is on nurturing women’s leadership in business at the intersection of gender, race, and ability. Nneka was a member of the Board of Directors of Moatfield Foundation of Bayview Glen School, where she served as Chair and Board President for six years. She supports other charitable and non-profit organizations with governance training and developing effective Board culture.
Kathy Majowski
Kathy is a Registered Nurse currently working in a community program that provides support to older adults living in Winnipeg’s core area. She began her career in health care as a support worker while completing her nursing degree, progressing on to various positions: front-line nurse at Manitoba’s largest hospital, clinical/classroom instructor, educational program developer/coordinator, employment specialist, long-term care staff educator, infection control professional, and community case coordinator. Kathy’s nursing career also took her to a remote Indigenous community in northern Manitoba, where she developed additional skills and a better understanding of the importance of decolonization and reconciliation. Kathy’s career has presented her with consulting and volunteer opportunities outside of her daily job, most recently as the Board chair for the Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (CNPEA) and Board vice-chair for Klinic, a community health centre rooted in social justice and the belief that everyone deserves quality care, support, and respect. Kathy also assisted with the development of CNPEA’s STOP-GBV 55+ project, a 5-year national project looking at Gender-Based Violence in Women 55 years of age and older, and the resources that are available to support them. The project team recognized the importance of considering the wide diversity of women 55+ while working to identify gaps in services and supports. Throughout her career Kathy has used her voice to advocate for her clients and patients, challenging systemic barriers and striving to inspire others to use their voices to challenge the status quo. She is honoured to be a part of the CFOJA and contribute to the work that will help reduce femicide and improve the lives of women and girls in Canada.
Shiva Nourpanah
Shiva Nourpanah is a first-generation immigrant from Iran. She has been working for the Province of Nova Scotia (Canada) since 2021 and teaches part-time at the Department of International Development Studies, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax. She worked for UNHCR in Iran, 2000–2008. She holds a PhD in social anthropology from Dalhousie University (2017) and a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Guelph (2021). She has publications in immigration and refugee studies and violence against women. She is a board member of Halifax Refugee Clinic, and the Muriel McFergusson Centre for Research on Family Violence.
Corinne Ofstie
Corinne is a registered social worker with expertise working as a cross-sector coordinator within community, system and government organizations in both Sexual and Domestic Violence. As Director of Strategic Initiatives with the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services (AASAS), Corinne works to achieve the goals and objectives of numerous special projects including the workplace sexual harassment awareness campaign, #momentsmatter, and the development of provincial anti-workplace sexual harassment education program. Among her achievements, Corinne Co-Chaired the provincial Collaborative Justice Response to Sexual Violence Committee and was a member of the Gender Equality Network of Canada from 2017 to 2020. In 2018 Corinne was awarded Avenue Magazine’s #Top40Under40. She is a member of the Rebuilding Lives Committee for the Canadian Women’s Foundation and an Expert Advisory Panel member of Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability.
- Email:mailbox@aasas.ca
Tracy Porteous
Tracy Porteous (She/They) Founder and past executive director of the Ending Violence Association of BC, Co Founder of Be More Than a Bystander, Co Founder and past Co-Chair of the Ending Violence Association of Canada, and many other ground-breaking gender-based violence policy/programs/training. Tracy holds an Honourary Doctor of Laws from the University of British Columbia, is a member of the Order of British Columbia and is a Registered Clinical Counsellor. Tracy has been involved in developing and delivering services, programs and training related to gender-based violence for more than 40 years. As the Founding Executive Director of the Ending Violence Association of BC, a Provincial Association that Tracy built with many others over 26 years, EVA BC supports over 300 programs that specialize in preventing and responding to sexual and domestic violence, child abuse and criminal and sexual harassment. Tracy has decades of experience working with survivors and their families, with front line anti-violence workers and administrators, with Indigenous service providers and leaders, with immigrant and radicalized leaders, with those at the forefront of the disability movement and with senior government policy makers, legislative and Labour leaders in Canada and beyond. Tracy has worked with various professional sectors and authorities to coordinate and improve policy and practice to enhance safety for those vulnerable to violence, abuse and workplace sexual harassment. Tracy was a member of BC’s Domestic Violence Death Review Panels, was a member of the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative, has testified to federal Parliamentary committees and Coroner Inquests, has sat as an advisor to the Federal Department of Justice, the Minister of Women and Gender Equality, the Canadian Military, the Canadian Coaches Association, was a member of the Advisory that formed the Trauma-Informed Practice Foundations Curriculum (for members of the justice, public safety, and anti-violence community sectors in British Columbia), acted as a partner and advisor to BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre in the development of their Gender-Based Violence: We All Can Help Curriculum (for the entire health care sector in BC) and has led numerous initiatives related to the prevention of gender-based violence in workplaces and communities. In 2011 Tracy received a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from BC’s Child and Youth Representative. In 2012 Tracy was awarded a “Game Changer Award” by the Scotia Bank and accepted the Humanitarian Award from the BC Association of Broadcasters for conceiving of the wildly successful campaign with the BC Lions, “Be More Than A Bystander; Break The Silence on Gender-Based Violence”. In 2013 Tracy was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal for her dedication to service for over 30 years. In 2013 too, Tracy was invited to attend the Commission on the Status of Women in New York as an official Canadian delegate to speak about engaging men and boys in the prevention of violence against women. In 2014 Tracy received the Governor General of Canada medal in recognition of the Persons Case for ‘exemplary contributions towards the equality of women in Canada’. Tracy currently provides critical incident response advise related to gender-based violence to the Canadian Football League, is a member of the Board of Legal Aid BC and provides advise to various ministries, agencies and others on same.
- Email:tracyporteous5@gmail.com
Shahnaz Rahman
Shahnaz has over 32 years of combined experience as an educator, leader in non-profit, author, counselor, facilitator, BC’s Provincial Coordinator of counseling programs for children exposed to violence and a lead in qualitative research on issues related to family law and women’s equality right. In her current role as the Executive Director at the Surrey Women’s Centre, the largest Victim Service Organization in BC, Shahnaz is responsible for determining the direction, goals, and overall strategy of the organization, as well as direct the organization’s activities, programs, and services for survivors of gender-based violence and sexual assault. Shahnaz’s wonderful mother continues to be her strength and hope for advancing women’s rights and empowerment. Her two precious jewels are her grandchildren Aliza and Yusuf who bring her immense joy.
Elizabeth Sheehy
Elizabeth Sheehy, LL.B., LL.M., LL.D. (Honoris causa), F.R.S.C., O. Ont., is Professor Emerita at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law where she worked in the area of criminal law and legal responses to men’s violence against women for more than 30 years, including her books: Sexual Assault in Canada: Law, Legal Practice and Women’s Activism (University of Ottawa Press, 2012) and Defending Battered Women on Trial: Lessons from the Transcripts (UBC Press, 2014). The latter book won the David Walter Mundell Medal, described as “a kind of Pulitzer Prize for legal writing”, awarded by the Attorney General of Ontario. In 2017 Elizabeth was also awarded a Persons Award from the Governor General of Canada for “contributions [that] have enabled important strides in challenging male violence against women and thereby enhanced women’s access to their equality rights in Canada.” Her most recent work has focused on the campaign to free Helen Naslund, the so-called “rough sex” defence, and the impact of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) on the lives of women with disabilities.
- Email:esheehy@uottawa.ca
Darlene Sicotte
Darlene R. Okemaysim-Sicotte, is a Cree from Beardy’s & Okemasis First Nation near the town of Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, and was educated at Rivier Academy in Prince Albert and the University of Saskatchewan. She is a survivor of federal Indian Day School and daughter of 2 Indian Residential School Survivors. Darlene has retired from the Gordon Tootoosis Nikaniwin Theatre in July 2022 after 9 years due to health issues. Darlene’s past experiences in the workplace include Executive Assistant at Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies, Departmental Secretary at U of S Native Studies (now INDST) Darlene is also a 18 year member of the Saskatoon concerned citizens group Iskwewuk Ewichiwitochik (Women Walking Together) whose focus is on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, two spirit and diverse genders. Darlene received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in January 2013 & the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal 2023 for this volunteerism & national finalist and later a juror for Samara.com “Every Day Political Citizen - Project”. Darlene has written published articles and engages in local, provincial, and national interviews media outlets on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Darlene has been the Non-Legal Advocate and co-chair for Iskwewuk E-wichitochik (Women Walking Together) who had Party With Standing status for National Inquiry to MMIWG2S. She currently lives in Saskatoon, focused on Reconciliation and advisor to Mamohkamatowin with her husband Chris Sicotte and mother to Christopher, Cory, Aren, Sunflower, and grandmother to Albert Jr., Dayshawn, Joseph, Samuel, and Desta all of whom enjoy the local, provincial, and national arts scene.
- Email:dro6439@gmail.com
Andrea Silverstone
Andrea Silverstone is the Executive Director of Sagesse Domestic Violence Prevention Society, an organization committed to breaking the cycle of violence for individuals, organizations and communities. She is a highly respected community partner and a collaborative leader. Andrea is a Registered Social Worker and Mediator with a background in Judaic/Talmudic Law, having attended Lindenbaum College in Jerusalem and York University in Toronto. Beginning her career in Calgary at the Awo Taan Native Women’s Shelter, Andrea later transitioned into her role as the Executive Director of Sagesse. Andrea’s achievements include the 2013 Association of Jewish Family and Child Agencies Goodman Award in recognition of her development and implementation of innovative programming that addresses bullying, violence and domestic abuse in the Jewish community, the 2015 Alberta Inspiration Award for leadership in Family Violence Prevention and the 2015 RESOLVE Excellence in Community Service and Research Award in recognition of her distinguished contribution to creating homes and communities safe from interpersonal violence and abuse. Andrea’s commitment and engagement in non-profit organizations and committees reflects her strong belief in the value of a collaborative, grassroots community approach to ending domestic violence and abuse. She believes that this is ultimately the most effective way to provide healing and hope to all those affected by this issue. In partnering with various service providers, committees, agencies, organizations and individual community members, Andrea works to raise public awareness and create a movement focused on supporting healthy relationships and preventing domestic violence and abuse. Andrea believes in innovation, creating program models and structural policy that elevates untold experiences of domestic violence. For example, Andrea has implemented a collective impact initiative to address domestic and sexual violence province-wide, she has developed programming to address the systemic nature of domestic violence in under-studied communities such as women of affluence and strives daily to ensure individuals affected by abuse and gender inequality are made visible and know that they have an ally in her.
- Email:andrea@sagesse.org
Cherry Smiley
Cherry Smiley, from the Nlaka’pamux (Thompson) and Diné (Navajo) Nations, is an artist, feminist advocate, researcher and speaker on sexualized male violence against Indigenous women and girls. She has worked as a front-line anti-violence worker in a transition house and rape crisis centre, assisted in the coordination of an anti-violence drop-in group for Indigenous girls, worked as a project manager in violence prevention and safety at a national Indigenous women’s organization, and is a co-founder of the activist group Indigenous Women Against the Sex Industry. She has won numerous awards for her work towards women’s liberation including the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Person’s Case (Youth) in 2013 and the 2014 Ted and Nora Sterling Award in Support of Controversy. She is currently in the Communications PhD program at Concordia University, where her research examines prostitution as a process of patriarchy, colonization, racism, and capitalism and where she works to help end male violence against women and girls. Cherry is honoured to have been awarded a 2016 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship and a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Doctoral Scholarship.
Evangelia Tastsoglou
Evangelia (Evie) Tastsoglou, PhD, LLM, is Professor of Sociology and Global Development Studies at Saint Mary’s University. Her research engages feminist and intersectional perspectives on women, gender and various aspects of international migration; Canadian immigration and integration; violence, citizenship, transnationalism and diasporas. Her recent, co-authored and (co)edited books include: Gender-Based Violence in Migration: Interdisciplinary, Feminist and Intersectional Approaches (with J. Freedman and N. Sahraoui; Palgrave-Macmillan, 2022) and Interrogating Gender, Violence, and the State in National and Transnational Contexts, Current Sociology Monograph Series (with M. Abraham; Vol. 64:4, July 2016). She also co-edited (with J. Freedman) the Special Research Topic on “Gender, Violence and Forced Migration” of Frontiers in Human Dynamics – Refugees and Conflict. 2021 (Open Access). She is currently the PI of the Canadian team of researchers in the CIHR-funded project “Violence against Women Migrants and Refugees: Analyzing Causes and Effective Policy Response”, part of an international project funded by the Gender-Net Plus Cofund and co-PI of an interdisciplinary NFRF-E two-year project on “Visual Analytics for Text-Intensive Social Science Research on Immigration.” She has served as president of the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association (2018-2022); president of RC 32 (the Research Committee on Women in Society) of the International Sociological Association (2010-2014), elected member of the International Sociological Association’s Research Council (2014-2018), chairperson of the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Saint Mary’s University (2006-2012), and International Development Studies Coordinator (2017-2021). She was the recipient of the Saint Mary’s University President’s Award for Excellence in Research (2021).
Lorraine Whalley
Lorraine Whalley (RSW) has been a member of the Sexual Violence New Brunswick (SVNB) (formerly the Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre) Collective since 1983 and on staff as Executive Director since 1984. She received her Bachelor of Arts, Psychology in 1984 and her Bachelor of Social Work in 1994. She has worked with hundreds of committed volunteers and staff to deliver prevention and intervention programs and community development initiatives across New Brunswick. Lorraine Whalley has participated in numerous provincial and national committees including the NB Domestic Violence Death Review Committee, the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative with Vulnerable Populations and the as a member of the Expert Advisory Panel for the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability. Lorraine Whalley was awarded the 2021 Raoul Léger Memorial Award by the New Brunswick Association of Social Workers. This award is presented yearly to a social worker who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of social work and social justice.
Lori Wilkinson
Lori Wilkinson is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Manitoba. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Migration Futures. Her research centres on the economic and social outcomes of immigrants and refugees with a special focus on newcomer women and the experience of violence. She is also the director of Immigration Research West, a multidisciplinary group of over 100 members who work together to educate Canadians about the contributions of newcomers. She volunteers with several international, national and local community organizations who are working toward the successful resettlement of newcomers.
Busra Yalcinoz-Ucan
Busra Yalcinoz-Ucan is a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Media and Social Sciences, University of Stavanger, Norway. Her project, SaRe-DiGT, investigates the transformative use of digital technologies in the context of gender-based violence and immigration. More specifically, based on a participatory methodological approach, she examines the patterns and practices of digital technology use by immigrant women and individuals who have experienced gender-based violence and explores the potential of digital technologies as a practical resource for information, communication, support, and mobilization. Dr. Yalcinoz-Ucan was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Canada. As a part of this research fellowship supported by Mitacs Accelerate, she worked on a community partnership project examining the availability, accessibility, and effectiveness of psychological interventions and support programs in the gender-based violence sector in Canada. She completed her Ph.D. in 2019 at the Department of Clinical Psychology, Bogazici University, Turkey. Her Ph.D. research focused on women’s decision-making and safety-seeking strategies in violent relationships. Utilizing a feminist intersectionality framework, Yalcinoz-Ucan particularly examined the systemic and structural determinants of women’s decisions, actions, and well-being strategies before and after separation from violent relationships. Dr. Yalcinoz-Ucan is also part of Gender-Based Violence & Migration (GBV-MIG) Canada Research Program, working as a research associate in the project examining violence against women migrants and refugees.