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Connie Burke: Connie is the Online Community Mobilizer for the Far North (The Northwest and Yukon Territories and Nunavut). She is an Inuit beneficiary under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, born and raised in Nunavut. Currently working as a Career Development Officer with the Department of Education, she assist clients with job readiness, apprenticeships, various training opportunities, as well as a funding source for clients attending college or training. She is also currently enrolled in the Nunavut Arctic College studying for her Career Development Practitioners Certificate. Prior to her employment with the Department of Education, she attended Nunavut Sivuniksavut in Ottawa, ON, where she studied the Nunavut Land Claims agreement, Inuit History and Inuit Government relations. She is honoured and she looks forward to working on the “Inspiring Approaches to First Nations, Métis and Inuit Learning” Changemakers Initiative. |
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Carolyn Doyle: Carolyn is currently a Project Manager at Ashoka Changemakers and Ashoka Canada. She holds a Masters in Public Policy from the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining Ashoka, Carolyn worked extensively with membership-based governance structures in Southern Africa and Canada. She coordinated and launched the website of the University of Toronto’s Public Good Initiative and served as the first Xtending Hope Partnership Representative in Botswana. She also expanded a peer support program for People Living with HIV and AIDS from Botswana to Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. Carolyn is now contributing her strong commitment to social justice issues to Ashoka’s mission to bring about systemic change through innovation. |
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Victoria Grant: Victoria Grant is the President and owner of Moving Red Canoe, a unique professional services firm focused on Aboriginal affairs consulting. Victoria is of the Loon Clan, Teme-Augama Anishnabai, and a member of the Temagami First Nation. With over 20 years of experience working within Aboriginal Communities, she is a founding member of the Temagami Community Foundation, and after 5 years has returned to the organization to serve as Chair. Victoria has served on not-for-profit boards locally and provincially, and is also currently a Director serving Community Foundations of Canada. Victoria and her husband, divide their time between Island 762 in the South Arm of Lake Temagami and their home in Stouffville. |
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Brandon Jacoby: Brandon joined the Ashoka team in July 2011 and he works on the “Inspiring Approaches to First Nations, Métis and Inuit Learning” Changemakers Initiative. Prior to Ashoka, Brandon worked as an Environmental Advisor for Blue Door Shelters. He also held the position of Research Assistant with the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity and with Dr. Ingrid Hehmeyer at Ryerson University’s History Department. Brandon contributed several maps and drawings that will appear in an upcoming textbook by Dr. Hehmeyer on water management in ancient and medieval Yemen. Brandon was recently awarded his BA in Geographic Analysis at Ryerson University and is currently studying for his MA in Immigration and Settlement Studies, also at Ryerson. His research interests include education policy, urban planning, urban sustainability, demographics, and cartography. |
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Tania Koenig-Gauchier: Tania is the Online Community Mobilizer for British Columbia at Ashoka Canada, as well as a television producer, an entrepreneur, and communications consultant who specializes in marketing/promotions and website projects. Of Cree-Métis heritage, she and her family are from the Peavine Métis Settlement and the Lesser Slave Lake area of Northern Alberta. Tania has produced documentaries and television shows about Aboriginal people for television networks such as APTN, CTV and CBC Newsworld. The stories that she has chosen to tell include documentaries about the tragic legacy of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada and HIV/AIDS in the Aboriginal community. Most recently, she produced a television documentary on Native cowboys and rodeo for APTN. This production was one of five BC nominees for excellence in cinematography at the 2011 Leo Awards. |
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Crystal McGregor: Crystal is the Online Community Mobilizer for Manitoba and Saskatchewan. She comes from the Whitefish River First Nation in Ontario, currently residing in Brandon, Manitoba. While dabbling in the retail sector her passion lay with public library services to First Nation communities which is evident in her volunteer role from the beginning to the newly formed National Aboriginal Public Library Organization. After 14 years operating a First Nation Public Library and in Public Library development her belief in Aboriginal Education can be the difference to her people. Crystal is pleased to come onboard to the Ashoka Canada team and assist the Manitoba/Saskatchewan regions in having their educational initiatives brought forth. |
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Elisha Muskat: Elisha is the Executive Director at Ashoka Canada. Prior to joining Ashoka, Elisha worked primarily in youth development, building and running programs in Toronto, New York City and Syracuse. She has launched youth conflict-resolution and peer-mediation programs and developed a green business advisory for small business owners. Elisha has also run after-school and summer programs for elementary- and middle-school students and worked in the field of health education, bringing knowledge and skills to teenagers in public schools across the US. Elisha has an MBA from Schulich School of Business at York University and a BA in Psychology from McGill University. Elisha has been with Ashoka since 2009, when she started as a volunteer while completing her MBA in non-profit management, sustainable business and strat-egy. She quickly became absorbed in the systemic change approach at the core of Ashoka's work to create a world of Everyone A Changemaker. She has worked with the Canada team, the USA team, Changemakers and global committees and across many functional areas. |
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Johl Ringuette: Johl is the National Aboriginal Community Mobilizer at Ashoka Canada and Ashoka Changemakers. He is First Nations Ojibwe Algonquin, descendant from Nippissing and Maniwaki Nations and Anishnawbe Ojibwe from north of North Bay, Ontario. He is from the Mink Clan which signifies his Traditional role as helper and protector to his community. His first passion is revitalizing the palette/knowledge/history/ceremony and optimal health in culinary arts through providing Traditional Aboriginal cuisine with his businesses, Ringfire Productions and Nishdish Marketeria and Catering. A resident of Toronto for more than two decades, he has worked in the Toronto Aboriginal community for over ten years in social justice, specializing in the Gladue principles and extensive advocacy for Aboriginal people in conflict with the law and the impact of intergenerational oppression from the Residential School legacy. |
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Marc Saindon: Marc Saindon is the Online Community Mobilizer for Quebec. He joined Ashoka from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), with a BA in History and a Certificate in Administration. He is currently pursuing his studies in Human Resources management. During his time at UQAM, Marc volunteered with the Cercle des Premières Nations de l'UQAM, a non-profit organization and campus association of Aboriginal students. His interest in Native cultures draws from his own Innu ancestry, a desire for more social activism and community-building, and from the people he works and celebrates with. In addition, Marc has worked as a photographer for the Présence Autochtone Festival, the Montreal Urban Aboriginal Community Strategy Network, and the Centre d'histoire de Montreal (Montreal History Center). He also contributes as a writer to Génération d'Idées, a non-partisan youth forum that seeks innovative solutions to the current challenges of Quebec society. |
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John Sharpe: John Sharpe is currently the CEO of Partners for Youth Inc, a provincial not-for-profit organization located in New Brunswick. A graduate of Holland College and the University of New Brunswick, John has been in the not-for-profit sector for almost 20 years. During his time with Partners for Youth, he has grown the organization to be one of the most innovative and largest in the province. His dedication and his passion drive him to seek better and more effective ways to mobilize the not-for-profit sector. John has served on numerous provincial and national boards dealing with issues in regards to youth at risk and family violence. He is married to Joanne, they have one child Ally and they live just outside the capital city of Fredericton. |
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Shawna Snache: Shawna is the Online Community Mobilizer for Ontario. She is currently a Project Coordinator at the Employment in Energy Program, a partnership program with the Métis Nation of Ontario and Georgian College. Shawna is a member of the Chippewa Tri Council and a community member of Rama and Georgina Island First Nations in Central Ontario, in the Lake Simcoe and Couchiching vicinity. A graduate of the Indigenous Public Relations program at First Nations Technical Institute, Shawna fell in love with giving First Nations people a voice, and capturing that strength with her gifts of writing and speaking. Passionate about volunteerism, community work, social development and reconnecting to the teaching of her ancestors, she spent the past year working with the Biminaawzogin Regional Aboriginal Women’s Circle where she facilitated the Aboriginal Women’s Transition Bridging Project, a program focused on teaching life skills, cultural teachings, and providing support systems to women wanting to return to work or school. Shawna also enjoys exploring the raw food lifestyle, organic gardening and training her horse Ben. |
