Courageous Conversations

Dr. Malinda Smith is the inaugural Vice Provost and Associate Vice President Research (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) and a full professor of political science at the University of Calgary. Prior to joining the UCalgary she was a full professor of political science at the University of Alberta, where she held various roles including Provost Fellow (EDI Policy) in the Office of the Provost, and Associate Chair (Graduate Studies) in the Department of Political Science.

Dr. Smith has served on numerous higher education governance committees, including as Vice President (Equity Issues) for the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and as Chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion External Review Committee for the Canada Research Chairs. Currently, she serves on SSHRC Governing Council and Executive; as Vice Chair of the Inter-Institutional Advisory Committee for the Scarborough Charter, on Statistics Canada’s Immigration and Ethnocultural Statistics Advisory Committee; and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s External EDI Advisory Board.

Dr. Smith is the coauthor, editor, or coeditor of 7 books, numerous articles, book chapters and reports and has given dozens of invited keynotes and public lectures in the areas of equity, diversity, human rights, and decolonization in higher education, African political economy, and international relations. Dr. Smith is the coauthor of The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities (2017); coeditor of Critical Concepts: An Introduction to Politics (OUP 2023); the Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy (UofT Press, 2022); States of Race: Critical Race Feminism for the 21st Century (BTL 2010). and three books on Africa, including Securing Africa: Post-9/11 Discourses on Terrorism (2010).

Dr. Smith is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including Calgary Black Chambers’ Lifetime Achievement Award (2023), an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Simon Fraser University (2021), Compelling Calgarians (2021), the International Studies Association’s  Women’s Caucus’s Susan S. Northcutt Award (2020), 100 Accomplished Black Women Honouree (2020), the ISA-Canada Distinguished Scholar Award (2018-19), P.E. Trudeau Foundation Fellow (2018), the HSBC Community Contributor of the Year Award (2016); and the Canadian Association of University Teachers’ Equity Award  (2015).

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Dr. Julie Cafley is the Executive Director of Catalyst Canada, an organization that drives inclusive workplaces. She is a creative, strategic leader and an accomplished academic with expertise in equity and inclusion, public policy and higher-education leadership.

In 2023, she was chosen as a member of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67). She is a frequent writer and speaker on higher education, leadership and gender equity.

Previously, she was the Vice-President, Communications and External Relations at the Digital Research Alliance of Canada where she helped to build the Alliance as a new non-profit organization. Before that, she worked as the Executive Vice-President at the Public Policy Forum (PPF). Julie built bridges and enhanced the profile and visibility of the PPF while directing its communications, external partnerships, membership and learning teams. In her previous role as Chief of Staff to two presidents at the University of Ottawa, Julie worked closely with the President and the senior executive team to develop and advance strategic initiatives.

Julie holds a PhD in education leadership from the University of Ottawa with sought-after expertise in university presidential mandates. Her thesis focused on higher education leadership and governance through the lens of unfinished terms of Canadian university presidents.

Julie is an active community builder and a collaborative change maker. Whether it is serving coffee and muffins to the region’s homeless people, serving on the board of Parkinson Canada, mentoring young policy wonks, or supporting her alma mater on its Campaign Cabinet and Dean’s advisory council, giving back is integral to who she is and a part of her every day.

Julie is a committed advocate for women and leadership, a constant ally for First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples and an indefatigable champion for diversity initiatives.

Dr. Candace Brunette-Debassige is a Mushkego Cree iskwew of Petabeck First Nation (Treaty 9) with Cree and French lineage. She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education and Teaching Fellow at Western University. Her research and teaching focus on Indigenous Peoples’ collective movements in Euro-Western colonial educational contexts. She is the author of Tricky Grounds, a 2023 book focusing on Indigenous women’s leadership experiences in advancing reconciliation and Indigenization movements in Canadian universities.

Her doctoral dissertation was awarded the 2021 George L. Geis dissertation of the year award by the Canadian Society for Studies in Higher Education. She is also the proud recipient of a 2019 Peace Award for Truth and Reconciliation from Atlôhsa Family Services. Beyond her passion for research and teaching, Candace has extensive leadership experience driving institutional policy change at the K-12 and postsecondary levels. She has served as Acting Vice Provost /Associate Vice President (Indigenous Initiative), Special Advisor to the Provost (Indigenous), and Director of Indigenous Services at Western.

Dr. Annette Henry is a Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education and cross-appointed to the Institute for Race, Gender Sexuality and Social Justice. She was a former department head and held the David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education in the Faculty of Education. She held previous positions at the University of Washington and the University of Illinois. She is the author of Taking Back Control: African Canadian Teachers’ lives and Practice, the first book on contemporary Black women teachers’ lives and practice in Canada. Her scholarship examines race, class, language, gender and culture in contexts of teaching and learning in the lives of Black students, Black oral histories, and Black women teachers’ practice in North America.

She has written extensively about leadership, equity in the academy, diverse feminisms and conceptual and methodological research issues. She is a recipient of several awards including the Canadian Association of University Teachers Equity Award, the Outstanding Contributions to Gender Award from the American Educational Research Association, and the Carol Crealock Memorial Award for outstanding research in Women and Education. She was also a 2021-2022 Scholar at UBC’s Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.

She currently is principal investigator on a 5-year SSHRC-funded longitudinal critical oral history of Black people’s lives in Vancouver. She also coordinates UBC Black futures ,a monthly program for secondary school Black students, part of a national five-university, multi-year programmatic and research initiative to foster the higher educational and career aspirations of students, funded by RBC Youth Initiative.

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Kitohkanaiksimmatsimmohpowawa.

Elder Colleen Sitting Eagle has worked with young people all their working years in many different but similar aspects. From being a Youth Camp Coordinator,Youth Prevention Juvenile Counsellor, Crime prevention with Gleichen R.C.M.P. and Blackfoot Tribal Police, Researcher for Siksika Culture and Heritage to being a Language Teacher/Liaison for Siksika Schools. Colleen learned her Siksika history from her late parents and the honour of working with knowledgeable elders. She was one of the first groups from Siksika to be integrated to start her schooling in Strathmore, AB. She previously attended and continues to take courses from the University of Calgary.

She is gifted with two beautiful children with loosing her son last year (2022). She has six grandchildren ranging from 7-21 years old.