Speaker Biographies

Julie Baumann

Julie Baumann is a co-founder, coordinator, and Board Chair of SafeSpace London. She has been actively engaged as a researcher in community based projects since 2015. Most recently she was involved in an exploration of sex workers' use of digital technology. Julie has been instrumental in activities related to raising awareness about the harmful impacts of policing, criminalization, and stigma on the lives of sex workers.

Tamara Bernard

Tamara Bernard is from Lake Nipigon, specifically Kiasheke Zaaging Anishinaabek (Gull Bay First Nation). She is an experienced educator with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. She has been an Indigenous advocate for over 10 years and carries a wealth of experience and involvement within Indigenous relations across various communities. Tamara's passion is to share stories and teachings to other people. She has presented at TEDxTalks (We are More than Murdered and Missing, 2016), and has dedicated her research to her late great grandmother, Jane Bernard, (We are More than Murdered and Missing, 2017) who was taken in 1966 along with Doreen Hardy. Through the course of her research, Tamara finally learned about her great grandmother beyond her death, and along the way worked to deconstruct the hegemony of westernized knowledge to emphasize the Indigenous woman story, derived from relationships established with Land, Place, Humans, Ceremony, and Spirit World.

Tamara is also known for her work within Indigenous Education at Lakehead University, TRC Education advocacy and development, MMIWG speaker series, For Women Who Roar and as a Researcher for the Ontario Native Women's Association and Owner of Tamara Kwe. Additionally, Tamara has worked with the CTV See Me Project, Where are the Missing Children Art Series, in addition to other works such as: We are More than Murdered and Missing, Indigenous Gendered Cultural Research Analysis, Indigenous Yoga: Reclaiming our Spirit, Building our Bundles: Anishinaabeikwe Stories from Robinson Superior region, I am Story/ies - Indigenous women storytelling to Heal, Reclaim, & Empower, and Restor(y)ing through Indigenous Research. Tamara holds her Early Childhood Education and Autism Behavioral Sciences diplomas from Fanshawe college. A degree in Bachelors of Arts with a double major in Sociology and First Nations Studies from Western University. Masters Degree in Indigenous Education from Lakehead University and currently a Ph. D candidate at Lakehead University.

Rupaleem Bhuyan

Rupaleem Bhuyan was born in the United States in an immigrant family of Assamese origin and immigrated (again) to Canada in 2008. She currently works as an Associate Professor in Social Work at the University of Toronto where she teaches community practice, social action, and qualitative research methods.  In 1991, Dr. Bhuyan joined the violence against women movement as a peer rape prevention educator and has since worked as a domestic violence advocate, public educator, and researcher to end gender-based violence.  Her current research examines how immigration policy contributes to gendered inequality and different forms of gender-based violence, with a focus on collective action with and by migrants who seek dignity and human rights.

Dillon Black

Dillon Black, M.S.W. (they/them) is a gender-nonconforming feminist anti-violence & 2SLGBTQI+ rights advocate working on the unceded territory of the Algonquin peoples. They are also a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa. Dillon’s Ph.D. research hopes to look at the surveillance and resistance of marginalized communities in Canada through the intersections of gender-based violence, human rights, and surveillance. For the past 8 years Dillon has been working with the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women (OCTEVAW) on improving institutional accountability in responses to gender-based violence to meet the needs of marginalized communities both locally and nationally. Currently, Dillon is coordinating a groundbreaking project to support communities across Canada to pilot Violence Against Women Advocate Case Review (VACR) led by National Expert Surry Marriner. Dillon has served the last three years on Minister on the Status of Women’s Advisory Council to Help Shape the Federal Strategy on Gender-Based Violence, and more recently Dillon was appointed by the Right Honorable Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the international Gender Equality Advisory Council for Canada’s G7 Presidency. In 2018, Dillon was named as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Global Policy on Gender Equality.

Elisha Corbett

Elisha Corbett is currently a PhD Candidate at Queen's University in Political Studies and a former Senior Researcher with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. She is of mixed Irish and Cherokee decent. Elisha is passionate teacher, a dedicated researcher, and advocate for gender equity in her academic and personal life. 

Elisha holds a Masters of Social Science from the University of Western Ontario in Political Science and a Bachelor of Honours in Political Studies from Queen's University. Her doctoral dissertation explores how different media frames of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls shapes Canadian public opinion. To support her research, she has been awarded the Jean Royce Fellowship, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship and a Canadian Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada. 

Elisha is actively involved in the Queen's University and Kingston community at large. She has been an executive member of the Queen's Female Leadership in Politics conference since its inaugural year in 2015. She is also the Co-Chair of the Political Studies Graduate Student Association and a Board Member of the Autism Mentorship Program. 

Olson Crow

Olson Crow (they/them) is a 2 Spirit Kanien'kehá:ka Organizer from Toronto Ontario. Olson works on issues and topics relating to colonialism, transphobia, child welfare and carceral abolitionism. Olson currently sits as the National 2S and Trans Students Constituency Commissioner representing over 500,000 students nationwide. They have also spoken at various institutions across Canada including Dalhousie University, University of Toronto, and Mount Saint Vincent University. Using their personal experience as well as an anti-oppression theoretical framework they draw connections between colonialism, and the foster/group home to prison pipeline.

Jodi Hall

Jodi Hall is a professor and research consultant in the School of Nursing and Centre for Research and Innovation (Fanshawe College, Canada), and an Assistant Adjunct Professor (Arthur Labatt Family, School of Nursing, Western University, Canada). Dr. Hall holds a PhD in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences from the University of Western Ontario.  Her research and teaching interests include: trauma and resistance, critical appraisal of information and communication technologies in the lives of marginalized populations, criminalization, reproductive justice and health equity – all utilizing community based approaches. Dr. Hall has been a volunteer at SafeSpace London since 2014.

Kalimah Johnson

Kalimah Johnson, LMSW is a past Assistant Professor of Social Work at Marygrove College and Founder/Executive Director of SASHA Center in Detroit, Michigan. She is also a consultant to the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and the National Football League on matters of relationship safety and management. She has been an advocate and counselor to survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence for 20+ years and is an industry expert on topics related to culturally specific programming for sexual assault survivors, healthy relationships, domestic/sexual violence, emotional intelligence, mental health and well-being. Most recently, she completed the Athlete Development Professional Certification Program at the University of Pennsylvania-The Wharton School/Aresty Institute of Executive Education to increase her skills and capacity of working with and on behalf of professional athletes and continues to create culturally specific services/training and workshops for domestic violence and sexual assault programs nationally and abroad.

She is a consultant to the National Women of Color Network and works closely with service organizations to address the needs of African-American survivors of sexual assault. She is the principle author of a new model explaining the complexities of service provision for black women who have been raped titled: “The SASHA Model: Black Women’s Triangulation of Rape.” Her interests include writing and performing poetry and she owns a natural hair care studio in her home-town Detroit.

leZlie lee kam

I am a world majority, brown, trini, carib, indo, callaloo, queer DYKE, differently-abled. I AM AN INTERSECTIONAL BODY. I advocate for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, queer seniors, and queer people of colour. I have been facilitating workshops / presentations on 2SLGBTQI+ inclusion for the past 43 years. I sit on the Ministry of Seniors & Accessibility Liaison Committee, the VHA (Visiting Homemakers Association), Client Carer Advisory Council and LGBTQ working group, the expert panel for the RNAO (Registered Nurses Association of Ontario), Aging without Violence Advisory Committee of OAITH (Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses), and the National Seniors Advisory Council of EAGLE. I am also a volunteer trainer with the 519 Older Adult and Education Program and a co-facilitator with the youth/elders project of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. I truly believe that WE must respect and include 2SLGBTQ seniors as part of the general population and NOT force us back into the closet. I live my life from an anti-oppression / anti-racism and intersectional perspective. I enjoy a cold beverage, dim sum, dancing, doubles and a trini 'lime' anytime!!

Myrna Kicknosway

Myrna Kicknosway comes from Walpole Island, Bkejwanong Territory. She has been invited to the University of Western Ontario to assist students and staff in the area of cultural awareness, consultation, and counseling. Her life journey and personal healing has provided her with an ever-expanding appreciation of the knowledge of Indigenous Cultures, traditions, and our growth as human beings and unique members of our kind Creator’s family.

Marlihan Lopez

Marlihan Lopez is a Black feminist activist and community organizer tackling issues surrounding anti-blackness, gendered based sexual violence, and its intersections. She coordinated the intersectionality division for the Quebec Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, where she does advocacy work and raises awareness on how gender, race, class, and ability intersect in the context of sexual violence. She was president of la Fondation Paroles de femmes, a feminist organization for WOC committed to creating inclusive spaces where “racialized” women can speak and share their diverse experiences and perspectives. She also organized with movements such as Black Lives Matter and Montréal Noir around issues such as racial profiling and police brutality. She is currently co-Vice-President for la Fédération des femmes du Québec and Undergraduate Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Studies in Sexuality program at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute.

Patricia McGuire

Nii Kishebakabaykwe, Kiishebakabaykwe, nii Makwa dodem nii bami'aagan Bizhiw Daajiibaa, Indian Act affiliated with Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek. Dr. McGuire is a treaty Indian, 1850 Robinson Superior treaty. Dr. McGuire has familial relationships with her father’s community, Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek.

She writes about her experiences living on the land in her treaty area as resilience based on Indigenous ways of knowing. She maintains culturally specific land-based practices can promote wellness as well as culturally specific interventions. She was on the land with her family for over 20 years. Her family was well known for harvesting by hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering edible food such as blueberries.

Dr. McGuire is a long time Indigenous helper, who, practices living a good life, Meno Bimadizenwin. She specializes in Indigenous community development and education. Her research projects involve the restoration and resurgence of Indigenous knowledge(s), Indigenous women and trauma, and interventions based upon Indigenous knowledge(s). 

She has been recognized for being an Indigenous community helper and for her advocacy work with Indigenous women.  Her 2013 dissertation is entitled, Anishinaabe Giikeedaasiwin – Indigenous knowledge: An Exploration of Resilience.  She co-edited with Dr. Patricia A. Monture, First Voices – A Aboriginal Women’s Reader in 2009. A consistent theme in her work is creation of respectful frameworks for the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge(s) in broader academic, social and political contexts.  Dr. McGuire is an assistant professor at Carleton University.

Janet Mosher

Janet Mosher is an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and the Director of Clinical Legal Education at Osgoode. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Feminist Advocacy: Ending Violence Against Women clinical program, a program run in partnership with the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic. Professor Mosher is the co-editor of the Journal of Law and Social Policy and past English language editor of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law. Her research focuses on law and gender-based violence, access to justice for marginalized populations, welfare policy (the intersections of poverty and violence against women in particular), women’s homelessness, and legal aid. She is currently a co-investigator on a research project exploring the access to justice barriers experienced by survivors of domestic violence when they must navigate multiple legal systems (family, criminal, child welfare, and immigration among them).

Jade Peek

Jade Peek is a Mi’kmaq and Black Nova Scotian Woman. She is an artist, curator, and guest lecturer who studied at NSCAD University in Art History focusing on African and Indigenous Methodologies and Epistemologies. She is known for also being a community organizer in K’jipuktuk, Mi'kma'ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia) working and focusing on creating community spaces, events, artistic and educational hubs, and has been an active player in the student, racial, and queer justice movements.

While on her academic hiatus, she is now based in Ottawa working for 2SLGBTQA+ Community focusing on education, advocacy, and support through Kind Space Ottawa. She served as the Deputy Chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students in 2018-2019, National Women's Representative from 2016-2018 in Canada’s oldest and largest national student organization.