Team Category: Presenter

In 2017, after fifteen years as a geologist and senior leadership professional in the Energy Industry, Kiersten embarked on the most significant challenge of her life: gender transition. Gender transition was life-changing in many ways. Kiersten’s publicly authentic and vulnerable approach to her transition allowed her to see how authenticity in the workplace could build connections andsynergywith her colleagues. Additionally, as Kiersten moved from a dominant to a non-dominant group whilemaintaininga corporate leadership role, she discovered many insights about improving equity, diversity, and inclusion in professional spaces. As she continued her corporate career, Kiersten found new motivation to engage in a more meaningful life through volunteering in the community and educating herself with a Bachelor of Psychology.

Eventually, these experiences ignited a personal passion, leading Kiersten to step out of her energy industry role, continue with a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology, and launch TerraFirmaTransition Consulting. Kiersten is now passionate about using the unique intersection of her education, twenty years of corporate and leadership experience, and lived experience as a transgender professional to help empower organizations to create authentic,equitable, accessible, and inclusive workplaces where everyone can succeed. In addition, Kiersten dedicates time each week to providing inclusive and client-centred counselling support for youth, adults, couples, and families.

Kiersten is passionate about giving back to her community and serves as an executive board member for the Airdrie Pride Society and as a board director with Distress Centre Calgary. Kiersten’s commitment to advocacy has been celebrated by her community, as she was honoured as Airdrie’s 2020 Amazing Women in Advocacy and nominated for a 2020 Star of Alberta Award by the Mayor of Airdrie.

Darren Mondor is an Information Technology professional with over 20 years of experience across private, not-for-profit, and government sectors. He is currently the IT Project Management Office Lead at The City of Calgary, where his team provides oversight and support services for the $80-100 million in technology projects actively underway in the business unit at any point in time. He has been a volunteer with Calgary Region Immigrant Employment Council (CRIEC) since 2012, and joined the Board of Directors in early 2014.

Darren holds an MBA from York University’s Schulich School of School, a Project Management Professional (PMP) designation from Project Management Institute, as well as numerous business and technical certifications.

To be updated.

Christen is on the Board of Directors for the African Caribbean Council of Halton (ACCH) and is passionate about the dismantling of Racism within Canada and abroad and believes that Racism is not only violence – it is differences in rights, privileges and opportunity baked into institutions over generations to oppress BIPOC. Christen believes that defeating racism is an active process of unlearning and re-educating, of facing the problem head-on and remaking our society in the true idea of equality.

Kirk Merrett is a senior HR executive with 20+ years leading HR teams in Canada including his current role with Hyundai Canada and previously with Mitsubishi Canada and Eddie Bauer of Canada. He has a passion for employee experience and engagement as a business driver and has led Hyundai Canada to a regular spot on the list of the Top 50 Best Workplaces in Canada. Working with company leaders to provide an incredible employee experience gives Kirk an even bigger high than the ones he experienced running with the bulls in Pamplona, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and solo skydiving.

Christine worked in the private sector for two years with a large accounting firm before returning to work in the federal public service in Nova Scotia as an Employment Counsellor with HRDC. Christine eventually took on progressively challenging roles until venturing into management as the Manager of a Service Canada Centre in Digby, a coastal community in Nova Scotia. After becoming the Director of Citizen Services for Nova Scotia in 2007 and the Executive Director for Citizen Services in 2009, Christine has provided leadership to a number of business lines in the Atlantic Region as the Executive Director for Strategic Services and for Integrity and National Services. And after taking on the role of Director General for Strategic Services she took on the Director General role for Citizen Service and Program Delivery in January of 2018.

Christine is the Regional Champion for Atlantic Region Mental Health and Wellness Committee and the ESDC Champion for Gender-Based Analysis+. Most recently, Christine has assumed the role of co-chair for Integrated Operations Committee.

Broadcast Journalist and Media Expert

Ginella Massa is an award-winning Canadian broadcaster, mediaconsultantand soughtafter public speaker. Ginella graduated with anHonoursBA in Communication Studiesat York University and has a diploma in Broadcast Journalism from Seneca College. Shehas worked in both TV and radio, behind the scenes and on air, at many of Canada’smajor networks, including CTV, CBC, and CityNews. Most recently, she was theprimetime host of “Canada Tonight with Ginella Massa”, on the country’s national publicbroadcaster, making history as North America’s first hijab-wearing national TV newsanchor. As amediaconsultantand CEO of her own PR Firm, Massa Media&Communication, Ginella helps her clients build strong communications plans throughboth traditional and social media. She also has a passion for working with localcommunity groups and nonprofits, helping bridge the media literacy gap, and changethe narrative of marginalized communities.

With over a decade of international work in Community organizing, Communications, Events and Project Management, Marina Mathieu is an experience enhancer. She holds aBachelor in Communicationfrom the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), a Certificate in Sexual Health from Laval University, and is currentlyfinalizinga Masters in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies at York University. Passionate about issues related to discrimination, human rights, and the status of women internationally, she hosted and moderated conversations and events with pillars like Michaëlle Jean and Dominique Anglade. As a filmmaker, she wrote,directedand produced three short films with subject matters ranging from denouncing police brutality against racialized people in Canada to addressing the problem of uterine fibroids in women of African descent. Her latest production, which features two young women displaced by natural disasters, was awarded Best Documentary Short at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival (SVAFF). Marina believes in care, empowerment, equity and solidarity for all livingbeingsand she abides by these values in all the projects she leads or gets involved in.

Laetitia Martin is an analyst at the Centre for Ethnocultural, Language and Immigration Statistics at Statistics Canada. She completed a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in sociology from the Université de Montréal. She has been working in the field of immigration statistics for more than 12 years. She’s currently working on a broad project to improve the relevance of current inclusion measures of Canadian ethnic minority groups. Within the broad frame of immigration and ethnocultural statistics, her fields of interest are, among others, data relevance, categorization and social inequities.