Team Category: Presenter

Colin Druhan is a business strategist with more than fifteen years of experience working with 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. He has served as Executive Director of Pride at Work Canada since 2014. In 2021 he was elected Chair of the Board of Directors of Volunteer Toronto, Canada’s largest volunteer centre, where he has served as a Director since 2018. He also sits on the Advisory Board of the Diversity Institute at the Ted Rogers School of Management at X University (formerly Ryerson). In 2020 Colin was named a DiverseCity Fellow by CivicAction, joining a diverse group of rising leaders who are passionate about shaping their communities within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Originally from Cole Harbour, NS, Colin received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University and has completed executive education programs at both the Rotman School of Management and at Harvard Business School.

Larissa (she/her) is a lawyer, mediator, and workplace investigator. Larissa has over a decade of experience in gender-based violence work and advocacy. Larissa’s legal work focuses on employment law, human rights, and policy. She is passionate about helping to create safer workplaces. Larissa has specialized experience and knowledge including her degree in Gender Studies and certificates in Sexual and Gender Diversity from Queen’s University. She offers trauma-informed investigation and mediation services in workplaces, as well as training to organizations on their legal obligations to protect employees from harassment, including sexual harassment and discrimination at work.

Cassandra Dorrington is the President & CEO of Canadian Aboriginal and Minority Supplier Council – CAMSC. Leading the charge of championing business relationships and economic growth of the Canadian supply chain through the inclusion of Aboriginal and Minority suppliers, Cassandra has expanded the CAMSC brand, both nationally and internationally. This has resulted in significant growth and impact in the Canadian marketplace.

Known for her business and community environment involvement, Cassandra has been named one of Diversity Canada’s Influential Women in Diversity and HR. She sits on the National Advisory Council for the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSME) for the Government of Canada, Elevate International, and Dalhousie University Board of Governors.

With, approximately 450 certified suppliers, 85 corporate members and more than $7 Billion in diverse spend, CAMSC is a proud member of both Supplier Diversity Alliance Canada (SDAC), single voice for supplier in Canada and Global Supplier Diversity Alliance (GSDA), promoting supplier diversity globally with councils in Australia, China, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

As a dedicated diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging advocate, Salma has spent years actively engaging people in workplaces including Sephora Canada, Loblaw Companies, Airbnb, and communities to build healthy and positive cultures. As an organizational consultant for more than 10 years, she uses experience and expertise in operations, process optimizations and change management to build thriving teams and cultures with a foundational focus on behaviours, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. With a passion for thewhybehind what people do, creating optimal experiences, improved ways of working and innovating through a strategic business lens, Salma strives to make more meaningful connections and impacts, while moving the dial forward towards positive change.

Darcie Dixon is the Director of Employee Culture and Development at Scotiabank where she supports culture transformation and is involved in many diversity and inclusion initiatives. Darcie is a behavioural scientist and has a background in human capital consulting and culture transformation in financial services. Darcie has a PhD in Behavioural Science and is excited about putting humans at the centre of business decisions.

StarrleeDeGrace is a proud First Nations woman, member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island and one of the 2023 Top 50 Changemakers named by the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business.Starrleerecently started a new role as Senior Talent Acquisition Partner,Branch Banking, Indigenous Peoplesat TD Bank. Prior to thatStarrleespent 18 years building a careerin thetechnology sectorwith roles spanning from customer service and sales to talentacquisitionand D&I.She enjoys giving back to her communityandhas a long and successfultrack recordof connecting with Indigenous Talent across Canada.

Starrleewas born in Windsor, Ontario but soon moved to Keswick, Ontario, close to the Chippewas of Georgina Island Band.She made a courageous decision to move away from her family to Toronto in 2001 and with her desire to be heard, to make a difference and not be another statistic, she graduated from Seneca College in 2006 with a Diploma in Marketing Administration. She understands firsthand how challenging it can be to pursue a post-secondary education, especially as an Indigenous woman and navigate corporate environments; her goal is to ease the path for future generations and to create diverse and inclusive environmentsfor everyone.

Anthropologist and researcher in occupational health and safety,Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST)

Daniel Côtéisananthropologistandresearcherat the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST).He obtained a doctorate in anthropology from the Université de Montréal in 2007 after conducting ethnographic research in northern India. Today, his work focuses on the rehabilitation of workers with occupational injuries and the prevention of disabilities.

His research program focuses on workers in vulnerable situations, and more specifically on the rehabilitation pathways of immigrant workers, and on issues relating to intercultural communication in intervention environments. He is also interested in social inequalities in health, the casualization of work and the phenomenon of stigmatization, taking a critical, systemic look at the pathways of individual experience. One of his most recent publications tackles the subject of mistrust in the workplace, and the rehabilitation pathways of immigrantworkers in particular.

In collaboration with various institutional and community partners, Daniel contributes to the development of best practices in front-line intervention in apluriethniccontext.

Cristiane Danielli is a Relationship Manager at Coast Capital Savings who helps many members to achieve their financial wellbeing. She moved to Canada 5 years ago and before moving to this beautiful land she used to live in Brazil where she also worked in the financial industry for more than 15 years.

She meet her wife in 2010 in Brazil and at the time in Brazil the conversation about LGBT couples and marriage was not exactly open or allowed. Living in that environment was not healthy for their relationship as they would have to hide who they were and for that reason they decide to move to Canada and restart their lives.

Strategic Repertoire Diversity Consultant

Music Director / Pianist

Earlier in my career I focused most of that entrepreneurial energy on learning to understand classical music more deeply. I performed across North America and China. I worked as an operatic and choral music director, a pianist, an organist, a vocal coach, an arranger, and composer.

This led me to create BIPOC Voices. Highlights of that project include creating the largest database of works for solo voice(s) and 2 or more instruments by BIPOC composers in the world, and the first-ever Canada-wide reports on how both orchestras and opera companies programmed equity-seeking composers. After a short stint working in DEI at the National Arts Centre, I am now returning to entrepreneurship to pursue projects that help orchestras across to amplify their social impact.

Mark Crestohl is the Canadian Lead for Employment and Labour Law at Accenture Inc., a leading global professional services company. As a member of the North American Employment Law team, Mark provides employment and labour advice and representation to Accenture on a broad range of topics, including employee relations, employee privacy, workplace accommodation, inclusion and diversity and dispute resolution. As part of the global team, he is tasked with “looking around the corner” to anticipate and proactively manage emerging regulatory, public policy and disruptive changes to the law of the workplace such as Applied Intelligence and agile workforces. He also participates in both domestic and global policy initiatives and supports new business ventures.

After realizing his passion lay in the field of labour and employment law while starting his career at a full-service Toronto law firm, he moved to the in-house environment more than 20 years ago, where he has worked for large employers, with national and international presence, in both the federal and provincial jurisdictions. He recently completed a term as a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Counsel to Employers (CACE) and currently serves as Chair of the Advocacy Committee. He is also a former Vice-Chair of the Canadian Centre for Ethics & Corporate Policy. He graduated from the University of Windsor with a joint LL.B./M.B.A. degree and enjoys photography, hiking, golf, tennis, hockey and skiing.