Team Category: Presenter

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.

Acting Manager, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion – Public Services and Procurement Canada

Marylaine Choquette occupies an Acting Manager of Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion position in the federal public service. She started in this field in 2009 after working for 7 years in the field of learning. Since 2020, she has also facilitated the Interdepartmental Employment Equity and Diversity Network, which brings together hundreds of representatives from several federal organizations. She seeks to create links between various stakeholders in the field. She wants to identify, and then dismantle, systemic issues.

As a mother, she is involved in schools to offer an EEDI framework that promotes openness to the uniqueness of everyone. Marylaine is counting on the next generations to create real substantive change.

Areas of expertise

Diversity relatededucation

Jill Chesley is the Diversity and Inclusion Lead, Employee Services for the City of Edmonton. She brings domestic and international experience and over 20 years of experience in the non-profit, private and public sectors, including working in the USA, Japan, Trinidad & Tobago, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Afghanistan. Jill has subject-matter expertise in the fields of intercultural competence, equity, diversity and inclusion, particularly in large, complex organizations.

Jill’s competencies include strategy and policy development, design and delivery of training, program development and coordination, as well as employee engagement via vehicles such as diversity & inclusion committees, employee resource networks, and mentoring programs. At the City of Edmonton, Jill is responsible for the development and implementation ofThe Art of Inclusion: Our Diversity & Inclusion Framework. She leads the Corporate D&I Advisory Committee, and advises each department D&I Committee. Jill also oversees the implementation of Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) at the City. During her tenure, the City of Edmonton was named a top Diversity Employer in Canada in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Prior to her role at the City of Edmonton, Jill was the Team Lead, Diversity & Inclusion at Enbridge. Jill has a MA in Intercultural Relations. She is the Founding Chair of the Edmonton Business Diversity Network and the National Municipal D&I Network. She is a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), and a Senior Facilitator of Personal Leadership ©.