Andrea L. K. Johnston / Intern Planning Committee Chair
Andrea L. K. Johnston spent 4 years as the assistant of Pauline Shirt, Elder of the Plains Cree Red-tail Hawk clan, helping her in ceremonies including healing ceremonies, sunrise ceremonies, feasts, fasting, sweats, tree blessings and more (1988-1991). Over three years spent time with Haudenosaunee Geraldine Standup, Mohawk and belongs to the Bear Clan from Kahanwake, Quebec, in the development of the Waawiyeyaa Evaluation Tool, along with other leaders and Knowledge Keepers, but Geraldine Standup was instrumental in steering the development of the Tool (2004 – 2008). After 10-years of building expertise, Andrea L. K. Johnston, CEO of Johnston Research Inc. began to develop tools, training curricula, workbooks, resources and exercises which Andrea solely developed under Johnston Research Inc. Johnston Research Inc. has been in operation for over 20 years and began to offer training in 2017. We have developed training tools as well as evaluation data collection and practice tools. In 2010, Johnston Research Inc. launched the Waawiyeyaa Evaluation Tool, which translates to coming full circle in a healing journey; as a specific tool designed to encourage healing through oral tradition and storytelling. In 2016, the online training program was launched with accompanying workshop books, exercises and tools. We continue to develop and launch Tools for Change, to meet our goal of Indigenous-led evaluation. We are the only firm that offers a comprehensive course on bringing reconciliation into evaluation. The Honouring Reconciliation in Evaluation training program has certificate recipients from Inuit communities, universities, non-for-profit organizations, federal government, Métis communities, provincial government and First Nations. Graduates of all Three Workshops receive two certificates: 1) Cultural Competency in Evaluation Practices, and 2) Aptitude for Indigenous Evaluation Frameworks.
Patricia Baxter / Planning Committee Member
Patricia Baxter specializes in organizational development, facilitation and training with Indigenous people across Canada. Her efforts include major facilitations at national forums and roundtables, working on women’s issues, in the areas of economic development as well participating as a board member of Indigenous Works since its inception. For several years she has acted as Co-Chair of this organization. Pat continues to work at the community, regional and national level on Indigenous issues. She is the past Co-President of the Canadian Women’s Foundation and worked with the Women’s Economic Development Consortium. These activities led to the establishment of a bursary at Trent University – Patricia Baxter Anishnawbe Kwe Award. Since 1994 Pat has been self-employed working with a variety of clients both in the public/ private sectors and non-profit organizations across Canada. She volunteers with several national and regional organizations in Canada. Pat enjoys working on human resource development work, capacity and organizational development work.
Tara Erb / Planning Committee Member
Tara Erb is of mixed Moose Cree First Nation from Moose Factory and French European ancestry and grew up in Toronto, Ontario. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at the University of Victoria (UVic) and recently finished her Master of Arts in Sociology from UVic, with a research focus on facilitating Indigenous cultural safety and anti-racism training. She is a research assistant on various projects, one of which developed an Indigenous-led cultural safety training (ICST) impact assessment tool in collaboration with four post-secondary institutions on Vancouver Island, BC. Her research interests include: Indigenous health and wellness, Indigenous cultural safety, anti-racism facilitation and social theory. Currently, Tara is the Network Coordinator of the BC NEIHR residing as a guest on the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEC peoples territories at the University of Victoria.
Jessica Hill / Planning Committee Member
Jessica Hill is K^nikahluyah, Wolf Clan, Oneida Nation of the Thames, Ontario. Jessica holds a BA for the University of Western Ontario and a MA from Eastern Michigan University, certifications as Third Party Neutral from the Canadian Center for Conflict Resolution and Community Economic Developer from Simon Fraser University. A strong consulting and business professional and advisor for 20 years she has created her own path to independence and a strong demonstrated history working for her people in Indigenous and non-Indigenous not for profit organizations, the cultural sector and business. She has strong analytical and writing skills, policy and program development and evaluation. Jessica is experienced in facilitation design and developing the facilitation processes and forums at all levels. Today, she is focussed on business development, leadership and organization change.
Gladys Rowe / Planning Committee Member
Gladys Rowe, BSW, MSW, PhD. Gladys Rowe is a Muskego Inniniw Iskwew (Swampy Cree woman) person who also holds relations with ancestors from Ireland, England, Norway, and Ukraine. She is a member of Fox Lake Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba. She currently resides in Washington State with her family on the occupied lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish peoples. Gladys has many years of experience teaching undergraduate students, supporting the development of programs in a university setting, designing and implementing community driven research and evaluation projects, and in the use of social innovation in community based organizations. She successfully defended her dissertation on November 30, 2020 titled Resurgence of Indigenous Nationhood: Centering the stories of Indigenous full spectrum doulas. This work was completed for her PhD in interdisciplinary studies through the University of Manitoba. Gladys’ interests and experiences include research and evaluation related to: identity development; personal and ancestral stories and cultural practices as mechanisms for healing and decolonization; maternal and child health; wellbeing across the lifespan; Indigenous social work; and, community development.
Jerilyn Ducharme / Planning Committee Member
Jerilyn Ducharme is a member of the Métis Nation in Manitoba with roots embedded in the Red River region. Family, community and ceremony is where she finds her strength and inspiration. Jerilyn was raised in a small, rural community southwest of Winnipeg and at present she resides outside of Winnipeg with her family. She is the proud mother to a five-year-old daughter who helps to keep her spirit young at heart. In 2010, Jerilyn graduated from the University of Manitoba ACCESS Programs with her B.A., B.Ed., where she began working for the following nine years in the field of Adult Education at the Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development (CAHRD), which focuses on providing employment services, education and training opportunities for Indigenous peoples in Winnipeg. Jerilyn began her teaching career at CAHRD where she moved into an administrative role as the Assistant Director of Education. In 2020, Jerilyn began working at The University of Manitoba at The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning as an Indigenous Initiatives Educator alongside her predecessor in providing consultations, research, resources and workshops related to Indigenous education, methodologies, pedagogies, epistemologies and support in approaching reconciliation in teaching and learning for faculty and graduate students at the UM. In the Fall of 2022, she accepted the role of Manager of Learning with Indigenous Engagement and Communications at UM. In her current position she is co-developing the evaluation framework and processes for projects supported through the EleV partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. In the spring of 2023, Jerilyn will be graduating with her master’s from Brandon University in the Educational Administration program.
Jasmine Noureddin / Planning Committee Member
Jasmine Noureddin (MA)– Program Evaluator, Youth Opportunities Fund. Jasmine has worked at the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) in her role as the Program Evaluator for the Youth Opportunities Fund since 2014. Before joining OTF, Jasmine served several private and NFP organizations in roles that merged evaluation and research, community development and project design work aimed at developing and enacting viable strategies and policies for community stakeholders. Jasmine has an Hon. BA in Political Science and English Literature from the University of Toronto and an MA specializing in Political Theory from McMaster University. Jasmine resides in Toronto with her family.
Scott Milford-Stanton / Planning Committee Member
Scott Milford-Stanton is an evaluation manager with Evaluation and Policy Redesign. His background is in sociology, criminology and Indigenous research and evaluation methods. Scott’s team leads innovation projects, including the Urban Programming for Indigenous Peoples and Economic Development Capacity and Readiness program evaluations, which work with Indigenous partners to develop evaluation tools that challenge the limitations of Western approaches to evaluation and data. These approaches represent a major shift away from evaluation methods commonly used in the federal government. His team also explores how to work towards service transfer and Indigenous data sovereignty, making use of participatory methods and community engagement strategies to ensure that Indigenous Peoples have a voice and are able to shape, and benefit from, government evaluation work. He is proud of his Cherokee heritage and to be living on Treaty 7 territory in Canmore, Alberta.
Marina Santilli / Planning Committee Member
Marina Santilli has worked in monitoring, reporting and evaluation internationally with the United Nations and has served Indigenous communities and nations fulltime in different research and evaluation capacities with the Government of Canada since 2017. She has experience in Indigenous policy and program evaluation at Indigenous and Northern Affairs (INAC), Canadian Heritage, and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and is motivated to continue to advance truth and reconciliation calls to action across the federal public service. Marina co-led the 2018 summer internship at the former INAC that engaged communities across the country to explore pathways for co-development with First Nations, Inuit and Metis partners using Indigenous evaluation methodologies and consultation protocols.
Nocile Bowman / Planning Committee Member
Nicole Bowman, PhD, President, Bowman Performance Consulting, Associate Scientist and Evaluator, University of WI-Madison. Nicole “Nicky” Bowman, PhD (Lunaape/Mohican), carries out her work in service to others at the intersection of truth, spirituality, traditional knowledge, sovereignty, governance, and evaluation. Dr. Bowman is a traditional Lunaape/Mohican woman who has been an active Indigenous community member for 40 years and an Indigenous evaluator for over two decades. She is the founder and president of Bowman Performance Consulting (BPC) and an Associate Scientist and Evaluator at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Bowman supports a large portfolio of projects advancing radical Indigenous and community-led scholarship with Tribal and non-Tribal governments and philanthropic, non-profit, and private-sector organizations nationally and internationally. She is a member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation andAssessment (CREA), and has been part of the elected or appointed leadership for AEA, CREA, Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation, and EvalIndigenous. Currently she is also a member of the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) and the co-editor and co-creator for a new permanent section for Indigenous scholarship called “Roots and Relations” in the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation (CJPE). Dr. Bowman also is the current co-editor for a special global decolonization issue of the Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation (JMDE) with Dr. Bagele Chilisa (Bantu Tribe of Africa and post-colonial Botswana scholar). Dr. Bowman has been or is a reviewer and/or journal board member for CJPE, New Directions in Evaluation, American Journal of Evaluation, and JMDE. She earned her PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2015, a Master of Education degree from Lesley University in 1997, and a Bachelor of Arts in Education from St. Norbert College in 1993.
Karen Paul / Planning Committee Member
Karen Paul, Executive Director, Workforce Warriors. Karen is an educator, a lifelong learner and an advocate for inclusive education and employment opportunities. She has a heart with a passion for encouraging and seeing people succeed and has spent the past 30 years working with Indigenous communities and organizations in various capacities including education, band management and consulting services in her home province of New Brunswick as well as in Ontario.
Karen holds a diploma in Paralegal Studies, a degree in Education, is a Certified Life Coach and is presently completing her Master of Education at the University of New Brunswick. She is also trained in Negotiations and Mediation, Crisis Management and Diversity and Inclusion practices. Karen has worked with New Brunswick Indigenous communities and mainstream industry to create and facilitate the Indigenous employment and training, including the Archaeologist Training program with Energy East/TransCanada Pipeline. She has also worked with government at a provincial and federal level to affect inclusive work and procurement opportunities for Indigenous business and individuals.
Karen Gillam / Planning Committee Member
Karen Gillam, Founder and CEO, Workforce Warriors. Karen Gillam (MSc), founder of Workforce Warriors, has decades of experience in research and development, especially innovating transformative advances in Indigenous capacity development. First in Science and Engineering where she developed and led successful capacity building programs tied to employment and participation in environmental permitting, and in recent years, dedicating her career to building Indigenous capacity, and increasing diversity and inclusion in the skilled trades.
Contributing to the processes and strategies which break through change resistance, Karen’s greatest strengths are her ability to bring growth through collaboration; her understanding of future trends and needs; and most importantly her ability to inspire and motivate essential change.
A dynamic ambassador committed to personal values of purpose, inclusion and respect, Karen founded Workforce Warriors and plans to use her skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm to help sustain increased Indigenous participation within the Canadian workforce. Karen is Workforce Warriors Visionary, able to paint a picture of a better tomorrow and lead a team to get us there.