2020 Conference
|2020 A Vision for the Inclusion of Isolated Mothers in Canada Conference Speakers
Dr. Alaa Murabit
Physician, Advocate, Feminist, Strategist, Speaker, Writer
Opening Keynote Speaker
Dr. Alaa Murabit is a medical doctor, one of 17 Global Sustainable Development Goal Advocates appointed by the UN Secretary General, and a UN High Level Commissioner on Health & Economic Growth. Dr. Murabit is the co-founder of The Emerging Leaders Lab and the Executive Director of Phase Minus 1. An MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow and International Deliver For Good Influencer, Dr. Murabit serves as a board member for The Malala Fund, Oxfam America, The New Now and Women’s March Global. She was most recently recognized as one of Canada’s Top 25 Most Influential Women in 2018 by Women of Influence. In 2017, Dr. Murabit was named a Forbes 30 under 30 and she also received the 2018 Nelson Mandela International Changemaker Award by The Nelson Mandela Family.
Marion Buller
Provincial Court Judge (Ret.)
Honoured Mothers Panel
Marion Buller
Marion Buller was appointed the first woman First Nations judge in British Columbia in 1994 and served as the Chief Commissioner for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. A member of the Mistawasis First Nation, she was the first First Nations woman to be appointed to the Provincial Court of British Columbia in 1994, and presided in courts throughout B.C. She established the First Nations Courts of British Columbia in 2006 and provided the foundation for the Aboriginal Family Healing Court in 2016.
Dr. Annette Korntheuer
Professor and Researcher
Early Learning Response to Syrian Refugees
Dr. Annette Korntheuer
Dr. Annette Korntheuer holds a professorship position for inclusion and disability at the University of Kassel. Dr. Korntheuer graduated in Social Work and Educational Sciences. She has spent the last ten years working and researching with refugee population and youth in Germany, Spain, Philippines and Canada. Dr. Korntheuer is member of the executive board of the German network for refugee studies and the CAN-D, German Canadian Research Coalition on Refugee Integration. She has published widely on educational participation and inclusion of refugee children and youth and on refugee integration in Canada and Germany. Within her work and as an active member of the ACT Now Think and Do Tank she advocates for educational equity and inclusion in multicultural societies.
Gauri Sawant
Director, Sakshi Char Chowgi and Transgender Activist
Social Inclusion
Gauri Sawant
Gauri Sawant is a transgender activist from Mumbai, India, and founder of Sakshi Char Chowghi, an organization that helps transgender people and people with HIV/AIDS. In 2014, Gauri became the first transgender person to file a petition in the Supreme Court of India for adoption rights of transgender people. She was also a petitioner in the case that led to the Supreme Court of India recognizing transgender as the third gender.
Miriam Westheimer
Director, HIPPY International
HIPPY Research on Education and Leadership
Dr. Miriam Westheimer
Dr. Miriam Westheimer has worked in the fields of education, social services, and nonprofit management. She has spent the last 20 years adapting and disseminating a homebased, early childhood program (HIPPY) first in the USA as the founding executive director and later built the international network of HIPPY programs among the 10 participating countries. Dr. Westheimer co- authored the bestselling international textbook and multimedia series, Focus on Grammar, now in its third edition.