Safer systems are designed - not hoped for.
Our Team
Co-founder
Dr. Cheryl Ward
Dr. Cheryl Ward is Kwakwaka'wakw and a member of the ‘Namgis First Nation from northern Vancouver Island.
Cheryl is deeply committed to social justice education, decolonizing anti-racism training, and the development of Indigenous cultural safety pedagogy. She has more than twenty-five years of experience working on initiatives focusing on Indigenous cultural safety (ICS) and anti-Indigenous racism.
In 2019, Cheryl completed her doctorate in education. Her thesis entitled “Teaching about Race and Racism: The Indigenous Elephant in the Room”, examines anti-Indigenous racism in the context of adult learning environments.
Co-founder
Diane Smylie
Diane Smylie is Red River Cree-Métis and has an educational background in both nursing and social work (MSW), with experience working in hospital and community-based services.
She has held leadership roles over the span of 20 years in collaborative social justice initiatives across sectors designed to improve health equity.
For the last decade her work has been focused on developing and supporting education and systems change initiatives to prevent and disrupt Indigenous-specific racism and discrimination in health and social service systems.
Co-founder
Richard Bull
Richard Bull (Anishinaabe & Oji-Cree), a member of Obishikokaang (Lac Seul First Nation), has over ten years’ experience in supporting large-scale Indigenous-specific anti-racism educational interventions across sectors and provinces at lead, management and director levels, with a particular focus on ensuring rigour, accountability and engagement in online asynchronous facilitation.
Co-founder
Jane Collins
Jane Collins is a White settler of Irish and Italian ancestry. Jane has a unique set of skills that combine graduate education in cognitive psychology, statistics, research design, and evaluation.
Jane has over 15-years of experience building and expanding educational programs in health and social services sectors nationally focused on the disruption and prevention of Indigenous-specific racism.
