Public Profile Database
My three adult children lead happy productive lives. Based on my faith in Jehovah God as my provider, protector and friend my hope is always bright, focused and clear. I have carried out my family motto "To whom much is given much is asked" to be best of my ability.
I have been instrumental in the fight against anti-Black racism within the peel district school board the result of which is being currently implemented in all Ontario schools by way of the ministry's directives. 2) My role as a student advocate. 3) ResQ Youth International Incorporated as founder.3)
Adaoma completed her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Windsor and has more than twenty-five years progressive experience in the not-for-profit and public sectors. She is currently Manager – Poverty Reduction and Community Engagement in the Human Services Department at the Region of Peel, responsible for leading the implementation of a multi-year poverty reduction strategy and supporting initiatives that increase community safety and well-being for residents in Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon. Her work involves creating awareness among residents and local politicians about poverty in Peel, advocating to various levels of government for investments, influencing policy and program changes to social services initiatives, and, working with the community to implement actions related to social inclusion, affordable transit, food& income security and economic opportunities.
Since 2016, Adaoma has been President of the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA), a 58 year-old organization serving the Jamaican, Caribbean and African-Canadian communities in the Greater Toronto Area. As part of her current mandate, she is focused on increasing the involvement of youth and young adults in all aspects of the organization, building new partnerships, and ensuring the sustainability of the organization and JCA Centre, located in North York.
Studying as a full-time student for 7 years as a wife and mom and starting a non-profit organization.
Adejisola has achieved three significant milestones that she is particularly proud of: completing her EMBA at the age of 49 despite challenging circumstances, authoring her debut book, "Authenticity: How my why me moments shaped my life," and honoring her father's memory through her impactful TEDx talk.
Research Chair - Canada Research Chair in Transnational Labour Law in recognition of my scholarly work that has sought to change the way that we understand labour law and its relationship to emancipation; Task Force Chair and Author, Employment Equity Act Review Task Force Report; lead expert in the International Labour Organization's standard setting on Decent Work for Domestic Workers Convention (No. 189) and Recommendation (No. 201)
1. Being able to accomplish all that I have coming from less privileged background 2. Knowing that I am a pillar of support and source of inspiration to so many young black girls and women who want to accomplish great things in the STEM industry 3. Knowing that I am a shining example of how hard work and determination can lead to technical breakthroughs and success in a fast-paced and changing industry.
My three major accomplishments are:
1. My beautiful Family
2. Ongoing work on anti-Black racism within the health care system and beyond
3. My career growth as an educator in tertiary mental health with affords me a chance to mentor and support folks across the health care system
Dr. Afua Cooper born in Westmoreland, Jamaica, but grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and migrated to Toronto in 1980. She is a celebrated and award-winning poet, author, historian, curator, performer, cultural worker, and recording artist. Afua holds a PhD in African-Canadian history, with specialties in slavery and abolition. She also has expertise in women’s history and New France studies and is one of Canada’s premise experts and chroniclers of the country’s Black past. Dr. Cooper has done ground-breaking work in uncovering the hidden history of Black people in Canada.
Ahdri Zhina Mandiela is an award-winning poet and theatre artist, well-known for her innovative theatre practice in Canada. Since the late 70’s she has worked as a
performance poet with readings, lectures and workshops around the world. As
dramaturg or director of countless play scripts, performance pieces, mainstage and
touring productions, and especially as the founder/artistic director of a current
performing arts, she has profoundly influenced and nurtured new and seasoned
artists; particularly young women artists.
Mandiela introduced the ever-evolving dub theatre form with her seminal performance work: dark diaspora... in dub, b current's inaugural production in 1991. During her tenure as artistic director (up to 2013), she established the prestigious Aiz’n the sun training program (1999), and the much buzzed rock.paper.sistahz festival (2002). Both projects have since spawned and nurtured at least two new generations of artists of colour in Toronto, and paved the way for a lot of the non-traditional forms many Canadian artists now use in creating theatre plays.
Aina-Nia serves as a consultant and facilitator for issues within racialized, women and immigrant and refugee communities focusing particularly on issues of gender, racial equity and African spirituality. She was the Project Lead and Consultant for the Toronto Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism which was adopted by City Council in late 2017. Aina-Nia was named one of the Top 100 Black Women to Watch in Canada in 2016 and she was recognized by the Ontario Government for her contributions to community in 2015. She was nominated as one of Toronto’s Most Inspiring Women in 2008. She has appeared in Canadian and U.S. media.
Aisha is a seasoned professional with twenty-five years of diverse leadership and business experience across the pharmaceutical, marketing, community and non-profit sectors. Called upon as a thought-leader, creative visionary and prolific speaker, Aisha has a gift of connecting narratives, experiences and ideas seamlessly with structure and strategy to energize, motivate and inspire purpose-driven action and achievement.
Aisha is the founder and executive director of Project: Restore FIBI (Families Impacted by Incarceration), a charity that has created a safe and supportive space for families to heal, grow and thrive after being disrupted by a family member’s involvement with the criminal legal system.
Aissatou Diajhaté is currently the West Africa Regional Manager for the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), implementing President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative and Mandela Washington Fellowship Program. She covers 21 countries in West and Central Africa, working with public and private sector organizations to promote youth engagement in the socio-economic transformation of their countries. As an International Development professional, with experience in several areas including Education and Health, Youth Engagement and Capacity Building, Program Management and Organizational Development, Ms. Diajhaté has managed partnerships with government organizations, academic institutions, funding agencies and community-based organizations in the United States, Canada and Africa. Ms. Diajhaté’s life mission is to educate, teach, mentor and facilitate transformative interventions that lift victims and survivors of social injustice to a position of leader and change agent.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Adv.) in global political economy. She completed a thesis entitled “To What Extent Does Resilience Theory Influence our Understanding of the Mental Health Outcomes of Refugee Youth Coming to Canada”, which explored the mental health experiences of young Syrians refugees resettled across the country. Additionally, she studied Australian politics and socio-legal studies at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia.
Akosua is a policy and program analyst with the Government of Manitoba in the department of municipal relations
As a long-time community activist, Professor Benjamin is no stranger to the labour movement. Her works and presence have greatly influenced the anti-racism policy and programs of various trade union organizations. Recently, she spearheaded the Anti-Black Racism Network to create more public awareness and mobilize efforts to eliminate the discriminatory racial profiling. In honour of Akua's leadership and tremendous contribution to the community, Ryerson University launched an exciting initiative - the ‘Akua Benjamin legacy Project’. It is a unique recognition of the kind of activism and educational work that builds a just and inclusive community. The Project is a collaboration of academics from various postsecondary institutions with community activists from across the greater Toronto area. The primary objectives of the legacy are to host an annual ‘Akua Benjamin Public Lecture and Organize an Anti-Black Racism' Conference. In 2016, it was held on February 18, to celebrate Black History Month. One of the initiative was to produce a document that would honour and celebrate the lives of five legendary leaders who have left a phenomenal legacy in the battle against racism and the building of a stronger community for all of us.
Alda was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia but has resided in Toronto over forty five years and her occupations have been varied. After completing a Nursing Assistant's course, she graduated from the Addiction Research Foundation as a Counselor and worked there for seven years. Alda Arthur, a multi-talented woman of many interests was the founder and publisher of a business tabloid: Women and Business but in 1984 the business “folded”. Another interest close to Alda's heart was the Association of Black Women which she founded in 1982. This was a club of Black business and professional women who provided support and information through business contacts and career development programs.
Arthur said the Association of Black Women did not isolate itself as a Black Group, but shared experiences with all women. The skills of the high-profile group were improved by attending seminars and workshops in the community to be used as a role model. Although the club ceased to operate in 1986, Alda continued to meet challenges on a day to day basis and is always ready to move on to other opportunities. She said with confidence at the time, "My hope is that someday the Association will rise again, in another form, by spirited Black women. It's a need that should never die”.
Recipient of the RBC Global Citizen Award
Recognized as a Phenomenal Woman for International Women’s Day
Appointed Trustee for the Upper Grand District School Board
Born and raised in Barbados, Alison has been a professional theatre artist since 1981. She attended Mount-Alison University in New Brunswick, Canada, on a scholarship where she studied psychology. She performed with the Pelican Players, Canada’s ‘first multicultural community theatre’. Since then she has worked with companies across Canada and in Barbados including the Green Room Players, Stage One Productions, Theatre Calgary, Canadian Stage and the Stratford Festival. Her theatre credits include “Cast Iron” (Nightwood Theatre), “The Polished Hoe” (Obsidian Theatre and the Frank Collymore Hall) and her award-winning performance as Lena Younger in Soulpepper Theatre’s production of “A Raisin in the Sun”.
She has directed theatre productions for the Company of Sirens, LKTYP, the Saidye Bronfman Centre, the National Theatre School, Neptune Theatre, Black Theatre Workshop and Obsidian Theatre. Her film and television credits include “Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures”, “This is Wonderland”, “Da Kink in My Hair”, “Dark Water”, “Honey”, “Talk to Me,” “You Kill Me” and “Naturally Sadie”. She was the voice of Storm on the animated series “The X-Men” and the voice of Scarlett on “Delilah and Julius”.
Alison has received five Dora Award nominations for acting and has won two. She is also the proud recipient of a Harry Jerome Award and a Salute to the City Award for her contribution to the Arts in Toronto, a George Luscombe Award for Mentorship and an Award of Excellence from the Caribbean Tales Film Festival.
Professor Alissa Trotz teaches at the University of Toronto, where she is cross-appointed between Caribbean Studies Programme at New College and Women and Gender Studies (WGSI), Following a year of law school in the Caribbean, she completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science and Latin American and Caribbean studies at York University, her Master of Philosophy and PhD at Trinity College, University of Cambridge.
Dr. Trotz has received the Award for the Distinguished Contribution to Graduate Teaching at OISE (2007), the SAC-APUS Undergraduate teaching Award (2007) and the Faculty of Arts and Science Outstanding Teaching Award (2010).
1. Founding and obtaining base funding for Ancestral Hands Midwives
2. Being elected president of the Association of Ontario Midwives, the largest midwifery association in Canada
3. Earning a soccer scholarship and competing as an NCAA division one student athlete at the University of Arizona
Amah Harris, B.A. B.ED., MEd. , Dominican born, is most often identified as an anti-racist advocate, innovative educator, and champion of culture, who fosters the Harmonious Coexistence of Peoples. Amah knitted education and theatre techniques into a fabric of cooperative action, using elements of culture. This process evolved into education and theatre modules and techniques, which allow participants, whether students or performers, children, youth or adults, to actively engage with information, script development and performance.
“Amah is a pioneer in the field of Black Theatre in Canada,” said John Holland Awards co-chair, Evelyn Myrie (Hamilton Spectator 2014). She co-directed Black Theatre Canada (BTC) in the 70s and was contracted by them in the 80s. Her innovative experimentation had its first major forum at BTC. This experimentation reached its peak at Theatre In The Rough; a theatre founded by Amah in 1985. It was at BTC that she became a writer ‘out of need’. She explained, “Plays addressing the reality of the Caribbean and Black Experience in Canada seemed practically non-existent.” Out of this need her, “Kwakoo Anansi Series” was born. She adapted the traditional African figure into a ‘selfless’ problem solver leading progressive change, while retaining his cunning, fun filled personality. He uses wisdom, not violence, to solve problems.
Dr. Amal Madibbo was born in Sudan where she grew up and was schooled. She started her university education in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Khartoum in Sudan and completed it at l’Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, in France with a specialization in French Language and Literature. She then immigrated to Canada where she became the first Sudanese woman to immigrate on her own and continued her education. She obtained a Master of Arts from Carleton University in Ottawa with a specialization in French Sociolinguistics and Black Francophone literature. She graduated with a PhD in 2004 from the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education (SESE) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the University of Toronto where she specialized in Black Francophone immigration to and in Canada and race and anti-racism. Upon graduation, she lectured at SESE/OISE and Glendon College at Glendon College of York University in Toronto. She then joined the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary in 2007 where she is now Associate Professor.
Dr. Madibbo has made significant achievements in research as she has conducted studies in Canada, Sudan, France, Mali, Senegal, Chad and Rwanda in the areas of immigration, race and ethnicity, conflict and conflict resolution, and identity. To date, her research resulted in a book about Francophone immigration in Canada published by Routledge; an edited book about the relations between Canada and Sudan published by McGill-Queen University Press; over 30 articles, book chapters and other publications; and 46 papers delivered at national and international conferences. In addition, she integrates her research in her teaching, which results in teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of immigration, globalization, and racial and ethnic relations. She also supervises students studying related issues.
Creating The ForUsGirls Foundation YGL Scholarship fund and awarding 7 young Black girls from my hometown with scholarships, creating my own tech company, and supporting over 1000 students in Jamaica with textbooks.
Amoye Henry born of Caribbean parents in Kingston, Jamaica and migrated to Canada with her family. She was raised in Rexdale/Brampton, Ontario but now lives in Toronto. Amoye went to Etobicoke School of the arts specializing in Music Theory and Music Performance and is a classically trained (but not practicing) violinist and pianist. Later, she diverted from the artistic realm and was successful in obtaining a B.Sc in Political Science with a concentration in Communications at McMaster University in 2010. Amoye organically gravitates towards initiatives that focus on the advancement of women and children, globally. She has cultivated an interest in eventually pursuing the MBA, an academic program she believes would serve her launching pad for her aspirations in Healthcare Administration and Systems Management.
Dr. Andrea A. Davis is a Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies and Chair of the Department of Humanities at York University in Toronto, Canada. She holds cross-appointments in the graduate programs in English; Interdisciplinary Studies; and Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies. She is former Director of the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC), a current research fellow of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas, and a member of the Committee of Associates of the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora. She also sits on the Board of the Legal Aid Ontario’s Racialized Communities Advisory Committee.
Professor Davis’s research interests are in the intersections of the literatures and cultures of the Black diasporas in the Caribbean, the United States, and Canada. Her work encourages an intertextual cross-cultural dialogue about Black people’s experiences in diaspora