Meet Our Facilitators

Dr. Lindsay Cole - Lead Facilitator

POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW, EMILY CARR UNIVERSITY

Lindsay (she/her) is an applied and action researcher, civil servant, and parent grateful to be living in xwesam, shíshálh swiya (Roberts Creek). She is currently doing applied research and teaching about transformative innovation toward social and ecological justice on a variety of initiatives. Prior to this, Lindsay worked with the City of Vancouver for 13 years on a variety of initiatives including the Solutions Lab, the Greenest City Action Plan, Healthy City Strategy, and Rewilding and Local Food work

 

Elizabeth Boyd

DESIGNER, CURIKO

Elizabeth is a designer and researcher based in Vancouver, originally from Alabama. In her practice, she brings together the technical know-how and process of Industrial Design, experiential and collaborative methods of Design Research, and good ol’ southern charm. For the last five years she’s been working with InWithForward and Curiko to design new systems and services across Canada with people on the margins. She is passionate about building knowledge together, creating moments for meaningful co-design, and bringing new worlds to life.

 

Lerato Chondoma

Lerato hails from the Batuang Clan of ba ha Moletsane from Lesotho in Southern Africa and lives as uninvited guest on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people, where she works and raises her children. Lerato is a proven strategic leader, public sector administrator and employment equity lawyer- deeply rooted in racial equity and anti-racism, DEI, decolonization and reconciliation. She is committed to the advancement of employment equity and human rights in the workplace, and across systems, laws, policies, practices and cultures more broadly. Her leadership experience spans education, research, advocacy, inquiry and monitoring; including 15 years combined experience specializing in organizational development, systems change management, operations management, impact evaluation and policy development. Lerato also co-leads transformative learning and innovation programs to build collaborative capacities for systemic transformation and address root causes of inequality, discrimination and injustice across disciplines and sectors

 

Lily Raphael

Lily is guided by the question who + what do we as individuals, relationships, communities, organizations and systems need to become in order to cultivate well-being, joy and liberation for current and future generations of all beings? Drawing on her personal creative practices and her background in action research, design, innovation and community development in the public/non-profit/academic sectors, her work focuses on designing spaces of dialogue, learning, and co-creation to navigate our communities’ pressing complex challenges and imagine possible futures beyond them. Lily practices singing and ceramics, and is the manager of the City of Vancouver Solutions Lab, innovating in the public sector around complex ecosocial challenges, including the implementation of the Climate Justice Charter in Vancouver and leading the Circular Food Innovation Lab. She is of Black/Louisiana Creole/German/Irish ancestry and currently lives on the unceded ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

 

Janey Roh

DIRECTOR, CURIKO

Janey is the Director of Curiko. She holds a BA in Education and Sociology, a BEd in Learning Disabilities, and an MBA. She is a pragmatic systems thinker who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. Before Curiko, Janey led Kudoz, an award winning platform and was involved in its original research, ideation, development, implementation and scale. Fun Facts: Janey loves homeopathic remedies- if you have an ailment, she is your person! She also has an obsession with vacuums.

 

Diane Roussin

A proud member of Skownan First Nation, Diane Roussin is an Anishinaabe leader passionately committed to the pursuit of mino bimaadiziwin (the good life) for all families and children. Working tirelessly at the local, regional and national levels to promote Indigenous People’s values and ways of knowing, being, doing and feeling, she has led many avant-garde initiatives. Currently heading the Winnipeg Boldness Project, Diane is a driving force in establishing the first and longest serving Indigenous Social Innovation Lab in Canada that seeks large-scale systems of change for children and families. With substantial demonstrated experience in centering Indigeneity, she is a much sought after speaker and facilitator by those who want to learn more on how to do this in their own work. Diane serves on numerous Boards of Directors including the University of Manitoba, The Winnipeg Foundation, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and Animikii. Diane is a TEDx speaker and is a recipient of the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal for Outstanding Indigenous Leadership and of the Manitoba Women Trailblazers Award by the Nellie McClung Foundation.

 

Natalie Gerum

EVENT FACILITATOR, THE SOCIAL INNOVATION GATHERING

Natalie (she/her) is thrilled to be joining PICS as the event facilitator for the inaugural Social Innovation Gathering. She works in communities, K-12 classrooms, and university campuses from coast to coast across Canada to develop, facilitate, and assess initiatives in transformative experiential learning, leadership development, and creative community engagement. Using a place-conscious lens in her work, Natalie aspires to design opportunities for learning and action that matter to this moment on the planet. Living in Ch’kw’elhp on the unceded lands of the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw, Natalie is grateful to be raising her two young children alongside her partner amongst salmon berries, cedar trees, and humpback whales, and spends as much time being in wonder and in play with the lands and waters of this place as she can.