Regenerative Futures Conference

List of 5 items.

• Brad Assu – Poo Glee Dee

  

  Shawnigan Alum & Acclaimed Artist
  
  

  Brad Assu, whose Kwak’wala name is “Poo Glee Dee,” which means “guests never leave hungry,” developed his love and inspiration for the art of his people by watching his aunt, artist Dora Cook. He drew inspiration from others like Mungo Martin and Charlie James who created many of the original pieces in the family’s Potlatch collection.

  He has worked on several key installations for Nuyumbalees, including the restoration of the Dick Family Welcome Poles, the Aw Wah Qwetz das poles, and currently the Assu Family House Posts. His work includes cedar carvings, water colours, and nautical marine charts which he embellishes with many local boats, including the BCP-45 which was owned by Chief Harry Assu and featured on the back of the Canadian five dollar bill. In following his traditional teachings, Brad works within the crests associated with his family’s lineage. 
  
  

  Born to Chief Donald and Louisa Assu, Brad and his three brothers grew up in the Village of Cape Mudge where he continues to live. A seasoned mariner, Brad works as a First Mate for BC Ferries and when time permits, on the family-owned fishing boat.

• Janna Wale

  

  Janna Wale is Gitxsan from Gitanmaax First Nation and is also Cree-Métis on her mother’s side. Where possible, Wale uses a complex human-environmental systems approach and believes that this lens can be used when looking for ways to bridge western and Indigenous climate work. Wale holds a Bachelor of Natural Resource Sciences (B. Nrsc.) from Thompson Rivers University, and a MSc in Sustainability from UBC Okanagan, where her work focused on climate resilience in Indigenous communities, using a seasonal rounds model.
  
  

  Indigenuity: How to Reframe Our Relationship With Climate Change TEDx talk

• Dr. Janice Lao

  

  Environmental Scientist & Development Economist
  
  

  Dr. Janice Lao is an internationally multi-awarded environmental scientist and economist working with businesses to operate in a manner that creates holistic value for all. She has over 20 years experience working in the field of corporate sustainability, and in the past 10 years as head of sustainability for several publicly listed companies based in Asia, Europe, and the United States. She is currently VP- Regulatory, Sustainability & Governance for consumer goods company Helen of Troy. At 30, she developed the initial mathematical and economic modeling that was the basis for international aviation’s carbon-neutral growth strategy. She also originated and led some of the “first in the industry” sustainable financial deals, from green bonds to M&A. Her work has been recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the world’s most influential female sustainability leaders, Fortune Magazine and others, often as the only Asian, and one of the youngest, in their lists. She graduated from the University of Oxford as a British Chevening scholar and at Prescott College with a PhD in Sustainability Education. She also co-wrote a climate change book “Sparky & Benny’s Big Home Mystery” with her daughter, Esther. Her new children’s book “Penguins Can Fly, Right?”, co-authored with her son, Isaac, is now out.

• Professor Samson Nashon

  

  University of British Columbia
  
  

  Professor Samson Nashon is the Head of the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia. Throughout his more than 19-year tenure at UBC he has established multiple and extensive working relationships with scholars and universities world-wide. His scholarship and administrative leadership spans multiple faculties and bodies within UBC and across numerous units within the Faculty of Education. His research focuses on ways of teaching and learning in diverse contexts. His area of specialization focuses on the nature of learning environments and students’ alternative understandings that have roots in cultural backgrounds and curricula, and are accommodative of students with varying degrees of abilities. 
  
  

  His extensive experience as an editor of curriculum materials related to science and mathematics provides him with a lens through which he examines the link between theory and practice in the classroom, the nature of science curricula, how the curricula material is taught, and the role that students’ preconceptions play in the teaching and learning of such material.

• Professor Jessica Dempsey

  

  University of British Columbia
  
  

  Drawing from feminist political economy and ecology approaches, the primary goal of Jessica Dempsey’s research is to explain the extinction paradox: escalating ecological losses in a time of unprecedented efforts to arrest them. Through a kind of applied critical research, her research aims to illuminate the structural forces that reinforce biodiversity loss and extinction, while pointing to specific, practical ways that these forces can be slowed. Her research and writing have been published in journals like Nature Ecology and Evolution, Antipode, the Annals of the American Association of Geographers and Conservation Letters, as well as in publications like the Guardian, The Architectural Review, and the Vancouver Sun.