Keynote Speakers

Tim Brodhead is President and Chief Executive Officer of The J. W. McConnell Family Foundation, a private foundation based in Montreal.
Prior to joining the Foundation he was Executive Director of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC), a national organization representing over 120 non-profit Canadian international development agencies.
Tim attended McGill University and subsequently spent five years in Africa with the Canadian organization CUSO. He went on to do international development work in Africa and South Asia and co-founded Inter Pares, an Ottawa-based non-government organization.
In a voluntary capacity he has served on a number of Boards, including currently Vartana, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the ETC Group (formerly Rural Advancement Foundation International) and the Calmeadow Foundation. He is past Chair of Philanthropic Foundations Canada, the national association of Canadian independent foundations.
In 2001 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and in June, 2002 received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Carleton University in Ottawa.

Marlene Brant Castellano is a Mohawk of the Bay of Quinte Band and Professor Emerita of Trent University where she provided leadership in the development the emerging discipline of Indigenous Studies (1973-96). She served as Co-Director of Research with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) with particular responsibility for social-cultural, historical and community-based research, editing and writing major portions of the final report under the direction of Commissioners. She chaired the Aboriginal subcommittee which drafted RCAP's Ethical Guidelines for Research now widely used as a reference for ethical research in Aboriginal contexts. In 2006 she authored Volume 1 of the Final Report of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation: A Healing Journey She currently serves on the Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics which advises the presidents of CIHR, SSHRC and NSERC on updating the Tri-Council Policy Statement on Research Involving Humans (TCPS).

Professor Castellano's formal education is in social work (MSW 1959) and adult education (OISE/UofT 1980-81). Her teaching, research and publications are deliberately bicultural, promoting discourse between the worlds of Aboriginal knowledge and experience and the language and protocols of academics and policy makers.

Professor Castellano has served on the Institute Advisory Board of the CIHR Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health and the College of Reviewers for Canada Research Chairs. She has been honored with LLDs from Queen's University, St. Thomas University and Carleton University, induction into the Order of Ontario and a National Aboriginal Achievement Award. In 2005 Dr. Castellano was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Al Hatton is President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way of Canada – Centraide Canada, a national organization that provides leadership and programs and services to its 124 member United Ways – Centraides in Canada. In 2005 United Ways – Centraides collectively raised over $435 million to fund more than 7,000 local charitable organizations, and to an additional 10,000 charities through donor directed giving. Mr. Hatton was the former Executive Director of the Coalition of National Voluntary Organizations, where he actively participated in the voluntary sector both nationally and internationally. For over thirty years, his involvement in the sector ranges from working with youth (Verdun Council of Community Agencies), to various senior management positions as Executive Director of the Centre-ville YMCA in Montreal and National Director of Job Generation and Director of External Relations for YMCA Canada. He is a founding member of the Voluntary Sector Roundtable where he co-chaired the Building a New Relationship Joint Table between the voluntary sector and the federal government and was a member of Accord Joint Table of the Voluntary Sector Initiative. He now serves as a member of the Voluntary Sector Forum. Mr. Hatton also served in various volunteer positions in a number of other charitable organizations including Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa and Canadian Council of International Co-operation. Al was also a member of a task force set up by Citizenship and Immigration Canada on federal refugee policies and on a task force which focused on employment policy for Employment and Immigration Canada. He also served on a funding task force at Human Resource Development Canada in early 2000. Al received in 2001 the Public Policy Forum Testimonial Award for his contribution to improving public sector management in Canada.

The Honourable Steven L. Point, OBC
Xwĕ lī qwĕl tĕl
Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia

The Honourable Steven L. Point, OBCThe Honourable Steven L. Point was sworn-in as British Columbia’s 28th Lieutenant Governor on October 1, 2007. In 2005, he was appointed Chief Commissioner of the British Columbia Treaty Commission. His Honour served as an elected Chief of the Skowkale First Nation for 15 years. He also served as the tribal chair of the Stó:lo Nation Government, and he was honoured as Grand Chief by the Chiefs of the Stó:lo Tribal Council. His Honour was appointed a provincial court judge in February 1999. Point received an Honorary Doctorate of Law degree from the University College of the Fraser Valley in June 2000 and is a recipient of a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, also in 2000. He received a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of British Columbia in 1985 and was called to the Bar in British Columbia in 1986. Born in Chilliwack, the Lieutenant Governor and his wife, Her Honour, Mrs. Gwendolyn Point, have four children and 11 grandchildren.

Dr. Rajesh Tandon is an internationally acclaimed leader and practitioner of participatory research and development. He founded the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) twenty-five years ago, a voluntary organisation providing support to grass roots initiatives in South Asia and continues to be its Chief Functionary since 1982.

A Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University and an Electronic Engineer (IIT, Kanpur) with a Post Graduation in Management (IIM, Kolkatta), he has specialised in social and organisational change.  His contributions to the enhancement of perspectives and capacities of many voluntary activists and organisations revolve around issues of participatory research, advocating for people centred development, policy reform and networking in India, South-Asia and beyond.  He has advocated for a self-reliant, autonomous and competent voluntary sector in India and abroad. He is currently promoting local Government bodies (Panchayats and Municipalities) as institutions of local self-governance in South Asia with special focus on women and marginalized sections. Building alliance and partnerships among diverse sectors in societal development is another current area of his work. Under his leadership, PRIA has innovated numerous methodologies of participatory learning and training, participatory bottom-up micro-planning, and participatory monitoring and evaluation.

In the last twenty five years, he has been engaged in major research, training and educational work over a wide variety of themes to strengthen the capacities and institutional mechanisms of voluntary development organisations in India and other developing countries.  Specialisation with regard to capacity building is in the following themes –

• Development Management
• Training of Trainers in Participatory Monitoring
• Networking, Coalition and Alliance building
• Participation and Governance

 

David H. Turpin, PhD, FRSC, is the University of Victoria's sixth President and Vice-Chancellor. He was first appointed in 2000.

Under Dr. Turpin's presidency, the university has adopted both a strategic plan and a campus plan to guide the physical development of the campus. A renewed strategic plan, A Vision for the Future – Building on Strength, was adopted in February 2007.

Student enrolment has increased significantly, student financial assistance more than doubled, and sponsored research funding has nearly tripled to more than $80 million per year. UVic also established a number of new degree programs, especially at the graduate level, became a partner in the expansion of medical education in B.C. and was chosen as the lead Canadian institution in the $300-million NEPTUNE project, an international effort to create an extensive cabled network monitoring the ocean floor from California to Vancouver Island. UVic has also developed the Vancouver Island Technology Park into the largest university-owned tech park in the province, and UVic's provincial economic impact grew to about $1.7 billion per year. Before joining the University of Victoria, Dr. Turpin served as Vice-Principal Academic at Queen's University.

David Turpin's research in plant biochemistry and physiology is well-recognized internationally, with Thomson ISI listing him as a highly cited researcher. He has received numerous academic honours and distinctions for his many contributions to research and teaching, including election to the Royal Society of Canada. He serves on numerous boards and commissions, including as Chair of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada's International Relations Committee and as Chair of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network.

 

More keynote speakers and special guests to come!