Guest Speakers

Lise Laporte

Lise Laporte serves as the Senior Director at Western International, where she plays a pivotal role in advancing the University’s Global Engagement priorities. With a dedicated focus on operational and strategic support, Lise oversees international student services, partnerships and student mobility.

Her extensive experience in international higher education spans a broad range of portfolios that also includes student recruitment, English as a second language pathways and developing programs designed to promote collaborations on campus and beyond.

Lise received her MEd in Adult learning and Global Change from the University of British Columbia and completed a Certificate in Public Relations and Corporate Communications from Fanshawe College and a BA in Communication Studies from Brock University.

Candace Brunette-Debassige

Candace Brunette-Debassige is a Professor of Indigenous Studies at the Faculty of Education, Western University. Her research and teachings focus on Indigenous leadership and educational bundles, aiming to integrate Indigenous perspectives and knowledge into educational practices.

Candace has extensive leadership experience driving institutional policy change at the K-12 and postsecondary levels. She has served as Acting Vice Provost /Associate Vice President (Indigenous Initiative), Special Advisor to the Provost (Indigenous), and Director of Indigenous Services at Western where, after the release in 2015 of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, she actively co-led the development of Western’s first Indigenous Strategic Plan.

Ana Boller

As the Digital Learning Specialist, EDI, Ana collaborates with subject matter experts as well as internal and external stakeholders to design, create, and facilitate digital and in-person learning experiences to advance EDI in the Western campus and in the London community.

Ana has been part of the Western community for the last nine years. After completing an Undergraduate Bachelor Degree of Education in the field of Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) at Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador and teaching ESL for five years in Caracas, Venezuela, she emigrated to Canada with her family.

At Western, she earned a PhD in Hispanic Studies, Literature. In 2018 she joined the Centre for Teaching and Learning as an Educational Developer for ITA Programs, and she has been part of the Western English Language Centre since 2016 teaching academic English to international students.

Christian Ylagan

Christian Ylagan is the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion Education Coordinator with Student Experience at Western University. He is also a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature with a research focus on representations of queerness as monstrosity in postcolonial and Indigenous Philippine contexts. He has taught courses for the Film Studies program and the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Western, and currently serves as President of the Graduate Student Caucus of the Northeast Modern Languages Association.

Lena Burton

Lena Burton is the Housing First Programs Team Lead at Youth Opportunities Unlimited and has been working in the social service field since 2016 with a focus on youth homelessness and addiction. The Youth Action Centre offers housing and community programming to youth ages 16-24 who are experiencing homelessness, housing instability, human trafficking, and the transition from CAS care. As a member of the London Homeless Coalition and the chair of the Youth Priority Working Group Lena has advocated for the needs of youth experiencing homelessness in our community. Lena is a graduate of the Fanshawe College Social Service Work program, The University of Waterloo Honors BA in Social Development Studies, and is a current student in the MSW program at Wilfred Laurier.

Rachel Lane

Rachel Lane is the Community Youth Hub Team Leader at Youth Opportunities Unlimited. The Community Youth Hub is a brand new 15-bed shelter on hospital grounds that will provide stability, wrap-around support, and connection to resources and permanent housing for high-acuity youth ages 16-24 with experience of chronic, unsheltered homelessness. Rachel is a member of the Connectivity Table and Hubs Implementation Table with the City of London’s Health and Homelessness Whole of Community System Response, through which she advocates passionately for the rights of young people living with complexities. Rachel is a graduate from Western University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Fanshawe College’s Social Service Worker (Fast Track) Program. Rachel is a Registered Social Service Worker and will commence her Master of Social Work at the University of Windsor in the fall.

Lesley Oliver

In addition to her role at the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Lesley is also a part-time faculty member with Fanshawe College and teaches Human Resources, Law & Leadership courses with the Lawrence Kinlin School of Business.

She earned her Undergraduate Bachelor of Commerce degree from Guelph University. In 2020, she completed her master's in education, specializing in International Education through Western University as well as acquiring a Certificate in Learning and Development from Western University.

In 2021, Lesley joined the Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion as an EDI specialist. Her duties as EDI specialist involve supporting and leading EDI initiatives across campus, acting as a consultant for Wise Practices on EDI & Accessibility related matters and coordinating EDI-focused events through engaging with potential speakers, hosting workshops & training.

Sanjay Govindaraj

Sanjay Govindaraj (he/him), holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) with a specialisation in Criminology and Corrections from TISS, Mumbai, and a Master’s in Applied Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo. With 28 years of experience, Sanjay has worked across police services, corrections, NGOs, and most recently, municipal government. He has led projects in poverty alleviation, food security, housing, human trafficking, child prostitution, Indigenous reconciliation, human rights, equity, accessibility, and strategic planning.

Rumina Morris

Rumina Morris is an Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression, Equity and Inclusion expert providing consulting and coaching services to leaders and organizations who are committed to affecting change. She has spent over 20 years in leadership positions where she has managed diverse teams in the human services sector and currently serves as Executive Director of the Office of Inclusion and Social Accountability with London Health Sciences Centre. Rumina has been a strong advocate for social justice and human rights and has used her privilege as a leader to draw attention to systemic inequities and demand change.

Victoria Esses

Victoria Esses is Principal Investigator of the Pathways to Prosperity Partnership, a national alliance of university, community, and government partners dedicated to fostering welcoming communities and promoting the integration of immigrants in Canada. She is also Professor of Psychology and Director of the Network for Economic and Social Trends at Western University. Her research focuses on immigration policy and practice, including public attitudes toward immigration and cultural diversity; promising practices in settlement and integration; factors promoting the settlement and integration of immigrants; and the measurement of community welcome-ability, immigrant needs, and immigrant outcomes. As a volunteer, Victoria is the Research Liaison for the London & Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership and serves as Chair of its Welcoming Communities Work Group. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

Huda Hussein

Huda A. Hussein is currently the Project Manager for the London & Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership (LMLIP), a position she has held since 2009. After a fulfilling career as an assistant professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Aden in Yemen, she moved to Canada with her family and began a career aimed at serving the needs of families in London Ontario.

Huda has over 20 years of experience working with families with young children, ten of which have focused on immigrant families specifically. Her work includes developing two resources for service providers to enhance their welcome-ability of immigrant families and one for newcomers to connect them to available resources in their new community. Her current work as Manager at LMLIP focuses on identifying barriers for integration as well as opportunities for success; this work involves working with various sectors in the community, including ethno-cultural and faith groups to maximize better outcomes for newcomer immigrants. Huda is passionate about creating a more welcoming region for all immigrants - a region that counts on diversity as its strength. Huda was awarded the Leading Women Building Community Award by the Province of Ontario in 2009. In 2011, she was recognized by the government of her country of origin, Yemen, for her role in empowering women in her new home, London,Ontario.

Roula Hawa

Roula Hawa is Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Chair of Family Studies & Human Development at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University. Professor Hawa is a passionate educator and researcher who brings a deep commitment to social justice and an interest in mobilizing research and innovating university-community partnerships. She has an exciting and innovative program of research that is community-engaged with a focus on health equity, resilience, and well-being of vulnerable populations, using arts-based and arts-informed inquiry methodologies, critical feminist, and anti-colonial frameworks.

Peggy O’Neil

Peggy O’Neil grew up in the daisy filled meadows of her family’s farm, near Ontario's West Coast. When not in the fields or barn, she looked for the meaning of life—across time, place, and circumstance—in classic mythology, Black history, Indigenous legends, and Irish folklore. Against the days and seasons of her poetic life, commodity-based living, 20 per cent interest rates, penny auctions, and farm foreclosures cast its shadow on her family and community. Her father's childhood friends, who he walked beside, snow, rain, or shine, during WWII rationing to a one-room schoolhouse miles from home, lost their farms. The horizons that they knew were replaced with the walls of small, rental apartments in the city. To survive, those still on their farms cleared land, industrialized operations, and took on more debt. One way or another, families fell as surely as the sun set to how fast and how cheap food could be produced. She has learned that these chapters of her life do not belong to her. They are shared the world over. Even so, today, families and farmers across humanity toil for the pages not yet written on, for their way of life, for freedom of thought, and for our future. Her life's work is to stand alongside them, to see that this moment is only a difficult chapter and not the end of the story.

AnnaLise Trudell

As Manager of Wellness & Equity Education at Western University, AnnaLise Trudell leads the team responsible for gender-based violence (GBV) prevention, equity diversity and inclusion education, and wellness education. In her previous role at Anova (the local women’s shelter & sexual assault centre), she led the development of the national precedent-setting Undressing Consent GBV program at Western, now in its third year of engaging over 24,000 first-year students on campus. AnnaLise has a PhD in Women’s Studies and Education (Western), a Masters in Public Administration (Ottawa), and has spent over a decade developing evidence-based violence prevention education.

Lily Cho

Lily Cho is Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, International, as well as a Professor of English at Western University. Her current SSHRC-funded project, Asian Values: Fictions of Finance and Beautiful Money, explores diasporic movement and theories of value in postcolonial Asia. Her book, Mass Capture: Chinese Head Tax and the Making of Non-Citizens, was also supported by SSHRC. This book won an Honourable Mention from the Photography Network’s 2022 Book Prize and won the Association for Asian American Studies’ 2023 prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Multidisciplinary Category.

Michael Lynk

Michael Lynk is Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Law, Western University, where he taught from 1999 to 2022. He taught courses in Canadian labour law, Canadian constitutional law and Canadian and international human rights law, and he has written widely in these areas. In 2016, he was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council for a six year term as the Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory. In this capacity, Professor Lynk delivered regular human rights reports to the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.