Khulud Baig, Director of Policy & Community Engagement at Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (WNHHN)

Khulud is the Director of Policy and Community Engagement at the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (WNHHN). Previously, she has served as the lead on housing and homelessness research with the WNHHN’s key Indigenous partner Keepers of the Circle. Khulud holds a Masters in Global Development Studies from Queen’s University and has valuable experience in community-based, participatory research, with a key focus on gender-based analysis and Indigenous methodologies.

Previously, Khulud has led gender-equity and housing files at the City for All Women’s Initiative and Native Women’s Association of Canada. Her key focus in all her work is to create and hold space for lived experience voices in decision-making.

Khulud will be facilitating the symposium.

Dr. Carolyn Whitzman, Housing and Social Policy Researcher

Dr. Carolyn Whitzman is a housing and social policy researcher. She is an Adjunct Professor and Senior Housing Researcher at University of Toronto’s School of Cities, undertaking research on scaling up affordable and nonmarket housing supply.  She has worked as an expert advisor to UBC’s Housing Assessment Resource Tools (HART) project, which developed standardized best practices for analyzing housing need, using government land for nonmarket housing, and nonmarket property acquisition, using detailed, open data.

Carolyn is the author, co-author or lead editor of six books, including Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis (2024) and Clara at the Door with a Revolver: the scandalous Black suspect, the exemplary white son, and the murder that shocked Toronto (2023). She is the author or co-author of over 80 book chapters, articles, and reports, on issues related to the right to the city. She has provided expertise to national, state/provincial and local governments, UN Women, UN Habitat, and private and non-profit organizations.

Honorable, Senator Marilou McPhedran

Born and raised in Manitoba, the Honourable Marilou McPhedran is a human rights lawyer/educator/activist and Order of Canada Member, appointed an independent senator, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2016.

Recognized for co-leadership in developing constitutional equality rights, she sponsors Bill S-201 to lower the federal voting age to 16, as well as Bill S-261, the “Can’t Buy Silence Act” to stop misuse of Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) by entities receiving federal funding.

A tenured full professor at the University of Winnipeg Global College when she joined the Senate, her office is run as a parliamentary learning lab because the top priority on her Senate agenda is engaging diverse young leaders and civil society in Canadian parliamentary and global affairs.

Darci Skiber, Executive Director – Mental Health & Substance Use (MHSU) Programs & Initiatives

Darci Skiber leads the Perinatal Mental Health & Substance Use Program portfolio at BC Women’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC. Darci comes to this work as a woman with lived experience and admits she continues to lean on this experience 25 years into her healthcare career in service of program development, advocacy, and system disruption. Darci’s housing work in BC has been focused on perinatal substance use given the complexities attached to creating housing that truly reflects the needs of the population. Darci and her team led a project over the last three years to develop a housing model that reflected the voices of lived experience, housing operators, and health agencies. Darci is excited to build on the existing housing work being done in service of women, children, and families most impacted by colonization, systemic oppression, and stigma.

Darcy will be presenting the following work: The Perinatal Mental Health and Substance Use (MHSU) Programs at BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre (BCWH) developed a housing model to support the perinatal substance use population, guided by learnings from women with lived/living experience, housing provers, and health providers. This housing model was piloted at 3 sites with differing population approaches with a robust evaluation to reflect the experience of participants, housing partners, and health providers Key learnings and considerations have been captured in service of implementing a fulsome supportive housing model for the perinatal substance use population across the province.

Daniely Sciarotta, Researcher, Community Advocate

Daniely Sciarotta is Postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Canada.

Her research explores the connections between homelessness, housing instability, and violence against women, focusing on how these influence women’s health and wellbeing—particularly young women—through a sociocultural lens.

Lisa Martin, Community Advocate

Lisa Martin (she/her) is a feminist housing activist based in Tkaronto with a lived experience of gender-based violence. She conceptualizes her work as being at the intersection of social engaged art, research and activism.

Lisa is interested in systems thinking, arts-based knowledge mobilization, dissemination and power literacy. http://bio.site/lisamartin, http://bio.site/growyourknow

Rhoda Philip, MPP, Regional Lead Research Officer, University of Toronto

Rhoda is a public policy alumna from the University of Toronto, where she currently works as the Regional Lead Research Officer (Africa Relations). As an award-winning community advocate, Rhoda has been leveraging her lived expertise, research, and policy education to contribute to discussions on housing justice. She sits on various advisory boards, including the Pan-Canadian Voice for Women’s Housing (PCVWH). Her 20 years of experience with forced displacement and transient living has deeply shaped her understanding of the importance of stable, affordable housing. Having spent her entire childhood moving from place to place, never quite feeling settled, she has seen firsthand how destabilizing and dehumanizing it can be to not have a home. These challenges have fueled her unwavering commitment to advocating for affordable housing for all Canadians, especially women and gender-diverse families. Everyone deserves a safe and permanent place to call home, and Rhoda believes it’s time we ensure that housing is a right, not a privilege. Stability is the foundation for opportunity, and no one should have to live in uncertainty.

Sheri Lecker, Executive Director of Adsum for Women & Children

Sheri Lecker is the Executive Director of Adsum for Women & Children for more than two decades.  Under her leadership, Adsum provides daily support to more than 600 people in Halifax Regional Municipality who are staying in shelters, emergency units, hotels and permanent affordable housing that is owned by the organization. 

Sheri has overseen the purchase, construction, renovation, and re-purposing of multiple properties and continues to seek solutions to ending homelessness through housing, services, and advocacy. Prior to joining Adsum, Sheri worked for humanitarian organizations in countries and as a producer with the CBC.  Sheri is a native Cape Bretoner.

Heather Fairbairn, Community Advocate

Heather Hanninen Fairbairn is a disabled, non binary person working at the intersections of poverty, disability, housing, and women’s and gender diverse people’s issues. Her pronouns are she/they. Heather was born in and after much travel, working and studying abroad, returned to Edmonton. She hold a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Dalhousie, with her thesis focus on housing for women in crisis.

She has been, and remains, precariously housed, her 75 year old townhouse slated for demolition in the next five years. Heather is grateful to be a part of PCVWH’s Advisory Council, and to have worked along with these amazing women and gender diverse humans. She was privileged to be a part of the She*They*Us: Making Room in Housing podcast. In her spare time, she admins several Facebook groups, reads, corresponds with friends around the world in handwritten letters, tends to her little free library, listens to music, and gives hearty belly rubs to her two much adored cats, Stormy and Blue.

Crystal Semiganis, Sixties Scoop Survivor, Community Advocate

Crystal is a Sixties Scoop Survivor who was born, scooped and raised in Saskatchewan.  She is a first generation Nehiyaw (Plains Cree) and a fifth generation Métis of Saskatchewan.  The youngest of seven, Crystal is now a mother of four and Grandmother to two.  She is an Activist, and her current scope of work is combating the issue of Raceshifting (PreteNDNism), as the leader of the Ghost Warrior Society Against First Nations, Métis & Inuit Identity Fraud. With over 32 years of sobriety, she pursues the Creative Arts:  painting, photography, pyrography poetry, beadwork, sewing and digital art.  Her booth, Seven Wolves, is a regular on the Pow Wow trail throughout Ontario and Quebec.  Her social media engagements reach over 120K indigenous people across Turtle Island daily. 

Crystal is 53 years old and is also known by her legal name, Christine Cameron.  Her family’s 46 year search for her oldest biological sister was featured in Season Two of CBC’s Missing and Murdered by Connie Walker and became the 2018 podcast “Finding Cleo”.  With over 35 million downloads worldwide, Crystal has reclaimed her birth name. Crystal has worked with high schools, colleges, universities, government and the private sector for all varieties of audiences.  She now lives in Temagami, home of the Old Growth Forest and height of land for Ontario. Her websites feature her many passions and talents online and at ghostwarriorsociety.com where her Blog has over 1000 subscribers.

Tina Mallard, Community Liaison – Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa

Tina Mallard is a Community Liaison with the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa. As a member of ATEHO’s Expert Steering Team, Tina works to bring the voices of people with lived experiences of homelessness into the forefront of policy and programming conversations. Outside of her role with the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, Tina works as a peer support worker for Options Housing, serving a caseload of 300 people in a frontline capacity.

Tina has recently joined the City of Ottawa’s Community Advisory Board, where she brings the voice of the community into focus. Tina uses her lived and professional experience to advocate for all walks of life, however, she has been especially dedicated to causes addressing the needs of women, children, people experiencing mental health and/or substance use challenges, and others experiencing complex marginalization. 

Pamela Spurvey, Indigenous Wellness Coordinator, Community Advocate

Pamela Spurvey is an Indigenous Cree woman from the Beaver Lake Cree Nation in Alberta. She works as an Indigenous Wellness Coordinator at Henwood Treatment Center and serves as a Recovery Life Skills Coach/Mentor for the Drug Treatment Courts across Alberta. With over 17 years of personal recovery, Pamela’s experiences with mental health and substance use struggles, homelessness, the criminal system and the foster care system deeply informs her ability to relate to others facing similar struggles. In time, with self-help groups and guidance from community supports and Indigenous culture she was able to gain a sense of hope and find her way out of darkness back to her children, her community and herself. Pamela is actively involved in various committees where she uses her lived and ongoing experiences to advocate for systemic change and amplify people’s voices to drive meaningful transformation. Her work focuses on fostering culturally inclusive care and she uses her voice to help others find their way back to their spirit and find their voice in a disadvantaged system. She believes with the right supports in place we can prevent and reduce homelessness amongst women and gender-diverse people.

Ange Valentini, political advisor, strategist, and community organizer

Ange Valentini (she/her) is a political advisor, strategist, and community organizer. She brings 25 years of experience building creative solutions to complex challenges. Ange is a trusted advisor working on the front lines of critical issues from advancing reconciliation and climate change mitigation, to meeting the demands for affordable housing and infrastructure.  Since 2016, Ange has worked through her consulting practice – the Strategic Impact Collective. Her clients include First Nations governments, local governments, health authorities, Chambers of Commerce, NGOs, environmental organizations and technology companies.

Mission-driven public policy advocacy is the connecting thread throughout Ange’s career. She knows from experience that effective advocacy is a powerful motivator and multiplier for creating positive change, building social equity, and advancing economic justice. Ange is a mom and step-mom raising 5 young people. She lives with her partner on the unceded and traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), also known as Vancouver, Canada.

Lori Deets, Community Advocate

Lori Deets is a passionate advocate, leader, mentor, and mother. She is Cree/Métis from Northern Saskatchewan, though she struggles to call it home due to being disconnected as a result of the Sixties Scoop. Having spent most of her living memory on the prairies of Treaty 4, she considers herself a reconnecting urban Indigenous person. She is currently a Journalism and Communications student at First Nations University of Canada. Her greatest passion lies in sharing her experiences to help others. She applies her skills in storytelling, mentoring, and building support networks in her role as a front-line community support worker with the YWCA – Regina.

Additionally, Lori is involved with the Pan Canadian Voice for Women’s Housing. Since the project’s inception in 2017, she has contributed as a lived experience expert and advisory circle member. PCVWH has played a significant role in helping her find her voice and use it to inspire positive and meaningful change for herself and those around her. She looks forward to connecting with others and learning more about the work being done with the Pan Canadian Voice for Women’s Housing.

Annick Mondat Allemann, Community Advocate

Annick is the assistant director of the PEI French Health Network, a non-profit organization that works with various partners to improve access to quality French language health programs and services for PEI’s Acadian and Francophone population. Originally from Montreal, Annick obtained her master’s degree in communication from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. She also holds degrees in criminology and psychology from the University of Ottawa and obtained a certificate in public service administration from the Université du Québec à Montréal.

With a rich international and multidisciplinary background, Annick has worked in the fields of university research, telecommunications, and non-profit organizations.
Annick is currently a member of the Women and Gender Diverse People’s Health Council, the Vice Chair of the Community Sector Network of PEI, and also sits on the Advisory Circle of the Pan-Canadian Voice for Women’s Housing.

Cindy Chiasson, Manager, Better Haven

I came to the PCVWH seven years ago, and quickly realized how vital this committee of women were going to be. Housing is not just a human right to all, but you will find most often than not, once a person gets not just a house but a home, how fast they can begin their journey to heal in other areas of their lives. The north as we know brings its own unique set of challenges with extreme weather conditions and the cost to bring materials in as some communities are fly in only access.

I work in a shelter for women fleeing violence and often see women who have to start over and the stigmas that make it almost impossible to get housing in some northern communities, so woman and their children are forced to go back to their abusers do to no where else to go. I am a mother of four daughters and 15 grand children. With the extreme costs of rentals or homeowners today, my grand children can not afford to leave home and be on their own, they can not think of buying a home at the moment due to the high costs and they are not alone in this. We need to advocate not only for more homes but ones that are affordable to all.

Karen Umurerwa, Community Liaison, Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa

Karen Umurerwa is a Community Liaison on the Expert Steering Team (EST) of the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa and a Research Assistant for the University of Ottawa with a focus on housing and homelessness research. Karen joins the EST in their joint mission of lending their personal lived experience of homelessness or housing precarity and their strengths, skills, and experience to drive change in the housing and homelessness system. Karen has been a strong advocate for mental health awareness in the Black community, focusing on breaking down stigma and providing support for those facing mental health challenges. She is also deeply committed to addressing women’s homelessness, working to create safe and accessible resources for women in need. Her expertise in these areas makes her a passionate and dedicated advocate for these important causes. Recently, Karen has explored program design and implementation, as conference planning lead and education and training initiatives co-lead for the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa. Karen combines her professional roles to bring together academic research and practical, community-focused applications to address and mitigate homelessness. 

Chi Nguyen, Executive Director Equal Voices 

Chi Nguyen was most recently the Executive Director at Equal Voice, Canada’s only multipartisan organization dedicated to electing women to all levels of government (currently on leave). A past candidate in a provincial election, she holds an MSc in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and has worked for more than twenty years as a community builder with organizations like United Way Toronto and White Ribbon Canada.

She is a past recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons’ Case and a YWCA Young Woman of Distinction and a recent recipient of the King’s Coronation Medal. She loves her most important job as mom to Sam and Ellis