katie lemieux has been drawing ever since she was old enough to hold a crayola. 

today, the thunder bay artist is an internationally recognized sculptor who’s participated in group exhibitions in canada, the united states, europe, and south korea.

“when i was a kid, i was attracted to sculpture after seeing marble angels beside gravestones,” katie says. “they seemed so sad and mysterious – i wanted to know why they were always in cemeteries.” 

after high school, she enrolled in lakehead’s fine arts program where she was influenced by the divergent styles of 19th-century american sculptor edward v. valentine and 20th-century swiss surrealist sculptor alberto giacometti.

“their work made me realize that i could combine traditional and contemporary strands of art and create my own narrative,” she says.

kasia piech, a lakehead ceramics instructor, also spurred katie’s artistic development. it was through piech that katie was able to travel to china’s celebrated jingdhezhen facility to complete a six-week artistic residency in 2015.

“it was the first time i’d been to such a vastly different culture and one that was so storied and skilled in ceramics,” katie says. “it made me want to participate in this international conversation.”

later, at a workshop in croatia arranged by piech, katie met the head of the ceramics department at the university of wisconsin’s peck school of the arts. 

at his encouragement, katie completed a master of fine arts at peck before returning to thunder bay in 2019. she’s now fully embraced the life of an artist and is buoyed by the critical success her work is enjoying. 

one of her main sources of inspiration comes from her second job as personal support worker – a career she chose because of her fascination with paraverbal communication, as well as to supplement her income.

paraverbal communication is a term used to describe ways of communicating without words.

“there’s not as much awareness of non-verbal communication as there should be,” katie says. “people who are deaf, hearing impaired, or autistic express themselves using body language and facial expressions.” 

the theme of paraverbal communication runs through her current solo exhibition at the thunder bay art gallery called ending up.

“it’s a two-part show that explores non-verbal communication by arranging my sculptures in certain ways to express the idea of conversation without words.”

the exhibition features headless figures that call to mind both ancient greek statuary and giacometti’s elongated and unsettling sculptures. her work is described by the art gallery as “multi-gendered and androgynous clay subjects that are vehicles for a complicated range of human expression.”

“i wanted to present something that wasn’t particularly pretty or aesthetic,” katie says, “because confronting things that are challenging can open up potential.”

the show is also described “a voyeuristic look into the studio of a sculptor” where small finger-like objects and figurines jostle each other on wooden shelves.

“if you could go back in time to the studios of artists like giacometti and michelangelo, you’d see crowded dusty spaces,” katie says. “i wanted to give viewers the chance to see behind the curtain.”

she has been overwhelmed by the reaction to her work.

“the support that thunder bay has shown for this exhibition has been amazing,” katie says. “and after two years of quiet from the pandemic, it’s great to see people talking again.”

ending up will be on display at the thunder bay art gallery until june 19, 2022.

a love of russian literature influenced tamer ibrahim’s (ma'10) life in an unexpected way.

tamer, who has a ba in english from york university and an ma in english from lakehead, was especially fascinated by writer leo tolstoy’s explorations of the privileged world of the russian aristocracy and the light he shed on the plight of the country’s peasant farmers, who barely eked out a living.

“i was attracted to literature’s ability to interpret sociological environments – like various social classes,” tamer (ma’10) says. “it relates to what i do today.”

he joined the laidlaw foundation seven years ago – a canadian grant-maker that aspires to create a society where all youth have the opportunity to achieve their full potential. 

“i work with a group of champions interested in the well-being of young people,” tamer says. “when the systems designed to support them aren’t working, they ask tough questions and then work to change them.”

since 2019, laidlaw has been helping youth negatively affected by the justice, education, and child-welfare systems become healthy and engaged citizens. often, these young people are struggling with racial, economic, and social barriers.

tamer says, for example, there’s a lack of comprehensive data and knowledge-sharing between organizations that operate in the child welfare sector. 

“at one of our roundtable discussions, experts told us that young people would deliberately come into conflict with the law to escape group homes with toxic, or even dangerous, living environments. that needs to change.” 

tamer’s compassion for youth who’ve had the deck stacked against has defined his career.

“fresh out of lakehead i was hired by uforchange – a grassroots youth-led organization in the toronto area that offered fashion, film, and photography workshops to newcomer youth,” he says. as the operations & community development manager, tamer helped developed uforchange’s fundraising strategy and prepared grants. “i also managed special projects with incredible partners like google canada, artscape, and the inspirit foundation.”  

currently, tamer is laidlaw’s youth collective impact manager and has shifted his focus from assisting individual young people to tackling systemic barriers faced by youth across ontario. the project is a partnership between the laidlaw foundation, the mcconnell family foundation’s innoweave initiative, and the government of ontario.  

“we want to decrease youth homelessness and increase employment and graduation rates,” he says.

how exactly does the laidlaw do this?

they team up with community groups and organizations who’ve identified a problem, such as high drop-out rates among people of colour in a certain city or region in ontario. 

laidlaw then works with this local coalition made up of people with lived experience and members of school boards, mental health centres, community centres, and anti-racism groups to design an integrated strategy to improve the graduation rate. laidlaw also supports these coalitions through coaching, workshops, and funding.  

in his spare time, tamer is the board chair of the for youth initiative, a non-profit organization that enables black, racialized, and newcomer youth to navigate systemic barriers, plan for the future, and access the resources and mentorship they need to thrive. 

it’s another way that tamer makes sure that he is always there for young people who need someone in their corner.

singer, actor, dancer…destroyer of invasive weeds? 

julia johnston is not a typical university student, but that’s what makes her such a dynamic member of the lakehead orillia campus.

“my entire family sang in church and community choirs,” she says. “my dad – who we lost to cancer in 2014 – and my mom taught us that music and the arts are powerful things.”

julia took their lessons to heart. she attended the randolph college for the performing arts, a toronto theatre school, and then founded two performing arts schools of her own.  

“for the past 12 years, i’ve been offering vocal and drama training to all ages, including adults,” she says. “it’s my joy and my passion.”

lately, though, julia hasn’t been content with being a triple threat in the theatre world. 

in 2019, she took an environmental management course at the university of toronto. the experience prompted her to enrol in the lakehead-georgian partnership's environmental sustainability degree-diploma program.

“i love that i’m learning, and i love what i’m learning,” julia says of her studies.

it may seem like a big leap from the performing arts to the sciences, but according to julia, “i’ve been a tree hugger and avid environmentalist all my life.”

“i just had to get up my courage,” she adds. “i’m a mature student and i hadn’t been to school in 15 years.”

in the summer of 2021, at the end of her first year, julia saw an opportunity to apply her newly acquired fieldwork techniques after spotting a group of invasive plants called phragmites australis in orillia’s tudhope park. 

phragmites australis, also called european common weed, is one of the biggest threats to north american wetlands and waterways.

it arrived in canada from eurasia in the 1930s – probably from ballast water in ships travelling down the st lawrence seaway. now, this weed is spreading rapidly and endangering plants and wildlife.

phragmites australis, which grows to nearly 20 feet tall, wreaks havoc by suffocating the ground so that other vegetation can’t grow and by sucking up water and creating islands in fragile wetland areas. besides making it inhospitable for other plants, this weed also drives away native insects, birds, and reptiles. 

“phragmites australis doesn’t play friendly,” julia says. 

she knew that she had to take action and slow its spread in simcoe county.

removing the weed from tudhope park, however, was a more complicated endeavour than she anticipated. she had to secure permission from the city, find volunteers, and pay for proper equipment to remove the plants.

undeterred, julia launched a successful gofundme campaign that raised money to support the weed removal efforts, including purchasing necessary supplies like safety boots. 

when julia and her volunteers finished weeding tudhope park, they moved their activities to city property used to store road sand and cleared a 500-600 metre section of phragmites australis that had popped up. 

all of this hands-on work is great preparation for what julia wants to do when she graduates.

“i have a deep desire to work for the nature conservancy of canada, specifically in invasive species ecology with a focus on education, because i have a special connection with kids.”

people from all over the world dream of making it big in silicon valley – the headquarters of tech giants like apple and facebook. 

lakehead alum marcus khoo is one of the select group who has thrived in its rarified atmosphere.

“i’ve no regrets about coming here,” he says, “but silicon valley is a very unforgiving place. once no longer marketable, you’re cut loose.”

marcus has 40 years of experience in the electronics and semiconductor field. twenty-five of those years have been spent with california tech companies, in particular, the intel corporation.

“when i started in the semiconductor industry, there were humans working on the manufacturing lines,” marcus says. “now, it’s only robots because robots don’t make errors.”

so how did marcus get from lakehead to intel – the world’s largest semiconductor chip manufacturer and renowned developer of personal computer microprocessors?

it was a bit of a winding journey. marcus grew up in malaysia and went to high school in toronto. 

“i wasn’t an “a” student,” he says, “but lakehead took a risk and offered me a place. lakehead made me what i am today.” 

marcus excelled at chemistry as an undergraduate and was helped along by supportive professors.

“dr. manit rappon had the most influence on me,” marcus says. “in classes, we would frantically take notes, and not really take in what our professors were saying, but dr. rappon would tell us: ‘slow down and try to understand. learn something when you’re here.’” 

after graduating in 1983, marcus found a job in singapore’s semiconductors sector with siemens and then hewlett packard.  one job led to another, and his time overseas stretched into several years.

this turned out to be a good thing because it was in singapore that marcus met and married his wife. the couple left the country when a cellphone manufacturer, novatel, offered marcus a position to start up their new manufacturing facility in calgary.

“i told my wife that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to go back to canada.”

later on, while at raytheon calgary, marcus earned a master of quality assurance degree from loyola university in new orleans. this degree, which was sponsored by raytheon, allowed him to go in a different career direction.

“quality assurance is about predicting and preventing design and manufacturing problems before they happen,”marcus explains.  

in 2020, marcus was promoted to intel technical program manager to focus on quality system improvements in semiconductor chip design.

quality problems are common in the chip industry because the chips are so complex. these tiny components made of silicon – and used in products like cell phones, computers, and automobiles – have become indispensable to modern life.  

“we’re always trying to push laptop and computer technology one generation ahead,” marcus says. “chips for laptops and computers have to be ready two years in advance so that laptop and computer manufacturers are able to design their next generation of end products. we are constantly reinventing ourselves. every error i’m trying to prevent is one i’ve never seen before.”

marcus’s day is long, starting at 7 am and ending at 7 pm, with a few breaks in between.

“typically, i spend 6-7 hours on conference calls. intel has 120,000 employees around the world, including israel, ireland, shanghai, and costa rica. this means that it’s always daytime somewhere.”

despite the pressures he faces, marcus is passionate about his profession, and he encourages any lakehead grad with silicon valley aspirations to contact him. “i’m more than happy to help them get there,” he says.

there is one thing that marcus does regret.

“i haven’t been back to thunder bay since i graduated. it’s on my bucket list to visit lakehead, walk around the campus, and see how it’s changed.”

when she was just a high school student, megan rafuse (hbsw'09) lost her mother to cancer. 

“her death really drove my career choices,” megan says. “it made me unafraid to take risks, because i learned that you don’t get a second chance to live your life.”

and in a short period of time, megan has transformed her private counselling practice into a company with services and clinicians across canada. she is the ceo of shift collab – a mental wellness company that offers individual therapy and counselling, public speaking, and education.

“typical challenges canadians are dealing with,” she says, “include anxiety, depression, grief and loss, life transitions, obsessive compulsive disorders, and eating disorders.”

megan grew up on cape breton island and did an undergraduate psychology degree at st. francis xavier university. she followed this with an honours bachelor of social work at lakehead’s orillia campus, a master’s degree at the university of toronto, and work at sickkids hospital. 

her professional life, though, began in earnest organizing home care for seniors with an ontario community care access centre (ccac), while simultaneously expanding her private practice.

five years later, megan realized how much she loved being a clinician and that having two jobs wasn’t sustainable, prompting her to become a full-time mental health therapist.

“it’s such a privilege to share a journey with someone and witness their growth,” she says. “i believe that when one teaches, two learn.”

within three months, her private practice was entirely full, spurring her to hire 10 clinicians and a receptionist. around the same time, she’d been chatting with jordan axani, who had a business offering mental health workshops and training for workplaces.

“we both wanted to make mental wellness more accessible, so we decided to work together,” megan says.

although the founding of shift collab should have been a time of excitement and celebration, it became a period when megan’s perseverance was tested.

“i suffered a catastrophic major concussion in a car accident and was off work for six months while i recovered,” she says.

but this setback didn’t slow her down for long. she and jordan, who is also her life partner, threw their energy into building shift collab.

today, their company has several divisions. shift collab provides individual therapy and counselling. shift people  provides mental health workshops, public speaking, and training for businesses and organizations throughout north america. 

“our goal is to challenge the standard eap – employee assistance program – and offer more robust and innovative programming,” megan explains. 

through a partnership with the maple network of virtual health care providers, they have 85 clinicians available in cities from coast to coast.

“i’m really proud of the fact that we offer practicums to lakehead 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 and that we’ve hired nine lakehead grads as clinicians,” megan adds.

their best practice division is a community of over 1,000 therapists supporting each other in building modern mental health clinics.

shift collab was also responsible for joining forces with an insurance company to create real campus, canada’s largest independent student assistance program. “it provided mental health counselling to about 250,000 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 , paid through their student benefits.”

since she’s started her career, megan has seen a huge shift in people’s willingness to speak out about mental health. “they don’t wait until it’s a crisis before getting help,” she says. 

“we’re in a society where it’s very easy to compare our lives to someone’s social media highlight reel. but we have to remember, it’s just their reel – not their real life.”

megan rafuse is just one the exceptional alumni, 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 , researchers, and donors featured in lakehead's annual report. stay tuned for the official report launch in february to find out how lakehead has been making a difference this past year. 

in the face of the brutality of racism, lakehead alumnus paul popo-ola (hbcom’10) is shaken, but unbowed.

the lakehead alum has set his sights on helping toronto inner-city kids escape the lives of poverty to which they are often condemned. in 2020, paul and a group of friends set up the black health and wealth fund to provide university entrance scholarships to grade 12 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 . it’s paul’s latest advocacy project, and one close to his heart.

“my family left ghana when i was eight years old to come to canada,” he says.

they ended up in toronto’s rexdale area – one of the toughest neighbourhoods in the country. “there’s a lot of poverty and government housing,” paul explains. 

in ghana, paul’s father was a bank employee and his mother was a registered nurse, but in their new homeland, they found themselves at the bottom of the social ladder. paul’s mother worked at mcdonald’s until she requalified as a nurse and his father worked in factories before becoming a church pastor. 

along with these hardships, their young son was confronting harmful prejudices and stereotypes. 

“most of my friends are black, and when we were kids,” paul says, “we thought the only things we could be were athletes, rappers, and drug dealers.”

paul began getting into trouble, to the distress of his parents and older brothers, but the ymca and rexdale’s albion neighbourhood boys and girls club threw him the lifeline he needed.

“sports got me out the bubble i was trapped in. coaches waived my registration fees and helped me buy basketball shoes,” he says. “if i got a bad grade, my coach would say, ‘paul you can do better.’”

when he finished high school, paul went to 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 on a basketball scholarship. he enrolled in the commerce program because it offered financial security and career avenues beyond athletics.

but paul wasn’t just concerned about himself. as a university student, he volunteered with the thunder bay boys and girls club (he was named their 2011 volunteer of the year) and shelter house.

since graduating, paul has become an investment advisor with rbc dominion securities based in toronto. he frequently counsels newcomers to canada, and he encourages financial literacy as the host of the cash rules financial podcast.

his success, though, doesn’t mean that the struggle for racial equality is over.

paul and friends were traumatized by videos of verbal and physical attacks against black people – especially the murder  of george floyd by a minneapolis police officer – that occurred in 2020. the assaults galvanized them to support the current generation of kids growing up in rexdale through the black health and wealth fund.

they quickly raised over $40,000 for 12 scholarships and forged connections with canadian universities, including lakehead, who donated tuition credits, meal plans, and other services to the 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 (next year, they hope to increase the number of scholarships). they partnered with the albion neighbourhood boys and girls club because, as an existing non-profit, they had the authority to distribute scholarship funds.

pictured right:  paul (centre) and his fellow members of the black health and wealth fund executive are changing the lives of vulnerable youth.

the black health and wealth fund members are also committed to nurturing the 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 .

“we didn’t want to hand the kids money and say, ‘see you later,’” paul says. “every one of them received mentorship in different areas – financial literacy, public speaking, good life habits, healthy living.”

although paul is doing his part to make the world a place where everyone is valued, he would like to see the media – and ordinary citizens – better educate themselves and overcome their biases.

“black canadians aren’t monolithic,” he says, “so don’t put us in a box, just give us a fair playing field.”

watch the black health and wealth fund video to learn more about these transformative scholarships and how you can make a difference:  https://youtu.be/lgnh9ounzuc

mike carlson knows firsthand some of the challenges faced by reporters today, especially with many people believing that the news is fake. 

mike earned a bachelor of arts in english and a bachelor of education – both at 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 . he is a professional sports photographer who has covered the national hockey league, the national basketball association, the national football league, and major league baseball. 

his advice to prospective journalists is that they must have persistence. 

“journalism/photojournalism is a truly rewarding career, but with the recent developments in calling everything ‘fake news’ and disdain for the job by many – it does make it more difficult. 

“no one i know, and no one i’ve trained ever goes into it with an ‘agenda.’ i believe in presenting the truth without bias, and it’s an important trait for successful journalists,” he says, adding that it is also important for journalists to be multifaceted – so they can contribute in many different ways.

“i have the rare opportunity in professional sports to work with teams who have writers, videographers, and photographers – in many instances in journalism today one person should be prepared to do all of that,” he says. 

based in tampa, fla., mike also teaches digital multimedia courses at river ridge high school. his 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 learn photography, illustration, graphic design, and video – skills they can eventually use in journalism. the school displays their work on its website and social media pages, among other places.  

it has been an interesting journey since he graduated from 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 in the 1990s. in 1997, he moved to istanbul to teach and bought a new printer that included a 35 mm film camera. 

“i figured since i was seeing a whole new world i may as well take some photos – and that’s when i became hooked,” he says. 

when mike moved to cairo, he would often visit a photography store owned by an egyptian man who had lived in the us. that man soon recognized mike had an eye for photography. 

“he gifted me an old canon t50 – a fully manual film camera, which forced me to slow down and concentrate on all of the settings. this allowed me to really learn how all settings combined in a photo.” 

when his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer, photography gave mike a brief break from reality – and photography has continued to do that in the years since her passing.   

mike, who grew up in thunder bay, says his favourite sport to photograph is either football or hockey. 

“i love the challenge of football because so much is potentially happening on every play. it means balancing three cameras and choosing a position carefully while at the same time reacting to the plays and fakes at nfl speed. it moves a lot faster down on field level. 

“but, i also love hockey – it’s the canadian in me. it’s a different challenge shooting through a small hole in the glass and reacting at nhl speed . . . plus it’s a lot more comfortable in an arena than a 110 degree field in the florida sunshine,” he says. 

mike says the introduction of digital photography changed the game for professional sports photographers. 

“the challenge with digital in today’s world is the expectation that the results are delivered instantaneously, especially in sports. there is a constant race to have the photo out first. for most nfl games and big events, we all have internet-connected cameras that transfer photos of big plays to an editor, with the goal to have images available to post within a minute or less of them happening.” 

one of the highlights of mike’s career occurred in 2013 when his photo of alex rodriguez ran on the cover of sports illustrated.

when he isn’t photographing winning touch downs or goals, mike looks back fondly on the years he spent at 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 , which he says changed his life.

“being able to get into the concurrent education program allowed me to follow my passion at the time and get into education – both of my parents were long-time teachers in thunder bay,” he says. 

“it was also at lakehead where i met and made connections to other teacher grads who headed out on the international school circuit and who introduced it to me.” 

while at lakehead, he often frequented the outpost campus pub. 

“i lived five minutes from campus, so the outpost was where i spent time on campus with friends from out of town or who lived on campus. studying, socializing, it gave me the chance to meet and get to know people who became life-long friends,” he says. 

not only did mike love attending school, he also enjoys teaching. since graduating, mike has taught in canada, the united states, turkey, egypt, and tanzania. 

“through all of the diversity in schools/curricula/countries, the one thing that hasn’t changed is the 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 . working with them on projects, on the fields, in the gym, in my studios, i just enjoy the energy and creativity (and chaos) of the teenage mind.

“it’s hard to truly explain, but a teacher will understand,” mike says. 

mike would love to hear from friends and former classmates. he is on instagram (@carlsonphotos) and his website is mcarlson.photoshelter.com. 

john hammill is the regional publisher of orilliamatters, an exclusively online site that provides breaking news and vital local information to its readers.

after joining forces with village media, which has perfected the online news model over the past 10 years, john and his team launched the site on january 8, 2018 – only six weeks after postmedia shuttered the orillia packet and times.

he had worked for a few different newspapers before becoming the regional advertising director at the orillia packet and times, which is why he was ready to move forward with orilliamatters when postmedia closed the newspaper on november 27, 2017.

and he hasn’t looked back.

even before launching, orilliamatters had overwhelming support from local residents and businesses.

“orillia had a daily newspaper for over 50 years and that daily news coverage ceased with the closure of the packet and times,” john says.

“advertisers and readers were accustomed to the daily news cycle and that was pulled out from under them with no notice. we had launch sponsors lined up two weeks before our go-live date, which was a great indicator of things to come.”

from the orillia packet, john brought in regional editor dave dawson, reporters nathan taylor and tyler evans, and around a half dozen regularly contributing freelancers.

during the lead-up to launching orilliamatters, john didn’t experience much negativity about their plans, but some people were a bit confused about how the news site would operate.

“there were some questions about the format, so we launched a campaign to educate readers on adapting to our online news website,” john says.

“as soon as they experienced orilliamatters and saw first-hand how easy it was to navigate and find the content they had been missing, all was good.”

providing timely, accurate and vital important information about covid-19 helped orilliamatters grow even more, although the site’s numbers were strong from the beginning.

“we broke 650,000 monthly page views in our first month, which was a remarkable start,” john says. “our current monthly page view average is 3.2 million.”

by selling advertisements and encouraging donations from readers, orilliamatters is thriving in a community that was hungry for news.

john says the secret to succeeding in the news business today is simple: quality journalism is the solution.

“it's just the delivery mechanism - the internet - that has changed. whatever the delivery mechanism, it always comes back to valuable, quality, verified journalism.”

the best way to offer that, john says, is by hiring journalists who know what they are doing. 

“we rely on trained, professional reporters. while we definitely encourage and publish user-generated content, nothing can replace newsgathering from a properly trained, unbiased reporter.”

john graduated from the badmin program at 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 thunder bay in 1996. he truly enjoyed living in the city, including spending time outdoors. it was also where he met his wife laura.

“it was great to learn about finnish traditions as my wife’s family are finlanders. we spent a few mornings at the hoito (restaurant) – that’s for sure. walking/running at boulevard lake and swimming/diving at the canada games complex. starting a round of golf at 6 pm in may was always a cool experience too.”

john also appreciates living in orillia, home to lakehead’s newest campus.

“i love the sports amenities, parks, etc. here as they are all fantastic. the baseball/softball community is huge here and playing/coaching has been a blast over the years.

“there are lots of active service clubs such as kiwanis, lions and my rotary club that really do make a difference in and around the community. mariposa market, enough said. orillia is truly mariposa,” he says.

he appreciated studying at 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 .

“i loved the fact that the classroom sizes were smaller than other universities; i found i was able to pick things up fairly quickly,” he says.

“i didn’t fall in love with teaching until i started doing it. now it’s an integral part of who i am,” says greg chomut, who teaches history, art, and media at thunder bay’s dennis franklin cromarty (dfc) high school.

the school is administered by the northern nishnawbe education council and the 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 come from 24 indigenous communities in northwestern ontario.

“it’s a big sacrifice to leave everything you know at the age of 13 or 14 and live in a stranger’s house,” greg says. “because of that, they deserve the best – the best school, the best learning equipment, the best textbooks.”

the best, unfortunately, is often elusive for these youngsters.

“as a non-indigenous person, i was unaware of a lot of the racism in thunder bay until i started teaching at dennis franklin cromarty,” he says. “but 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 were always telling me about their experiences being followed at retail stores by security guards or being suspected of doing something wrong wherever they went.”

people yelling racial slurs is also depressingly common. 

“i knew that there were good people and organizations in thunder bay, but my 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 weren’t connecting with them.” 

this prompted greg, and his fellow dfc teachers sean spenrath and angus haapa, to create wake the giant in 2019 – an orientation for grade 7 and 8 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 planning to attend high school in thunder bay.

soon, wake the giant stickers were going up in the windows of local businesses to show their support for indigenous people.

“the 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 were really excited about the stickers,” greg says. “they’ve told me that when they see them, they know that people care about them.”

wake the giant officially launched with a day of workshops for the 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 , followed by an amazing race-style event in which 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 used city buses to navigate around town and discover different services and cultural and recreational opportunities available to them.

on the closing day, greg and his colleagues organized a music festival for the entire city of thunder bay in which indigenous and non-indigenous musicians – including dfc 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 – performed on stage at marina park.  the success of wake the giant led to the decision to make it an annual event, and they just hosted the 2021 festival this september (covid-19 forced the postponement of the 2020 festival). 

greg, who is a guitarist and the lead singer of the band luke warm and the cold ones, has also found other ways to incorporate music into the curriculum.

photo right:  “dennis franklin cromarty is the 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 ’ whole life when they’re here,” greg says. “most schools empty out when the bell rings, but at our school, the kids are here until eight o’clock at night. there are activities going on in every room, for example, i coach cross country running and coordinate the art club.”

“a couple of years ago, we wrote a song with some of canada’s biggest musicians – the bands july talk and broken social scene and indigenous musicians ansley simpson, cris derksen, and nick ferrio. we recorded mourning keeps coming back at a toronto studio that’s available on spotify, apple music, and other streaming sites.”

as their musical journey progressed, greg saw some amazing transformations in the 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 .

“the three girls singing backup melodies were so self-conscious that the lights in the recording studio had to be turned off and everyone had to leave the room. they held hands and sang so quietly. fast forward two years, and they’re belting out the song to 4,000 people – there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience.” 

in recognition of greg’s inspirational teaching, he received a 2020 certificate of achievement from the prime minister’s awards for teaching excellence program.

but greg thinks that all of us can change things for the better.

“take some time to learn about the history of first nations people and take a stand against racism.”

visit wakethegiant.ca to find out how you can make thunder bay a more welcoming place.

above photo (ann-marie digging in garden):

“gardening and food security has become something i’m spending more time on,” ann-marie says. she is part of barrie urban gardening initiatives and recently joined the barrie communities in bloom committee. “last year, i worked on a new 15,000-square-foot community garden that donates vegetables to local agencies in barrie.”

barrie city councillor ann-marie kungl is a virtuoso at juggling many things – from volunteering at covid-19 vaccine clinics to informing barrie’s age friendly community plan to part-time beekeeping.

she also has more than 18 years of health system experience that she puts to good use as the ceo of kungl consulting, a company that provides health and mediation services. having such a diversity of interests isn’t a new phenomenon for ann-marie. “my pathway in life hasn’t been linear in any way,” she says. 

things seemed to have started, though, with a love of athletics.

“i played every sport possible growing up,” she says, “and i studied physical education at brock university.”

after graduation, ann-marie was hired as physiology lab coordinator at queen’s university. “i was looking for opportunities to tie physical and health education to a career,” she explains.

she oversaw randomized control trials looking at the effect of physical activity on seniors’ health. the experiments demonstrated that exercise could have a major impact on well-being, inspiring ann-marie to make public health her lifelong calling.

“the acute health care system reacts to injury, illness, and disease,” she says. “i wanted to bring preventative public health policy into areas that i felt should be incorporated into health-care decision making.”

pictured right: ann-marie holds a copy of her 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 master’s thesis.

ann-marie enrolled in 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 ’s master of public health program and, while still a student, was hired by cancer care ontario’s prevention unit to work with the ontario chronic disease prevention alliance.

this, in turn, led to a job with the ontario public health association. by 2006, ann-marie was one of the first staff members with the province’s newly established local health integration networks (lhins).

these jobs were excellent training for ann-marie’s entry into the government-funded home care sector.  in 2013, she joined the north simcoe muskoka community care access centre (ccac) as the director of communications and organizational development working with patients and their caregivers to improve services and ensure that the voices of patients informed service delivery and access to care.

she also became adept at helping families navigate through difficult situations and provided community education on the importance of advanced care planning.

dealing with complex family and health situations and resolving conflicts prompted ann-marie to earn health law and dispute resolution certificates from york university to enhance her communication and mediation skills.

“you can apply those skillsets around the boardroom table in conflict resolution situations,” ann-marie says, “and this supported the next step in my career path. i founded kungl consulting in 2018 to provide health strategy planning, policy writing, and dispute resolution services.” 

her shift to entrepreneurship was also motivated by the need for flexible working hours because she had her sights on a new challenge – municipal politics.

“i realized that cities had a huge influence on public health and that being a councillor would support my passion for community wellbeing,” ann-marie says.

she was elected to barrie’s city council in 2020 and she’s currently part of committees addressing affordable housing, homelessness, human services, food insecurity, seniors’ wellness, and reducing barriers for women interested in political office.

“being a city councillor is allowing me to broaden the public health conversation,” ann-marie says. “i want to help people live well and thrive by advocating for good public policy.”

pictured above: ann-marie stands beside city of barrie sign (credit: chris simon/simcoe.com)

the role of cities in improving public health includes providing affordable housing and reducing homelessness. “barrie has one of the highest rental rates in the country,” ann-marie says, “and we need to support seniors in maintaining access to housing.”