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Ashley Bentley is the Manager of the AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC) at the University of British Columbia, located on the unceeded land of the Musqueam peoples. Ashley is an intersectional feminist who recognises her positioning as a cis gendered, white settler from England, and how that impacts her work within the anti-violence field where she has worked for over 6 years. Ashley has worked for various non-profit organisations, with an expertise in trauma, gender studies and mental health. She has a BA in Media and Cultural Studies from Southampton Solent University and is about to start a Master’s degree at Simon Fraser University, studying Equity in Education.

MANAGER AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre University of British Columbia

I am a cis-gender, queer, woman from Wallmapu (Chile) with Quiche/Mapuche/Spanish and German ancestry, pronouns are she/her. During my four years at the University of Victoria, in collaboration with University of Victoria Student Society(UVSS), I have developed multiple prevention campaigns including: 'Let's Get Consensual', #UVICMENAGAINSTRAPE, and our highly successful UVIC Consent video. My work in gender based violence is deeply rooted in decolonizing feminist and restorative community responses. The Anti Violence Project believes that both survivors and people who cause harm should have access to support services, restorative healing and institutionally funded accountability processes. Shifting rape culture to one of consent will require wide and emergent imagination in community building and restorative justice, an opportunity that Post-Secondary Institutions across Canada cannot not afford to miss.

COORDINATOR/DIRECTOR Anti.Violence.Project (AVP) Sexual Assault Centre University of Victoria

Melanie Bowman has been working to end violence against women and children for over a decade. In her current role as the Manager, Wellness Education at the University of Guelph, she oversees the Wellness Education Centre, an on-campus peer-to-peer resource centre for students’ health and wellness needs, and the Student Support Network, a drop-in space that offers students peer-to-peer support. Melanie worked with campus stakeholders and created the University of Guelph’s Sexual Assault Protocol in 2011, and presently chairs the campus committee on Sexual Assault Prevention Education and Awareness. She is currently assisting with the creation of new training modules for staff and faculty to ensure consistent, survivor-centred responses to sexual violence.

MANAGER Wellness Education/Student Wellness Services University of Guelph

Mandi Gray is a PhD student at York University in the Department of Sociology and founding member of Silence is Violence York U. Mandi is a complainant in a potentially precedent setting case  before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. Her case argues that York University systemically discriminates against women following a sexual assault disclosure. Mandi’s research and activism focuses on experientially-led responses to sexual assault, both on and off campus. 

PHD STUDENT, Department of Sociology, York University

Terry Humphreys is a Full Professor in the Department of Psychology at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. His academic/research interests focus broadly on sexual communication in intimate relationships. Specifically, his expertise is in the negotiation of sexual consent in multiple contexts; sexting behaviour in young adults; first sexual experiences (attitude-behavior links); and sexual resourcefulness during unwanted sexual encounters.

Dr. Humphreys is currently President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) and a Past-President (2013) of the Canadian Sex Research Forum (CSRF). He is an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality (CJHS), and a Consulting Editor for the Journal of Sex Research.  Dr. Humphreys is also Chair of the first Canadian conference on Sexual Consent, hosted in partnership with the Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre, in June 2016. He is also a long-standing planning committee member of the Guelph Sexuality Conference (Canada’s largest and longest running annual sexuality conference), and a member of the International Academy of Sex Research (IASR) and the Sex and Information Council of Canada (SIECCAN). He has recently assisted the Ontario government with the new sexuality education curriculum as it pertains to sexual consent and sexting.

PROFESSOR Department of Psychology Trent University

Farrah Khan is a nationally recognized counsellor, educator and artist with over 16 years of experience addressing gender-based violence. She is the Sexual Violence Support and Education Coordinator at Ryerson University, co-chair of the Ontario Roundtable on Violence Against Women and has been appointed to the Government of Canada's Federal Strategy Against Gender-based Violence Advisory Council. She has co-created innovative community-centered initiatives, conducted trainings across North America on gender-based violence and developed a risk assessment/safety planning tool on “honour” related violence and forced marriage. Farrah regularly contributes to national media including the CBC and the Globe and Mail for her expertise in addressing violence against women. For her community work, Farrah is the recipient of the Toronto Community Foundation’s Vital People Award, Canadian Women’s

Foundation Award and the Canadian Council of Muslim Women’s Women Who Inspire Award.

SEXUAL VIOLENCE SUPPORT & EDUCATION COORDINATOR Ryerson University

Sophie Kiwala is the Member of Provincial Parliament for Kingston and the Islands. She currently serves as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Children and Youth Services, as well as to the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. Sophie was previously Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Born and raised in Reddendale, Kingston, she returned to live in the same area upon her late mother’s cancer diagnosis in 1998. She has raised three daughters, Jennifer, Linnaea and Hélène, and has a grandson, George. In addition to her legislative duties, Sophie is a member of the Rural Affairs Caucus, the Francophone Caucus, l’Assemblée Parlementaire de la Francophonie, the Women’s Caucus, the Great Lakes Legislative Caucus and the Lung Health Caucus. Sophie’s first private members’ motion, which called on the Ontario Legislature to support the National Aboriginal Organizations' call on the federal government for a national public inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls was passed unanimously on Oct. 23, 2014. Prior to her political career, Sophie spent seventeen years working in retail management and as an entrepreneur in Toronto. Sophie also spent five years living in Turkey and France, while studying English literature and French at Athabasca University part-time. While in Turkey, she volunteered for an ex-patriot women’s group to raise funds to help build Turkey’s first women’s shelter. Upon returning to Kingston, she worked in residential and commercial renovation, interior design, and rental property ownership. During this time, she studied political science at Queens University. 

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MPP, Kingston and the Islands

Ellie Ade Kur is a PhD student in Human Geography at the University of Toronto. She is a founding member of Silence is Violence at U of T and organized the UofT Feminist Strong series in the fall of 2015. Ellie is an activist, educator and community organizer interested in survivor-driven solutions to sexual violence on campus, working with student and labor organizations to tackle issues of sexual violence through critical equity work. Through her work at the CUPE Ontario convention with labor activists from UofT and York University, Ontario’s largest union passed its first resolution around sexual violence emphasizing prevention, education and survivor-driven responses. Ellie continues this work through feminist organizing and activism on campus, connecting students and academic workers experiencing sexual violence to resources and building a network of support across institutions to bring issues of sexual violence and violence against women to the forefront. 

PhD Student, Human Geography, University of Toronto.

Julie S. Lalonde, MA. is an Ottawa-based feminist activist and women’s advocate. A feminist gerontologist by training, she works with various organizations dedicated to ending sexual violence, engaging bystanders and building communities of support. She has been the project manager of Draw-the-line.ca since 2011. 

In 2014, Julie was named a “Driver of Change” by MTV, won 2013’s “Best Volunteer in a Leading Role” by Volunteer Ottawa and is a recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case. 

PUBLIC EDUCATOR

Dr. Chris Linder is an Assistant Professor of College Student Affairs Administration and an affiliate faculty member of the Institute for Women’s Studies at the University of Georgia.  Prior to becoming faculty, Chris served as the director of a campus-based women’s center for seven years, where a significant portion of her career was dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual violence. Chris’s research centers on creating and maintaining equitable campus environments, with a specific focus on race and gender.  Currently, Chris is engaged in a project with a colleague, Dr. Jessica C. Harris, examining the history and context of sexual violence on college campuses.  Specifically, Drs. Linder and Harris are editing a book, Critical Perspectives on Sexual Violence on Campuses, which centers experiences of minoritized groups in the US, including women of Color, LGB and trans students, and students with disabilities to improve campus-based practices. 

In her recent work, Chris has also examined the role of social media in campus sexual assault activism, and the development of white women attempting to engage in racial justice feminist work.  Additionally, Chris is conducting an ethnographic study about the messages in campus environments, including campus newspapers, about sexual violence.  Chris’s previous work is published in the Journal of College Student Development, the Journal about Women in Higher Education, and Equity & Excellence in Education.

Chris earned a PhD in Higher Education and Student Affairs Leadership of the University of Northern Colorado, and was named an ACPA Emerging Scholar in 2014.  She earned a Master's in Educational Administration with an emphasis in Student Affairs and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska.  

When she is not teaching, researching, or writing, Chris splits her time between her kitchen and the mountains practicing self-care with a new recipe or a good, long run. 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR College Student Affairs Admininsration University of Georgia

Tracy MacCharles was first elected to the Ontario legislature in 2011 as the MPP for Pickering-Scarborough East. She was re-elected in 2014. MacCharles currently serves as Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues, as well as Minister Responsible for Accessibility. She was previously Minister of Children and Youth Services, Minister of Consumer Services and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Children and Youth Services. MacCharles has more than 20 years of experience in human resources management in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. She was Vice-President of Human Resources at Manulife Financial for the Corporate and Information Technology Divisions. In 2004, she established her own Human Resources practice focused on health care, community health, education, employment, human rights, discrimination prevention and business effectiveness. MacCharles is a champion for disability advocacy. She is a former Chair of the Ontario Accessibility Standards Advisory Council and also served on the Durham Board of Education’s Special Education Advisory Committee. She has been an active volunteer in her community and at the provincial level for numerous charities, including the Canadian Cancer Society – Scarborough Unit and the Ontario Division Board, the Big Sisters Association of Ajax-Pickering, the United Way and as Chair of her local School Community Council. MacCharles is also an active volunteer in numerous charities. She received the City of Pickering’s Civic Award and the Volunteer of Distinction Award from Rosebank Road Public School. MacCharles and her husband, Stephen, live in Pickering with their two children, Travis and Geneviève.

MINISTER RESPONSIBLE FOR WOMEN'S ISSUES & MINISTER RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCESSIBILITY, Government of Ontario

Hayley is a queer, cis-gendered woman with English, German and Anishinaabe ancestry, currently living in ‘Hamilton.’ She is employed by the Sexual Assault Centre of Brant, working exclusively at Wilfrid Laurier University with students as a ‘Sexual Violence Counsellor and Advocate.’ Her Western educational background is in Political Science/Indigenous Studies (BA) and Social Justice (MA). She works from an intersectional feminist lens, and has a specific interest in building community connections and decolonizing sexual violence education and support. 

SEXUAL VIOLENCE COUNSELLOR & ADVOCATE, Sexual Assault Centre of Brant

Yamikani is a grassroots feminist anti-violence activists and support worker. She completed her Master’s degree in Women and Gender Studies at Carleton and is currently employed at the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Ottawa as the Public Education Coordinator. Her role at SASC Ottawa has included training, media, guest lecturing and community organizing. She is member of the Executive Board of the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres OCRCC where she chairs Anti-oppression/anti-racism committee. Her feminist activism started at Ottawa Coalition to End Violence against Women, then transitioned to Immigrant Women Services of Ottawa, MATCH International Global Fund for Women and Planned Parenthood Ottawa. 

PUBLIC EDUCATION COORDINATOR, Sexual Assault Support Centre Ottawa

Sam Pearson is the current Education Programme Coordinator at the University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre (UASAC). As an educator, Sam is passionate about community-driven, peer-facilitated models of knowledge-sharing, and the unique possibilities they hold for post-secondary institutions. Over the years she has spent running the UASACs Education Programme, Sam has had the unique opportunity to develop and implement anti-sexual violence educational programming at a time when the National conversation around sexual violence has gone from non-existent to headline-grabbing. Given the current climate, Sam has been on the ground-floor of conversations regarding University policies and procedures around sexual violence and has been working with students, staff, and Faculty in unprecedented ways on the U of A campus.

EDUCATION PROGRAMME COORDINATOR Sexual Assault Centre University of Alberta

Dara Raboy-Picciano's areas of expertise include sexual trauma, sexual assault prevention, bystander intervention and bereavement. In addition, she has been a field instructor and adjunct professor to the Division of Social Work at Binghamton University. Ms. Raboy-Picciano has done extensive training in the area of sexual assault prevention with both staff and students at Binghamton University; having designed and implemented the 20:1 Programs which is a nationally recognized program. Ms. Raboy-Picciano, has presented nationally for the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) in conjunction with the US Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women, as well as NASPA and ACPA. She has presented webinars for both CALCASA and the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Team (DoDSAPR), while collaborating with DoD SAPR from 2013-2104. Ms. Raboy-Picciano was also invited to sit on a professional focus panels on Interpersonal Partner Violence by the New York State Assembly and the NYS Senate. Ms. Raboy-Picciano, and the 20:1 program have been highlighted in both the Chronicle of Higher Education and Academic-Impressions. Ms. Raboy-Picciano, is member of the State University of New York Orientation and Education Committee on Sexual Assault Prevention. She is also on the New York State Team for the Center for Disease Control's Action Planning Committee as part of the White House's Task Force on Sexual Assault Prevention on college campuses.

COORDINATOR/CO-FOUNDER 20:1 Programs Binghamton University

Samina is the Executive Director, Community Safety at York University. She brings over 23 years of experience in justice policy and programs, gender based violence and public education. Her work with the Province of Ontario and the Ontario Women’s Directorate includes leading initiatives under the Action Plan to Stop Sexual Violence and Harassment. She also led the #whowillyouhelp sexual violence public education campaign and the provincial summit on sexual violence.  As a senior administrator in government, she has led transformational strategies and funding programs in community safety, crime prevention, human rights, policing, education and economic development. She has a long standing commitment to equity and inclusion and has worked collaboratively with diverse communities across the province to build policies and programs. She has also worked in community with immigrant settlement programs, newcomer women and youth. In 1995, she was a Canadian NGO representative as part of the UN International Conference on Women. She has a passion for education, innovation and the arts. She has taught at the post-secondary level and she has won public service awards for teamwork and innovation. She holds a MEd in adult education and she is currently a PhD student focused on public education and transformational learning. 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Community Safety, York University

Dr. Charlene Senn is a social psychologist and Professor of Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She has been an activist and advocate on issues related to male violence against women and girls for many years. She is an international expert on effective sexual violence interventions, particularly those developing women’s capacity to resist sexual assault. Her Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) sexual assault resistance education program has been shown to reduce the sexual violence young women experienced in their first two years of university while reducing woman-blaming and self-blame. With her colleague, Dr. Anne Forrest, she has worked since 2010 on another important piece of the campus sexual assault prevention puzzle to institutionalize effective bystander education for men and women on campus and to study its impact in the short and longer term.

PROFESSOR Department of Psychology & Women’s and Gender Studies University of Windsor

Dr. Shaheen Shariff, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and international expert on socio-legal issues relating to sexual violence and online sexual harassment, non-consensual distribution of intimate images and cyberbullying in educational contexts. She is also an Affiliate Scholar with Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society. Professor Shariff directs several research projects through her organization Define the Line at McGill University’s Faculty of Education. She is currently the Project Director developing a multi-sector partnership grant examining policy and practice responses to sexual violence among university students, partnering with the McGill Center for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, ten universities, and fourteen community and corporate organizations. Her unique approach connects professional and community partners; academics; news and social media sectors; and the arts. She is currently working with the Faculty of Dentistry at McGill University to develop and integrate curriculum content and workshops that enhance student social responsibility towards safe learning and professional environments.

Professor Shariff received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award in 2013; and Facebook’s Inaugural Digital Citizenship Award in 2012. She was an invited panelist on cyberhate at the United Nations Headquarters in New York chaired by Secretary General Ban Ki Moon; and an invited member of Quebec Premier Couillard’s task force on cyberintimidation in 2015. She has published five books on cyberbullying, two of which are translated into Portuguese and Italian. She is a regular invited keynote and panelist at international and national conferences and has been an expert witness to the Canadian Senate and House of Commons Committees on legislative amendments and new legislation relating to social media and online communication as they relate to youth protection.

ASSOCIATE PROFFESOR Integrated Studies in Education McGill University

Jean is the Student Wellness Educator at the University of Guelph. Her role sees her working with a large team of students doing health promotion and wellness education across the university campus and beyond. Jean supervises the Sexual Assault Free Environment (SAFE) Team that run numerous campus-wide, peer-to-peer healthy relationship and sexual violence awareness programs. Jean is currently enrolled in a Master of Science in Capacity Development and Extension at the University of Guelph. 

STUDENT WELLNESS EDUCATOR Student Wellness Services University of Guelph