Dr. Wenona Hall

Dr. Wenona Hall is Stó:lō and a member of the Sq’ewqéyl First Nation and the Ts’elxwéyeqw Tribe. She is an Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University and the current Chair of the Indigenous Studies Department. Dr. Hall’s research interests are in Indigenous Justice, Indigenous Governance, Processes of Decolonization and Indigenous Resurgence. Dr. Hall carries the ancestral name Ts’qwelemót and the gifted name Qwi:qwelstom and is the mother of three young adults Jade, Justice and Alexis Victor.

Jonathan Boron

Jonathan is a mixed Haudenosaunee (Cayuga) and European (Irish, Polish, German) scholar from Six Nations of the Grand River. He is an Instructor and PhD Candidate at Simon Fraser University’s School of Resource and Environmental Management. Jonathan’s current PhD research explores pathways to Indigenous self-determination in environmental governance through challenging settler-colonialism with self-determination in economic reconciliation; UNDRIP implementation and Indigenous participation in natural resource policy regimes; and through Indigenous resurgence and place-based, community decision-making processes.

Dr. Michelle Pidgeon

Michelle (Mi’kmaq ancestry) is an Associate professor in the Faculty of Education. She is currently the Co-Chair, Indigenous Education Reconciliation Council, Faculty of Education and Director, Centre for the Study of Educational Leadership & Policy. Her research agenda is located within the areas of higher education and Indigeneity. In particular, she is interested in the intersections between student affairs and services, recruitment and retention, Indigenous peoples, and student success in post-secondary education. She is also  passionate about expanding understanding of Indigenous research processes and ethical protocols. Theoretically, her work is influenced by Indigenous theory, social reproduction theory, and retention theories. Her research agenda with the goal of empowering Indigenous success focuses on university and college responsibility and accountability to Indigenous higher education from policy to practice. SAGE is an initiative that is close to Michelle’s passions, as she was the first provincial coordinator of SAGE  when it was established in 2003/04 while she was a doctoral student at UBC. Michelle has continued to support SAGE in her role as faculty mentor since joining the Faculty of Education at SFU in 2008.

Dr. Amy Parent

Amy (Nisga'a Nation) holds a Masters and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of British Columbia (UBC). Her doctoral work inspired her to work with Aboriginal youth, communities, and research-intensive universities across British Columbia in order to identify proactive ways to transform Indigenous students’ transition to higher education. Much of her research is conducted in partnership with community organizations where she seeks to build reciprocal relations between the university and Aboriginal communities.

Her postdoctoral work investigated Indigenous doctoral programming, supports and initiatives at 100 Tier one universities around the world. Research and Teaching Interests include: Aboriginal high school to university transitions; Aboriginal undergraduate to graduate transitions; Indigenous knowledge systems and methodologies; Aboriginal youth studies; Indigenous doctoral programming; and integrating Indigenous content into teacher education.

Dr. Deanna Reder

Deanna Reder (Cree-Métis) is Associate Professor in the Departments of First Nations Studies and English at Simon Fraser University, where she teaches courses in Indigenous popular fiction and Canadian Indigenous literatures, especially autobiography. She is Principal Investigator, in partnership with co-applicants Dr. Margery Fee and Cherokee scholar Dr. Daniel Heath Justice of the University of British Columbia, on a five-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded project for 2015-2020 called "The People and the Text: Indigenous Writing in Northern North America up to 1992." See www.thepeopleandthetext.ca. She is a founding member of the Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA) and served on the ILSA council from 2015-2018 (see indigenousliterarystudies.org); currently she is co-chair, with Dr. Sam McKegney from Queen’s University, of the Indigenous Voices Awards. (see indigenousvoicesawards.org) She also is the Series Editor for the Indigenous Studies Series at Wilfrid Laurier University Press.