August 26 – August 29, 2021
A virtual case competition targeted towards inspiring all BIPOC youth (placing an emphasis on Black, Indigenous, and South Asian youth in particular) to participate equally in spheres of influence and decision-making.
Alicia is a Sustainability and Social Impact Consultant based in Toronto and a fierce advocate of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the Partnerships and Standards Lead at theCommon Approach to Impact Measurement, Alicia leads the development and adoption of the Common Approach’s four flexible standards for impact measurement. She also serves as Director of Programming for Leading Change Canada, an organization focused on activating youth sustainability leadership for the transition to a low carbon economy within a generation. A dual citizen since birth, of Canada and Trinidad and Tobago, Alicia holds a Master in Environmental Studies, Planning Concentration, and a BA in Economics and Social Science (Honours), both from York University
Manvir Bhangu (she/her) is a gender equity advocate, researcher and community mobilizer. Manvir is the Founder of Laadliyan, Celebrating & Empowering Daughters, a nonprofit organization that inspiresSouth Asian daughters of all ages to become empowered individuals through education, engagement and awareness. Manvir also works as Manager of Health Programs at Punjabi Community Health Services, where she oversees the Mental Health, Addictions and Geriatrics departments. In 2018, Manvir was honoured with Brampton’s Top 40 Under 40 award by the Brampton Board of Trade. She has been involved in various qualitative community-based research projects with The Wellesley Institute, Region of Peel, United Way of Peel Region and St. Michael's Hospital. She has a BA in Human Rights & Human Diversity and Criminology from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Masters from McMaster University in Globalization and the Human Condition.
Sabrina is a climate justice advocate, researcher, and consultant residing on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours in International Development Studies with a Minor in Political Science from Dalhousie University. As a bisexual woman with mixed Mexican and European descent, intersectionality is an important focus in her research, work and advocacy. Sabrina is passionate about an equitable and green recovery from COVID-19, and a just transition to a low carbon economy. Sabrina is the author of the report Build Back Better: Expanding Green Jobs for Youth Post-Pandemic, with which she is advocating for more inclusive and diverse federal green job programs for young people.
Nemoy Lewis is an Assistant Professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at ‘X’ University. He received his Ph.D. in Human Geography from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.Nemoy earned both his undergraduate and master’s degrees in Geography at the University of Toronto.For his doctoral research, Nemoy analyzed the ongoing foreclosure crisis in the United States and its effects on Black people and low-income communities in Chicago, Illinois and in Jacksonville, Florida. Nemoy’s research explores how space is racialized by examining the co-production of racialization andfinancialization in North American urban housing markets, and the growing affordability problems impacting Black renters. His current research investigates a relatively new type of financialized landlord – primarily private equity, asset management firms and REITs – and their impacts on the physical infrastructures and urban social geography of disenfranchised communities.
Mariba is pursuing her PhD through the department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. Her research examines pressing issues within institutions of higher education, and it examines how racialized, classed and gendered processes are profoundly spatialized ones. In particular, she is interested in the history and expansion of equity, diversity and social inclusion initiatives and the persistence of anti-Blackness on campus. The abundance and depth of Black energy, that has given way to a multitude of interventions and has highlighted the importance of Black placemaking on Canadian campuses, informs her methods of inquiry.
Amrita (she/her) is a social researcher, a creative educator, and an equity & inclusion strategist. Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto in the Department of Geography and Planning with Collaborative Specializations in Global Health and South Asian Studies. The founder and creator of Shades of Brown Girl, a global movement of brown women storytellers, and the research & partnerships manager at Voice of Purpose Education. Amrita is passionate about community arts education and constantly strives to use participatory, community-engaged, and arts-based learning tools, strategies, and methodologies in her work. Her scholarship, industry expertise, and creative work focus on issues of gender justice, global migration, and community health & wellbeing both in Canada and internationally. Specifically, her doctoral work engages with the everyday experiences of reproductive agency and movements for reproductive justice among Punjabi women in Canada. Amrita holds 14 years of experience working with Canada’s non-profit sector, including 4 years leading equity, and inclusion capacity building within the human services sector in Peel Region, Ontario. You can usually find Amrita reading while drinking a warm cup of chai, dancing to upbeat music, or writing in her notebook with her cat Rajah sitting by her side.
A Grenadian migrant to these Indigenous territories, Kimalee moves through this world as a secret poet and holder of space. She is an experienced social justice and organizational learning consultant and capacity builder; a facilitator, writer, educator and researcher. Her work is deeply grounded in, and informed by Black queer feminist thought and practice. For almost 5 years, she worked at the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) where she focused on feminist movement building and support and organizing the international feminist Forum. She served on the Black Feminisms Forum Working Group that led to the first Black Feminisms Forum in Bahia, Brazil in 2016. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Human Rights and Law and her Master’s degree in Legal Studies at Carleton University. She currently sits on the Board of Trustees with the Groundswell Community Justice Trust Fund and organizes with the Caribbean Solidarity Network. She works as a Human Rights Representative with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
