Leah Gazan holds a M.Ed degree and teaches in the Faculty of Education at the University of Winnipeg. She has considerable experience in program creation and management, and governance structure development. Leah has worked with First Nations communities in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, is dedicated towards delivering programs and services to the inner city and rural Indigenous Communities, and is also active in a number of organizations and programs that promote social justice, including the Idle No More Movement.

Ian Mauro
Dr. Ian Mauro comes to UWinnipeg via Mount Allison University where he held a Canada Research Chair in Human Dimensions of Environmental Change. Mauro is a pioneer of multi-media methodologies, scholarship and education. His interdisciplinary work weaves the social and ecological sciences together recognizing the important synergies between scientific and indigenous knowledge. Originally from Winnipeg, Mauro is returning home to be the newest addition to UWinnipeg’s geography department. His ongoing research in the Arctic, Atlantic and Prairie regions of Canada endeavours to help us better listen to the language of the land, and offers strategies for healthy human interaction with the biosphere. Mauro is known to use participatory video to collect digital stories to help communicate and conserve local and indigenous knowledge. This allows people who live on the land to tell their own stories, in their own language, and within the landscapes where their knowledge has been generated. He was awarded an “Apple Distinguished Educator” award for his approach in 2011.

Dr. Lingle’s research focuses on the evolution of prey defenses as it affects their biology, psychology, and ecology. A focal point in her research is animal cooperation witnessed predominantly in defense against a predatory threat. Most of Dr. Lingle’s work has been conducted on the prairie grasslands of western Canada. The prairies possess one of the largest proportions of at-risk plants and animals of any ecosystem in North America. Dr. Lingle uses an understanding of prey behaviour, seasonal vulnerability, and unintentional provisioning of predators through human activities to identify the reasons that prey on the prairie are at particular risk. She collaborates with others to increase awareness of the plight of the prairie and to address the problems that currently face many prey species living on the prairie.

Dr. Danny Blair’s research interests and activities are largely concerned with the detection and characterization of climate variability and change on the Canadian prairies. He is interested in the effects that large-scale teleconnections (i.e., ENSO, PNA, PDO, AO) have on the prairie climate and is very concerned about the impacts that global warming is having, and will have, on the region.   He is a professor in the Department of Geography at The University of Winnipeg and was named the PARC-Manitoba Hydro Climate Change Research Professor in 2004. Most recently, he became the Director of the Climate Studies Institute at The University of Winnipeg’s Global College. Blair is also an adjunct professor at the University of Manitoba, Co-Chair of Manitoba’s Climate Change Connection, and a frequent contributor to newspaper, radio, and television stories about climate variability and global warming.

As director of the Moral Psychology Lab in The University of Winnipeg’s Faculty of Arts, Assistant Professor Dr. Jeremy Frimer says the goal of much of his research is to better understand why people squabble, and “how to get people to cooperate”. Working with psychology honours and graduate students, Frimer investigates the psychological processes driving conflict and cooperation Frimer began working at The University of Winnipeg in the summer of 2012, after researching as a Postdoctoral Fellow at UBC, where he had earned his BASc, MA and PhD. Drawn to work in moral psychology because he loves to challenge important social issues, Frimer says “I’m motivated to do something that fascinates me, to solve the issues our generation faces.” He is currently accepting honours thesis student applications for 2014-2015.

Harsha Walia is a social justice activist and journalist who is best known for co-founding the Vancouver chapter of No One Is Illegal. Walia's writings have appeared in over fifty journals, anthologies, and magazines, including Briarpatch, Canadian Dimension, Feministing, FUSE Magazine, Left Turn, People of Color Organize, Rabble, Z Magazine, The Winter We Danced, and others. She has contributed essays to academic journals including Race and Class, as well as chapters in the anthologies Power of Youth: Youth and community-led activism in Canada; Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution; and Organize! Building from the Local for Global Justice. She is the author of the bookUndoing Border Imperialism, which indigenous rights activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz has called, "the first extended work on immigration that refuses to make First Nationssovereignty invisible." Walia has made a number of presentations to the United Nations on social and economic justice issues and is a commentator and speaker at conferences, campuses, and media outlets across North America. Most recently, Walia has organized protests against the non-consensual filming of undocumented immigrants being arrested on the television show Border Security: Canada's Front Line. Walia asserted that National Geographic, the distributor of the show, was profiting from “the violence of detention and deportation.” Award-winning author Naomi Klein has called Walia “one of Canada’s most brilliant and effective political organizers.”

Claudyne Chevrier completed a Bachelor in Anthropology at Université de Montréal (2008) and a Masters in Community Health (2012) in the Social and Preventive Medicine Department of the same university. Her  specific  interests  lie  in  the  interactions  between  social  determinants  of  health and  social inequalities  and  the  accessibility  to  quality  health  care, particularly in relations to gender inequalities. For her Masters thesis, she completed 4 months of field work in Mysore, India, in a sex workers organization focusing on the HIV/AIDS-related care and support services that they organize for their members. Her Ph.D project focuses on the history of intervientions around the sex trade in Winnipeg, and on access to health care for sex trade workers. Claudyne is a Manitoba Health Research Council Graduate Fellow and a trainee in the CIHR International Infectious Disease and Global Health Training Program. 

Hessam Hosseini
I'm a fourth year biochemisty student at the University of Winnipeg. I am also currently a reseach assistant within the department of chemistry. I have a stong interests science, business, and public relations. I believe inovation and great ideas are how we can create a better wold of tomorrow. For this reason I am delighted to be a part of the University of Winnipeg TEDx team. My responisbilites are to find and manage the generous sponsors for this great event.

Hazim Ismail
Psychology major. Background in Business. Malaysian immigrant in Canada. Loves TEDx because TED takes empirically founded conclusions, rinses off the jargon, and presents it to the general populace in an accessible impactful way-a way that invites everyday people to initiate positive change in their own lives and their own communities.

Bilguundari Enkhtugs
Hi. My name is Bilguundari. I am a second-year student at the University of Winnipeg, majoring in Criminal Justice and Psychology. I find TED talks, as well as TEDx events’ talks interesting and informative because they help me to broaden knowledge of different fields of studies, ranging from sciences to humanities. As a member of an organizing team, I am responsible to provide legal assistance, regarding rules and policies that we shall follow in order to organize our remarkable TEDxUniversityofWinnipeg event.

Yulia Burakova
Hello! My name is Yulia Burakova , but I go by Julia. I was born and raised in western Siberia , Russia. In 2007 I moved to Canada to pursue higher education. I graduated from The university of Winnipeg in 2012 and since then I have been working at the English language program at The UW. My passions are PEOPLE, TRAVEL AND PHILOSOPHY. In this great event , TEDx university of Winnipeg, I am taking up a role in hospitality.

Nina Paramonov
UX/UI and graphic designer who desires to learn and experience everything related to design. I'm interested in vectors, pixels, illustrations and motion design. I love French films, dogs, lychee, travel, east part of the world, advertisements, reading books and photography. All of these inspire me in my designs. I truly love going through the fascinating processes and get amazing results. Besides my interests in design world, one more fact about me is that I'm a newcomer in Canada. I was born in Ukraine, then moved to Israel and half of my life lived there. Also, I graduated from the university 7 years ago. Since then I have been working, living and breathing by the amazing sphere of design. Be part of an organization of TedX it is tremendous opportunity and great honor for me. What could be better than spreading ideas but making it even visual.

Tim Ireland
I am a 3rd year university of winnipeg student getting my degree in exercise science. After my degree I plan on going into sports medicine or physiotherapy. I am also a TED talk enthusiast and always take advantage of every opportunity to listen to any new and creative ideas or perspective people have to share. I spend a lot of my free time playing various sports and volunteering for organizations such as special olympics and NBC basketball camps/tours.

Oladele Ojewole: Publicity & Social Media Coordinator
Oladele is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Winnipeg and majoring in Applied Computer Science. TED talks inspire him because it promotes the spread of free knowledge while engaging all viewers to a new perspective outside of the established mainstream thinking. Oladele is incredibly excited to be a part of the 2015 TEDx Uwinnipeg conference and hope it will be of benefits to other numerous students on campus.

Chris Johnson
Hey! I'm Chris, and I am thrilled to be part of this amazing tedXperience. I am a 25 year old Computer Science major who enjoys swimming, cycling, and reading, and tinkering with the back-end of web frameworks :) My goal as part of our team is to develop a secure website that is functional across Chrome, Firefox, iPhone, Android, Opera, & other browsers, providing interactivity that will leave you thirsting for our TEDx talk this September. I am also broadcasting our TEDx talk LIVE so those without tickets can see the exciting discussion as it happens. Please join me in my utmost excitement for our very own TEDx talk! Chris

Brianne
Brianne is responsible for the Hospitality aspects of TEDx University of Winnipeg. She is a graduate of the Human Rights and Global Studies and Conflict Resolution Studies programs at the University of Winnipeg Global College and Menno Simons College. Brianne believes that TED talks and TEDx independent events have the power to make higher education more accessible and opens up a diverse breadth of knowledge to the larger community. They can push boundaries and challenge people’s misconceptions and understanding of the world around them, often from the comfort of their own home.

Wei Li
My name is Wei Li, and I am a business administration student of University of Winnipeg. I like to be part of Tedx group because I think this is a good opportunity to earn the experience of team work, organizing event, and marketing the group. I am a student director from University of Winnipeg Student Association, and I have experience to coordinate with different groups in campus. Also, I like to involve with student events, and bring more benefits for all students at University of Winnipeg. I am reliable, confident and hard working person. I believe myself will be a great credential to Tedx group.