Contributor Biographies

Deirdre Maultsaid (she/her) is a queer, White settler of European and Middle Eastern ancestry and a faculty member of KPU. She has a Bachelor of Communications, a Master of Education and a certificate as a diversity and inclusion influencer with the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion. In addition to being a creative writer with many publications in literary journals and anthologies, she teaches Applied Communications in the Melville School of Business, KPU. She was the 2021 KPU Open Research Fellow conducting research on whether open pedagogy and creating open educational resources with students fosters inclusion and care.

Deirdre Maultsaid (she/her) is a queer, White settler of European and Middle Eastern ancestry and a faculty member of KPU. She has a Bachelor of Communications, a Master of Education and a certificate as a diversity and inclusion influencer with the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion. In addition to being a creative writer with many publications in literary journals and anthologies, she teaches Applied Communications in the Melville School of Business, KPU. She was the 2021 KPU Open Research Fellow conducting research on whether open pedagogy and creating open educational resources with students fosters inclusion and care.

Brianna Doyle (she/her) is a Caribbean/Afro/Canadian student who had completed three years of pre-requisite university healthcare requirements at KPU prior to starting her Bachelor of Science, Nursing at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Brianna has interests in immunology, public health, community health and healthcare education. Having completed global public health internships, volunteer commitments and post-secondary education, Brianna is eager to begin her career as a registered nurse.

Celine Wai Shan Li (she/her) is Belizean-born Chinese person as she was born and raised in Belize City, Belize, and her parents are Chinese. As an international student, she graduated with a BBA in Accounting in addition to an accounting certificate and diploma at KPU. During her time at KPU, she has been volunteering for a variety of events related to business and other fields. In her spare time, she listens to Latin music and Latin pop, plays shooting games, collects playing cards, and runs or walks around the seawall.

Gregory John awohkotsinaa (war chief) (he/him) is a gay, Métis business owner and Indigenous relations advisor. He has spent the last six years of his career as president and CEO of Four Peaks Business Development, an Indigenous economic development and reconciliation consultancy operating in Canada’s energy sector. For the last three years, he has also played double duty in one of Canada’s few Indigenous and LGBTQ2+–owned technology start-ups, where he is president and CEO of Unimaize Technologies Inc. Unimaize is a hospitality and live events–focused technology start-up that launched just six weeks before the pandemic started in January 2020. Gregory’s career spans numerous industries, yet it was the experience gained as an Indigenous relations specialist involved in negotiations around various energy, engineering, procurement, construction, public policy and environmental protection projects in Canada that helped him understand how business works as viewed through his valuable and highly sought-after Indigenous perspective.  

Gursimrat Gill (she/her) is a South Asian 4th-year BBA in Accounting student at KPU. Upon graduation, she is interested in pursuing a Chartered Professional Accountants designation and working in public practice. She has a quiet presence and has seized every opportunity that has come her way during her time at KPU. She has completed multiple co-op terms, facilitated workshops, worked for a small business, took on an orientation leader role, led two KPU clubs, is an essential member of the Accounting Case Competition Team, and is a 2022-23 Greater Vancouver Board of Trades’ Leaders of Tomorrow student member.

Lee Beavington (he/him) is a settler-scholar of European ancestry. He is an award-winning author, learning strategist, and interdisciplinary instructor at KPU and Simon Fraser University, BC. He is currently co-developing a stɑl̓əw̓ (Fraser River) field school, serves on KPU’s Climate+ Challenge Instructor team, and leads Wild Spaces, an interdisciplinary project on place-based outdoor learning in post-secondary education. He also served as co-curator for the Wild Things: The Power of Nature in Our Lives exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver, recipient of the Award of Merit for Excellence in Exhibitions. His research explores land-based pedagogy and environmental ethics.

Lesli Sangha (she/her) is a mature South Asian student with disabilities. As a student author and two-term student leader with the Kwantlen Student Association, Lesli supports and values student-created pedagogy and open education resources. She is a recent graduate from the KPU Legal Administrative Studies Program with distinction and was inspired to pursue a higher credential at KPU. She is determined to ensure mature students and students with disabilities get needed accommodations because there should be no barriers to education and no age limit on education. As a result of her passionate student advocacy towards universal design for learning and equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives, she was conferred numerous KPU awards including the distinguished KPU 2022 JEDI Award and the KPU 2021 Future Alumni award. Alongside her student leadership work, Lesli also advocates for her broader community and is the founder of @BCHealthNews on Twitter, where she shares current medical information with others.

Nikhil Garg (he/him) is an international student of South Asian identity. He graduated with a degree in the Associate of Arts program at Douglas College. During his time at Douglas College, Nikhil was involved in various volunteering activities with the Douglas Student Union in organizing various events with the Douglas International Office by mentoring new international students and helping ease the transition to a new country and environment and also served as an executive of a student club. He also actively volunteers at various cultural festivals to give back to the community.

Richa Kabaria (she/her) is a South Asian student at the Melville School of Business, KPU who is working towards a Bachelor of Accounting with Co-operative Education. Prior to joining KPU, she went to Burnsview Secondary School in Delta, BC, where she was regularly involved in sports and a wide range of volunteering activities. Richa likes to be involved with the KPU community by helping various student run clubs, which has landed her some valuable opportunities and connections that will be helpful in building her career as an accountant in the future.

Sarah Kulewska (she/her) is a White, first-generation Canadian who is currently working towards her Bachelor of Psychology at Douglas College and plans to secure a Master of Social Work shortly after. She has been a volunteer on the telephone lines at the Vancouver Crisis Centre since October 2020 and is also a member of their health and safety committee. Sarah presented preliminary research on a panel in May 2022 at the Canadian Sociological Association’s conference, where she discussed intersectional feminist sociologies in a digital age. She plans to continue her education with an intersectional and multicultural lens to empower and support people from all different backgrounds.

Simrenprit Parmar (he/him) is a 3rd-year South Asian student at KPU working towards a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and hopes to pursue further education in the medical field to help individuals receive quality healthcare services. Prior to joining KPU, he went to North Delta Secondary School, BC, where he was involved in boxing and volunteered as a boxing coach to help give back to the community.

Thalin Htun (she/her) was born in Burma and attained her education in Yangon, the capital, before leaving for Canada in 2021. She studied Political Science at Douglas College, where she was vice president of the Burmese Club and engaged in several volunteer activities with the college as a student mentor, student ambassador, and student leader. There, she also received multiple awards and scholarships. In 2022, she transferred to the University of British Columbia as a 3rd-year undergraduate student majoring in Political Science. There, she is an executive of the International Relations Student Association, where she works as a podcast producer. With her passion for education, academics, and writing, she has coauthored this book with many other students from other educational institutions.

Winfred Athembo (she/her) is a highly motivated processing engineer and farmer. She has a BSc. in Biomechanical and Processing Engineering from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya and was enrolled as an international student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) to pursue a graduate diploma program in Green Business Management and Sustainability. Her main interest is sustainable agriculture to promote food security and feed the world’s rising population. Winfred is an alumnus of the Young African Leaders Initiative, where she pursued a public management track for policy making, design thinking and stakeholder analysis. She later took part in the Women in Engineering Fellowship program, where her team carried out an assignment on how engineering can support sustainable agricultural development. She furthered her leadership abilities by training over 400 participants and collecting signatures to support her campaign for youth engagement in sustainable agriculture through the CANVASSITY Pan-African Democracy Fellowship. Winfred wanted to contribute to open sources for students in Canada so she could add to the diversity of the research and present the views of a female Black African farmer to the Canadian audience.