Registration will open in February. For individuals living outside of Canada, be sure to have a valid passport!
Keynote Speakers
Dr. Melanie Goodchild, Anishinaabe (Ojibway), moose clan, is a design and innovation strategist with over 30 years’ experience working with First Nations communities. Her practice has transitioned from applied sociology to Anishinaabe, decolonial and participatory approaches to better understand how to tackle complex systems challenges.
With a Ph.D. in Social and Ecological Sustainability from the University of Waterloo, she has worked on transformative systems initiatives with other practitioners and scholars around the world. Melanie is a contributing faculty member with the Presencing Institute at MIT and the Wolf Willow Institute for Systems Learning. She is passionate about utilizing complexity-aware tools together with Anishinaabe gikendaasowin (our original ways of knowing) to support innovation at scale.
She is a Systems Changer in Residence with the Canadian Association of Science Centres (CASC); the Academic Director of Makwa Waakaa’igan at Algoma University; and a research associate at NORDIK Institute. Melanie is a certified 3 Horizons facilitator and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change. She is currently an advisor to the Edge Finance Accelerator at Solvable; a member of the Measuring Systems Practice Development Group with the Social Impact Exchange in New York City; a Systems Coach with the Center for Care Innovations in California; and she serves as a member of Policy Horizons Canada’s Deputy Minister Steering Committee.
Melanie holds an MA and HBA in Sociology from Lakehead University and she was a university finalist for the Alumni Gold Medal at the doctoral level in the Faculty of Environment, 2023 recipient. She is an alumna of the International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation’s Fellows Program (2015/16) sponsored by Harvard Business School and INSEAD.
Dr. Goodchild is from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, Aroland, Couchiching and Ketegaunseebee First Nations and she resides in Baawaating with her family.
Dr. Linda Williams, a class teacher for over 25 years, graduated her last group of students from Detroit Waldorf School in 2022. She received her M.A. in Waldorf Teacher Education in 1987 from the Waldorf Institute of Mercy College and her doctorate in literacy education from Michigan State University in 2006. Besides Detroit Waldorf, she also taught for three years at the Urban Waldorf School in Milwaukee, the first public Waldorf school in the United States.
Linda served eight years as an associate professor of literacy in the Department of Teacher Education at Eastern Michigan University before returning to the Waldorf classroom in 2014. Currently, Dr. Williams serves on the Pedagogical Section Council, the International Forum, on the boards of AWSNA and Detroit Waldorf School, and is a co-founding member of Alma Partners.
Stephen Keith Sagarin, PhD, is Associate Professor and Director of the Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program at Sunbridge Institute, NY. He is also director, co-founder, and teacher at Berkshire Waldorf High School in Stockbridge, MA.
Dr. Sagarin taught history of education at Teachers College, NY, and human development at the City University of New York. He is the author of How the Future Can Save Us: Fresh Perspectives on Waldorf Education and The Story of Waldorf Education in the United States: Past, Present, and Future. Dr. Sagarin is the former editor of the Research Bulletin of the Research Institute for Waldorf Education. His blog "What is Education?" may be found at ssagarin.blogspot.com.
Dr. Sagarin has a PhD in history from Columbia University and a BA in art history and fine art from Princeton University.
Author, educator and griot Djeliba Baba the Storyteller will weave together the themes and moods of the conference through storytelling and call-and-response singing brought in the West African griot tradition.
Baba the Storyteller has been a global touring artist, educator, and professional speaker for more than 30 years and is one of the few recognized U.S.-born practitioners of the ancient West African Oral Historian’s craft known as Jaliyaa. He has received numerous awards over the years for his work as a folklorist, musician, storyteller, and community activist.
Baba has presented in thousands of schools and other institutions all across the world. He is also a recipient of a California State Assembly Certificate of Recognition for his creative uses of storytelling and his commitment to the community in working with young people. The City of Long Beach California recognized him as their municipality’s Artist of the Year, an award presented to him by the Mayor. He has also earned additional commendations from both the U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress.
Currently, Baba tours internationally as a cultural educator, sharing his unique style of griot work with schools, NGOs, and public/private institutions.
