Hosted by Dr. Sejal Patel (Director and Associate Professor, School of Early Childhood Studies), and featuring:

Melissa Jean-Baptiste Vajda: Csc Providence, with the creation of the Human Rights and Equity Advisor (HREA) role, has taken significant steps towards building a more equitable and inclusive school community. Since 2021, initiatives have included a review of policies and procedures through an equity and human rights centered lens, a new training plan for staff and ongoing support and expertise offered system wide for addressing equity issues and complaints of racism and discrimination have been offered through the work of the HREA and the Csc Providence Equity Team. Ms. Jean-Baptiste Vajda a Human Rights lawyer, will present on efforts made to promote a human rights-based approach to diversity, equity and inclusion in order to reduce barriers and challenges faced by racialized francophone students in theCatholic education system, and in their region of Ontario, and the strides their board has made to support students, staff, and members of the educational community. 


Micheline Limoges has almost 20 years experience in education.  She began her career at the elementary panel with the Conseil scolaire catholique Providence but has taught at the secondary level, become a principal and is now superintendent of education.  She currently works with an inspired team in the equity and indigenous education portfolios. 

Jacqueline Lawrence is the Equity Advisor for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.   Her priorities include strategizing with system leaders to identify and address systemic barriers that impact accessible, equitable and inclusive learning and working spaces.  She also designs and facilitates experiential learning sessions to transform mindsets and organizational culture.   Jacqueline is the former Policy Advisor on Diversity Management at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) as well as a former Parliamentary Assistant, Speech Writer, Executive Director of the National Women’s Reference Group on Labour Market Issues and Executive Director of the Multicultural Women’s Association.  Her passions include writing, travelling, being a facilitator with the International Black Summit and serving as a co-host and producer of Black on Black, a community public affairs programme aired every Saturday morning on CHUO 89.1 FM.  As a published author, her work has been featured in Jubilation, an anthology celebrating Jamaica's 50th Anniversary, the international bestseller, Pebbles in the Pond (Wave 3), Transforming the World One Person at a Time, the anthology Resilience and Triumph: Immigrant Women Tell Their Stories which captured the first-person stories of 54 racialized immigrant and refugee women across Canada, and most recently, the anthology Light A Fire In Their Hearts: The Truth About Leadership, A Guide for Igniting Engagement Using The Wisdom that Sets Great Leaders Apart.

Neethan Shan (he/him) is currently the Executive Director of Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR) and the Vice Chair of TDSB, representing Scarborough Centre as a Trustee. As the founder of Tamil Heritage Month, he heads the Tamil Heritage Month Council and has been coordinating Tamil Heritage Month activities in Canada for 13 years. He is also the CEO of Tamil Canadian Centre for Civic Action, South Asian Health Alliance and a founding board of director for Tamil Community Centre. Neethan was one of the two first Tamil Canadians to be elected to any public office in 2006. He was the first Tamil Canadian and the first person from a South Asian country to become Toronto City Councillor. He was also the first person of colour and youngest person to become the president of Ontario NDP. He was the youngest Tamil Canadian to be elected to public office. These are amongst the many firsts he has achieved through breaking barriers and paving way for other racialized youth to follow. He is a former Toronto City Councillor. From 2006-2010, he also served as a York Region District School Board Trustee. Neethan Shan began his career as a Youth Outreach Worker in Malvern. Neethan went on to become a manager for youth programs in Malvern, where he developed and implemented over twenty programs in many different schools. He has served as a Math and Science teacher, a college professor, and is the former Executive Director of CanTYD and of the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians. During his ten years as Executive Director of CASSA, Neethan advanced the health equity agenda for South Asian communities, undertook a campaign to make municipalities outside the GTA become more inclusive, spearheaded the campaign to establish anti-racism directorate at the provincial level, and brought over 100 organizations from across Ontario under a solidarity umbrella to advance social and economic justice for all South Asians and all other equity deserving communities. Neethan’s extensive involvement in the social services sector also includes work with Parent Action on Drugs, Malvern Community Coalition, Community Use of Schools Council, and Scarborough Youth Task Force, just to name a few organizations. Neethan Shan has a distinguished human rights advocacy record, receiving many awards including the Race Relations Award from the Urban Alliance for Race Relations and the Vital People Award from the Toronto Community Foundation. As a Toronto City Councillor, Neethan was Toronto’s Youth Equity Champion and Newcomer Advocate.

In this podcast, participants shared their perspectives on equity for BIPOC students. The discussion was guided by the following questions: 

1. What are some promising approaches to enhancing equity for Black students in elementary schools (ages 4-13)?
2. What are some of the challenges that you/your organization has experienced in working to enhance equity for Black students in elementary schools?
3. In your view, what actions can be taken by education stakeholders in enhancing equity?

A transcript for this podcast episode can be found on the 'Podcasts' page of the Educational Equity Symposium website.