SPEAKERS
Keith Ahamad – Addiction Physician
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Dr. Keith Ahamad took a leap of faith when, after seven years working as a computer engineer, he listened to his heart’s calling, quit a promising career and started on the long journey towards becoming a physician. Although no one in his family had practiced medicine, he knew he wanted to make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable.
A decade and a half later, Dr. Ahamad is the Physician Lead of the St. Paul’s Hospital Addiction Medicine Consult Service, Clinician Researcher with the Urban Health Research Initiative (UHRI), Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Director of the Addiction Medicine Enhanced Skills Training Program at UBC and Division Lead for Addiction in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Providence Health Care.
He has maintained certification as a Diplomate of the American Board of Addiction Medicine since 2015 and the International Society of Addiction Medicine since 2013. He obtained his MD from UBC in 2010 and completed his residency in Family Medicine at UBC in 2013.
Lotte Davis – One Girl Can
Lotte Davis is the CEO and Co-Founder of AG Hair, the only manufacturer of professional hair care products in Canada, with distribution in over 15,000 salons and beauty stores across North America, Taiwan and Australia. Lotte and her husband John Davis started AG Hair in 1989 in the basement of their North Vancouver home with a $5000 loan. Their hair care line, known for its integrity and meticulous selection of natural ingredients, has grown exponentially over the past 27 years and now employs over 80 people with projected sales of $30M this year.
In addition to building her company into a well-renowned and respected beauty brand, Davis has worked tirelessly to demonstrate that AG Hair cares. Having grown up in the dawn of the apartheid movement in South Africa, she was acutely aware of the legacy of mistreatment and lack of opportunities for women in particular.
In 2008, she began building schools for girls in some of the poorest regions in Africa with funding from AG Hair promotions and AG’s salon partners.
In 2013, she developed her own NGO called One Girl Can expanding the scope of the work she does in Africa to include scholarships for girls to secondary and post secondary schools. She continues to build infrastructure at these schools to create more dynamic learning environments, and now mentors and coaches hundreds of girls each year to help them realize their potential through goal setting and confidence building.
Since 2008, Lotte has raised more than $3.4 million, is building her sixth school in Africa, and has 163 girls on full scholarships in university and secondary school.
Lotte is the 2016 winner of the YWCA Women of Distinction award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Erick Lichte – Artistic Director of Choir Leoni
Erick Lichte has carved out a distinct niche in the vocal music world and concert life in North America. The Washington Post has hailed the “audacity” of his programming, the Chicago Tribune has noted the “meticulous preparation” of his choirs and Fanfare Magazine declared that he created and helmed “the premier men’s vocal ensemble in the United States.”
As a founding member, singer and Artistic Director of the male vocal ensemble Cantus, Lichte created and sustained one of only two full-time vocal ensembles in the United States. From 2000-2009, Lichte’s programming and artistic direction were heard in over 60 concerts a year and he has collaborated with artists such as Bobby McFerrin, the Boston Pops, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Doc Severinsen, Minnesota Orchestra. His work with Cantus garnered the 2009 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, the highest honor for the professional choral organization Chorus America.
As a choral conductor, Lichte has served as conductor for many professional, educational and amateur choral ensembles. In January of 2013, he began his tenure as Artistic Director of Chor Leoni Men’s Choir. Lichte is an active clinician and guest conductor, and is especially passionate in his work to get young men singing. Lichte is a published composer and arranger, especially known for his writing in All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 which has been taken on seven North American tours.
Kim Peacock – Chang Navigator
Kim Peacock is principal of K2 Strategies, a consultancy specializing in change management, stakeholder and media engagement, and crisis and issues management. She also has extensive experience in executive transition, profile building, and team facilitation. Prior to starting her firm in 2015, Kim was general manager of Edelman Canada West, and served as director of global marketing at Hootsuite. She also spent fifteen years working in publishing across every region in Canada, most recently as group publisher for Transcontinental Western Media Group, overseeing their flagship titles, Vancouver magazine and Western Living.
Kim has coached, moderated, and spoken extensively on change management, leadership, and traditional- and digital-communications strategy. In 2015, she was named one of B.C.’s 50 Most Influential Women by B.C. Business magazine. She currently serves as board chair for Emily Carr University, which will move to its new campus in September 2017.
Joseph Dahmen- Soft Architecture
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Joseph Dahmen is an expert on sustainable building technology whose research and design work connects emergent sustainable materials with architectural practice. He runs a transdisciplinary design firm called AFJD with his partner Amber Frid-Jimenez, an artist and Canada Research Chair. He is Assistant Professor of Design and Sustainability Integration at the University of British Columbia School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and 2016/17 Wall Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies. Dahmen co-founded Watershed Materials LLC, a Bay Area developer of sustainable architectural materials currently supported by the National Science Foundation and private equity investment. His projects have been featured in Dwell, Design Boom, Azure, CBC, the Globe and Mail, and elsewhere. Dahmen has a Master of Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Richard Hulbert – Architect, Urban Designer, Photographer
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Rick Hulbert’s Photography is informed by his background as an international award winning Architect, Urban Designer, and Teacher of Photography. He is both an Academician in the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
He served as the Lead Architect for the Overall Development Permit phase of Concord Pacific Place, the mixed use residential development on the North Shore of False Creek. In addition, Rick was the Lead Urban Designer for the two residential neighbourhoods comprising the Coal Harbour community in Vancouver
Rick’s teachings on Urban Photography are highly acclaimed and each year he conducts photographic workshops in Europe and North America. This coming year, Rick will be instructing at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia
In 2015, Rick was honoured to be one of only 2 photographers from North America to be selected to participate in the World Art Games, held in Bratislava, Slovakia
Patrick Lucas – Trails, Mountain Bikes, Reconciliation
As an avid mountain bike enthusiast, Patrick Lucas strongly believes that trails are more than just lines in the dirt. The trails we ride and build tell the story of who we are. An award winning community planner, social entrepreneur, filmmaker, writer and storyteller, Patrick is passionately committed to fostering and supporting authentic reconciliation between Canadians and First Nation. Over the past fifteen years Patrick has had the honour of working along side Indigenous mentors and teachers, bringing communities together, and building relationships based on trust and respect. As the Founder and Director of the Aboriginal Youth Mountain Bike Program, Patrick has assisted numerous communities to develop trails, recreation, and tourism plans leading to enduring social and economic development. His experiences have taken him on a powerful and transformative journey that has taught him what it means to be an ally living on Indigenous lands.
Emelia Symington-Fedy – Writer, Comedian, Radio Host
Emelia Symington Fedy is a writer, performer and radio host who has worked on over twenty new theatre productions across Canada. Emelia is also-artistic director of The Chop Theatre, an international touring and award-winning creation-based theatre company and the creator of tryingtobegood.com, a website dedicated to personal essays and live storytelling that candidly explores the darkness of the human condition. Now, thanks to the success of her blog, Emelia also hosts and produces a twice daily daily Trying to be Good radio show on RoundhouseRadio 98.3 FM and her first book, Trying to be Good; the healing powers of lying, cheating, stealing and drugs is being published 2017.
Emelia has been requested for interviews, speaking gigs and assignments by Huffington Post, Recovering Yogi, Origin Magazine, Westender, The Sunday Edition (CBC Radio), Definitely Not The Opera (CBC Radio), and NXNW (CBC Radio) and TEDX Women.
When she has the time, she tells personal stories and makes documentaries for CBC radio.
Emelia loves her husband, Christie, and their two little boys Arthur and Obidiah.