Koolamalsi!
Meet the Team
Sarah Herr
Matriarch
Sarah is Turtle Clan from the Lenape Tribe who were displaced in what is now called Eelŭnaapéewi Lahkéewiit (Delaware Nation) in southwestern Ontario. She enjoys training and facilitating that builds the capacity of our people and to hear the stories that keep us grounded. Sarah is a Day School Survivor who was raised by her mother and Grandmother, a residential school survivor, and her Great-Grandmother, who spoke only their original language. Sarah is kept grounded by the strong Indigenous women who raised her and her two boys she has the honour of calling her sons.
Sarah has served as an Elected member of Council for her community, Treasurer and board member for the Southern First Nations Secretariat, and Board Member for the Canadian Mental Health Association, Lambton Kent chapter. Sarah has worked with not-for-profits, multiple levels of government and corporations on a wide variety of topics including:
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Mining Initiatives
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Impact Benefit Assessments
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Creation of Indigenous Laws
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Economic and Business Development
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Policing
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Negotiations
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Indigenous Engagement impacting Legislation
Relationship building is the foundation of Sarah’s past experiences and she respectfully acknowledges all the efforts put forth by partners over the years. These relationships have had a profound affect on her work. Anushiik.
Donna
Dick
Operations Manager
Donna was born and raised in the Chatham-Kent area of southwestern Ontario and still calls Chatham home. With a bachelor's degree in business administration, she brings many years of leadership experience to the company and takes care of the behind-the-scenes action of the business. While occasionally jumping in to do research or write reports for projects, she is most often taking care of administrative jobs and providing support to the rest of team. In order to support the team and clients, Donna has completed training in digital marketing, bookkeeping, and Reconciliation Education. She also completed the Indigenous Canada course offered through the University of Alberta.
Xavier Hopkins
Youth Facilitator
Xavier is a member of Elünaapéewi Lahkéewiit (Delaware Nation) in southwestern, Ontario. He graduated Chatham-Kent Secondary School and was the first Indigenous person in the school district to graduate with a french bilingual certification. He has been working hard and has completed several training programs through ILDI (Indigenous Leadership Development Institute Inc.) and is a member of EIYGL (Empowering Indigenous Youth in Governance and Leadership). He is currently working towards certification in engagement and facilitation, as well as project management. Xavier is eager to share the much-needed perspective of today’s youth.
Jenna Chalifoux
Report Writer
Jenna Chalifoux is a writer, teacher, and historian. Her diverse heritage of Métis, Norwegian and Slavic bloodlines has contributed to a love of family, antiquity and storytelling that explores the vital connections between people, culture, land, and memory. She currently resides close to kisiskāciwani-sīpiy, the waterway that has carried her ancestry for millennia.
Jovana milovic
Project Manager
Jovana Milović is a first-generation settler from Serbia, who emigrated to Canada with her family to escape the Balkan Wars in the mid-90's. This move catalyzed her life-long interest in the connection between people and their heritage, identity and lands.
She holds a Master's in Philosophy from the University of Toronto for which she was awarded the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Graduate Scholarship (SSHRC). She has over 10 years' experience in international Project and Programmes Management and loves working on projects that aim to improve the lives of people. As the former Managing Director of an INGO, her experience also extends to cross-cultural stakeholder management and relationship building.
Andrea Reid, phd
Report Writer
Andrea grew up in Calgary, Alberta but feels most at home on the West Coast where she is currently living in Victoria, BC, which is situated on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen peoples. She brings a breadth of facilitation and teaching experience from the academic sector along with a strong interdisciplinary background, having studied and worked in a number of academic disciplines and departments during her time in graduate school. Andrea holds a BA in First Nations Studies from the University of British Columbia, an MA in Cultural Studies from Queen’s University, and a PhD in Kinesiology and Health Studies from Queen’s University. She has worked as an Educational Development Associate, a Writing Consultant, and an English as an Additional Language Specialist, and she has taught and assisted with a number of undergraduate courses over the last seven years. In 2021, she was awarded the Health Studies Award for Excellence in Teaching for her work in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University.
Andrea’s PhD work focused on making connections between the personal and the structural, weaving academic theory with narratives and memories of her own family to investigate how structural relations of privilege and oppression are often lived and felt as individual failures. Her work seeks to provide a recontextualization of individualized feelings of guilt and regret in ways that can open up space for more generative connections and conversations with others.
Rhonda KirknessB.A., RPT, CAPA
Policy Development Manager
Rhonda Kirkness is a proud member of the Fisher River Cree Nation in Manitoba. In 2020 she completed the Certified Aboriginal Professional Administrator (CAPA) program receiving the (CAPA) designation from the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association (AFOA), in 2014 completed the Human Resource Management Diploma Program/Management Certificate at the University of Winnipeg. She attained her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Manitoba in Native Studies in 2005.
She is the former Director of Human Resources for the Southeast Resource Development Council Corporation (SERDC) and was an Executive Assistant for Fisher River Cree Nation assisting the Chief & Council for nearly 10 years in a variety of capacities.
From 2015-2021 she was a member of the Indigenous Learning Centre’s scholarship committee formerly the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association (AFOA) of Canada and for over 10 years has been a Registered Professional Trainer (RPT) Certified Facilitator with the Institute of Professional Management based in Ottawa.
Angie
Perkins
Associate Consultant
Angie Perkins is an Inuk from Nunatsiavut and a 60’s Scoop survivor who works with the United Way East Ontario (UWEO) as a Senior Manager for the Indigenous Employment Initiative in the National Capital Region. She is also a seasonal instructor for the University of Winnipeg in affiliation with Menno Simons College for spring terms of 2021 and 2022 teaching Conflict and Development Issues in Indigenous Communities to cohorts of International Development Studies and Conflict Resolution Studies. Just recently, Angie has also stepped into the realm of entrepreneurship with her own business – Tallimat Consulting, for engagement and consulting services between Indigenous communities and the federal and provincial public service sectors across Canada. Formerly working at the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) as a Senior Policy Advisor and prior leaving the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) as a Stakeholder Engagement Officer for the National Indigenous Research Strategy in Ottawa, ON. Angie has worked over 12 years as a facilitator for various projects and programs in Northern communities and urban centers in Canada. She has earned her Aboriginal Self-Government and Administration diploma from Red River College followed by a 4 yr. Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Studies from the University of Winnipeg and is currently studying a Master’s Diploma program at Carleton University in Indigenous Policy and Administration. She was also the second cohort and class valedictorian for the Indigenous Women in Community Leadership Program at Coady International Institute with affiliation with St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia in 2012. Since graduating university, Angie has worked with the Manitoba Métis Federation and later moved on to the Kivalliq Mine Training Society as the Executive Director in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut. With over twelve years’ experience in the non-profit sector, Angie is experienced in training to employment initiatives for Indigenous communities with various sectors in Indigenous resource industries and community development.
