Events

Sheryl MacMath is the Director for the School of Education at the University of the Fraser Valley. She has spent over 15 years working with teacher candidates in the areas of planning, assessment, math methods, and social studies methods. Her research interests include decolonizing assessment, helping teachers reduce their math anxiety, teacher education admissions, and social justice in education. Sheryl is also the president for the Canadian Association for Teacher Education, as well as the chair of the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization Committee for the Canadian Society for Studies in Education.

Driven by the economic potential of the Fraser Valley, Alex is the CEO of the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce where she works to ensure the voice of Abbotsford's business community is heard at every level of government.

She brings a decade of combined communications, public relations, and economic development experience.  Previously Alex was a Director with Hill + Knowlton Strategies, one of the world's leading public relations agencies, where she provided strategic advice on corporate reputation, media relations, and crisis communications planning to clients across Canada.

She has also held roles in the municipal economic development space with a focus on sector development in clean technology, agriculture, and ag-tech. Her work has also placed her across the Asia Pacific Region, across various levels of government and industry.

Alex holds an MBA from Simon Fraser University and a BA in political science from the University of British Columbia. She was a fellow in SFU Beedie School’s Social Innovation Lab (RADIUS), recognized by BC Business with the Top 30 Under 30 Award, and a '10 Weston Loran Scholar.

In her spare time, Alex is passionate about food and wine and hosts numerous events and tastings as a WSET certified sommelier (London Wine and Spirits Education Trust). She also serves on the Board of the Fraser Valley Child Development Centre, Tourism Abbotsford, and is proud to call Abbotsford home.

FDNS is a charitable non-profit organization that was established 20 years ago to bring together disability groups in the Fraser Valley to increase employment outcomes and resource sharing for people living with a disability. The society has come from a  grass roots beginning to a provincial and sometimes international expansion throughout it’s history. 

Annette Borrows has been serving on the Focus Disability Network Society board for nearly 20 years. Annette lives in Abbotsford and is an active Rotarian at Langley Central Rotary Club. Annette works as the Provincial Employment Manager for Community Living BC.

Bruce Livingstone is the Economic Development Manager for the City of Abbotsford where his portfolio includes business retention and expansion, business attraction, film and corporate sponsorship.

Bruce is a certified Economic Development professional and holds a BBA with a specialization in entrepreneurship. Prior to working in economic development, Bruce worked in marketing communications for both Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Douglas College. He is a long-time resident of Abbotsford and is excited to be contributing to the growth and development of Abbotsford—the economic and cultural hub of the Fraser Valley.

Kim Laureen is a local filmmaker and one half of Fresh Independence Productions bringing Stories from the Heart. She is writer and director of their award winning documentaries. Believing we each have a gift withinwaiting to shine light on the world, she is led to inspire others to discover their purpose.

Kim is here to share about the newly released documentary ‘Losing Coach Mac’ which celebrates the life and career of educator, coach and mentor Bill MacGregor - whose bucket of time and compassion never emptied for those
around him. He is currently walking his greatest challenge thus far with CTE and Dementia. Our hope is this film will be a solid resource for others navigating a similar diagnosis with their loved one. Together we can make a difference.

losingcoachmac.com

Event Brite Link for Dec 6th Screening Event:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/losing-coach-mac-documentarytickets-
1050221509807

Born and raised in Vancouver, Areni has worked throughout the Lower Mainland, the Okanagan, Edmonton, Calgary and St Albert. For over 2 decades, she has been a leader in a range of sectors including lumber and building materials, the environment, agriculture and food security, gender-based violence and mental health. Her current work in philanthropy and sector capacity building at the Abbotsford Community Foundation, encompasses her passion for strengthening the resiliency of her local community and engaging with diverse community members to make that happen.

Alongside many community foundations across Canada, the Abbotsford Community Foundation (ACF) commissions a Vital Signs report every 2 years. Vital Signs is a data driven report that aims to spark conversation about significant economic and social trends to tell the story of how our community is faring in key quality of life areas. For the first time, we’ve also included a spotlight of Food Security. Why? Because Abbotsford is known as the ‘bread basket of BC’. We have some of the most productive agricultural lands in Canada. And yet, we still have people who go hungry.

We plan to host a discussion about vocational service with club members sharing their occupation and why it is important.

Mirela works at Archway Community Services in the Multicultural department. One of her roles is the Digital Navigator in which she helps permanent residents with digital literacy skills and helps staff facilitate online and hybrid programming. Her other role is the Regional Integration Liaison of the Fraser Valley. This entails building service capacity for settlement service providers serving provincially funded newcomers across the Fraser Valley. The primary role of Archway's Diversity Education Program is promoting cross-cultural understanding and learning with our community.

Abbotsford Restorative Justice and Advocacy Association (ARJAA) has been a part of the fabric of the Abbotsford community for over 20 years. A non-profit organization that engages community conflict outside of the traditional court system, ARJAA is vitally concerned with finding innovative ways to impart restorative values and practices to our community. Actively applying the restorative justice lens of crime viewed as harm done to people and relationships, rather than the breaking of laws, ARJAA strives to repair harm, restore relationships, rebuild trust and, in doing so, transform the community of Abbotsford. In this presentation, Stanley and Taylor will share about the philosophy of restorative justice, their collective experience as facilitators, and the peacebuilding work ARJAA is doing in the community.

Both Taylor and Stanley have extensive experience facilitating restorative justice processes for a diversity of criminal justice matters with Abbotsford Restorative Justice and Advocacy.

Abbotsford Restorative Justice and Advocacy Association (ARJAA) has been a part of the fabric of the Abbotsford community for over 20 years. A non-profit organization that engages community conflict outside of the traditional court system, ARJAA is vitally concerned with finding innovative ways to impart restorative values and practices to our community. ARJAA is a volunteer-driven organization that encourages participation from people who are interested in making a difference in their communities, and especially in the lives of young people. We are always in need of volunteers for our youth mentoring program and restorative justice program.

The first of its kind in British Columbia, the Peace and Reconciliation Centre (PARC), operates out of UFVs Chilliwack campus. The dominant approach of the Centre to date has been to collaborate with stakeholders and to conduct research to facilitate constructive dialogue that supports conflict transformation and reconciliation. The scale of conflict ranges from the nation state to individuals and across a vast breadth of collision sources including but not limited to domestic violence, access to resources, territory, ethnicity, faith, and colonialism. Research and engagement activities that focus on peace and reconciliation are supported, regardless of geographic, social, or temporal context.

Leanne Jarrett, PARC Coordinator, and Alexis Klassen, PARC Research Coordinator, have both been with PARC for a year. They work under director Keith Thor Carlson and are responsible for supervising research projects, supporting student researchers, event planning and administration. Leanne's background is in Event Management and Alexis's is in Anthropology and Peace and Conflict Studies. 

Join us for a compelling presentation on an ambitious new peacebuilding initiative in Myanmar led by the Conflict and Resilience Research Institute Canada (CRRIC), with support from Smartsettle Resolutions Inc. The project builds on a grant from Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and aims to foster Track II diplomacy and long-term stability through innovative tools and collaborative engagement.

Presenting live will be our own Dr. Ernest Thiessen, founder of Smartsettle, with online support from Dr. Kawser Ahmed and David Newman, KC, Rotarians from Winnipeg and key leaders of the project. They’ll introduce the concept of a Myanmar “Mini-Marshall Plan” and share how Smartsettle’s technology is being used to simulate a multi-stakeholder peace negotiation involving ethnic groups, the military, civil society, and the international community.

The Myanmar team is seeking to supplement the GAC funding with a Rotary Global Grant in order to amplify their impact. 

Don’t miss this opportunity to see how Rotary can play a meaningful role in advancing peace through innovation and global collaboration.

Cherry Tam is Regional Manager for the Fraser Valley for the Fraser Basin Council. She originally joined FBC in 2018 as part of the Youth Program and has worked on multiple initiatives over the years for youth (aged 16-30) across the province. She recently transitioned to the Fraser Valley portfolio and is excited to continue working on projects that advance sustainability and bring people with diverse viewpoints together on solutions.

Cherry will be providing a brief overview of the Fraser Basin Council’s work to bring people together to advance sustainability solutions in BC. FBC’s vision is for “Social well-being supported by a vibrant economy and sustained by a healthy environment.” Cherry will also touch on some recent projects that have happened in the Fraser Valley region, including youth initiatives, and would love to have a casual discussion with Rotary members about ideas for collaboration.