DEAM IDEA Conference 2023
Disability Employment Awareness Month
gain insight from industry leaders with lived experience
We are pleased to present Nisha Patel as this year’s Keynote Speaker.
Nisha is an award-winning queer and disabled spoken word artist. She was the City of Edmonton’s 8th Poet Laureate and is a Canadian Individual Slam Champion. You can find her @anothernisha.
Contact her at : nisha.17.patel@gmail.com
Our Keynote speaker is sponsored by MEG Energy.
Leading the event as emcee is Edmonton’s own Carly Neis
Presenting Brooke Leifso as a panelist.
Brooke Leifso, MA is a Disabled/Crip applied researcher and social change facilitator. She brings many levels of lived experience to the NorQuest College Workplace Accessibility research chair position and uses an intersectional disability justice social model approach in her work.
She has lived experience of disability and disability advocacy, facilitating support groups for parents with disabilities (at Gateway Association), and adults with developmental disabilities to self-advocate and build community (Self Advocate Federation) and has worked for many years as a front-line Child and Youthcare Counsellor.
Presenting Alexis Hilliard as panelist.
Alexis is a queer and disabled YouTube Creator and self-taught entrepreneur. Born without her left hand, Alexis uses her stump as a kitchen tool – from spatula to juicer – while expanding the vocabulary of what's possible in the kitchen each week on her YouTube show ‘Stump Kitchen.’ She has turned this brand into a platform to speak on – and celebrate – body diversity, and the amazing, unique ways we move through the world.
Alexis is the first Canadian Ambassador to the Lucky Fin Project, and holds a Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada for her work. She challenge society’s preconceived notions around disability by ‘disarming’ her audience with wit and charm (and sometimes, delicious stump-approved recipes)!
Presenting Brad Bartko as a panelist.
Brad Bartko is on a mission to create a barrier free world, so that the people after him will experience a more inclusive world. Brad has lived his life in a world that is not built for him. From the day he was born, he has faced many challenges and obstacles that some could never imagine as an individual with cerebral palsy and in a wheelchair, full time.
His goal is that through his story, you will find hope, inspiration, and become acutely aware of the struggles that the disability community faces daily. He foresees change to be a community initiative and not an individual one.
Contact Brad: disability.abd@gmail.com
Presenting Angela Symon as a Breakout Room host.
Angela first identified as a person with a disability when she had her first stroke, which happened when she was a youth. While it left her with a different brain than she had before, she also managed to adapt to the change. Her current career as a Unit Clerk for Alberta Health Services is not where she predicted her life would lead her to.
With her heart set on a completely different career than she has now, Angela Symon will lead the discussion group around what motivated her to make the choices she did. Although working for Alberta Health Services for over 15 years, it is not the place she would dream it to be. Come learn about what does motivate her, see why she stayed so long, and what her future holds.
Breakout Rooms are sponsored by EmployAbilities Alberta.
Presenting Lionel Migrino as a Breakout Room host.
Lionel's breakout session will explore the intersectionality between race and disability with an emphasis on the importance of anti-racism in disability justice.
As a Filipino Canadian with cerebral palsy, Lionel cannot hide his visible identities. He wants to bring this issue to the forefront and look into disabilities through an anti-racism and decolonization lens.
Lionel Migrino is a proven community leader and inclusion facilitator. He graduated with a Bachelor of Management degree from the University of Lethbridge, majoring in Human Resources and Labour Relations. Lionel works at Pembina Pipeline, supporting Peoples Programs and accessibility initiatives.
Breakout Rooms are sponsored by EmployAbilities Alberta.
Presenting Samantha Bonwick as a Breakout Room host.
Samantha will speak on her relationship with the word: Inclusion and how her perspective has shifted and changed as she has moved from one season of life to another; from elementary school, to college, and into the professional workforce.
Samantha is a mother, a wife, an author, and a career oriented person who strives to teach people that their disabilities don’t have to limit or define them. Living with Ataxia, along with other disabilities, her whole life has inspired Samantha to embrace the phrase “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” , and she now teaches others how to squeeze the good out of sour and unfriendly situations. She does this by sharing her struggles adulting while having disabilities on social media and through public speaking. She was 3rd in the Toastmasters International Inspirational Speech contest in 2023, and received Rookie of the Year in her home Toastmasters Club “Dynamically Speaking".
Breakout Rooms are sponsored by EmployAbilities Alberta.
Register Today
Date and time
Date and time
Delta Hotels by Marriott Edmonton South Conference Centre
4404 Gateway Boulevard Northwest Edmonton, AB T6H 5C2
Cost
- Business owners/ professionals - $125
- Self-advocates - Pay what you can ($35 suggested price)
Registration deadline is October 23rd, 2023.
