Kay Armatage, moderator

Kay Armatage is a Professor of Women’s Studies and Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto, and cross-appointed to the Cinema Studies Institute, Innis College, and The Women and Gender Studies Institute. Read her full bio here.

Jennifer Baichwal, workshop panelist and Master Class presenter

Jennifer Baichwal is one of the co-founders of Mercury Films Inc., and has been directing and producing award-winning documentaries for 14 years. Read her full bio here.

Alison Beale, workshop moderator and panelist

Alison Beale is the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology, Simon Fraser University and the Director of the School of Communications. Read her full bio here.

Norm Bolen, workshop panelist

Norm Bolen is the President and CEO of the  Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) based in Ottawa, ON.  Before joining the CMPA Norm was the former Executive Vice President, Content, for Alliance Atlantis Communications.  Read his full bio here.

Karen Boyle, workshop panelist

Dr Karen Boyle is a Lecturer in Film & Television Studies at the University of Glasgow (since 2002). She is the author of Media and Violence: Gendering the Debates and of a number of articles dealing with feminism, sexuality, film, television and violence.Read her full bio here.

Elizabeth Churchill, workshop panelist

Dr. Elizabeth Churchill is a Principal Research Scientist and manager of the Internet Experiences group at Yahoo! Research. Read her full bio here.

Dana Claxton, moderator

Dana Claxton formerly held the Ruth Wynn Woodward Endowed Chair in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University, and is an Assistant Professor in Art History, Visual Art and Theory at UBC. Read her full bio here.

Barri Cohen, workshop panelist

Barri Cohen is an award-winning writer, filmmaker and television producer.  Read her full bio here.

Mia Consalvo, workshop panelist

Mia Consalvo is Visiting Associate Professor in the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT and one of North America’s foremost scholars on video games. Read her full bio here.

Marie-Hélène Cousineau, workshop & Master Class panelist

In 1991, Marie-Hélène Cousineau formed the collective Arnait Ikajurtigiit (Women’s Video Workshop), and is its coordinator/trainer as well as an active collaborating producer. Read her full bio here.

Valerie Creighton, panelist

Valerie Creighton has over thirty years of experience in leading cultural organizations. Since joining the Canadian Media Fund in 2006 as President and CEO, Ms. Creighton’s focus has been to position the CMF as a responsive and effective organization with funders, clients, and other stakeholders, to enhance relationships with national and international interests, and to support and promote Canadian media content. Read her full bio here.

Rita Deverell, keynote panelist and moderator

Rita Deverell is a producer, playwright, host, and performer, journalist, and scholar. She is the current occupant of Nancy’s Chair in Women’s Studies at Mount St. Vincent University. Read her full bio here.

Sara Diamond, plenary panelist and moderator

Sara Diamond is the President of the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), Canada’s “university of the imagination”. She holds a PhD in Computer Science and degrees in new media theory and practice, social history and communications from the United Kingdom and Canada. Read her full bio here.

Zoe Druick, plenary panelist

Zoé Druick is Associate Professor in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, and is currently the Undergraduate Chair. Her work focuses on the interrelationship of documentary film and educational media with discourses and practices of democracy.  Read her full bio here.

Tracey Friesen, moderator

Tracey Friesen is the executive producer at the National Film Board’s Pacific & Yukon Centre, which recently relocated to the landmark Woodward’s district. Read her full bio here.

Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch, moderator

Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch is the C.E.O. of Silicon Sisters Interactive, Canada’s first female focused game studio building games for women and girls.  Read her full bio here.

Rosalind Gill, plenary speaker

Dr. Rosalind Gill is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at the Centre for Culture, Media & Creative Industries at King’s College London. Her work focuses on gender, media, the cultural industries and new technologies as well discourse and narrative analysis, and visual methods.  Read her full bio here.

Sylvia Hamilton, workshop panelist

Sylvia D. Hamilton is a multi-award winning Nova Scotian filmmaker and writer, well-known for her documentary films as well as her publications, public presentations and extensive volunteer work with artistic, social and cultural organizations on the local and national levels.  Read her full bio here.

Alexandra Juhasz, plenary speaker

Dr. Alexandra Juhasz is Professor of Media Studies at Pitzer College in Claremont CA. She makes and studies committed media practices that contribute to political change and individual and community growth.  Read her full bio here.

Elizabeth Klinck, master class presenter

Elizabeth Klinck has worked as producer, researcher and clearance specialist on numerous award-winning Canadian, American and British documentary films that have garnered Emmy, Gemini, Peabody and Academy awards. Read her full bio here.

Caroline Langill, workshop panelist

Caroline Seck Langill is a writer, artist, and independent curator who occupies the dual positions of Associate Dean in the Faculty of Art and Interim Chair of the Digital Futures Initiative at OCAD University in Toronto. Read her full bio here.

Brenda Longfellow, plenary panelist

Brenda Longfellow is an Associate Professor of Film Studies and Production, in the Department of Film at York University. Dr. Longfellow is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and film theorist. Read her full bio here.

Trina McQueen, keynote panelist

Trina McQueen is Adjunct Professor in the Arts and Media Department of Schulich School of Business, York University. She has been President and COO of CTV Inc., founding President of the Discovery Channel, and head of News, Current Affairs and Newsworld for CBC. Read her full bio here.

Catherine Murray, workshop panelist and moderator

Catherine Murray is Professor in the School of Communication, Co- Director of the Centre for Policy Studies on Culture and Communities and an associate of the Masters’ of Public Policy Program at Simon Fraser University. From 2009-2012, she will be the Chair of the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at SFU. Read her full bio here.

Madeline di Nonno, plenary speaker and panelist

Madeline is the Executive Director of the Geena Davis Foundation for Gender and Media.   Read her full bio here.

Michelle Perras, workshop panelist

Michele Perras is a designer and researcher focusing on digital strategy, collaborative innovation and human-centred foresight. She is the Director of the Mobile Experience Innovation Centre. Read her full bio here.

Bérénice Reynaud, moderator

Bérénice Reynaud holds a joint appointment in the School of Film/Video and the School of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts, and has a double background as a film critic/historian/ theoretician and a film/video curator. Read her full bio here.

Ana Serrano, Masterclass presenter, workshop panelist, moderator

Ana Serrano is the Director of CFC Media Lab, a world-renowned new media research, training and production facility created in 1997 at Norman Jewison’s CFC (Canadian Film Centre). Read her full bio here.

Leslie Regan Shade, workshop panelist

Leslie Regan Shade is an author and Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University and a former president of the Canadian Communication Association.  Read her full bio here.

Stacy L. Smith, plenary speaker, panelist

Stacy L. Smith (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1999) is an Associate Professor of Entertainment at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on children’s responses to mass media portrayals (television, film, video games) of violence, gender and hypersexuality. Read her full bio here.

Rebecca Sullivan, workshop panelist

Rebecca Sullivan is an Associate Professor in Communication & Culture at the University of Calgary, specializing in feminist film and media studies.  Her work bridges analysis of popular cultural representations with media industries and political, legal and regulatory frameworks that circumscribe women’s agency and bodily integrity in the public sphere. Read her full bio here.

Jutta Treviranus, workshop panelist

Jutta Treviranus is the Director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) and professor in the faculty of Design at OCAD University in Toronto http://inclusivedesign.ca. Read her full bio here.

Ingrid Veninger, master-class and workshop speaker

Born in Bratislava, and raised in Canada, Ingrid Veninger is a director and producer with numerous award-winning credits to her name. She has been working in the film and television industry for over 20 years, beginning as a child actor on CBC’s Airwaves. Read her full bio here.

Emma Westecott, workshop panelist

Emma Westecott is an Assistant Professor at the Ontario College of Art & Design.  She specializes in video games and the gaming industry.  Read her bio here.

Anne Wheeler, workshop panelist

Anne Wheeler is well-known Canadian documentary and dramatic filmmaker who currently resides in Vancouver, BC. Read her full bio here.

Carol Whiteman, workshop panelist

A two-time Governor General’s Award-nominee and film industry award-winner for promoting women’s equality and advancing talent in Canada, Carol is a co-creator of the internationally respected Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) program. Read her full bio here.

Phyllis Yaffe, Keynote panelist

Phyllis Yaffe is a veteran broadcaster and has been major player in Canada’s media industry for the past 33 years.  Read her full bio here.

Ning Ying, workshop panelist

Ning Ying is an acclaimed filmmaker from Beijing, China.  Read her bio here.

Joyce Zemans, workshop panelist

Joyce Zemans is Professor Emeritus of Visual Arts and is the Director of the Arts and Media Administration Program, York University. Read her bio here.