| Arley Cruthers | Arley Cruthers is an applied communications teacher, novelist and retired Paralympian. She is also the author of the open textbook Business Writing for Everyone: An Inclusive Guide to Writing in the Workplace. Arley is passionate about open education, open pedagogy, disability studies, decolonization, and anti-racist writing pedagogy. She has an MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |  |
| Andhra Goundrey | Andhra Goundrey, Dean of the Chip and Shannon Wilson School of Design has been a member of the KPU Community for over 25 years, as a graduate of the Fashion & Technology Program and as a faculty member, Program Coordinator and Associate Dean. She also holds a Diploma in Business; Provincial Instructor Diploma; a Bachelor of Arts, Leadership; and Master of Arts, Leadership from Trinity Western University. The Wilson School of Design seeks to elevate its partnerships with industry and community and this includes the acknowledgement of diversity and inclusivity within curriculum and our learning networks. Andhra is honoured to serve on this KPU task force and strives to integrate her vision of innovation, collaboration and values-driven leadership to strengthen our voice for respect and equality for all people. |  |
| Deepak Gupta | Dr. Deepak S. Gupta is an award-winning innovation and entrepreneurship leader passionate about equity, diversity, and inclusion. He is also the Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Graduate Studies at KPU. Deepak brings an insightful perspective shaped by his career and community engagement across India, US, and Canada. Deepak’s interest in advancing human rights and social justice has been profoundly informed by his lived experience. It has also motivated his involvement in social innovation and entrepreneurship. Deepak’s career highlights include co-founding a startup accelerator focused on youth facing barriers, and a soft-landing program supporting immigrant entrepreneurs. Deepak looks forward to contributing to the task-force and further anti-racism at KPU. |  |
| Jennifer Hardwick | Dr. Jennifer Hardwick is a settler scholar and faculty member in the Department of English. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on settler colonial rhetorics and Indigenous literary, media, and performance arts on the territories currently known as Canada. Her latest project is a SSHRC-funded collaboration with members of Virago Nation that explores Indigenous women’s embodied resistance. Jen is passionate about ensuring access and supports for learners who face systemic barriers, and she has spent years working within the intersecting fields of critical, de-colonial, and open pedagogies and universal design in classrooms, Learning/Writing Centres, bridging programs, and community settings. She is a KDocs Board member, a member of the Social Justice Centre, a faculty participant in the Including All Citizens Project, and as of September 2020, an Educational Consultant with the Teaching and Learning Commons. |  |
| Samantha Jack | Samantha Jack is an Indigenous Student in the Faculty of Arts. She discusses decolonization, reconciliation, and anti-Indigenous racism in classrooms. Samantha is the founder of the Indigenous Student Council, which offers a platform and safe space for Indigenous students to unpack their experiences as students across campuses. Outside of her commitment to anti-racism work in higher education, she is a cultural competency facilitator who has partnered and presented with the Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre, Surrey’s Urban Indigenous Leadership Committee and Fraser Health. Samantha comes from Nuu-Chah-Nulth and Yale First Nations, and is passionate about her culture. She represents the Indigenous Student Council at the President’s Diversity and Equity Committee (PDEC), and the Indigenous Advisory Committee to advance solutions to issues of equity and diversity at KPU. |  |
| Rajiv Jhangiani | Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani is the Acting Vice Provost, Teaching and Learning and the Associate Vice Provost, Open Education at KPU. Rajiv was previously a faculty member in the Psychology department at KPU, where he taught a variety of courses, including an upper level seminar on the psychology of genocide. His deep commitment to social justice is reflected in his teaching, scholarship, and public presentations. His work in open education focuses on widening equitable and affordable access to education. |  |
| Romy Kozak | Dr. Romy Kozak is a second-generation settler of Irish and European descent who grew up on the territories of the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, and Musqueam nations, and completed graduate degrees in England and the U.S. Romy is a faculty member in the English Department, teaching courses in writing, U.S. literature, and gender and critical theory, and has served in a wide variety of roles at KPU, including department chair, Faculty Council chair, university senator, associate dean, and most recently, secretary-treasurer for the Kwantlen Faculty Association, and Director of Diversity. |  |
| Michael Ma | Michael C.K. Ma is a faculty member in the Department of Criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. He works in the area of social justice, community advocacy, anti-racism, and harm reduction. His current research is in the area of drug use. He is a founding member of The Social Justice Centre, and a current member of the Vancouver District Labour Council. In the past he was very active with the Chinese Canadian National Council – Toronto Chapter and the Metro Network for Social Justice. His academic training is in sculpture, art history, and social/political thought. |  |
| Zahra Mohamud (Admin Support) | Zahra Mohamud is the Deans’ Assistant for the Faculty of Arts at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She is passionate about researching and addressing racism in the workplace and higher education. She has a background in Psychology, English Literature and has taught abroad in the Middle East. She also serves as the primary administrative support for the Taskforce on Antiracism at KPU. |  |
| Asma Sayed (Chair) | Dr. Asma Sayed is Canada Research Chair in South Asian Literary and Cultural Studies in the Department of English. Her community engagement focuses on issues of gendered violence, racial inequity, and Islamophobia through an intersectional social justice lens. This focus also informs her research and teaching within the academy, where she is invited to speak to a range of issues. She holds a Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University, Certificate in Antiracism from the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion, and has completed a South Asian Human Rights Training Course from the Asian Human Rights Commission. Having worked in multiple administrative positions at many institutions, Asma brings with her valuable experience, and is a passionate advocate for minority rights. Currently, she serves on the boards of the South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) and the Canadian Communications Foundation (CCF), and is the President of the Canadian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (CACLALS). She is the Chair of the KPU Task Force on Antiracism (TFA). |  |
| Jeremy Law | Student representative (Bio to follow) | |
| Teresa Smith | Teresa Smith is the Director, Organizational Development and Employee Experience in Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Human Resources Department. She is interested in increasing workplace diversity and inclusion and in addressing systemic barriers that will lead to fair and equitable outcomes for all employees at KPU. She represents Human Resources in a number of committees including KPU’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee, the President’s Diversity and Equity Committee, and the Pride Advocacy Group. |  |
| Waheed Taiwo | Waheed Taiwo works with KPU International as an International Student Life Coordinator, where he provides support to KPU students through various programs and services. He is an alumna of KPU and holds Post-baccalaureate Diplomas in Human Resources Management and Accounting. He was a former member of the Board of Directors for the Kwantlen Human Resources Association where he served as a Director from 2015 to 2016. Waheed is very passionate about community involvement and advocating for different groups within his community. This has lead him to get involved in various groups at KPU. As a support staff, he volunteers in the position of a Shop Steward with the British Columbia Government and Service Employees’ Union and is the interim Chair for the Union. He also represents KPU professional support staff on the Senate and sits on the President’s Diversity and Equity Committee (PDEC) to advance solutions to issues of equity and diversity at KPU. |  |
