2022 API Conference Keynote Speakers – Atlantic Planners Institute

Conference Keynote Speaker: Jenene Wooldridge

Indigenous Perspectives and Planning

This keynote address provides a high-level overview of our shared history, the impacts of colonization and the importance of reconciliation initiatives across Turtle Island. Facilitator Jenene Wooldridge shares her personal story on how her life could have been very different growing up as an Indigenous woman in Canada. She shares her insight on power dynamics, privilege and how we can all play a role in Allyship and creating safer and more inclusive spaces through awareness and planning.

Increase understanding of shared history in Canada
Learn about impacts of colonization
Gain clarity on important reconciliation initiatives
Insight on power dynamics and privilege
Creating safer spaces
How to be an Ally

Bio: Jenene Wooldridge is Executive Director of L’nuey – the Epekwitk Mi’kmaq Rights Initiative. She is passionate about her community and committed to advancing the interests of the Epekwitnewaq Mi’kmaq and all Epekwitnewaq (Islanders). Prior to her leadership role with L’nuey, she served for over a decade in senior management with Abegweit First Nation. She was named one of the top 25 most powerful women in business by Atlantic Business Magazine in 2021 and recently completed the ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program and obtained ICD.D designation. Jenene also serves on Renew PEI: The Premier’s Council for Recovery and Growth. She has participated as a member of numerous Indigenous boards and initiatives, both regionally and nationally, and has led numerous comprehensive community planning exercises, helping First Nation communities set a strategic path to healthy, successful futures. In recent years Jenene has represented Mi’kmaq interests at numerous negotiation tables and has coordinated consultation and engagement efforts in her own community and many others. Jenene is committed to personal and professional development and strives to live her life with intention. She is author of “Living Full Circle”, a published weekly undated planner based on living life with intention and balance. You can learn more about Living Full Circle on Jenene’s monthly segment on CBC Mainstreet with Matt Rainnie. You can also learn more in her virtual course, Living Full Circle: Leadership Training. Jenene also co-facilitates All In! Allyship & Inclusion Leadership Training with Corrie Melanson through SeaChange CoLab. She resides in Kuntal Kwesawe’kl (Rocky Point) with her husband and two children.

Conference Keynote Speaker: Karen Foster

Place and Policy

This talk will draw on nearly a decade of rural-focused research to explore the idea of an ‘urban bias’ in planning and policy. In line with the conference theme, it will look specifically at some of the ways that ‘inclusion’ can differ across urban, suburban, rural and small town communities. It will ultimately argue for the importance of place in inclusive planning and point to some inspiring models of inclusion.

Bio: Karen Foster is an Associate Professor in Dalhousie University’s Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Rural Futures for Atlantic Canada and leads the Rural Futures Research Centre. She is also the Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Her current research projects focus on: occupational succession in rural and small town Atlantic Canada; the care/work strategies of diverse rural families; migrant farmworkers and the local food system in Nova Scotia; and regulatory challenges faced by food businesses in Nova Scotia.