TEDxBrentwoodCollegeSchool

Speakers

Speakers may not be confirmed. Check the event website for the latest lineup.

• Alix Dunham

  Alix Dunham is the founder of Grit Workshops, created in 2015 to make mindfulness and neuroscience accessible for youth and adults. With over 25 years of teaching experience, certification in meditation, and lived experience with mental illness, she brings a unique blend of expertise, curiosity, and compassion to her work. Since 2022, Grit has partnered with more than 30 schools across Greater Vancouver, reaching thousands of students through engaging, science-based mindfulness programs.

• Darcy Kulai

  Darcy Kulai works in recreation and is currently coaching basketball at Brentwood College School. He is also working with WorkSafe BC to help raise awareness of the relatively high rate of injury for young workers in British Columbia. He lives in Cobble Hill with his son, Lucas.

• Friba Rezayee

  Friba Rezayee is Afghanistan’s first female Olympic athlete. She represented Afghanistan at the2004 Athens Olympic Games in the sport of Judo. She has inspired hundreds of women and girls to join sports. It was a sports revolution, and a women's rights movement in Afghanistan. Friba was recently invited to sign the Olympians’ wall at the Olympic House in Switzerland. She is now the founder and the Executive Director of Women Leaders of Tomorrow in Canada. A nonprofit dedicated to Afghan women’s education, leadership and empowerment. WLOT has been leveraging millions of dollars in scholarships, and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Afghan women and girls’ education in Canada. She has been working and inspiring highly reputable and well established educational institutions in Canada, such as UBC, Laurier University, Laurentian University, Brentwood College School, and many more. She is the founder of a number of programs: Girls of Afghanistan Lead (GOAL) (a sports program to produce the next generation of professional athletes, coaches, and instructors). Afghanistan Learns Online. An online teaching and learning platform for girls to have access to an education after the Taliban returned and banned education for women and girls. She a recipient of the King Charles III’s Coronation Award. She has received the International Women’s Forum British Columbia fellowship program, and received Executive Leadership training at Harvard Business School.

• Jeannine Garside

  Jeannine Garside is a retired Canadian world champion boxer from Duncan, British Columbia. Known for her determination, discipline, and championship mindset, she became a unified featherweight world champion, holding the WBC, WBO, and WIBF titles before retiring from professional boxing. A 2015 inductee into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame, Jeannine now brings her passion for mentorship and athletic excellence to her role at Brentwood College School, where she continues to inspire the next generation through sport and leadership.

• Kathleen Brophy

  Kathleen, a graduating Grade 12 student, has spent four years at Brentwood, balancing academic focus with a deep commitment to the arts. Art has been a lifelong passion and a crucial mechanism for mental wellness and navigating personal struggles. Her diverse background includes six family moves across the US and Canada—a result of her father's military service—following her birth in Lancaster, California. Initially, existing anxiety was amplified by the transition to Brentwood. However, her artistic practice, which emphasizes vulnerability through the self (body, face, and emotions), has driven significant emotional growth this year. This belief that genuine art requires putting one's heart on her sleeve guides her work. She plans to continue her healing practice of fine art and creative writing well into her future.

• Katy Lu

  From Taiwan, Katy is an enthusiastic person who loves to have fun and enjoys spending time with her family and friends. In her free time, she likes to go swimming. She does not like skiing and tore her ACL from it; the rest is history. She hopes you feel inspired by her recovery journey.

• Seth Moyer

  Seth is a former Division 1 lightweight rower, ultramarathon runner, men’s rowing coach, and Whittall House BFA. He has completed more than 15 ultras, ranging from 50 kilometres to 170 kilometres, including a double-crossing of the Grand Canyon, the Willapa 100-mile endurance run, and a self-supported expedition to the highest point on Vancouver Island.

• Tamara Kronis

  Tamara Kronis is the Member of Parliament for Nanaimo–Ladysmith. Before entering public life, she enjoyed a wide-ranging career as a lawyer, goldsmith, and human rights advocate. Her long and winding path has included running a human rights tribunal, being a canoe tripper at a summer camp, clerking for a Chief Justice, making lots of gorgeous jewellery, serving as director of advocacy for a national human rights organization, and working in the office of the prosecutor of a UN War Crimes Tribunal. Through it all, she’s learned that authenticity, a willingness to try, and empathy often matter more than polish — lessons she now carries into her work in Parliament. Tamara believes Mae West had it right: “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” In the House of Commons, Tamara is known for taking her work seriously without taking herself too seriously. Her career has been defined by perseverance — the kind that resists cynicism, values listening over shouting (except during Question Period), and keeps heart and integrity at the centre of leadership.