TEDxWinnipeg

Speakers

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

• Celine Latulipe

  Dr. Celine Latulipe is a Professor of Computer Science and Associate Head for Graduate Studies at the University of Manitoba. A specialist in Human-Computer Interaction, she studies what happens where people and digital systems meet, particularly how older adults and their caregivers manage increasingly complicated digital lives. Her research has also included computer-science education, creativity-support tools, interaction design and technology in the arts. She joined the University of Manitoba in 2019 after a long academic career at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. More recently, Latulipe's research has turned toward a problem almost everyone will eventually leave behind: a digital estate. Photos, email, subscriptions, social-media accounts, cloud storage and even interactions with AI can survive their owner, often with no clear instructions about what should happen next. Her research group is developing the idea of “Digital Directives”, a way for people to specify how those digital assets should be handled.

• Emily Erickson

  Emily Erickson is a Red River Métis educator and program leader whose work centres on bringing post-secondary education closer to Indigenous communities. Born and raised in Winnipeg on Treaty 1 Territory, she graduated from the University of Manitoba's Bachelor of Education program in 2018 and went on to work in community-based education at both Indigenous nonprofit and post-secondary levels. She now serves as Learning Hubs Supervisor at the University of Manitoba, helping deliver university education and training to Indigenous learners in their home communities. Erickson is also pursuing a Master of Education, with thesis research examining the values Indigenous women bring to senior university leadership. Her professional and academic work asks a question about reconciliation in education: what would change if universities went beyond inviting Indigenous people into existing systems and instead used their resources, networks and expertise to support Indigenous communities' own educational priorities?

• Farshid Ghiyamihoor

  Farshid Ghiyamihoor is a neuroscience researcher and PhD candidate in Human Anatomy and Cell Science at the University of Manitoba. His research focuses on the developing brain, particularly cerebellar neurodevelopment, synaptic organization and neurodegeneration. His work has contributed to research on how neural circuits form and change, and he has published across neuroscience, stem-cell research and related biomedical fields. He is also active in science communication, bringing complex ideas about the brain and human anatomy to audiences outside the laboratory.

• Frank Deer

  Dr. Frank Deer is Kanienkeha'ka from Kahnawake and a Professor in the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Education. Before entering academia, he taught in Northern Manitoba and Winnipeg's inner city. His research has since focused on Indigenous education, Indigenous language education, identity, citizenship, philosophy of education, and religious and spiritual orientations in schools. Deer has served the University of Manitoba in several senior roles, including Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Education, Associate Dean of Indigenous Education and Acting Executive Lead of Indigenous Achievement. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars in 2019.

• Ian Bawa

  Ian Bawa is a South Asian filmmaker from Winnipeg whose work has increasingly turned toward family, culture, grief and the stories people are sometimes reluctant to tell about themselves. His films include "Offline", "The Champ", "Imitations" and "Tapeworm". His short "Strong Son" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2020, while "My Son Went Quiet" screened at Slamdance and Fantasia in 2024 and "The Best" premiered at TIFF later that year. He has also directed and hosted the feature documentary "Seeking Fire" and the CBC Gem documentary series "Finding Diamond". His latest feature, “Strong Son”, premiered at TIFF 2026. A University of Winnipeg alumnus, Bawa has participated in the TIFF Filmmakers Lab, ReelWorld's E20 program, Netflix's Diversity of Voices Initiative and the Canadian Film Centre's Directors' Lab. His filmmaking changed as he began putting more of his own life and cultural identity on screen.

• Jayanne English

  Dr. Jayanne English is an astronomer and scientific-visualization specialist whose career has brought art and astronomy together in an unusually literal way. Now a Senior Scholar in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manitoba, she studies galaxies using observations of hydrogen gas and magnetic fields while also exploring how astronomical data can be translated into images that communicate science accurately and powerfully. English's background includes formal art training as well as a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics. While working at the Space Telescope Science Institute, she became part of the Hubble Heritage Project, helping produce some of the iconic Hubble images that introduced millions of people to the universe. Her work bridging art and science earned the Canadian Astronomical Society's Qilak Award for astronomy communication in 2021, and she was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2023 for her work at the crossroads of science and art and for making astronomy accessible to the public.

• Krista Boryskavich

  Krista Boryskavich is a lawyer and animal advocate with more than two decades of experience in law, strategy and government relations. She serves as Director of Animal Advocacy and Legal and Government Affairs at the Winnipeg Humane Society, where she works on legislation, regulation and public policy affecting companion animals, farmed animals and wildlife. She became the organization's first in-house legal counsel, adding legal advocacy as another tool in the Humane Society's long history of animal-welfare work. Her work has included efforts surrounding Manitoba's Animal Care Act, the regulation of animal sales and breeding, municipal animal-welfare policy and pet-inclusive housing.

• Laura Côté

  Laura Côté is a Métis queer educator and community organizer living and working on Treaty 1 Territory. A 2026 graduate of the University of Manitoba's Bachelor of Education program, her approach to teaching is centred on belonging, representation and creating classrooms in which students are able to see themselves reflected in the people and ideas around them. She has also taken those conversations beyond the classroom through community work and her “Teach Loud, Teach Proud” podcast. Côté’s work considers what students learn by seeing who is allowed to be fully themselves at the front of a classroom. Rather than positioning queer teachers only as advocates for an issue, she believes in something more powerful: queer educators being visible as complete human beings doing the everyday work of teaching. In a world full of chaos and division, honey bees show us how communication and shared purpose can lead to great things. A beekeeper’s talk on what we can learn from the complicated life inside the hive. These practical lessons will help us make better decisions and take action to light up our corners of the world.

• Marika Schalla

  Marika Schalla is a Red River Métis and Anishinaabe educator, writer and curriculum developer whose work is grounded in Indigenous knowledge and land-based learning. A University of Winnipeg alumna, she holds degrees in biology and education as well as a post-baccalaureate diploma focused on Indigenous Knowledges. She has taught young learners at Niji Mahkwa School in Winnipeg's North End, where her work included Truth and Reconciliation initiatives, land-based education and professional learning for fellow educators. She is also the founder of Heartberry Education. Schalla's writing and educational work are deeply connected to the teachings she received from family and from the land around Saint Laurent, Manitoba. She has written about Métis relationships with the land and increasingly incorporates trauma-responsive approaches into her educational practice.

• Peter Denton

  Dr. Peter Denton has spent more than three decades examining the relationship between technology, ethics and the societies that create them. His unusually interdisciplinary career spans history, philosophy, religion, science and technology studies, sustainability and education. He holds five degrees, is an ordained United Church minister, has taught at institutions including the University of Winnipeg, University of Manitoba and Royal Military College of Canada, and is the author or editor of several books on technology, sustainability and society. Denton has also been involved with UN Environment since 2012 and contributed to the Global Environment Outlook's North American assessment. Across his teaching and writing, a frequent idea is that technology is never just a collection of tools: people decide what to build, how to use it and what values those choices embody.

• Rebecca Krowelski

  Rebecca Krowelski is the Marketing & Communications Director at the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba, part of a communications career spanning more than two decades. Outside that work, she is the owner of Prairie Sweetheart Honey and operates a small-scale urban apiary in Winnipeg. Krowelski has taken her interest in beekeeping well beyond the backyard. She completed Cornell University's Master Beekeeping Program, has been involved with the Red River Apiarists' Association and Direct Farm Manitoba, and has explored beekeeping as a tool for sustainable livelihoods. Years spent watching colonies survive, adapt and organize themselves gave her a different way of thinking about human organizations as well.

• Rizwan Manji

  Dr. Rizwan Manji is a physician, researcher and Associate Professor in the University of Manitoba's Max Rady College of Medicine. He completed his MD, PhD and cardiac-surgery training at the University of Alberta before undertaking critical-care training and an MBA at the University of Manitoba. He practices critical-care medicine and conducts research through the Department of Surgery and St. Boniface Hospital. His research spans cardiac-surgery outcomes, bioprosthetic heart valves, cardiovascular disease and the biological and cognitive factors that contribute to medical error and physician burnout. That last area has led Manji to examine a growing problem in modern medicine: clinicians have access to extraordinary amounts of information, but the human brain still has limits.

• Suzi Friesen

  Suzi Friesen has spent much of her career at the intersection of education and mental wellness. She is Director of Educational Programs with the True North Youth Foundation, where she has played a central role in developing Project 11, the foundation's mental-wellness program for students and educators. A former classroom teacher and curriculum developer, she has helped expand Project 11 from Manitoba classrooms to schools elsewhere in Canada and internationally. Friesen also holds a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology and is a Canadian Certified Counsellor. Her work draws together education, counselling, resilience and the practical skills people use to understand themselves. Reflection has become a recurring theme in that work: creating enough space to notice the questions, assumptions and experiences that can otherwise remain buried beneath the pace of everyday life.

• Tyler Sneesby

  Tyler Sneesby, better known to generations of Winnipeg music fans as DJ Hunnicutt, has been making and performing music for more than three decades. He co-founded the independent hip-hop label Peanuts & Corn Records in 1994 and has performed everywhere from Winnipeg clubs to stages in New York, Berlin, Oslo and Bogotá. He has also spent years performing with the acclaimed improv duo Crumbs, taking that work to theatre festivals across Canada and Europe. Sneesby's creative life changed dramatically after he experienced significant vision loss in 2019. Rather than stepping away from performance, he began finding new ways to DJ and navigate live venues, while becoming an advocate for greater accessibility for blind and low-vision people in music and theatre. He now works as Services Coordinator with VIEW and has also expanded into stage acting with Sick + Twisted Theatre.

• Xiaoxiao Du

  Dr. Xiaoxiao Du is an educator and researcher whose work explores the close connections among language, literacy, culture and identity. She joined the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Education in 2021 as an Assistant Professor of Language and Literacies. Her research includes early literacy, multimodal meaning-making, identity construction, and the different ways children learn across schools, homes and communities. Du earned her PhD from Western University, where her dissertation received the John Dearness Memorial Award. She has served as President and Past President of the Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada and as an associate editor of the journalLanguage & Literacy. Much of her work advocates for education that treats students' languages, cultures and existing knowledge as assets rather than obstacles.