Invited Speakers & Agenda

Nadia Murad

Sustainable Solutions for Refugees 

Human rights activist and recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, Nadia Murad is a leading advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, is a harrowing account of the genocide against the Yazidi people of Iraq and Nadia’s imprisonment by the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).

Nadia grew up in a small farming village in the Sinjar region of Northern Iraq. In 2014, ISIS attacked her village and killed thousands of Yazidis, including her beloved mother and several of her brothers. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into sexual slavery. After escaping captivity, Nadia relocated to Germany as a refugee and began raising awareness of the ongoing plight of the Yazidi community and the need to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

In 2016, Nadia became the first United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. That year, she was also awarded the Council of Europe Václav Havel Award for Human Rights and Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. In 2018, she won the Nobel Peace Prize with Dr. Denis Mukwege. Together, they founded the Global Fund for Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. In 2019, Nadia was appointed as a UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocate.

Nadia is the founder and president of Nadia’s Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to rebuilding communities in crisis and advocating for survivors of sexual violence. Nadia’s Initiative’s current work is focused on the sustainable re-development of the Yazidi homeland in Sinjar and pursuing holistic justice for survivors of ISIS atrocities.

In her capacity as a member of France’s Gender Advisory Council, Nadia advocated G7 member states to adopt legislation that protects and promotes women’s rights. Nadia worked with the German Mission to the United Nations to pass UN Security Council Resolution 2467, which expands the UN’s commitments to end sexual violence in conflict. Nadia was also a driving force behind the drafting and passing of UN Security Council Resolution 2379, which established the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD). Since 2015, Nadia has been working with human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to bring ISIS before the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Boban Stojanovic

Learning to say yes to what it is.

Boban Stojanovic is the director of LGBTQ+ and Vulnerable Population Services at the Centre for Newcomers in Calgary. In this role, he has drawn on his experience as a refugee and previous work with the LGBTQ+ community in Eastern Europe to identify gaps in services for clients of the Centre for Newcomers.

Recently he was honoured with Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal (2023), Alberta Government Newcomer Recognition Award (2022) and The Trailblazer Award at the Calgary Stampede (2019).

As an internationally recognized LGBTQ+ activist, Stojanovic was the Grand Marshal at Montreal (2014) and was selected by the David Kato Vision and Voice Award committee as one of the five most prominent activists in the World (2015).

Boban was an eminent human rights activist in Serbia and the Balkan region for almost two decades. As an antiwar activist, Boban was involved in the reconciliation process in the Balkans. Also, he was the founder of the Belgrade Pride Parade. Being one of the few outed LGBTQ+ individuals in Serbia, he was frequently exposed to attacks and provocations. His home was vandalized several times by a neo-Nazi group. The last attack occurred in August 2016 when Boban decided to leave Serbia. In 2016 Boban and his partner were granted protected person status in Canada.

Boban has given many public talks, including TEDx Talk and Pecha Kucha. He has also addressed prominent institutions such as the European Parliament and Pride Parades in Rome, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, Cologne, and other cities.

In 2013 Stojanovic was the first LGBTQ+ person to participate in the Balkan edition of Celebrity Big Brother. In the same year, he published his autobiography, As if everything was OK. By the end of this year, Boban plans to publish his first collection of poetry based on exploring his trauma.

Besides writing, he is passionate about interior design and is an aspiring actor. In 2019 he was nominated for the Stringer Award for his lead role in the movie A Walk Down to Water, directed by Calgary’s director Levi Holwell.

Titilope Sonuga

The Language of Healing

The story of Titilope Sonuga’s emergence as a globally renowned poet, playwright and performer is a testament to the transformative power of storytelling. She renders, both in verse and performance, a quality of rootedness and unflinching womanhood that extends beyond the bounds of a single poem or poetic performance. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Down to Earth (2011), Abscess (2014), and This Is How We Disappear (2019) and has composed two spoken word albums, Mother Tongue (2011) and Swim (2019). She is a writer who blends a remarkable elegance of craft with an ever-present human quality that carries her words into expansive realms scripting campaigns for global brands, including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, and the White Ribbon Alliance. She served a two-year term as an ambassador for Intel Corporation’s She Will Connect campaign, a program dedicated to empowering women and girls through technological literacy, commerce, and opportunity. Titilope Sonuga has written three plays: The Six (an intergenerational exploration of womanhood), Naked (a one-woman play) and Ada the Country (a musical). She played a lead role as an actor in the hit Nigerian television series Gidi Up. She was the first poet to perform at a Nigerian presidential inauguration in 2015 and is the 9th Poet Laureate of the City of Edmonton.

James Achuli

Giving refugees a seat at the decision-making table and listening to their voices is key to changing their lives 

I am a South Sudanese refugee, writer and a former child-soldier. I am currently pursuing my bachelor’s degree at the University of British Columbia.  I (James Magok Achuli) was born in South Sudan to the sound of bombs and airstrikes.

In 2013, during the first South Sudan civil war after independence in 2011, ten-year old James was one of over one million internally displaced persons in the country. He was forced to join the army as a child-soldier but managed to escape in the 2016 civil war, walking hundreds of Kilometers to Kiryandongo refugee camp in Uganda where he was taken care of by UNICEF [UNICEF Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC), Child Protection Section] and UNHCR. 

While living in the camp, James was a grass-root human rights activist, fighting against gender-based violence and educating his peers about HIV and AIDS, the dangers of child marriage and the importance of peace and education. He experienced UNICEF and UNHCR work in action, including the countless life-saving services UNHCR and UNICEF provided to refugee children like him. From there, James decided that supporting UNICEF and UNHCR would always be part of his life. He volunteered as a casual interpreter for both UNHCR and UNICEF, Save The Children International and as a Right To Play Coach. 

In 2019, James won a 100% United World College (UWC) scholarship to study the International Baccalaureate Diploma in United World College Dilijan in Armenia. He graduated with his diploma in 2021 and was later selected as a recipient of the University of British Columbia’s Prestigious Karen McKellin International Leader of Tomorrow (KMILOT) Award to study his bachelor’s degree in Canada. 

When asked about his future plans, James referred to his childhood—stating his intention to work for UNICEF or UNHCR and help defend refugees and children’s rights. 

Suzanne Barakat MD

Journey to Human Rights Work with Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Carlos Franco-Paredes MD, MPH

Dante’s Inferno and Purgatory in the Americas: U.S.-Mexico border bound journey of migrant peoples in transit across the Darién Gap in Panama

Dr. Franco-Paredes is an infectious diseases clinician with expertise in tropical medicine and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and vaccine-preventable diseases.  He has a particular interest in social justice, health equity, and caring for patients with Hansen’s disease, leishmaniasis and other related NTDs. He is currently a Fulbright Global Scholar (U.S.-Panama). He is affiliated with the Hospital Infantil de Mexico, Federico Gomez, and an adjunct faculty at Colorado State University and at the Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de La Salud in Panama.  He is currently involved in two projects in Panama: one to provide rapid health assessments of migrants in transit across the Darién Gap, and a second one that seeks to describe the prevalence and clinical outcomes of emerging infectious diseases among indigenous communities displaced by large-scale mining operations in the Mesoamerican Biologic Corridor in Central America.

The Honourable Lloyd Axworthy

Refugees at Risk

The Honourable Lloyd Axworthy is the chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council and one of Canada’s leading voices on global migration and refugee protection. After a 27-year political career, where he served as Canada’s minister of Foreign Affairs and minister of Employment and Immigration, among other postings, Mr. Axworthy has continued to work extensively on human security, refugee protection and human rights in Canada and abroad. He was presented with the Pearson Peace Medal by the Governor General of Canada in May 2017 and is a Companion of the Order of Canada.

In his term as president and vice-chancellor of the University of Winnipeg, Mr. Axworthy initiated innovative programs for migrant and aboriginal youth communities, and has also done a great deal of work on refugee reform as a Richard von Weizsäcker fellow at Germany’s Robert Bosch Academy.

Corinne Prince & Craig Shankar, IRCC

Insights from IRCC on Resettlement Operations – Challenges and Successes with Recent Mass Arrivals

Corinne Prince first joined Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in 2008 as the Director General of the Foreign Credentials Referral Office. She served as the Director General of the Settlement and Integration Policy Branch with IRCC from January 2013 until 2020, a role that expanded her network to settlement partners across Canada. Beginning in the fall of 2020, Corinne became the Director General for Francophone Immigration and Official Languages Part VII, within the Settlement and Integration Sector, and shepherded IRCC’s amendments to the Official Languages Act through to tabling.

In the fall of 2021, during Canada’s effort to resettle at least 40,000 Afghan refugees, Corinne was named Director General of the Afghanistan Settlement Branch with a mandate to lead in-Canada (re)settlement activities for Afghan refugees by bringing together national resettlement operations and policy into a single integrated organization.  And, since January of 2022, Corinne has added the reception and settlement of Ukrainian nationals and their families to her plate. In the spring of 2022, Corinne received the federal Partnership award from the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada (APEX) for her ability to work with stakeholders, tap into the goodwill of Canadians, including civil society and veterans groups, in support of the incoming cohort of Afghan refugees.

Prior to joining IRCC, Corinne spent many years at the federal labour market department – then known as Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) – now known as ESDC – managing a number of programs including the Foreign Credential Recognition Program, Labour Mobility programming, the Going to Canada Immigration Portal, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, the National Occupational Classification system, Labour Market Information, Career information and Essential Skills programming.  In the early 90’s, Corinne managed the transformation of the Canada Student Loans Program at the department of Secretary of State.

Corinne graduated with a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Ottawa in 1985 and received her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Calgary in 1991. She was called to the Ontario bar In 1994 and articled with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

Corinne grew up on a grain farm in northern Saskatchewan and now makes her home in the Ottawa Valley with her partner.

Craig Shankar

Craig joined the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) Migration Health Branch in 2009 and has held responsibility for various files such as the Interim Federal Health Program, Public Health Liaison Unit, Corporate Business Services, Program Integrity, and the Integrated Medical Processing Network. Currently, he is the Director General of Migration Health Branch at IRCC, holding over 15 years of experience working in health programs within the federal government, including Correctional Service of Canada, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).  Just before returning back to IRCC in August 2020, Craig held the position of Director General, Regional Operations, at the Public Health Agency of Canada, spending a year and a half playing a key role in the COVID response and holding accountability for quarantine operations and quarantine sites.

In his role with IRCC, Craig has led modernizations within Migration Health, including the eMedical initiative (an electronic health processing system for immigration), and has played an important leadership role to meet the obligations of IRCC humanitarian responses to events such as the MV Sun Sea, the Haiti earthquake and the Syrian crisis.

Craig holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Toronto and a Master of Business Administration from Queen’s University. In his spare time, he enjoys giving back to the community by volunteering with Mothercraft Ottawa on the Board of Directors.

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Corinne Prince

Corinne Prince est arrivée à Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada (IRCC) en 2008 à titre de directrice générale du Bureau d’orientation relatif aux titres de compétences étrangers  Elle a été directrice générale de la Direction générale des politiques d’établissement et d’intégration de janvier 2013 jusqu’en 2020, rôle qui lui a permis d’étendre son réseau auprès des partenaires de l’établissement partout au Canada.  À l’automne 2020, Corinne est devenue directrice générale de l’immigration francophone et de la Partie VII de la Loi sur les langues officielles au sein du Secteur d’établissement et d’intégration et a guidé les modifications d’IRCC à la Loi sur les langues officielles jusqu’à son dépôt.

Au début de l’automne 2021, au cours des efforts considérables déployés par le Canada pour réinstaller 40 000 réfugiés afghans, Corinne a été nommée directrice générale de la Direction générale de l’établissement de l’Afghanistan avec le mandat de diriger les activités de (ré)établissement au Canada pour les réfugiés afghans en réunissant les opérations nationales et les politiques de réinstallation en une seule organisation intégrée.  Et, depuis janvier 2022, Corinne a ajouté à son programme l’accueil et l’établissement des ressortissants ukrainiens et de leurs familles. Au printemps 2022, Corinne a reçu le prix du partenariat de l’Association professionnelle des cadres de la fonction publique du Canada (APEX) pour sa capacité à faire appel à la bonne volonté des Canadiens, y compris la société civile et les groupes d’anciens combattants, pour soutenir la cohorte de réfugiés afghans qui arrivait.

Avant de se joindre à IRCC, Corinne a passé de nombreuses années au ministère fédéral du marché du travail – alors connu sous le nom de Ressources humaines et Développement des compétences Canada (RHDCC) qui est maintenant connu sous le nom d’EDSC – à gérer un certain nombre de programmes, y compris le programme de reconnaissance des titres de compétences étrangers, les accords de mobilité de la main-d’œuvre, le portail d’immigration ” Se rendre au Canada “, le programme des travailleurs étrangers temporaires, le système de classification nationale des professions, l’information sur le marché du travail, les produits d’information sur les carrières et les programmes de compétences essentielles.  Au début des années 90, Corinne a géré la transformation du Programme canadien de prêts aux étudiants au ministère du Secrétariat d’État.

Corinne a obtenu un baccalauréat en sciences sociales de l’Université d’Ottawa en 1985 et un baccalauréat en droit de l’Université de Calgary en 1991. Elle a été admise au Barreau de l’Ontario en 1994 et a fait son stage au Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes ( CRTC).

Corinne a grandi sur une ferme céréalière dans le nord de la Saskatchewan et vit maintenant dans la vallée de l’Outaouais avec son partenaire.

Craig Shankar

Craig s’est joint à la Direction Générale Migration et Santé  à Immigration, Réfugiés et  Citoyenneté Canada (IRCC) en 2009. Il était responsable de divers dossiers, comme le Programme fédéral de santé intérimaire, l’Unité de liaison avec la santé publique, les Services d’affaires ministériels et l’Intégrité des programmes, et la direction du Réseau intégré de traitement des dossiers médicaux. Présentement, Craig est Directeur Général Migration et Santé à IRCC, possédant plus de 15 ans d’expériences dans les programmes de santé au sein du gouvernement fédéral spécifiquement avec le Service correctionnel du Canada, Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada (IRCC) et l’Agence de la santé publique du Canada.  Juste avant de retourner en Août 2020 auprès de IRCC,  Craig a occupé le poste de Directeur Général, Opérations régionales,  l’Agence de la santé publique du Canada où il a passé un an et demi et à jouer un rôle clé dans la réponse au COVID et à rendre des comptes pour les opérations de quarantaine et les sites de quarantaine.

Dans son rôle avec IRCC, Craig a dirigé des projets de modernisation au sein de la direction General Migration et Santé, y compris l’initiative eMedical (un système de traitement électronique de la santé pour l’immigration) et a joué un rôle de leadership important pour répondre aux obligations des réponses humanitaires d’IRCC à des événements tels que le MV Sun Sea, le tremblement de terre en Haïti et la crise syrienne.

Robin Dunn Marcos & Dr. Maggie Brewinski Isaacs, ORR

An Overview of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement Services and Health Programming

Dr. Maggie Brewinski Isaacs

CAPT Maggie Brewinski Isaacs is the Director of the Division of Refugee Health at the HHS Administration for Children and Families in the Office of Refugee Resettlement. She previously deployed with ACF in August and September 2021 for the Department of State Afghanistan Task Force. 

Prior to joining ACF, CAPT Brewinski Isaacs was a Medical Officer and Special Advisor for Pediatrics in the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division of AIDS where she was responsible for safety oversight of HIV and COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials. Her areas of expertise include refugee health, global newborn, maternal and child health, general pediatrics, HIV/AIDS, public health and prevention. 

Her previous experience includes serving as a Medical Officer in the NIH National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Office of Global Health; NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health; HRSA Team Lead for the PEPFAR Medical Education Partnership Initiative; USAID Senior Technical Advisor for Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission and Pediatric HIV; and as the Guyana Immunization Officer with the Pan American Health Organization/WHO. 

She recently finished a three-year term as the USPHS Physicians Professional Advisory Committee Co-Chair and has completed multiple deployments including to Louisiana during severe flooding, Arizona and Texas to provide medical care for unaccompanied children and Liberia and Sierra Leone for the Ebola response. 

CAPT Brewinski Isaacs completed medical school at Wake Forest University and a Pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital followed by a second residency in Preventive Medicine and a Master of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is board certified in both Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine and sees patients in the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Pediatrics Clinic. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD.  

At home, she and her husband stay busy chasing their four children and enjoy traveling and spending time outside as much as possible. They also serve as foster parents for unaccompanied refugee minors and unaccompanied children through the District of Columbia. 

Drew Posey, MD MPH (CDC) & William Stauffer, MD MSPH FASTMH (NRC-RIM)

Immigrant, Refugee, and Migrant Health Branch Update

Drew Posey, MD MPH (CDC)

A native of Marietta, Georgia, Dr. Drew Posey, is the Chief of the Immigrant, Refugee, and Migrant Health Branch at CDC.  This branch broadly deals with medical screening and overseas public health interventions for immigrants and refugees before they come to the United States as well as post-arrival activities.  Before becoming the Branch Chief, he was Team Lead of the Medical Assessment and Policy Team, a multidisciplinary team which manages the U.S. screening program for immigrants and refugees, both overseas by panel physicians and domestically by civil surgeons.  Dr. Posey is trained in Family Practice and also sees tuberculosis patients at the Fulton County Board of Health in Atlanta, Georgia.

Update: National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants

William Stauffer, MD, MSPH, CTropMed, FASTH

Dr. William Stauffer is formally trained in public health, internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine and infectious diseases.  He is currently on LOA from the University of Minnesota and is a Professor of Medicine and Executive Field Director of AMPATH-Kenya, and Stephanie and Craig Brater Professor at the Indiana University of Center for Global Health, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine.  Dr. Stauffer has been a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases and International Medicine, at the University of Minnesota where he is the Director of Human Migration and Health at the Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility in the School of Public Health. Since 2005 he has been the Lead Medical Advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Global Migration and Quarantine (Immigrant, Refugee, Migrant Health Branch) where he works on issues of human mobility and how it effects human health.  He is also co-PI of the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants (NRC-RIM).   NRC-Rim has been the lead response to COVID in the US in RIM populations and, more recently, for responding to the Afghan and Ukrainian refugee situation.  He founded the UMN/CDC Global Health Course and other leading global health online courses. He has worked extensively overseas in clinical medicine education, research and in public health in more than a dozen countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle east.  He is the director for the United Nations Migration Agency/IOM, University of Minnesota Collaborative.  His research areas have included refugee and immigrant health issues, infectious disease surveillance, diagnostics, neglected tropical diseases, evaluations of public health programs, and examining drug costs and impact on patient.  He has acted/acts as an advisor to the European Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization.