2021 Speakers

Sarah Melo, M.Ed. is a French Immersion teacher in the Louis Riel School Division in Winnipeg.  She is the parent of three school aged children. For her Masters degree in Mathematics Education she developed a program to support parents provide quality numeracy interactions in home settings.  She has developed youtube videos to support numeracy ideas for the ToyBox project and is the founder of MeloMath4Kids.ca.

Kristyn Frank is a senior research analyst at Statistics Canada, where she has worked since 2011. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Waterloo. Her research primarily focuses on the skills, education and employment outcomes of postsecondary graduates in Canada, with a particular interest in outcomes by gender, field of study and immigrant status. Dr. Frank’s work has been published in various journals including Canadian Journal of Higher Education, Canadian Review of Sociology, and Work, Employment and Society.

Joanne Lee, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the department of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University. As a developmental psychologist, her research focuses on early childhood learning in language and mathematics through both technology and traditional play in home and child care settings. She co-created “LittleCounters®”, a play-based program supporting early numeracy development and numeracy school readiness. Drawn from the program, she co-authored a guidebook titled “Let’s Talk About Math: The LittleCounters® Approach to Building Early Math Skills” for early educators, parents and caregivers.

Sidney is finishing her final year of undergraduate studies in Health Informatics~Applied Computer Science and a minor in Statistics at the University of Winnipeg. She has worked as a Junior Epidemiologist for the past three years where she analyzes administrative health datasets with statistical programming languages such as R and SAS, and collates the data into manuscripts and reports. In the summer of 2019 she worked as a research assistant with physicist Dr. Melanie Martin from the University of Winnipeg through the Pathway to Graduate Studies Program. There she assisted with data analysis on Simultaneous PET/MR Imaging research. She received the cross disciplinary internship in 2020, and worked with Dr. Matthew Leybourne, using the new triple quadrupole ICP-MS (TQ-ICP-MS) technology. Sidney is Métis and believes in the importance of inclusion of Indigenous peoples in STEM fields, and the importance of having diverse views within the STEM world. Her current research interests revolve around data analysis and statistical modelling for many fields, especially those that relate to human health and wellness.

After completing a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manitoba in 1999, Kathryn began her career at StandardAero as a T56 Service Engineer. This role took her around the world inspecting gas turbine engines and helped solidify her love of aerospace. In her 13 years at StandardAero, Kathryn gained experience in both technical and engineering leadership roles while also completing an MBA.For the last 8 years, Kathryn has been the Aero-Engine Test and Advancd Digitial Manufacturing Engineer-in-Residence and Industry Partnerships Facilitator for the Price Faculty of Engineering. In these roles, she develops and delivers industry related courses (focused on Applied Aerospace Instrumentation, Project Management, and Career Design), provides mentorship to students, and acts as a facilitator to help strengthen collaborations between the University and Manitoba’s various industry sectors.

Kathryn is passionate about women in engineering and aerospace and volunteers on several committees promoting these professions. She is one of the founders and coordinators of the Women in Engineering & Geoscience Mentorship Program that aims to create a community of women in engineering and geoscience – from undergraduate students to seasoned professionals. In 2020, Kathryn completed a Master’s of Science in Biosystems Engineering where her research focused on understanding career persistence of women in the engineering workforce.

Tarek is a Policy Analyst in the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills. Before joining the OECD, Tarek was a Senior Research Associate at University College London. His research spanned education policy, equity and inclusion, the assessment of educational performance, and quantitative and survey methods. At the OECD, Tarek carried-out extensive work on the programme for international student assessment (PISA). Recently he authored the PISA 2018 report on global competence: Are Students Ready to Thrive in an Interconnected World?

Dr. Nora Casson is the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Influences on Water Quality and an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Winnipeg. Her research interests focus on how human pressures such as climate change and pollution impact terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In particular, she is interested in controls on nutrient cycling and water quality in forested, agricultural and subarctic landscapes. Dr. Casson received her PhD in Environmental and Life Sciences from Trent University in 2013.

A believer in the connectedness of all things, Ekaterina worked in a variety of fields before discovering her love for statistics with the help of the biostatisticians at the Center for Healthcare Innovation. Filled with excitement at a new-found inspiration she completed the AI and Machine Learning specialization for her Computer Science degree and currently works on a variety of projects as a consultant for DecisionWorks and Research Associate at the University of Winnipeg. Having experienced the joy of teaching through her work in different settings as a piano teacher and physics teacher, Ekaterina is strongly aligned to the value of inspiration in learning and hopes to see more of this perspective in STEM enrichment programs for girls and young women. With a breadth of knowledge in various fields such as music, microbiology, psychology, business, and (of course) computer science Ekaterina loves to discuss the underlying mathematical structures in everyday life and dreams of a world where mathematical inspiration for students is never in short supply, regardless of where their interests lie. 

Dr Makarova’s research focuses on development, learning and teaching in the face of heterogeneity in the school context. In particular, she is interested in inclusion and exclusion processes due to origin and gender in educational settings and developmental trajectories. 

Her research is interdisciplinary and primarily considers the findings of educational psychology, cross-cultural psychology, empirical research in education and research on instructional design in teaching and learning.

The aim of her teaching is to provide opportunities for students to become acquainted with central empirical research in education and psychology and to enable them to develop their own research agendas and/or professionally address heterogeneity in school settings by employing equitable teaching practices.

Sheri-Lynn Skwarchuk, Ph.D. is a Professor and Developmental Studies Director in the Faculty of Education at the University of Winnipeg.  She is a parent of three older children, and has been working on the ToyBox project for 4 years to support literacy, numeracy and wellness ideas for families and their 2-8 year old children.

Jenny Saucerman is an online learning instructional design manager for CUNA. Jenny has nine years of experience in the eLearning space with a focus on simulation and game-based learning, assessment, and learning analytics. She holds a master’s degree in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Alverno College. She previously worked at the Research Center for Women and Girls, focusing on research about girls and women in STEM fields.

My scientific research has focused on hormone-dependent cancers with funding from the Canadian Cancer Society, US Army, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research to explore signal transduction in prostate cancer. I served as Section Head for Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases and Department Head from 2004 to 2012.

 I have a long-standing interest in the representation of women in science, and was honored with the Sarah Shorten Award from the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) for contributions to the advancement of women in post-secondary education.  I served as a member of the Expert Panel on Women in University Research with the Council of Canadian Academies, which released the report “Strengthening Canada’s Research Capacity: The Gender Dimension.” I have also examined the fictional representation of women scientists in popular culture.

Anni K. Reinking, Ed.D. is a former classroom teacher and professor. She is currently an education consultant located in Illinois. She specializes in DEIA and bringing voices into the STEM field. Her research agenda has consistently focused on multicultural education and social justice. She has published and presented research in the areas of DEIA, STEM, trauma informed practices, creating positive school cultures, and more. She is a member of multiple state and national organizations. 

Dr. Sidey-Gibbons holds an honours bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec (2011). While at McGill, she conducted research on flame propagation in microgravity in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the National Research Council Flight Research Laboratory.

She then moved to the United Kingdom (UK) to earn a Ph.D. in engineering with a focus on combustion from the University of Cambridge (2015).

Dr Sidey-Gibbons is the recipient of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award (2016) and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Young Engineer of the Year Award (2016).

She has also actively acted as a role model for young women considering technical careers in science-related fields. Most notably, she is the co-founder of the Cambridge chapter of Robogals, a student-run international organization that aims to inspire and empower young women to study STEM through fun and educational initiatives. Through this work, she has taught programming to over 3,000 young girls across the UK. These outreach activities, along with the technical success she achieved in her academic career, led to her receiving the prestigious Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award and a RAEng Young Engineer of the Year Award in 2016.