NAOMI JOHNSON: Naomi Johnson, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Bear clan from Six Nations, has worked in the arts for nearly fifteen years as a curator, arts administrator, professional artist, and community arts facilitator. Naomi served as Artistic Director for seven years and then as Co-Executive Director (2018) of the Woodland Cultural Centre, where she curated and programmed annual exhibitions and performance art events. In June 2019 Naomi accepted the position of Associate Director for imagineNATIVE, having the unique and rewarding opportunity to be mentored by then outgoing Executive Director, Jason Ryle. In June 2020 she assumed the role of Executive Director for imagineNATIVE, she very much looks forward to continuing her work supporting Indigenous talent within the film and media arts sector.
DORI TUNSTALL: Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall is a design anthropologist, public intellectual, and design advocate who works at the intersections of critical theory, culture, and design. As Dean of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University, she is the first black and black female dean of a faculty of design. She leads the Cultures-Based Innovation Initiative focused on using old ways of knowing to drive innovation processes that directly benefit communities.
With a global career, Dori served as Associate Professor of Design Anthropology and Associate Dean at Swinburne University in Australia. She wrote the biweekly column Un-Design for The Conversation Australia. In the U.S., she taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She organized the U.S. National Design Policy Initiative and served as a director of Design for Democracy. Industry positions included UX strategists for Sapient Corporation and Arc Worldwide. Dori holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University and a BA in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College.
ZAHRA EBRAHIM: Zahra is a public interest designer and strategist, focused on shifting power to people who are typically underrepresented in institutions and systems. Her work has focused on deep, community-led approaches to policy, infrastructure, and service design. She is the Co-Founder and CEO of Monumental, an organization focused on supporting an equitable recovery that builds fair and just cities and institutions. She is an Executive Advisor to Deloitte on Cities and Design, and a senior advisor to political and public interest initiatives across the country. Zahra has taught at OCADU, MoMA, and currently teaches at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She has served on the boards of Jane’s Walk, St. Stephen’s Community House, Toronto Biennial, Canadian Urban Institute, and is the current Chair of the Board for Park People. She serves as an advisor for a range of organizations including Toronto Public Library, Progress Toronto, and Code for Canada. She was recently named Next City’s Vanguard “40 under 40 Civic Leader”, Ascend Canada’s Mentor of the Year, one of “Tomorrow’s Titans” in Toronto Life, and one of WXN’s Top 100 Women in Canadian Business.
SY BLAKE: Sy Blake is a 3D Artist with a background in Graphic and Product Design, a Graduate of the Central St Martins School in London, with a BA Honours in Product Design. For many years Sy has worked to bring to life, unique representations of black identity through his skills in 3D character modeling, focusing on black futures and black joy peppered with hints of futurism, sci fi and fantasy. Sy has collaborated with Toronto Based artists and companies like Adidas Canada to help bring his characters to 3D print. And is currently working on his own line of Art Toys. When not working on his own creative projects and collaborations, Sy works as a 3D Modeller for the award-winning Guru Animation Studio in Toronto on the new ‘Sesame Street’ show coming to HBO ‘Mecha Builders’.
for full bios: harthouse.ca/wellbeing
