Our podcast for alumni, by alumni digs deep into insights, ideas and solutions from UNB alumni around the world who are making a difference in their communities. Join us in the journey of lifelong learning, as we unravel their stories.
Kjeld Mizpah “KJ” Conyers-Steede (BA’18) is director of strategy and partnerships for Inspiring Communities, a nonprofit working to build collaborative relationships for social change in Atlantic Canada.
A UNB political science alum, KJ is a seasoned systems thinker with a strong focus on areas such as community-centric strategic planning, human-centered design, organizational culture, and governance reviews. From executive director of the New Brunswick Student Alliance, to operations manager at the Spring Garden Area Business Association, to director of change management for Hockey Nova Scotia, to his recent work on projects that drive community-centric innovation, KJ has never backed away from big challenges. In fact, he excels at crafting solutions for what he refers to as the “big hairy policy challenges” and collaborating on community projects that tackle the most complex and pressing issues in society.
Host Katie Davey (BA’17) chats KJ about a wide range of challenges and solutions for Atlantic Canadian communities.
Josh LeBrun (BBA'17) is executive director of 12 Neighbours, the tiny-home affordable housing community in Fredericton which has seen success — and global admiration — over the past couple of years. Now complete at 96 homes, the community-focused organization has turned its attention to social enterprise, providing low-barrier, progressive employment opportunities for the people it serves.
Josh has a passion for social enterprise, entrepreneurship and meaningful contribution. He has a background in both business and design, and co-founded his own business before turning his attention to 12 Neighbours.
Shilo Boucher (BBA'00), is President and CEO of the YMCA of Southwest New Brunswick, one of the largest employers and community service organizations in the province. Shilo attended UNB on the Saint John campus, graduating from business administration in 1999, then worked at two large public accounting firms while obtaining her CPA before landing at the Saint John YMCA in 2006. She held roles as the chief financial officer and chief operating officer before taking on the role of president and CEO in 2011.
Shilo has been tremendously involved in helping to grow the community of Saint John and region, having served on the Saint John Airport board of directors, president of The Resource Centre for Youth, director of FusionSJ and River Valley Recreational Center, chair of the board for Credit Counselling Services of Atlantic Canada, and the treasurer for the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Saint John. She was also recently named to the board of directors for Port Saint John.
Host Katie Davey (BA'17) chats with her about being an active member of the community through building good governance and providing a helping hand.
In this special finale Season 3 episode, we turn the tables on UNBeknownst host Katie Davey (BA’17)!
In her day job, Katie is a public policy expert and social innovator, currently serving as the Pond-Deshpande Centre’s (PDC) Executive Director at the University of New Brunswick. Previously, she was the Director of Policy & Media at the Public Policy Forum, and also served as senior advisor in the Office of the Premier of New Brunswick. Armed with a degree in political science from UNB and master’s in applied politics from Wilfrid Laurier University, Katie has the perfect mix of academic and real-world savvy to tackle socio-economic challenges through social innovation, entrepreneurship, and public policy. Selected as a top innovator by Atlantic Business Magazine in 2023, Katie is a go-to voice in political commentary and opinion writing, making waves in major publications and as a regular on CBC New Brunswick and Atlantic. She is the Founder and Principal of Femme Wonk and serves on the Board of Directors for the Human Development Council, Action Canada, and other community groups.
Nicole LeBlanc (BBA’00) is a partner with Woven Capital in Tokyo, focusing on investments in mobility, energy, and sustainability that support and accelerate Toyota’s mission to build the safest mobility in the world. Prior to that she was a partner in Denmark with 2150, an urban tech & sustainability fund focused on supporting the growth of sustainable cities. She’s held previous positions as director of investments for Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs in Toronto, and as director at BDC Capital and at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.
Nicole is also a founder and investor in Sandpiper.vc, a women-led venture fund based in Atlantic Canada aiming to support women as both founders and investors. She’s a huge proponent of encouraging and supporting women in the venture capital sector, and I’m very excited to talk with her about why that’s so important, as well as why she feels so strongly in investing in technology for our collective future.
Dr. Jennifer Woodland (MA’09, PhD’15) is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at UNB’s Saint John campus and an Integrated Health Initiative researcher who teaches within the Bachelor of Health program at UNB. She has a PhD in experimental psychology from UNB, with a focus in multisensory perception. Jen has over 10 years of experience in health research – as a research methodologist for Horizon Health Network and Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick.
Before her academic appointment, she spent 5 years working in the private health sector as the director of human health factors at Canadian Health Solutions where she led a development team toward multidisciplinary medical innovation products. Her research interests are in multidisciplinary health research on medication adherence and combining the use of evidence-based psychological principles to inform the development and improvement of health product usability.
Mi’gmaq entrepreneur Victoria LaBillois (BA’91, MBA’04) is the owner of Wejipeg Excavation Inc. and co-owner of Wejuseg Construction Inc, and oversaw the completion of a major wind park in Gaspesie, Quebec, where the companies trained and engaged over 100 Mi’gmaq tradespeople.
Victoria has served both the First Nation and federal public service, working at the Band, regional, and national levels. She is currently serving as Vice-Chair of the National Indigenous Economic Development Board, and represents the National Indigenous Economic Development Board in the development of Canada’s first National Indigenous Economic Strategy. In addition to advocating for and facilitating conversations at the highest levels around economic reconciliation, she is all about giving back to her community, serving as a mentor and coach to Indigenous women and helping youth build skills around financial literacy. In 2019 AND 2020, Victoria was honoured by the WXN as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women.
Social and technology entrepreneur Tosin Ajibola (MTME’20) moved from Nigeria to Canada to earn a master of engineering degree in technology management and entrepreneurship from UNB. Out of that hands-on program, he and other newcomer classmates co-developed Welkom-U, an innovative online platform that puts newcomers, immigrants, and international students in touch with the things they need to survive and thrive. As CEO of Welkom-U, Tosin is focused on solving problems through technology AND making a social impact.
He is a member of the Atlantic Growth Solutions team, and he serves on the board of Venn Innovation, on the board of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce and on the advisory board at Social Enterprise World Forum. He also leads the Atlantic Canada Chapter of BlackBoysCode, a non-profit organization that aims to improve the future of young black boys through computer science and technology. And he’s been getting noticed: he was named a Top 30 under 30 Innovator in Atlantic Canada in 2021, a Top 25 Canadian Immigrant in 2022 & Top Youth Immigrant in Canada 2022.
H. Wade MacLauchlan (LLB’81) is a well-known Canadian legal expert, academic, university administrator, politician and community leader. As premier of Prince Edward Island from 2015-19, he led an expansion and diversification of PEI's economy and the growth and rejuvenation of the province's population, while contributing to historic, regional initiatives in immigration, infrastructure and economic growth.
Prior to politics, MacLauchlan was the longest-serving president of the University of Prince Edward Island from 1999-2011, but he also has strong connections to UNB: he returned to UNB to serve as dean of law from 1991-1996 and served as founding director of UNB's multi-disciplinary Centre for Property Studies as well as on the advisory board of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research.
Mohamed Bagha (BAMHT'05, MIDST'13) is the managing director of the Saint John Newcomers Centre and chair of the Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce. Originally from Kenya, he arrived in Saint John in the early 2000s to complete his post-secondary education at UNB and has been part of the newcomer support scene in the Port City for over a decade.
Mohamed is interested in helping grow and strengthen the community and is passionate about helping newcomers be part of that growth. He’s worked on initiatives to help newcomers settle more easily in their new home, and to help everyone see the value of community-building work to grow the services available to newcomers.
Join us for a conversation about community-building and the role that both newcomers and long-time community members have in working together.
Barbara Wasson (BScCS’82) is Director for SLATE - The Science of Learning and Technology, the Norwegian national centre for learning analytics. She is one of the founders of Kaleidoscope, a European Network of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning and has been the principal researcher on numerous Norwegian and international projects. She is also member of the Norwegian Ministry of Education’s Expert group on Learning Analytics and the Council of Europe Expert Group on AI in Education.
Barbara is passionate about learning analytics, AI and education, learning games, e-assessment, teacher inquiry, and data literacy. Host Katie Davey chats with her about the future of data and technology in learning design.
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Sara Taaffe (BPHIL’15) is a senior project manager with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in London, England. After graduating with a leadership degree from UNB’s Renaissance College, Sara began applying her passion for social innovation in Atlantic Canada’s technology sector, but after four years began to feel disillusioned with the push for economic growth without putting value on sustainability, ethics, local business and consumer experience.
She disconnected off-grid and began to understand the significant agency that individuals hold in creating positive changes through our day-to-day decisions. Indeed, the compounding effect of these decisions has tremendous influence on that of the wider economy.
This led Sara to pursue a MSc in psychology of economic life at the London School of Economics and create her own podcast. Now working in nature-related finance at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, she explores the intersection of economic progress and sustainability to better understand how to synergize the two.
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Mike Corey (BSc’08) is a biology graduate turned travel host who never turns down an adventure. His curiosity has sent him searching out cultures, creatures, and locations that most people avoid – with the aim of facing – and even chasing – fear. This intense passion has led him to grow his YouTube Channel “Fearless & Far” to over 2M subscribers, receive 2 Emmy nominations for his Adventure Travel TV program "Uncharted Adventure", and an Ambie nomination for his podcast "Against the Odds".
Mike’s career began after receiving his Bachelor of Science from UNB, then backpacking the world for five years volunteering as a research assistant for scientists studying ocean conservation. Bringing a camera along for these trips allowed him to capture the material he needed to win several international travel video competitions and begin his YouTube Channel.
Now a top travel influencer, Mike enjoys teaching others how to face their fears to become happier.
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Dr. Teresa Fowler (MEd’11) is a researcher who is diving into the sexism, misogyny and hypermasculinity of hockey in Canada and who is now working directly with Hockey Canada to try to correct the enduring problems.
Teresa is an assistant professor at Concordia University of Edmonton in the faculty of education. Her research focuses on critical white masculinities and the implications of masculinity on men's mental health in hockey culture as well as anti-colonial pedagogic approaches to teacher education.
She received her Master of Education from UNB and PhD from the University of Calgary, and she has over 15 years of professional experiences in K-12 education in the areas of guidance and counselling, mental health services, and Indigenous education.
In this episode, Dr. Fowler discusses what is causing harm to young hockey players' identities and mental health, how Hockey Canada can take the lead and make a shift nationwide and why that’s important for all sports, and how silence is hard to break.
In this episode, Lea discusses how she learned that advocacy can make a difference; her work today in human rights, governance and reconciliation; and shares ideas for being an ally moving forward and how to further the Calls to Action.
In this episode, Mark discusses the good news approach to Huddle and why people crave positive stories that inspire action, and shares ideas on solutions for local journalism in the future.
In this episode he discusses how he and others are pressing forward to eradicate racism in Montreal and beyond and why his advanced education was his way to empower himself and his needs in society.
In this episode, she shares her account of being in Afghanistan during an extremely challenging transition period of the American withdrawal of troops and takeover by the Taliban. She reveals insights on the future for women in Afghanistan, engaging and educating women for global societal stability, and more.
In this episode John discusses the magnificent historical architecture of New Brunswick and the not-so-magnificent modern architecture of New Brunswick, his favourite buildings on UNB’s campuses and why they’re significant, and what it means to love a place and steward it.
In this episode she discusses the challenges that persist in Canada when it comes to joining the global competition, the future of jobs and how people can use tech while keeping the focus on people, and what she's excited about for the future.
In this episode, Donald and Katie have a fascinating conversation about the increasing centralization of power among various Western governments, his take on accountability and trust in Canada, and why he's a "Maritime nationalist."
In this episode, Emilie shares her non-linear path from UNB to living on five different continents, and discusses what human centered design means in the field and gender education and equality efforts in Uganda – and why it’s so important.
In this episode, Josh O'Kane (BSc/BA ‘09) discusses the background and inside scoop behind Sidewalk Labs and the Toronto city of the future that never happened, how he was able to build trust to learn the real story, and his first book on singer/songwriter Joel Plaskett and the “place” connection between his books.
In this episode, Mitch discusses the passion and technology behind Upstreet reducing its carbon footprint, how to find balance as an entrepreneur and creating a non-alcoholic craft beer.
In this episode, Julia discusses why she loves her hometown of Saint John, her thoughts on challenging interviews, journalism since COVID-19, and what she learned at UNB that is so important in her professional life.
In this episode, Brandon discusses his experience teaching Indigenous youth in his home community, the challenge of starting and growing an Indigenous business, and why incorporating the Mi’kmaq language into storytelling is a better way to expose young readers to culture and pride.
In this episode, Tom discusses how he broke into the big leagues on Bay Street, his secrets to investment success and why he values giving back to the community.
In this episode Mike discusses his work as an ER and aerospace physician, what it’s like to be part of a space crew, and what it takes to follow your dreams and shoot for the stars.
In this episode she discusses her role as Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Geographic, the polarization of media and influence of social media, and the rewards of doing what you love.
In this episode, Ash discusses the lessons he learned through early explorations of building apps during the rise of the smartphone, his approach to compassionate software development and his motivation for building a psychologically safe work environment.
In this episode he discusses the dangers and rewards of leading humanitarian work with UNICEF around the globe and how taking the chance to study at UNB changed the course of his life.
In this episode Olive discusses her experience as an international student at UNB and how organizations can intentionally include more diverse people and build more representative teams.
In this episode he discusses the importance of the ecosystem in welcoming newcomers, how the TME program helped him build the foundations of his business and how giving back to the community helps everyone feel they belong.
In this episode he discusses his experience with the Canadian Real Estate Association, the hot Canadian real estate market and its volatility, and networking with others to help close a deal.
In this episode they discuss leading healthcare through a pandemic, addressing current and future challenges and adapting to change.
In this episode, Sam discusses her experience being persistent even in the face of failure, staying mentally fit and competing on a global stage.
In this episode, Eric Cook (BScE'88) and the AAA team discuss early career wins, including NASA, Industry 4.0 and the next wave of automation, and why innovation can happen anywhere.
In this episode Cayman Grant (BBA’01) discusses using your degree to become anything you want, her passion for telling the story of underdogs and why we need to talk about failure.
In this episode Natalie Weigum (BSc’10) discusses working on transformative climate change projects, optimisms about the future of climate change and advice for not being afraid of change in your career.
Michaela D'Intino (BScE’16) discusses the importance of local supply chains and why she’s passionate about building strong operations at a local Atlantic company.
Dr. Pam Palmater (LLB'97) is an award-winning public speaker, author and social justice activist. She was one of the spokespeople and public educators for the Idle No More movement and continues to advocate alongside other social movements focusing on Indigenous rights, social justice and climate action. She is also a well-known media commentator and public speaker - considered one of Canada’s Top 25 Influential Movers and Shakers by the Financial Post. Pam is a member of the Eel River Bar First Nation in northern New Brunswick and has four university degrees, including a law degree from UNB in 1997. She’s been a practicing lawyer for 22 years and is currently a Professor and the Chair in Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University.
Jason Goldlist (BPhil’06), graduated from UNB with a Bachelor of Philosophy in Leadership from Renaissance College and is currently CEO and co-founder of Venue, an online platform for virtual special events that inspire and engage. He’s also co-founder of TechTO and has an impressive resume, including as Head of Marketing and General Manager of Wealthsimple.
Welcome to UNBeknownst, a podcast for alumni, by alumni.
In the pilot episode, University of New Brunswick Associated Alumni Executive Director Michelle McNeil gets to know our volunteer alumni hosts of Season 1 of this new podcast. UNBeknownst explores unexpected career paths, insights of alumni learned from experience outside the classroom, and hot takes on current issues. In our pilot episode, learn more about our hosts:
