Carly Teillet is Métis from the Red River Métis community (Winnipeg). She is the Community Lawyer at the BC Civil Liberties Association. Carly acted as counsel for the Vancouver Sex Workers Rights Collective and the Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society, two parties with standing in the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls. She has represented Indigenous clients in child protection and criminal matters, worked as the inaugural Gladue Lawyer for Legal Services Society of BC, and taught as an Adjunct Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law. Carly has written Gladue Reports for Provincial and Supreme Courts of British Columbia matters. She is a board member of Wish Drop In Centre Society. In addition to her experiential knowledge as a result of her culture, Carly has worked for and developed relationships with individual Indigenous clients, elders, families and communities across Canada.

After having served as a justice of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia from 2001-2014, and the Supreme Court of British Columbia from 1995-2001, Risa is now retired. Before her appointment as a judge, she practised law in Vancouver with the firm of Thorsteinssons, taught tax law at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law, and participated in various legal and community organizations.

Kaila Mikkelsen is the Assistant Dean, Students at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, where she provides personal and academic advising to law students, and creates programming to support student success. She also manages the Peer Tutor and Ambassador programs. Kaila is a former board member of the Simon Fraser University Child Care Society and holds volunteer positions with North Shore Girls Soccer Club and Burnaby-New Westminster Ringette. Kaila has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Victoria, a law degree from Dalhousie Law School and a Master of Laws from the University of Cambridge. Prior to working at Allard Law, she practiced corporate and securities law at a national law firm in Vancouver.

Shahnaz has over 25 years of combined experience as an educator, an author, counselor, facilitator, provincial coordinator of counseling programs for women and children and as a community liaison. In her current role as the Executive Director at the Surrey Women’s Centre, Shahnaz oversees the overall management of programs and services for women who have experienced domestic violence and sexual assault. Shahnaz’s wonderful mother continues to be her strength and hope for advancing women’s safety and empowerment.

Awards: Women of the Decade in Community Leadership and Social Change – 2017 Women’s Economic Forum – Surrey BC

Professional of the Month Award – Yellow Knife – 2003

Dream Catcher Award – Children’s International Conference 1999 – Vancouver, BC

Eva Ureta has worked at WISH since 2009. Being at WISH for close to a decade, Eva has been the Food Coordinator, Drop-In Centre Coordinator and for more than 6-years has been the Supportive Employment Program Coordinator. With an education in Criminology from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Eva continually focused on racial injustices across cultures manifested in the lives of women in the Downtown East side. The violence, abuse, neglect and discrimination faced by women and trans-women in the survival sex trade are a result of the gender and economic inequality in Canadian society. Over the past six and a half years, Eva has seen first-hand how the Supportive Employment Program at WISH has made an impact. Women have the opportunity to find their voice and power, to contribute, understand their equity within the labour market and to feel they are stakeholders in society.