Councillor Leslie Maracle, RECE, SSW, Nation Well-Being and Wellness Lead, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation

Councillor Leslie Maracle gained her communication and advocacy skills working with people on the front lines within her community. She is a Registered Early Childhood Educator, a Registered Reflexologist and has a Social Service Worker Diploma. She also has an Indigenous Diabetes Support Worker Certificate. Prior to her role as Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation Councillor, she worked in many diverse roles working directly with her community and has an understanding of the challenges the community faces. In addition, she is a mother of three who advocates for childrens' best interests. Her goal as Councillor is to empower people within the community and to ensure the programs and services they need are readily available.

Councillor Leslie Maracle is a community focused leader whose work blends professional training, lived experience and advocacy. Her leadership emphasizes practical support systems, health equity, and empowering her Nation through accessible and culturally grounded services.

From Silence to Solidarity, Reflections on Two Decades of Decolonizing Nursing Education

Leanne Poitras Kelly, RN PhD, Metis/Cree cisgender woman originally from Saskatchewan’s Qu’appelle Valley, currently living and working on the unceded and occupied territory of the Coast Salish people of Vancouver Island. Leanne has worked in First Nations community and public health for over thirty years in various communities in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Leanne is currently an Associate Teaching Professor with University of Victoria, School of Nursing. Her work is informed by strong relationships with local First Nations communities and Indigenous nurse mentors and has a strong focus on anti racist pedagogy, strength base Indigenous knowledges and intersectionality of complex community systems which influence health outcomes. Leanne has been involved in supporting nurse education throughout her career through community preceptorships, formal course work, both via distance and in-person classroom settings and immersive land based learning opportunities.

Presentation Description:

Since the release of the TRC Calls to Action in 2015, there has been a significant increase in anti-racist decolonizing education and incorporating Indigenous knowledge into curriculum. As a visibly identifiable Metis/Cree nurse, my entire career has been deeply embedded in the complexity of simultaneously experiencing racism while working to decolonize health care experiences from my role as a community health nurse and educator. Working within a racialized system means responding to the ebb and flow of the overarching social motivation and interest in change. In my career, I have witnessed the spectrum of responses to this work, from disdain, disinterest, curiosity, appropriation, benevolence, appreciation, community engagement and activism.

It is with all this in mind that I share my insights of implementing formal Indigenous-themed course development since 2005 via both distance and in-person delivery methods including land-based immersion. There is no panacea or short cut to equity and reconciliation. Transformational learning requires intention and thoughtful work not only on curriculum development but personal inventories. In this presentation, I will speak on the successes and challenges that I have had as a Metis / Cree nurse educator and my thoughts on nursing’s collective professional imperative to continue decolonizing efforts, including philosophical underpinnings and ethical considerations of including Indigenous Knowledges in our curriculums.

Nursing a Queer Identity, Together

Jess Crawford (they/them) is a white settler, perpetual guest with British and German ancestry, who has lived on several Treaty and stolen Indigenous Lands across so-called Canada, continually learning in relationship, from and with the traditional stewards of those territories. They are a queer, trans, non-binary, and neurodivergent Registered Nurse, educator, and researcher committed to equity, relational accountability, and joyful, liberatory futures. They graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (‘17) from Toronto Metropolitan University (George Brown College cohort). A proud University of Manitoba Master of Nursing graduate (‘25), their thesis work focused on gender affirming practices in nursing education and earned several awards/honours (including a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Master’s-level grant and Canadian Nurses Foundation Scholarship). A 2S/LGBTQ+ Health Hub alum, Jess continues to work in equity-focused research and teaches as a sessional instructor at the University of Victoria, where they will soon pursue a PhD in Nursing, weaving planetary health with queer and trans joy on the Land. Whether teaching, researching, or wandering (often after birds), Jess is dreaming of collective liberation—and warmly invites you to dream with them.

Presentation Description:

Nursing education’s power for envisioning and reimagining is nourished by the diversity among us. Drawing on my experiences as a BScN student who was not yet publicly out, and later as a queer, non‑binary frontline RN, MN student, and now a nursing instructor, I call on nurse educators, scholars, and students to consider our collective responsibility to meaningfully cultivate diversity and belonging within our profession.

Rooted in my thesis research, Student and Faculty Perspectives of Gender Inclusive and Affirming Practices in Undergraduate Nursing Education, I share tendrils of how undergraduate nursing students and nurse educators experience learning and teaching related to gender-affirming care. These perspectives illuminate current gaps in nursing education and shine a light on our shared responsibility to grow safer, more accountable educational environments where new possibilities can take flight.

Speaking from deep care for this profession, nursing education shapes not only the lives of our patients, but also each individual nurse and nursing student, and the ecosystem of our professional collective. Together, we can shift towards solidarity for and with 2S/LGBTQ+ nurses and students among us, cultivating a culture of care, grounded in humility, accountability, and togetherness.

Through a chronology of one white queer settler nurse’s career, I invite you to imagine how we might nurture a “queerer” nursing identity—one that challenges power and norms, moving beyond merely inclusivity towards fully embracing diversity as the fertile soil for nursing excellence.

Come: Listen, fidget, reflect, learn, and be uncomfortable! Together, we can rise to our responsibility and nurse a queerer, more courageous collective identity into full bloom, letting our profession spread its wings like never before.

Layers of Possibilities: Reimagining Nursing Education

Anne-Laurie Beaubrun is a Faculty Lecturer at McGill’s Ingram School of Nursing (ISoN) and currently serves as the Assistant Program Director (APD) for the Bachelor of Nursing Integrated Online Program. Previously, she served as APD for the School’s Satoko Shibata Clinical Laboratories, facilitating clinical skills education. She contributes to curriculum, student and faculty experience, and program coordination, supporting inclusive and equitable nursing education. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of Sherbrooke and a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Ottawa. Her master’s major research paper employed an art-based approach as a method of inquiry and reflection, which she is currently working toward integrating into her teaching. Her clinical background includes pediatric nursing and postpartum community home care. In 2014, she received the Innovation Recognition Award for her involvement in a school-based community engagement initiative.

Anne-Laurie is from Haiti, often called la perle des Antilles. This heritage informs her values and commitment to relational, community-centred approaches in nursing education and practice. Her social justice engagement spans academic, municipal, and national levels. She is an active collaborator with ISoN’s Office of Social Accountability in Nursing. She is a member of the McGill Faculty of Medicine and Health Science’s Health Professions Education Community Engagement and Belonging Committee, and a member of the Vivre Ensemble Advisory Committee for the city of Repentigny. At the national level, she is a member and former Secretary of the CASN Social Justice and Anti-Racism Interest Group.

Presentation Description:

When I reflect on nursing education, I see knowledge, practice, and values come together like layers in a collage, carefully assembled over time, each contributing to the whole. Rooted in its history yet responsive to the present, nursing education evolves alongside an ever-changing world. How might we shape it for the future? What new layers are needed to acknowledge where we have been while responsibly preparing what is yet to come? What masterpiece do we hope to create for nurses and the communities they work alongside?

This presentation explores ways to intentionally integrate social justice—encompassing anti-oppression, decolonization, and advocacy—across multiple levels of nursing education, creating learning experiences that cultivate compassion, authenticity, humility, integrity, reflective practice, and understanding of diverse community realities, while promoting true and sustainable systemic change.

Drawing on research and professional experience, and considering intersecting identities and positionality, this presentation explores how social justice serves as a foundational layer in preparing nurses for contemporary practice. By embedding social justice as a core value, educators foster learning that is inclusive, reflective, and responsive to challenging social contexts. Attendees will gain insight into how social justice can be thoughtfully and creatively integrated throughout nursing education, including teaching, leadership, collaboration with students, colleagues, and community partners to inspire advocacy, relational practice, and equity-focused approaches.

This perspective encourages educators and students to critically examine assumptions, power dynamics, and privileges, consider multiple perspectives, and develop accountable practices that extend beyond the classroom into clinical settings. Integrating social justice in nursing education is no longer aspirational—it requires action now more than ever, as rising to responsibility means moving beyond contemplation into deliberate, tangible steps that shape the future of nursing and the communities we partner with.