Board of Directors

Nigel Barriffe

President

A community organizer and an elementary teacher with the Toronto District School Board in Rexdale, Nigel is a Board member of the Rexdale Community Legal Clinic, Board Chair of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, and a member of the Good Jobs For All Coalition. He was the interim-treasurer of the Ontario Alliance of Black School Education (ONABSE) and a former Co-Chair of the African Heritage Educator’s Network (AHEN). Nigel’s activist work focuses on quality public education, good green jobs, and a more just society for all inside and outside the classroom. His efforts have been recognized through a number of community service awards including the 2011 Urban Heroes Award, the 2012 JS Woodsworth Award and the 2014 Jack White Service Award from the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. He holds a Masters’ degree from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Deborah R. Nurse

Deborah Hinds-Nurse (Deb) is a lesbian woman passionate about social justice. An abhorrence for a world that structures people in specific places and status led her to a commitment of service to advance human development and social justice. Her life-long goal is to contribute towards a changing world by bending the arc towards justice.

Deb started a PhD with Carleton University. Her research interest is in understanding how economics can both simultaneously liberate and impede the decriminalization of sodomy in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Deb hopes to add to the body of knowledge that explores the links between economics and decriminalization in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

Deb has served on several boards in Ottawa, Toronto and in her native country of Barbados. Her stewardship at the governance level along with her professional skills in financial management, project management and policy analysis augurs well for service on the Board of Urban Alliance on Race Relations.

Emily Mooney

Emily is a trained researcher, writer, facilitator, teacher, and registered social worker with nearly two decades of experience leading diverse groups. She has been on the UARR board since 2016. Her work teaching adult ESL, particularly at Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto, and her more recent study of Black and Indigenous history and culture in Canada, inform her interest in how—and for whom—this country has been constructed. She has worked with Community Living Toronto, CultureLink, COSTI Immigrant Services, CAMH, the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), and the Wellesley Institute to improve supports and services for immigrants and refugees to Canada. She holds an honours B.A. in English literature from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. In 2016, she received her Master of Social Work with a specialization in social justice and diversity from the University of Toronto, and also completed the Collaborative Graduate Program in Ethnic and Pluralism Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs.

Zenia Castanos

Working in the social work field in Toronto since 2006, Zenia is a registered social worker whose work focused on women’s mental health, homelessness, poverty, gerontology, volunteerism and community engagement while aiming to do this work from an anti-racist, antioppressive lens. Her interests are in community-based work, the social determinants of health, racial justice initiatives and increasing access to services. She took part in 2020-2021 as CoChair in the Filipino Youth Fellowship.

Reshma Dhrodia

(she/her)

Reshma Dhrodia is a trauma-informed social worker, educator, and social justice advocate whose professional interests include equity, diversity, inclusion, access (EDIA), wellness, and violence prevention. She has worked/volunteered with the Scarborough Women’s Centre, the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, West Park Healthcare Centre, The Leonard Foundation, and the University of Toronto. Reshma worked in student services at the University of Toronto St. George Campus between 2015 and 2022, supporting and accommodating thousands of students with disabilities across undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. She chaired the Accessibility Services EDIA Committee, which spearheaded ~20 educational and training opportunities related to EDIA for staff. She has also co-designed and facilitated EDIA and bystander trainings for thousands of students, faculty, staff, and librarians. In 2021, she was recognized with a Jill Matus Excellence in Student Services award. In 2023, she will join the University’s Faculty of Music as their first EDI Director. She has been a board member of UARR since 2014.

Nora Hindy

Nora Hindy is the Principal and Educational Leader with the Peel District School Board. She holds a Masters degree in Public Policy, Administration, and Law, and is currently working on her Ph.D. with OISE, in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. As a Director of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, Nora has worked with unions and advocacy groups to help bring the voices of marginalized communities to the forefront. As a community organizer, she co-founded NCCM’s Stronger Together campaign, a democratic engagement campaign aimed at ensuring legislation and policies are reflective of Canada’s diversity. Nora led and organized a nationwide election debate for racialized your aimed at improving the strength of democracy in Canada, alongside organizations like the Laidlaw Foundation, Unifor, United Steelworkers Canada, DawaNet, and NCCM. Nora has spent many years working and advocating for Special Education students. Most recently, she co-founded the Muslim Youth Fellowship, a program that places youth from marginalized communities in City of Toronto council offices. Nora is a change agent who continues to be a strong advocate for students in the public school system in Ontario, facilitating workshops and presentations on topics rooted in Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression, including presentations at the University of Ottawa and York University.

J. S-Quire Johnson

S-Quire has been developing and implementing social justice-focused programs and initiatives within community agencies, for-profit businesses, and educational institutions since 2012. Sourcing anti-racism/oppression frameworks, popular education techniques, and multimedia resources, his work showcases his passion for diversity and inclusion, cultural identity awareness, empowering youth voices, and strengthening healthy families.

S-Quire co-founded The Fatherhood Initiative, a child-centered family service initiative, and is a Senior Consultant with ANKOBEA Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides educational, mentoring, and parenting programs to African, Caribbean & Black children, families, and communities. He has conducted numerous anti-oppression and anti-racism presentations for the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, where he also served as the agency’s Community Advisory Committee Co-Chair.

As a facilitator at Harmony Movement, a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) education organization, S-Quire has developed and delivered engaging programs for students, teachers, and administrators across Canada in the private, public & education sectors, focused on equity, anti-racism, and healing through storytelling. S-Quire has served as the Program Coordinator at Young and Potential Fathers, a culturally responsive family service agency that operates Ujima House, the first and only father-focused family resource centre in Canada.

Christine Maclin

Christine is the Human Rights Director for Unifor and the first Vice President of Unifor Local 195. In addition to organizing multiple roundtable discussions on Islamophobia and racism, she has coordinated many campaigns on temporary foreign workers, gender, and employment equity, challenging racism, and homophobia. This followed her earlier position at FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) Windsor where she assumed responsibility as a Women’s Advocate, human rights investigator, local executive board member, facilitator for the national education department, and ultimately as one of two equity coordinators. In 2015, Christine was one of 250 leaders selected for the Governor General Leadership Conference. She is currently working with unions in the United States to create programs to challenge supporters of white nationalism.

Kirk Mark, M.Ed.

Kirk Mark is a retired Senior Coordinator of the Community Relations Department in Toronto Catholic District School Board (Ontario, Canada), the largest Catholic School Board in the world with 92,000 plus students, 14,000 plus staff, and 200 plus schools. He has been involved in diversity programs in corporations, communities, and schools for over forty years with extensive travel to and consultation within the Caribbean, Europe, The Continent of Africa, and the United States of America. His areas of expertise, while residing in the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario, are Systemic Change Management, Development of Boards of Directors, Professional Learning, Equity and Inclusive Education, Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy, Student-Athletic Development, Parent and Community Capacity Development. Mr. Mark has presented his work, as an author and educationalist, to local, national, and international audiences such as the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE - USA), Cheikh Anta Diop Conference - USA), The University of Toronto’s De Colonizing the Spirit Conference (Canada), various boards of education, business and community organizations.

As a community volunteer, he shares his expertise as an EDI Consultant and Strategist as President of The Canadian Alliance of Black Educators, President of the Toronto Basketball Association, President - of the Canadian Caribbean Amateur Golfers Association, and Member of the Board of Directors - Urban Alliance on Race Relations, to name a few. Some of his past Board experiences are Founding Member - Willowdale Community Legal Clinic; Secretary – Caribbean Cultural Committee (Caribana); Secretary - The West Indian Volunteer Association (Etobicoke), and President - Basketball Ontario. In addition to being listed in Who’s Who in Black Canada (2002, 2006, 2010 Editions), as well as receiving numerous accolades, a few of his awards include the African Canadian Achievement Award for Excellence in Education (Toronto, Ontario), the National Alliance of Black School Educators Ft. Worth Chapter Education Award (USA), the UMOJA Award for Outstanding Community Service (Montreal, Quebec), the Human Rights and Race Relations Centre Gold Medal Award (Toronto, Ontario), the Hispanic Canadian Alliance of Ontario Appreciation Award, the Toronto Basketball Association Award of Excellence, and the Canadian Samaritans for Africa Award.

Jennifer Vong

Jennifer Vong is a creative producer working within Toronto’s vibrant arts and culture sector and is currently the coordinator for the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice. She is an ambitious and creative individual with years of diverse experience in management, arts administration, and production. She was the gallery administrator at the Red Head Gallery, located at 401 Richmond, produced the BIG on Bloor Festival for 2017-19, Bloordale’s annual celebration of local arts and culture, and continues to work with the Director of John B. Aird Gallery, Carla Garnet. With her skills and enriching work history, her current focus is to work with not-for-profit organizations that serve its surrounding communities and contribute to the development of anti-oppression and anti-racism resources and education.

Dr. Alejandro I. Paz

Dr. Alejandro I. Paz is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He has published on the politics of language, media, and citizenship, and his research is regionally based in Israel/Palestine. His current research is about Israeli English online journalism and its digital dissemination throughout North Atlantic news audiences. His earlier ethnographic research examined non-citizen Latinos in Israel, as well as settler tours of an archaeological site in occupied East Jerusalem. His work has been supported by grants from SSHRC, NSF, Fulbright-Hayes, and Wenner-Gren, among others, and has appeared in multiple academic journals. His book Latinos in Israel: Language and Unexpected Citizenship (Indiana UP) was published in 2018.

Dr. Paz has also recently become involved in coordinating new initiatives to improve the Canadian public dialogue on Palestine/Israel. He is the founding co-chair of the Hearing Palestine Initiative at the University of Toronto, which seeks to create a space for research and public deliberation about Palestine. Dr. Paz is also on the founding coordinating committee for the Jewish Faculty Network, which opposes the censorship of legitimate criticisms of the State of Israel, and seeks to fight antisemitism as part of a broader coalition of anti-racist movements.

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