The Contours of Filipino Social Work Praxis in the Canadian Diaspora Virtual Symposium
Speaker Profiles
February 7 to 9, 2025
Get to know our speakers, panelists, and guests!
Organized by schedule.
The Honourable Wanda Thomas Bernard, PhD, C.M., O.N.S. Senator – Nova Scotia (East Preston)
Opening Keynote: Creating New Possibilities in Social Work: Lessons from an Africentric Perspective
In November 2016, Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard became the first African Nova Scotian woman tobe appointed to the Senate of Canada. She proudly holds her position in the Red Chamber representing the province of Nova Scotia, championing issues impacting African Canadians nationally in her work. Senator Bernard is a proud resident of East Preston, where she lives with her husband George, their daughter Candace, son-in-law David and grandsons Damon and Gavin.
Throughout her social work career, Senator Bernard has maintained a deep dedication to social justice and racial justice. Based on this work and perseverance she was awarded the Order of Canada in 2005, and the Order of Nova Scotia in 2014. After practicing frontline social work in Nova Scotia and founding the Association of Black Social Workers in 1979, Senator Bernard became a professor at the Dalhousie School of Social Work in 1990 where she subsequently held the position of Director for 10 years. During her time at Dalhousie, Senator Bernard developed a curriculum for the ‘Africentric Social Work’ course. In 2016, she was appointed Special Advisor on Diversity and Inclusiveness at Dalhousie University and is the first African Nova Scotian to hold a tenure track position. In 2017, Senator Bernard was the first African Canadian to be appointed Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Work (SSW) at Dalhousie University; the first woman within the SSW to achieve this appointment. In recognition of her work to advance diversity and inclusion through leadership, activism, research and community efforts, Senator Bernard was awarded the Frank McKenna Award for Leadership in Public Policy in 2021.
Senator Bernard has continued to enact social justice and fight for racial justice in the Senate. Senator Bernard is the Deputy Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights and she also serves as the Deputy Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology. She is proud to be a member of the Progressive Senate Group, and a founding member of the African Canadian Senate Group.
Discussant: Dr. Ed Ou Jin Lee (Associate Professor, Université de Montréal)
Moderator:
Ben Capili (PhD Student, Memorial University)
Benito Capili graduated with a BSW from Booth University College and an MSW from Wilfrid Laurier University. He is currently a PhD in Social Work student at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Benito has been involved with numerous research projects, such as historical research on southern Ontario poorhouses in the late 19th to early 20th centuries and a study on police responses to gendered violence on university campuses. Benito has a passion for issues involving race, diversity, and equity. During his MSW studies, he was involved with the Equity Planning Committee to develop a Five-Year Equity Plan for the Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty of Social Work. Benito has been employed in the field of mental health for several years in Winnipeg, MB, which has involved hospital social work, family therapy services, Social Work Clinical Lead, and management positions in child & adolescent mental health and adult day hospitals. His research interest involves the exploration of mental health help seeking behaviours of first generation Filipinx in Canada.
Panelists:
Benjamin Bongolan (PhD Student, University of Toronto)
Benjamin is a queer Filipino community development practitioner and a 2nd year PhD student in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto- OISE. He is currently the EDIAA Lead (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Anti-Racism) at the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Division and is an urban planning Instructor at Seneca College. He completed a master’s degree in urban planning from York University and a BA from the University of Toronto. He was named a 2021 Leading Social Justice Fellow with the School of Cities and a 2018 DiverseCity Fellow with the Civic Action Leadership Foundation.
John Segui (PhD Student, University of Toronto)
John Segui (he/him) is a Ph.D. student in Public Health at the University of Toronto, a Research Trainee at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and a 2SLGBTQ+ Health Hub Fellow. Prior to his doctoral work, he has been a practicing social worker for over 5 years in Vancouver, BC. Primarily, he has worked in in-patient psychiatry in B.C. Children’s Hospital and a community psychotherapist working with children, youth, immigrant, and 2SLGBTQ+ community. John’s doctoral dissertation examines the association between mental health and sexual racism experienced by young Asian men who have sex with men on dating applications.
Shella Zagada (PhD Candidate, University of Toronto)
Shella Zagada is a program manager and oversees field education in graduate social work. With a background in psychology, sociology, and social work, she is currently pursuing her PhD in Adult Education & Community Development. Shella is a first-generation Filipino immigrant who has lived and worked in Korea and Hong Kong, prior to her family’s arrival in Canada. She has contributed to diverse roles across academic administration, field education, family & children’s services, migrants’ rights training, youth and gender justice, international development work, and human resource development. Shella engages in collaborations that are compassionately just, antiracist, anticolonial, equity-focused and inclusive.
Monica Anne Batac (PhD, McGill University)
Monica Anne Batac (she/they/siya) is currently a Lecturer at University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Social Work and completing her PhD in Social Work at McGill University. She is a critical qualitative researcher, community practitioner, and educator. Her interdisciplinary research program focuses on community capacity-building and mobilizing with Filipino community members, groups, and organizations in Canada.
Discussant: Dr. Billie Allan (Associate Professor, University of Victoria)
Moderator:
Ruth Wilson (PhD Student, University of Toronto)
Ruth Wilson (she/her) is a faculty member at the School of Social Work at King’s University College at Western University. She has more than 10 years of professional experience as a community practitioner and 15 years of experience conducting participatory action research with racialized communities. Her research draws on critical race and participatory frameworks to mobilize racialized immigrants and refugees as significant knowledge producers in social work. As part of this work, Ruth examines the nature of epistemic in/justice in the ways research is produced and applied in social work in North America.
Panelists:
Melissa Cortez (MSW Student, McMaster University)
Melissa (she/her/siya) is a diasporic second-generation Filipina from Tkaronto (Toronto), ON. She is a current MSW Critical Analysis student at McMaster University and currently holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto (Sociology, Equity Studies, and Buddhist Psychology & Mental Health), Social Service Work diploma from George Brown College, and a Bachelor of Social Work degree from McMaster University. Her research interests include second-generation Filipino experiences, identity navigation, transnationalism, youth work, and community-based research. She has experience working with marginalized youth and families, post-secondary assistant teaching, working with youth mental health in a clinical setting, and research partnered with university and non-profit community organizations. She is dedicated to continuous un/learning pertaining to Filipino diasporic epistemologies and developing theoretical foundations that will better inform her social work research/practice with marginalized youth and communities.
SherJan Maybanting (MSW Student, University of Regina)
SherJan Maybanting is a diasporic first-generation economic-based migrant from the Philippines. He is a racialized settler since 2009 in the colonial state of Canada’s rural geographic location situated in Treaty 4 Territory that encompasses the lands of the Cree, Saulteaux (SO-TOE), Dakota, Nakota, Lakota, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation in the province of Saskatchewan. He descended from ancestry that was colonized by Spain for over three centuries, went under American rule for almost five decades, and was occupied by Japanese for over three years. It is this positionality and social (dis)location that his research intentionality and work inclination is towards decolonial and anti-racist engagements.
Dr. Jessica Ticar (Assistant Professor, Algoma University)
Jessica E. Ticar, PhD, RP, CCC, is an interdisciplinary scholar, a Registered Psychotherapist (RP) with the College of Registered Psychotherapist Ontario (CRPO), and a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA). Since 2008, she has worked in various social service and community mental health agencies. Her scholarly interests include work with anti-racist & anti-oppressive practice, critical mental health theory & practice, and transnational migration with racialized children, youth, and families. Currently, she works as an Assistant Professor in Mental Health and Addiction at the School of Social Work, Algoma University in the Greater Toronto Area.
Nellie Alcaraz (PhD Student, McGill University)
Nellie came to Canada under the now-defunct live-in caregiver program and has been living in Mohkinstsis (Calgary) for more than a decade. Nellie’s way of thinking and living has been shaped by her experience living in underprivileged neighborhoods in the rural and urban areas of the Philippines where she originally came from. Nellie is a migrant and Indigenous rights advocate. She is a Ph.D. candidate at McGill University’s School of Social Work and her doctoral research will examine the experiences of non-status migrants in Canada.
Discussant: Dr. Rhonda Hackett (Associate Professor, University of Victoria)
Moderator:
Frankie Cabahug (PhD student, University of British Columbia)
Frankie (she/her, siya) is an interdisciplinary scholar from Cebu, Philippines. Frankie is a PhD student at the School of Social Work in the University of British Columbia, and has worked in the social service and shelter sectors serving Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for the last 10 years. Frankie’s research interests are social infrastructure, relationship formation, migration and mobility frameworks, and Filipino postcolonial theorizing.
Panelists:
Althea Gorospe (MSW, Toronto Metropolitan University)
Althea Gorospe, MSW, RSW (she/her) is a racialized immigrant settler woman with ancestral roots in the Philippines, a community practitioner (SSW, BSW, MSW), and a critical researcher living and working in so-called Toronto. Her work is grounded in anti-oppressive, critical race feminist praxis and is focused on mental health care, advocacy, and community organizing in the gender justice and anti-violence movement. Her research interests include gender-based violence; critical Filipino/a/x studies; anti-racism and anti-colonialism; and intergenerational trauma and healing.
Darnel Tormon Forro (PhD Candidate, Memorial University of Newfoundland; Faculty Member, Red Deer Polytechnic)
Darnel T. Forro is passionate about the critical examination and deconstruction of dominant discourses that define and silence the realities of oppressed populations. He is a faculty member at Red Deer Polytechnic’s Social Work Program and holds a Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work from the University of Manitoba. As a Ph.D. student at Memorial University of Newfoundland, his doctoral work is invested in understanding the sexual experiences of migrant and racialized queer Filipino men in rural Canadian contexts. His study is informed by intersectional, critical, structural, and anti-colonial lenses. Darnel is an advocate for the centering of pre-colonial global south knowledges as a means for resistance and liberation, and as a potent tool for exploring contemporary experiences of individuals and collectives whose life stories are marked by invisibility and erasure.
Anabelle Ragsag (PhD Candidate, McMaster University)
Anabelle B. Ragsag is a feminist scholar from Mindanao with training in Political Science and Labour Studies at the University of the Philippines. She is a PhD student at McMaster University’s School of Social Work. Anabelle grounds her work in decolonial feminisms and design justice frameworks in interrogating the intersections of colonialism, class, race, gender, and technology. She is a graduate resident at the Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship and is a PhD Fellow/Convener of Student Caucuses. Anabelle is the creator of Sadya:Filipino Conversation Circle, a heritage language learning initiative at the Hamilton Public Library.
Dr. Jax Colting Stol (PhD, McGill University)
Jax Colting Stol (she/her) completed a Masters (Carleton University) and a Ph.D. in Social Work (McGill University). Her research and practice focus on learning from and engaging with social movement praxis and intergenerational healing, especially among queer and trans racialized and Filipino/a/x communities. She is also interested in community and activist archiving practices to add to more transformative possibilities across generations.
Jaisa Sulit
Guided Wellness Practice
Jaisa Sulit (she/her/siya) is an author and neuro-rehab occupational therapist who lives and works in Tkaronto. Her parents immigrated to Turtle Island from the islands colonially known as the Philippines. After a motorcycle accident left Jaisa with a spinal cord injury and paralysis from the waist down, Jaisa’s healing quest led her on a path of re-indigenizing her colonially shaped understanding of what medicine can be. Jaisa went on to become certified to teach medical qigong and the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) curriculums. Prior to her injury Jaisa performed with Folklorico Filipino Canada and the Kathara Indigenous Arts Collective. Jaisa is a proud member of Salaysay, which is a collective of Filipinx-Canadian writers in Tkaronto. Jaisa is excited to be a part of this years FCSCWN Symposium.