Two social champions who take to heart connecting with different communities and audiences will inspire you at the 2022 IAP2 North American Conference, September 14 - 16 in Banff, AB.

Shalini Sinha is an accomplished and award-winning speaker driven to inspire, uplift, and evolve the thinking of her audiences. She recently moved back to Edmonton after spending many years in Ireland, and is now the chair of the city’s Antiracism Advisory Committee, leading the work to advocate for and achieve a collaborative decision making platform for the most marginalized and most impacted to be partners in decision making in a decolonized and antiracist way. Among Ms. Sinha’s recent appearances have included the keynote for the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services’ inaugural Leadership Learning series; speaking at an event for the Dalai Lama in Ireland; and a TEDx talk entitled, “Are You Consciously Creating a Culture of Respect?” (Photo: Al Higgins)

Empowering children to thrive socially and emotionally is the calling of our other speaker, Steve Mesler. The former Olympian -- part of the USA four-man bobsled team that won the gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver -- is co-founder, alongside his sister, Dr Leigh Mesler Parise, of Classroom Champions. This non-profit works with Olympic, Paralympic, university student-athletes and professional athletes to mentor children and provide scholarships to Title I (a U.S. government designation for those at risk of failure and living at or near poverty), rural, and Indigenous communities across the US and Canada. Qualities like conflict resolution and emotional reasoning are taught to K-8 students in ways they can relate to. Steve is also on the board of directors of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (Photo: Sports Illustrated).