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The application period for Canada’s top accelerator of policy leaders is officially open. Apply by March 19!

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Become an Action Canada Fellow
Learn more about how you can become a more effective leader, affect policy making in Canada and join a community of change makers.
The application process for the Action Canada Fellowship is now open for 2023/24. Learn more and apply by March 19, 2023 at midnight EDT.
Action Canada Community
More than 250 outstanding Canadians whose talents, experiences and perspectives represent the mosaic of our country have been Action Canada Fellows, connected through shared experiences in communities across Canada. Action Canada Alumni form a community that aims to make positive impacts on public policy across the country and around the globe. Action Canada is about today’s leaders nurturing the next generation of leadership in Canada.
Learn more about the leaders who are part of this unique community.
Discover Our Fellows & Alumni
Fellows
Each year we select up to 20 emerging leaders to become Action Canada Fellows. They are the top candidates from a nationwide call for applications, hailing from major cities and smaller communities such as Carcross, Yukon; Witless Bay, NL and Fermont, QC.
They represent all sectors, including business, NGOs, science, government and academia. What they share in common is a commitment to Canada and a demonstrated engagement with public policy.
Discover our Fellows from this year and past years.

- Karl
- Schwonik
2018/2019 Fellow
Karl has served on a plethora of boards including appointments to the Government of Alberta’s Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Travel Alberta. In addition to teaching and working at several prominent post-secondary institutions, Karl currently serves as an Associate Dean at Medicine Hat College. He has completed studies in music, business and arts leadership at Cambridge University, University of Toronto, McGill University and the University of Calgary. Additionally, he has received numerous awards and honours including: the Lt. Governor of Alberta’s award, Queen’s Jubilee award, Canada Council and SSHRC grants, and was named one of Calgary’s ‘Top 40 Under 40’ by Avenue magazine.
Albertan Karl Schwonik has had an extensive and successful career in the arts, education and entrepreneurial sectors. In 2008, he founded the Wetaskiwin Jazz Society (WJS): a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing education to rural Alberta. While serving as President and Artistic Director, the WJS’s programs reached nearly 20,000 rural students and collaborated with stakeholders from local small businesses to international banks and multinational energy companies.

- Grace
- Lee
2021/22 Fellow
She has supported diplomacy, development, defence efforts in Kandahar, Afghanistan and worked to empower vulnerable populations at the Canadian embassies in Kabul, and Juba, South Sudan. Most recently, she represented Canada at the United Nations in New York City. Grace holds a M.P.P. from Princeton University, M. Phil. in Development Studies at Cambridge University, and her B.A. in International Relations from the University of British Columbia. She is the recipient of the Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan, the Cambridge Trust Scholarship, and the Canadian Millennium Excellence Award.
In her free time, Grace is an avid marathon runner, enjoys snowboarding in Whistler, kayaking in the Haida Gwaii, and volunteering for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Mountains, ocean, and forests. Grace is proud to come from beautiful British Columbia. Having grown up in North Vancouver, she contributed to her local community volunteering at summer youth camps in rural B.C. that bridged the Korean and Indigenous cultures. Leaving the comforts of Vancouver living, Grace pursued a diplomatic career at Global Affairs Canada. Currently, she is a Specialist for the Korean Peninsula based in Ottawa and grateful for the opportunities to represent Canada abroad.

- Julia
- Fan Li
2013/2014 Fellow
Julia’s research examined financing alternatives for creating sustainable business models in the life-sciences sector that could increase affordability and access. Julia is also co-founder and trustee of the African Innovation Prize, a social enterprise that encourages university entrepreneurship through business-plan competitions in Rwanda and Sierra Leone. She serves as a policy advisor to the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health.Julia completed her undergraduate education with a dual concentration in finance and immunology from the University of British Columbia. She started her career with KPMG LLP as a Chartered Accountant (CA) in the Canadian biotechnology practice.
Julia has worked at the intersection of business and science on four continents and recognizes both the challenges and opportunities in global health.
Outside of work, Julia has enjoyed volunteering for the past three Olympiads in Canada House in Beijing 2008, Press Operations in Vancouver 2010 and IOC Anti-Doping in London 2012.
Julia Fan Li is currently a director at the Global Health Investment Fund – an innovative financing vehicle aimed at funding research and development of global health interventions including drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for diseases that disproportionately burden low-income countries. Julia holds a PhD in technology management from the University of Cambridge where, as a Gates Scholar, she completed research on building incentives for healthcare innovation for bottom-of-pyramid markets.

- Joanna
- Wong
2011/2012 Fellow
Joanna first went to China in 2005 to study Mandarin on a Chinese government scholarship and currently divides her time between Beijing and Vancouver. She trains and teaches Chinese Kungfu at the Beijing Milun School of Traditional Martial Arts.
Joanna Claire Wong is a principal at Flow Creative, an award-winning advertising agency with offices in Beijing, Vancouver, Hong Kong and LA. Flow Creative is proud to have worked with the UN, Burson-Marsteller, U.S. Department of Energy, the Canadian Tourism Commission, the City of Vancouver, Adidas China and Taiji Zen, a health brand founded by celebrity Jet Li and Alibaba Founder Jack Ma. Joanna is passionate about building greater understanding between Canada and China through media. She is an Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada Media Fellow and her commentary on Asia has appeared in The Globe and Mail and other international publications. In China, Joanna has worked on a national climate action movement with a network of 50 Chinese universities and in the administration of the BC-Canada Pavilion, a trade showcase at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In 2010, she co-organized Beijing’s first Ethical Trade Fair.

- Lindsay
- Colley
2017/2018 Fellow
Lindsay is currently on the board of Fairtrade Canada and a member of the Social Issues Committee of the Salvation Army Canada & Bermuda Territory. She was previously Vice-Chair of the Toronto Public Library Board and Treasurer of the Canadian Environmental Law Association. She lives in Toronto with her husband and three boys.
Lindsay Colley, CPA, CA, is a sustainability professional and currently teaches corporate social responsibility at York University and the University of Toronto. Lindsay’s career has spanned both the audit and sustainability fields. She recently spent five years as Director, Thought Leadership at the Canadian Accountability Board where she worked to influence the future of audit in Canada. Previously, Lindsay worked at Ernst & Young LLP and Tim Hortons Inc. in corporate social responsibility roles. In addition to her Chartered Accountancy (CPA, CA) designation, Lindsay has both a Bachelor of Business Administration and Certificate of Environmental Management from the University of Toronto, and her Fellow in Board Governance designation.

- Stéphanie
- Yates
2006/2007 Fellow
She was actively involved in preparing Connecting Québec to its Citizens, a report used by the Québec government to orient its development efforts around the e-government initiative. As her political career has produced more questions than answers, Stéphanie is now doing her PhD in political science at Laval University. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada is helping her in her studies with their most prestigious scholarship. Having already published some of her work, Stéphanie studies how interest groups use communication and information technologies in a context where e-democracy initiatives have the support of governments and where these efforts can contribute to re-establishing citizens’ trust in their democratic institutions.
Stéphanie wants to work against the ambient cynicism directed towards Canadian democratic institutions. She holds a B.A. in communication with a public relations specialization from University of Quebec in Montreal and a Master’s degree in public communication from Laval University. She centered her Master’s research on lobbyism in Quebec, work which earned her a place among the finalists for the Jean-Charles Bonenfant Award for the best Master’s thesis on Quebec politics. Stéphanie’s professional career is characterized by its diversity. After assuming responsibility for the public relations and marketing portfolio of an environmental multinational business for three years, she decided to jump into the political arena. After successfully completing a one-year internship at the National Assembly of Quebec, she worked as a political attachée for the office of the Premier of Quebec, and then became press attachée and vice-chief of office for the Minister of e-government, also in Quebec.

- Ali
- Okhowat
2010/2011 Fellow
He is currently an intern at the Institute for Health and Social Policy in Montreal, where he is studying the association between healthcare expenditures by OECD countries and healthcare access, quality and outcomes, in order to discern best practices and ethical principles to guide healthcare spending.
Ali Okhowat is passionate about improving access to essential medicines, technologies, and quality healthcare in Canada and around the world. A medical resident and fellow of the Humanitarian Studies Initiative at McGill University and Master’s student in Bioethics at the Université de Montréal, Ali has had a long-standing interest in global health and health policy issues and is a linguaphile, speaking Farsi, Mandarin, Spanish, and French and currently studying Arabic and Russian. As a past Valedictorian at the University of Toronto Medical School and founder of numerous global health and social justice initiatives, Ali has always viewed his participation in student governance and civil society organizations as an integral part of his education.

- Eric
- Tribe
2011/2012 Fellow
Eric is passionate about community involvement both locally and abroad, having partnered with Future Possibilities for Kids in Toronto as well as Habitat for Humanity. In addition, he has co-led the foundation of two charitable foundations within the Greater Toronto Area, focused on improving access to education. In his spare time, Eric enjoys a wide range of sports and outdoor activities. He is a marathon runner, a certified scuba diver, amateur soccer player and snowboarding enthusiast.
Eric Tribe is a consultant in the Toronto office of the Boston Consulting Group. Eric, who joined BCG in 2008, has been involved in several major strategic transformation programs spanning several industries including financial services, health care, transportation and logistics, industrial goods, and public services. His career has provided opportunities to work across Canada, in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, as well as internationally in the USA and Israel. Eric graduated from the University of Western Ontario, where he graduated with a degree in Honours Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

- Tahara
- Bhate
2018/2019 Fellow
A long-standing supporter of advocacy in medicine, Dr. Bhate spearheaded the development of a provincial advocacy program for UBC Medical students, now entering its 5th consecutive year. Supporting the movement towards a social accountability mandate in medical training, her concept of a competency-based advocacy curriculum was published in a leading medical journal, and later included in a national framework. Passionate about removing barriers to medical education, Tahara has been involved in numerous outreach initiatives, including organizing province-wide presentations from medical students to high school students in rural communities. Dr. Bhate holds a Bachelors of Science in Honors Biochemistry and a Medical Doctorate, as well as a Masters in Health Sciences (MHSc) with a focus on clinical epidemiology, all from the University of British Columbia.
Tahara Bhate is an early career physician with a dual practice in Hospitalist Medicine and Critical Care. As a faculty member at the University of Calgary, she is highly involved in undergraduate medical education, including curricular design in evidence-based medicine and simulation, while also undertaking a medical education fellowship program next year. Active in research with numerous publications, she focuses on both basic clinical research and quality improvement, with a developing interest in complex care delivery models which draw on her passion for health systems improvement.

- Kris
- Frederickson
2004/2005 Fellow
Kris has been the recipient of numerous accolades including an Action Canada Fellowship and a National Aboriginal Achievement Award. Kris is the co-chair of 2335: A United Way Initiative and co-editor of the book “Notes from Canada’s Young Activists” published in April 2007.
Kris Frederickson is a Water Management Engineer for global energy producer, Nexen Inc. His current work focuses on sustainable water management practices at the Long Lake Project, a joint-venture oil sands project with OPTI Canada. Kris graduated from the University of Manitoba with his undergraduate and master’s degrees in Biosystems Engineering. His post-graduate work centered on water treatment on Manitoban First Nations communities.


Policy Ideas
Each year, Fellows are inspired by a critical policy issue that they examine over the term of the Fellowship. Working in teams, Fellows select, analyze and research an important question. They confer with national experts, establish partnerships with stakeholders, and publish a policy report that feeds innovative ideas into the public policy ecosystem. Many of their recommendations have influenced federal and provincial policy, sparked new organizations and helped improve the lives of Canadians.
Read this year’s policy ideas by Action Canada Fellows on place-based approaches to the future of work.
Our Most Recent Policy Papers

Action Canada in numbers
- 262 Action Canada Fellows from more than 82 different communities across Canada;
- More than 100 communities in Canada visited;
- More than 800 impactful dialogues among Fellows and community leaders;
- 17 years of Fellowship programming excellence;
- 48 ground-breaking policy papers written; and
- One million connections made.
262
Fellows From More Than
84 communities

17
Years of Excellence

>1M
Connections made


In A Few Words





