Jesse Moore sees nascent opportunity at the intersection of the private sector and international development: “Whenever people from business and development get together and actually listen to one another, a whole world of possibility opens up.” As Director of Private Sector and Development for CARE Canada – one of the country’s largest humanitarian organizations – Jesse has traveled to more than 20 developing countries, spoken at numerous international conferences and business schools, and consulted with the Minister for International Cooperation on fostering enterprise solutions to poverty.

Tina Piper’s driving goal is to understand and improve the way society distributes property and new technologies. After completing engineering science at the University of Toronto as a National Scholar in 1998, she returned to Halifax to complete a law degree at Dalhousie University. She then pursued a graduate degree in law at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Her doctorate explored how patents were often irrelevant or damaging to the historical development of many medical technologies. Tina is currently clerking for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Next year she will commence a professorship at McGill University and also work as a lead consultant for a non-governmental organization, developing an alternate, equitable system of patents and copyright law.

Convinced of Atlantic Canada’s enormous potential for development, Cape Breton native Wade AuCoin returned there after his studies in commerce at the University of Ottawa. For two years, he worked for La Fédération Acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse (The Acadian Federation of Nova Scotia) in the Chéticamp region, where he helped many community organizations establish cultural, technological and tourism projects.

Chiara Barazzuol is passionate about engaged citizenship. She is committed to positive social change both at home and abroad. Long fascinated by the process through which historically marginalized groups become empowered, Chiara’s academic studies and extensive field research in Latin America have allowed her to explore the agents and conditions for social change. She has worked with indigenous peoples in Ecuador and Guatemala, served as a Minds Matter mentor while living in Harlem, facilitated anti-oppression workshops for the Vancouver Status of Women, advocated for fair trade through Café Etico, and served on the board of Co-Development Canada.

David M. Brock is Chief Electoral Officer, Northwest Territories. In previous roles, he served in the Executive Council offices of the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Government of Nunavut. He studied political science at Dalhousie University, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Western Ontario. He is a Fellow of Action Canada and is a Member the Governor General’s Leadership Conference as well as the Banff Forum, all national programs in public policy and leadership.

Sheelagh Davis believes that we all hold the power to create change. Working as a popular educator and organizer, her efforts have focused on building this capacity and coupling it to a vision of ‘change’ that reflects principles of justice, equity, and sustainability. Combining this passion with skills in process design, facilitation, and collaborative leadership, Sheelagh has had the rich and privileged opportunity to participate in efforts to address issues of social and environmental justice, human rights, globalization and democracy-building in communities across Canada, throughout Latin America, and in her native South Africa.

David is driven to renew Canada’s role in the world and Canadians’ role in Canada. “I see Canada as a model, an experiment where Canadians, and the world’s citizens, can exchange ideas in pursuit of building a more inclusive and just society,” says the Vancouver native who has a BA from Queen’s and a Master’s of International Relations degree from Oxford. He has recently concluded work with Vantage Partners, a spin-off of the Harvard Negotiation Project, where he was lead author of the Canada25 report “From Middle to Model Power: Recharging Canada’s Role in the World.” He is a frequent guest speaker on this topic, engaging students, academics and policymakers at, among other places, Mt. Alison, UBC, Queen’s, McGill, the Privy Council Office and Foreign Affairs Canada.

Susanna Haas Lyons is a citizen engagement practitioner and communications strategist. She has over six years experience with some of North America’s largest and most complex public participation projects. Most recently, Susanna served as Communications Manager and Program Associate at AmericaSpeaks, a leader in methods that bring together citizens and decision-makers to create better policy. Susanna also developed AmericaSpeaks’ online citizen engagement strategy. Earlier, Susanna worked as a Stakeholder Engagement Consultant for business, government and non-profit organizations. Notably, Susanna served as Project Coordinator with the British Columbia Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.

Children’s rights advocate Craig Kielburger believes that “We are the Generation that We have been Waiting For!” In 1995, at age 12, he founded Free The Children, a network of ‘children helping children through education’. FTC’s international development projects have since improved the lives of more than one million children around the world, including the construction of over 400 primary schools in developing countries and distribution of more than 200,000 school and health kits in 39 countries. In 1999, with his brother Marc, Craig co-founded Leaders Today, an organization that provides training in leadership and global citizenship to more than 250,000 students annually across North America. Craig, a native of Toronto, is the author or co-author of four best-selling books, with translations in eight languages.

Anil Patel was born in London Ontario in August 1974 and raised in the nearby farming community of Chatham. He was educated at Queen’s University, earning an Environmental Chemistry degree. Anil entered the work-force with Molson Canada. After 6 years of channel marketing, territory sales and business development experience, he made a decision to pursue an idea he had to get engage people his age in community work. In 2001, Anil along with some of his university friends co-founded Framework Timeraiser, a program aimed at engaging skilled and energetic Canadians to get involved in the community. The Timeraiser is a silent art auction with a twist: instead of bidding money, participants bid volunteer time, to volunteer agencies that need their skills and energy.

Lyndsay is the youngest elected official in Vancouver’s history, and the city park board commissioner is passionate about engaging her generation in community building and decision making. “I want them to become more critical of the world around them,” she says, “to find out information on their own and empower themselves to make decisions.” Lyndsay co-founded Check Your Head (CYH) in 1999 and now co-directs the youth-driven group, which “connects the dots” between global and local issues. CYH has reached some 15,000 people during 600 workshops. Originally from Ottawa, Lyndsay “escaped” to Vancouver in 1997 as the youth organizer of the APEC People’s Summit.

Freddy aspires to reduce inequities in health through medicine and policy, both in Canada and abroad. “I want to even the playing field,” says the Armenian-born North Vancouverite, who has a BSc from the University of British Columbia, an MSc from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Oxford. Currently in second year at UBC medical school, Freddy plans to specialize in trauma surgery and also become a provider of generic medicine to developing countries.

Craig is a quintessential people person. “I’m passionate about the energy people have within them and how you can help bring that out,” says the Regina native, who is completing an MA in physical education at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s. After graduation, Craig hopes to use the inspirational power of sport to tap into that energy in disadvantaged children, enriching their lives and communities, especially in developing countries. It’s a goal that crystallized during his volunteer work in West Africa as a program coordinator for Right To Play (formerly OympicAid) after completing a BA in physical activities studies at the University of Regina.

Beverly never expected to be selected as an Action Canada Fellow. “I don’t have any initials at the end of my name,” jokes the legislation development manager with the Carcross/Tagish First Nation (CTFN) near Whitehorse, Yukon. What Beverly does have is considerable experience forging aboriginal land-claim and self-governing structures. She has also been instrumental in numerous grass roots initiatives and has a distinguished record of commitment to the environment, health, education and traditional values of her people. A Dakl’aweidí clan member of Tagish and Tlingit heritage, Beverly played a key role in negotiating the CTFN’s treaty and self-government agreements with the federal government from 1996-2004.