Speaker Biographies
Melissa Carty
Detective Constable Melissa Carty has worked for York Regional Police since 2006 in a variety of roles that included uniform patrol, Intimate Partner Violence and most recently in Internet Child Exploitation. She has completed a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a certification in Criminal Psychology and Behaviour. Melissa completed one of the first investigations in York Region into Distributing Intimate Image without Consent in 2015. The outcome of this investigation secured case law for the length of in custody sentence of the offender in that incident.
Julia Chan
Julia Chan is a mixed-race settler, writer, artist, and academic. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in Critical Media Practice at the University of Calgary in the Department of Communication, Media, and Film. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Queen's University at Kingston. Her doctoral research—which explored the connections between image-based sexual abuse, surveillance, and cinematic/visual cultures—was supported by a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and a SSHRC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement. Her academic work has appeared in the journal Porn Studies and the edited collection Screening #MeToo: Rape Culture in Hollywood (SUNY Press, 2022). Recently, she was a Mitacs Postdoctoral Visitor in Cinema and Media Arts at York University and the Managing Editor of PUBLIC: Art | Culture | Ideas. In 2021, she was the inaugural Postdoctoral Fellow at Carleton University's Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Christopher Dietzel
Christopher Dietzel, Ph.D. (he/him) is a research associate on the iMPACTS Project and also works in the Sexual Health and Gender (SHaG) Lab. Dr Dietzel's research explores the intersections of gender, sexuality, health, safety, and technology. Recently, his interests have focused on issues of consent and sexual violence, particularly related to mobile apps and LGBTQ+ people.
Alexa Dodge
Dr. Alexa Dodge is an Assistant Professor in Criminology at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is currently researching informal, restorative, and legal responses to technology-facilitated violence and bullying. Dr. Dodge is a socio-legal scholar and critical criminologist with research and teaching interests in the areas of digital criminology, sexual violence, crime & media, criminal justice, and restorative justice.
Hera Hussain
Hera Hussain is the Founder and CEO of CHAYN - a global nonprofit that creates resources on the web to address gender-based violence. Chayn’s multilingual resources, designed with, not for survivors, have reached more than 500 000 people. Raised in Pakistan and living in the UK, Hera knew from early on she wanted to tackle violence against women. She believes in using the power of open source technology, trauma-informed design and hope-filled framing to solve the world's pressing issues. Hera is an Ashoka Fellow, and was on the Forbes 30 Under 30, MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 and European Young Leader 2020 list.
Raine Liliefeldt
Raine Liliefeldt is a South African-born activist and artist whose career has led her across many sectors and has spent the bulk of her career in the non-profit sector in Canada. She is a communications professional, creative organizer, educator and project manager with extensive experience in governance and resource development. As the Director of Member Services and Development at YWCA Canada, she leads strategic programs and initiatives that strengthen the YWCA movement. She has secured funding and managed projects that endeavour to move the needle forward on women’s labour market access, digital literacy, and ending gender-based violence. Raine supports arts, social justice, and youth organizations. She is a board member of the Canadian Black History Projects and Kensington Market Jazz Festival, and the Agora Foundation. She also sits on the Philanthropists’ editorial advisory committee, and on the advisory committee for New Harlem Productions. She is energized by work that leads to transforming workplaces and being a good ancestor.
Faye Mishna
Faye Mishna, PhD, is Professor and former Dean at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. She has over 20 years of practice experience in children’s mental health. Her research focuses on bullying and cyberbullying from the perspectives of the victimized children and youth, their parents, and educators; sexting and online sexual harassment and gender-based abuse among youth; and the informal use of digital/ cyber technology in social work practice. An integral component of her research entails collaboration with schools and community agencies and organizations. Faye is the author of 2 books on bullying (2012 and 2015). She maintains a small private practice in psychotherapy and supervision.
Naomi Sayers
Naomi Sayers is a lawyer and Indigenous feminist, called to the Ontario (2018) and Alberta (2020) bars with nearly a decade of consulting experience. She worked in-house at one of Canada’s largest electricity providers. She has appeared at all levels of court in Ontario; federal court – trial and appeals; Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench; and various tribunal throughout Ontario.
Naomi represented Work Safe Twerk Safe, the first and only federally incorporated non-profit advocacy group dedicated to strippers' rights to work safely in Canada. Her advocacy on their behalf resulted in a precedent setting decision resulting in the Court recognizing the harms that sex workers experience in trying to access justice. That decision was also cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, affirming stigmatized groups’ right to privacy in litigation processes.
Naomi is a member of the Women in Canadian Criminal Defence; Criminal Lawyers’ Association and its Indigenous Committee; Canadian Bar Association and its Aboriginal Law section executive; the Law and Mental Disorder Association; the Ontario Bar Association’s Constitutional and Human Rights section executive, the Aboriginal Law section executive and the Women’s Lawyer Forum section executive.
Kate Sinclaire
Kate Sinclaire is an award-winning adult filmmaker, sex worker rights activist, and revenge porn survivor/thriver. Her life’s work is centered in queer sexual storytelling, resilience, and sex positivity as they relate to dismantling the shame and stigma that empower people to use non-consensual image sharing as a weapon. She is currently studying Law at the University of Ottawa with a focus on digital policy, surveillance, and privacy.
Rhiannon Wong
Rhiannon Wong is the project manager for Women’s Shelters Canada’s new Technology Safety Canada project. Through her project addressing technology-facilitated gender-based violence, Rhiannon has been researching and developing practical technology safety resources for Canadian anti-violence workers, women, girls and gender diverse people that address how technology can be used both to keep women and children safe and misused by perpetrators to commit crimes of domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, impersonation and harassment.
Since 2007, Rhiannon has been delivering technology safety trainings across Canada based on the work of the National Network to End Domestic Violence’s Safety Net project located in Washington, DC. Her training explores technologically-facilitated gender-based violence, safety planning, privacy considerations and organizational technology use. Previously, she was the Technology Safety Project Lead at BC Society of Transition Houses (BCSTH). For more information https://endvaw.ca/technology-safety-canada-project/
