TMU Learning and Teaching Conference: May 17 - 18, 2023

In her role as director of strategic foresight projects, Maria Crabtree (formerly Romero) makes substantive contributions to KnowledgeWorks’ national thought leadership around the future of learning and conducts key strategic foresight activities. She manages projects, directs and carries out some strategic foresight research and collaborates with colleagues to author publications and other assets exploring the future of learning and its implications for education stakeholders.

Maria’s recent experiences as lead researcher and co-facilitator include NASA’s Langley Research Center future of work in 2050+, Kimberly Clark’s future of the circular economy and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research’s future of cancer research. Maria is a coauthor and coeditor of the books Beyond Genuine Stupidity and The Future Reinvented, and she is a contributor to the upcoming Unleashing Human Potential–The Future of AI in Business. She is a recipient of the 2020 Emerald Literati Award.

Maria has developed graphic tools for the Framework Foresight method and scanning process used today in the University of Houston Master in Foresight program, her alma mater.

Ghanaian-born George Sefa Dei is a renowned educator, researcher and writer who is considered by many as one of Canada’s foremost scholars on race, anti-racism studies, Black and minority education, African Indigeneity and anti-colonial thought. He is a widely sought after academic, researcher and community worker whose professional and academic work has led to many Canadian and international speaking invitations in US, Europe and Africa. Currently, he is Professor of Social Justice Education & Director of the Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT).

Professor Dei is the 2015, 2016, 2018-19 Carnegie African Diasporan Fellow. In August of 2012, Professor Dei also received the honorary title of ‘Professor Extraordinarius’ from the Department of Inclusive Education, University of South Africa, [UNISA]. In 2017, he was elected as Fellow of Royal Society of Canada, the most prestigious award for an academic scholar. He also received the 2016 Whitworth Award for Educational Research from the Canadian Education Association (CEA) awarded to the Canadian scholar whose research and scholarship have helped shaped Canadian national educational policy and practice. He is the 2019 Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Chapman University, US - ‘Social Justice Award’ winner. In April of 2021, Professor Dei received the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators [ONABSE] for how long-standing work promoting Black and minority youth education. Also, Professor Dei in October 2022, was named by Silvertrust Media as one of the 100 most influential Black Canadians nationwide. 

In March of 2023, Professor Dei received the highly prestigious ‘2023 President’s Impact Award, given to a University of Toronto scholar whose work has reached beyond walls of academia to significantly impact local communities, nationally and internationally.

Professor Dei has forty-four (44) books and over eighty (80) refereed journal articles to his credit. Finally, in June of 2007, Professor Dei was installed as a traditional chief in Ghana, specifically, as the Gyaasehene of the town of Asokore, Koforidua in the New Juaben Traditional Area of Ghana. His stool name is Nana Adusei Sefa Tweneboah.