Special Session 1

Dr. Grace-Camille Munroe

Interim Director, Black Scholarship Institute

Grace-Camille Munroe is an applied researcher and scholar-activist with over 15 years’ international experience in the fields of education and social development. She has held a number of senior and influential positions in the Ministry of Education, Jamaica as deputy executive director & director, education services at the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning, technical assistant, policy and research analyst to the permanent secretary, senior director for research at the National Education Inspectorate, and technical assistant to the director general, Planning Institute of Jamaica. She has also worked as programme manager for the Centre of Excellence Project, a J$100 million school improvement initiative sponsored by Jamaica National and Victoria Mutual Building Societies.

She holds a doctoral degree in Adult Education and Community Development with a focus on transformative learning from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Her landmark research explored the involvement of parents in the education of their children in Jamaica with specific focus on the psycho-social and environmental factors that motivate parents to become involved in the education of their children. 

Her overarching interest in education is to better understand the factors that contribute to quality education, optimal learning opportunities and outcomes for Black youth that lead to the thriving and flourishing of Black families and communities. Her research focuses on the intersection of youth and adolescent development, education, poverty, and community development. As a community-based researcher, her positionality, theoretical orientation and practice are rooted in approaches that promote scholarly advocacy and activism, social justice, collective emancipation, liberation, and empowerment of the Black community. Her worldview, how she theorizes and makes sense of the world, is shaped by inter and multi-disciplinary perspectives that expose anti-Blackness and anti-Black racism, and other forms of systemic inequities that marginalize and exclude, while centering Black joy and flourishing as resistance. 

She is a sought-after researcher who has been engaged in numerous research projects in Jamaica and the Caribbean, such as the Commonwealth Secretariat commissioned study on advancing the education of boys in four regional territories - Jamaica, St. Lucia, Barbados and Trinidad. She has also collaborated with the Caribbean Policy Research Institute, UNICEF conducting and producing situation analyses exploring key issues in education, crime and violence, poverty, justice system, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and the environment and their impact on Jamaican children, adolescents and youth, and their families. She is currently Jamaica’s only CONFINTEA Fellow (2016), an honour bestowed on her by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning for her outstanding contribution to the development of adult literacy and adult basic education in Jamaica.

Since returning to Canada in 2019, Munroe has held the position as the program manager for the Presidential Implementation Committee to Confront Anti-Black Racism at Toronto Metropolitan University. In this role,  she  was responsible for supporting the student, faculty and staff working groups implementing the 14 recommendations of the Anti-Black Racism Climate Review (2020). She was also the manager for research, projects and operations for the Leadership By Design Program  (external link) . The Lifelong Leadership Institute (LLI) is an educational organization that provides innovative leadership development programs for Canadian Black youth of African descent, and Research Analyst for the Centre for Excellence for Black Student Achievement at the Toronto District School Board (external link) . 

Munroe claims among her inspiration her grandmother and mother for shaping her personal and scholastic ambitions. Her life’s ambition is to use her gifts and talents in the service of community and others.

Dr. Annette Bailey

Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Internationalization, Faculty

Annette Bailey has worked in both acute and community health nursing settings. Much of her work in community health nursing has focused on interagency collaboration to address key determinants of health for diverse populations in Toronto.

Bailey completed her PhD in Public Health Science with a specialization in Health Promotion and Education. Her research examines traumatic stress and resilience among survivors of community and interpersonal violence. Her research interests span violence prevention, violence and trauma, trauma and resilience, homicide loss, resilience and grief. Her most recent research activity focused on traumatic stress and resilience among Black Women who have lost a child to gun violence in Toronto.

Dr. Yvonne Simpson

Curriculum Specialist, Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

In her role as a Curriculum Specialist at Toronto Metropolitan University, Dr. Yvonne Simpson is dedicated to fostering excellence in curriculum through transformational practices, which reflect the diversity of experiences in teaching and learning. Prior to TMU, she held cross functional roles in postsecondary education, including teaching in interdisciplinary areas of disability and equity studies as well as serving as a subject matter expert in developing and designing a new undergraduate program at York University. In addition to bringing years of experience from leadership roles in postsecondary education, private sector and public service agencies, she holds a BA (York University), M.Ed.(University of Calgary), and PhD (York University) in Critical Disability studies.

Curtis Maloley

Director, Teaching Development and Digital Learning, Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

Curtis Maloley is the Director, Teaching Development and Digital Learning in the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. He has been teaching at TMU for over 10 years in the RTA School of Media, the Department of Sociology, and The Chang School. Curtis is the recipient of a President's Blue and Gold Award, an Alan Shepard Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Award, and a Dean's Teaching Award. He sits as a non-Indigenous member of the Aboriginal Education Council (AEC) and Provost's TRC Strategic Working Group, and co-hosts Podagogies: A Learning and Teaching Podcast.