Indigenous Advisory Council
The Diversity Institute’s (DI) Indigenous Advisory Council plays an active role in shaping efforts to ensure DI’s research, programs, partnerships, and organizational practices are culturally grounded, community-informed, and aligned with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and broader organizational reconciliation commitments.
The Council works with DI leadership to review priorities, inform program and research design, and provide guidance that helps ensure initiatives related to skills development, employment, entrepreneurship, and inclusive participation reflect Indigenous knowledge systems, community priorities, lived experience, and Indigenous self-determination.
The Council helps ensure DI moves beyond consultation toward reciprocal, accountable, and relationship-based engagement. Through this structure, Indigenous perspectives are brought into decision-making early and meaningfully, helping to ensure that DI’s work is guided by respect, reciprocity, relevance, responsibility, and long-term accountability.
Areas of Guidance
Council members will help provide strategic direction in areas such as:
- Informing DI’s implementation of the TRC Calls to Action and UNDRIP principles
- Providing guidance on the development of Indigenous-focused research, policies, programs, and partnerships
- Supporting approaches that respect Indigenous rights, self-determination, knowledge systems, and data sovereignty
- Strengthening community partnerships, reciprocal engagement, and relationship-based collaboration
- Supporting approaches to land-based, community-led, and culturally grounded learning
- Advising on distinctions-based approaches that recognize First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples as distinct rights-holders with distinct histories, priorities, and community contexts
- Reviewing progress on DI’s reconciliation commitments
- Advising on evaluation approaches, metrics, accountability frameworks, and community-informed definitions of success
- Identifying gaps between commitments and actions and recommending corrective measures where needed
- Through this process, the Diversity Institute will bring forward initiatives and work informed by reconciliation commitments for review, guidance, and accountability.
Members of the Diversity Institute’s Indigenous Advisory Council
Matthew Foss
Matthew Foss is a member of the Metis Nation of Alberta with ancestry that has always resided in what is now known as Alberta from Edmonton to Lesser Slave Lake. He brings over 25 years of public policy experience, specializing in energy economics along with research and public policy development. Mr. Foss currently serves as the Vice President of Research & Public Policy for the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business, is a Member of the Board for the Canada Energy Regulator, serves on the Indigenous Advisory Circle for Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and is an Executive Fellow at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy.
Matthew’s focus at the CCIB is on advancing Indigenous business through research and advocacy related to procurement, international trade, celebrating Indigenous entrepreneurs and natural resource development. Matthew has frequently provided seminars and presentations to domestic and international audiences and has taught university-level economics courses. Prior to joining CCIB, he ran his own energy economics and public policy consulting business for several years and served as the Chief Energy Economist for the Alberta Government. Matthew has a Master of Arts in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts First Class Honours in Economics, both obtained from the University of Calgary.
Anita Uuttuvak
Anita Uuttuvak is an Inuk entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Uuttuvak Consulting Incorporated (UCI), an Indigenous-owned consulting firm providing language services, Indigenous engagement, cultural expertise, and project management across Canada. Passionate about advancing Indigenous communities, she leads initiatives that promote language revitalization, food security, economic development, and cultural preservation. As a dedicated single parent, Anita has built her business through resilience, determination, and a commitment to creating lasting social impact. She believes business can be a powerful force for positive change and is focused on building partnerships that strengthen communities while creating opportunities for future generations of Indigenous leaders and entrepreneurs.
Anita Uuttuvak is also the founder of the Uuttuvak Foundation (UF).
Darian Kovacs
Darian is the Metis founder of Vancouver based PR, digital ads & SEO company Jelly Digital Marketing & PR and digital marketing school, Jelly Academy. He loves doing workshops, and volunteers on the board of the Digital Marketing Sector Council and NPower Canada and his local charter community - Waceya. He is the editor of IndigenousSME, and his book Marketing Mentors featuring interviews with Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and marketing leads from LEGO, Lululemon and Starbucks is available now wherever you purchase your books. Darian lives in Fort Langley, BC with his wife and four children and likes to mountain bike, swim, grow dahlias and watercolour and read YA novels in his free time.
Wynonna Smoke
Wynonna Smoke is of mixed Haudenosaunee and settler ancestry, with paternal ties to Six Nations of the Grand River. She is an economist who has worked on national Indigenous policy and programming at the federal level, including the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program and the implementation of the Nunavut Agreement.
In addition to her public service experience, Wynonna has also worked as an independent consultant at the regional and local levels, supporting organizations in adopting rights-based approaches to reconciliation and strengthening relationships with Indigenous communities. Her work is grounded in the voices of community and guided by principles of respect, reciprocity, and responsibility, with a focus on upholding Indigenous inherent rights.
Michael Mihalizc
Michael is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy, and Special Advisor to the Dean on Indigenous Initiatives at the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM). Since joining TRSM in 2020, his work has been highlighted in over two dozen media publications and received recognition through the CRDCN/ISC/CIRNAC Early Career Researcher Award (2021), the TRSM Teaching Innovation Award (2022), the Alan Shepard Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Employee Award (2022), and the CCAE Gold Medal in Indigenous Relations (2023).
His research combines principles from psychology and economics to explore how people make decisions and discover factors that predispose decision makers to irrational behaviour. Currently, he is active in research projects that will deepen our understanding of non-financial factors influencing the decisions of Inuit, Métis, and First Nations students to attend university in Canada and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the motivations behind their choices.