NTCO AGM 2020

The talks by research leaders, university members and company representatives are listed below in the order in which they were delivered at the AGM. 

There were two Professional Skills Development Workshops offered at the NTCO 2020 AGM held on October 13th and October 14th. While attendance was mandatory for all graduate students, Undergrads and other AGM attendees were encouraged to join.

The first workshop, presented by Dr. Moussa Magassa, Dr. Janni Aragon, and Dr. Rob Hancock, focussed on Equity, Diversity and Allyship. Attendees: 

• Reflected on the colonial context (historical and current) of Indigenous people in Canada
• Developed their Indigenous cultural acumen through self-reflection on how they as individuals interact and interface with Indigenous cultures
• Understood societal and systemic attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate racial discrimination and other intersecting social inequities such as classism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, and religious bigotry, among others
• Explored the influence of race and culture on one’s own personal and professional life, attitude and behaviour
• Recognized systemic racism and the role of technology in racial targeting and profiling

The second workshop, presented by Dr. Scot Kleinman, focussed on Leadership and Teamwork. The workshop covered topics such as

• Understanding the difference between management and leadership
• Learning the common thread among most leadership models and the best leaders
• Leading by understanding yourself and others
• Building teams for problem-solving
• Debugging teams that get stuck

Presenter Bios

Dr. Moussa Magassa is the Human Rights Educator at the University of Victoria, where he focuses on enhancing understanding of, and commitment to, the university's human rights and equity goals, increasing diversity and creating a fair and inclusive work and study environment at UVic. Previously, Moussa worked as an integration program officer for immigrants and refugees in Vancouver.

Dr. Janni Aragon is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Victoria. She has taught courses on American Politics, Political Theory, Gender and Politics, Feminist Theory, Gender and International Relations, Model United Nations Simulation, Internship in Political Science, as well as numerous Women's Studies courses at the University of Victoria and San Diego State University.

Dr. Rob Hancock (Cree-Metis) is the Associate Director Academic in the Office of Indigenous Academic and Community Engagement at the University of Victoria, where he is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He has been involved in the development and delivery of the university’s Indigenous Cultural Acumen Training sessions for the past six years and has also designed and offered training sessions for other public sector groups and institutions.

Dr. Scot Kleinman is the Associate Director of Development at Gemini Observatory, having been involved with instrumentation development there since 2007. Prior to coming to Gemini, Scot served as the Instrument Division Chief for the Subaru telescope and previously lead nighttime operations for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, managed the Whole Earth Telescope as its Associate Director of Operations at Iowa State University, and spent some time on the daytime side of things at the Big Bear Solar Observatory. He received his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin, where he built an instrument that now sits in a corner of his office, and completed an MBA from the University of Hawaii Shidler School of Business.  He is a board member of the Whole Earth Telescope and his research interests include white dwarf stars and science from large-scale surveys.  He has a 10-year-old daughter, a couple of German cars, some surfboards, a water ski, and a unicycle, each of which gets varied amounts of use.

All NTCO students were invited to a Virtual Quiz Night on Tuesday, October 13th hosted by IQ2000, Vancouver's premier pub trivia and pub quiz host. Other AGM attendees were welcome to join. The quiz lasted about 1 hour and 45 minutes and consisted of four rounds with 10 questions each. Participants could be part of a team or play solo.