In her fourth term as a municipal politician in the Town of Collingwood (ON), Kathy has also participated on Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) Committees and the National Board of Directors for 10 of her 14 years as an elected official.

Councillor Jeffery has filled leadership roles at FCM chairing the national standing committee on municipal finance and intergovernmental arrangements, working groups on Governance, International Development and Economic Development and task forces, and for the past year has served as the governance representative to the Jordan Municipal Support Program, FCM's only international program in the Middle East.

In her home town Kathy is a long-time advocate of all pillars of sustainable community planning, including housing and affordable housing. She is the current Chair of the Collingwood Police Services Board. The Collingwood Mayor appointed Councillor Jeffery to the Steering Committee, Small Towns Habitat - Collingwood World Summit in partnership with the Joint Urban Economy Forum and UN Habitat and to the COVID Economic Support and Recovery Task Force.

Kathy has volunteered for more than 30 years for many local organizations and has served more than a decade to date as a Director on the Board of Home Horizon, transitional housing for homeless youth.

Edlam Abera Yemeru is currently the Chief of the Urbanization and Development Section at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). In this capacity, she leads the delivery of technical assistance to African member States in support of policies and strategies to leverage the potential of urbanization for economic diversification and inclusive growth. This involves strengthening linkages between spatial planning and economic, national and sector policy priorities and investments, including through long-term program and project prioritization. A particular focus of this work aims to better connect urban and industrial policies in Africa. Previously, she led a number of normative and operational programs to promote sustainable urbanization at UN-Habitat, where she also co-authored several editions of the Global Report on Human Settlements. Edlam holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Human Geography from the University of London.

Mohamed Ridouani (41) is Mayor in the city of Leuven since January 2019 and was previously responsible for Education, Sustainability, Economy and Urban Development.

He stands for positive change and aims to turn Leuven into one of the most caring, green and prosperous cities in Europe, in cooperation with the citizens, knowledge institutions, companies and organisations. 

He’s the inspirer of Leuven 2030, in which more than 500 companies, organizations and citizens are united to turn Leuven into a sustainable and CO2-neutral city. He also initiated Leuven MindGate, an economic platform with 400 members that will boost Leuven as the world’s hotspot for health, technology and creativity. 

For this groundbreaking governance model based on innovation and inclusion, Leuven has recently been named European Capital of Innovation by the European Commission.

​​Michael Etherington is currently the Manager of Reconciliactions with The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund with career highlights that include: TEDx Talk Speaker, appearing in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, CBC,  CTV Breakfast Television, TVO, BBC Scotland, Maori TV and Season 1 feature interview in APTNS TV show Future History. Influenced by his northern upbringing, Michael has always stayed connected to community, spending much of his personal time volunteering through Passages Canada as a speaker to schools, colleges, and universities. This, along with his prior experience as an Indigenous Relations Consultant,  Cultural Program Manager of the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, and trainer for the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres, have garnered Michael the personal and professional recognition as a valued speaker. With family roots and heritage from James Bay, ON and member of Fort Albany First Nation,  Etherington is a proud representative of his background as an Omushkego-Cree. Michael attributes his speaking messages to experiences growing up both on-reserve and off-reserve.

Michael grew up in poverty and saw many social issues such as addictions, violence and suicide impact his family and community. However, his family instilled within him a strong belief to being a leader for change and the story you define for yourself . Direct lived experience allowed Michael’s capabilities to embody compassion, empathy and a strong resiliency.  His strong voice and profile at institutional levels have raised his recognition as a valued speaker yet Michael remains grounded with his community.

Having developed a unique perspective by being able to see conditions in both remote communities and urban spaces, Michael is able to share insight of the barriers, misconceptions, and assumptions within communities that can perpetuate a narrative not reflective of Indigenous peoples. ​He is requested for his sought after keynote of Moving Beyond Rhetoric and Building Meaningful Relationships, currently advises organizations in public and corporate sector from both the national and international stages. His entire life work is dedicated to improving accountability, levels of transparency and bridging pathways in raising the profile of Indigenous dialogue.

His aim in every presentation is to promote reflection on where individuals position themselves in understanding the true history of Canada, what does reconciliation mean to them from either a retributive or restorative lens, and what steps are they willing to take to raise the profile from not a deficit basis and more to relationships rooted within respect and recognition.

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Michael’s late great-aunt was the oldest residential school attendee in Canada at 111 years of age – and in 2008 was one of four invited attendees to House of Commons to hear Stephen Harper’s formal apology to Canada. When asked about her legacy Michael’s great-aunt said ‘poonenamok’ – (forgiveness).  Today, Michael strives everyday to honour his late great-aunt’s wishes, in every presentation he delivers.

Mrs Skinner has served as Acting CAO since April 27, 2020, after joining the Town of Collingwood in August of 2019 as the Executive Director of Customer and Corporate Service. Skinner is an experienced leader and was the Chief Administrative Officer at Grey Sauble Conservation Authority for three years before joining the Town. She has brought valuable skills and experience to Collingwood, including her past leadership of: 

• Service delivery transformations as the Director of Compliance Modernization at the Ministry of the Environment, 
• About $300M of Maintenance Contracting for all of Ontario highways, and 
• Better decision-making across five ministries, including the Ministry of Education, by integrating and developing insights from large amounts of government data.

Mrs Skinner’s direction has strengthened our community and even through COVID has modelled leading-edge public service transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability including: 

• An update of the Community-based Strategic Plan 2020-2023 in June 2020 
• A community input and council decision to move forward with proposals for the waterfront Grain Terminals 
• Hosting the United Nations Habitat in Towns Collingwood World Summit 
• Strengthening the Town’s customer service 
• Implementing an Information Technology steering committee, and 
• Proposing actions to address Council’s climate change emergency declaration and reduce of the Town's carbon footprint. 

Mrs Skinner is a Professional Engineer with a Master's Degree in Civil Engineering and is recognized internationally as a collaborative leader, speaker, and writer, with a demonstrated commitment to proactive communication. 

Ojay McDonald is the CEO of the Association of Town & City Management. He works with government ministers, parliamentarians, UK Cabinet Office, economic development professionals, business leaders and place managers across the UK and Ireland to support town and city centres. He works on a range of policy issues including the UK's withdrawal from the EU, tax reform, local government finance, the EU and UN Urban Agendas, transport, housing, planning, retail, urban regeneration, COVID recovery and the climate emergency.

Ojay is co-chair of the Sector Leaders Group on the High Streets Task Force, a ministerial-led programme supporting town centre regeneration in England. He also sits on the Board of the International Downtown Association.

Michael Fenn has been a Senior Advisor at StrategyCorp and a consultant since 2011, following an extensive career as a public service executive.  His research publications range from infrastructure investment and water policy to housing for the elderly.   As a consultant, Michael’s clients extend from the municipal, healthcare and housing sectors, to the land-use development industry, Indigenous communities, policing, and professional sports. He has participated in development missions to South Africa, the Philippines and Cuba.

Michael was an Ontario Deputy Minister under three Premiers, chief administrator of Hamilton-Wentworth Region and the city of Burlington, and the founding CEO of both transit authority Metrolinx and a regional health network.  In 2019, he was a Special Advisor to the Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing on local government reform.

A former member of the boards of McMaster University, the Canadian Urban Institute and the Toronto Lands Corporation, since 2012 Michael has been a Board Director with the C$114 billion OMERS municipal employees pension fund. 

Michael’s career achievements have been acknowledged by the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal of Distinction in Public Administration for Ontario and by municipal organizations OMAA, AMCTO and AMO. Michael’s municipal career was profiled with a chapter in the book: Leaders in the Shadows: The Leadership Qualities of Municipal Chief Administrative Officers, by Professor David Siegel of Brock University.

Professor Leigh Sparks is Deputy Principal (Education and Students) and Professor of Retail Studies at the University of Stirling. He was a geography undergraduate at the University of Cambridge and completed his Ph.D. (on retail employment) at the University of Wales. Leigh is Board Chair of Scotland's Towns Partnership (2013-date), was a member of the External Advisory Group on the Scottish Government’s National Town Centre Review (2012-2013) and on the Expert Advisory Group advising the Scottish Government on the lessons to be learned from the Horsemeat Scandal (2013). During 2020, Leigh was a member of the Scottish Government’s Social Renewal Advisory Board, the report from which (If Not Now When?) was published in January 2021, and Chaired the review of the Town Centre Action Plan for the Scottish Government, the report from which (A New Future for Scotland’s Towns) was published in February 2021. He is currently a workstream leader on the Scottish Government’s Ministerial Retail Strategy Group. Leigh runs a blog on retail matters (Stirlingretail.com). 

Since joining ISF in 1992, Jeffrey Barber has engaged in both public interest advocacy and organizing efforts, nationally and internationally, focusing especially on the importance of strategic collaboration among environmentalists, consumer and health advocates, community development and social justice activists, trade unions, and other members of civil society.

Currently, Mr. Barber works with a number of civil society networks and coalitions, including as Co-Chair of the Northern Alliance for Sustainability (ANPED) and as Northern Co-Chair of the NGO Caucus on Sustainable Production and Consumption at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. In his NGO work at the UN, Mr. Barber has actively participated since 1995 in the Commission for Sustainable Development, the OECD (on the revision of the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises and with the OECD's Sustainable Development Plan), the UN Summit on Social Development, and the UN Conference on Human Settlements. Mr. Barber is one of the founders of the Sustainable Development Issues Network (SDIN) for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Prior to ISF, Mr. Barber spent more than a decade working in social policy and public opinion research at nationally-known organizations, as Director of Media Research for Peter D. Hart Research Associates, as manager of Audience and Program Research for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as Project Director of Custom Market Research for Arbitron Ratings Company, and as Communications Analyst at Stanford Research Institute (SRI International). Mr. Barber received his BA in psychology and MA in social science from San Francisco State University.