Virtual Anima Conference 2025
Loretta J. Ross
Tim Wise
Marie Clements
Nick Davis
Julie Diamond
Annahid Dashtgard
Shakil Choudhury
Virtual Conference Details
January 21st, 22nd and 23rd, 2025
Morning Session 11:00am-1:00pm EST
Afternoon Session 2:00pm-4:00pm EST
- What does it mean to lead with compassion and justice?
- How do we advocate for fairer systems without feeding the polarization?
- How do we respond when volatile world events spill into our organizations?
Following our groundbreaking first virtual conference post- inauguration 2021 (where we debriefed the Jan. 6th insurrection), once again we invite you into the community to learn, dialogue and be inspired by tangible strategies for change. Throughout the conference, you’ll have the privilege of gaining insights from our speakers, some of the foremost experts in their fields.
But it’s not just about passive learning —these sessions are thoughtfully designed to empower you to put theory into action, ensuring that the knowledge you acquire during the conference translates into tangible results.
One of the most rewarding aspects of the Anima conference is the opportunity to connect with a diverse cohort of change-makers. You’ll be surrounded by like-minded individuals who are all driven by a common goal: to make a positive impact.
The conference video package is also for purchase. Click here or indicate you want to purchase the package when you register.
| Times | Tuesday, Jan 21st Day 1 | Wednesday, Jan 22nd Day 2 | Thursday, Jan 23rd Day 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00am – 1pm EST | “Calling in” skills when polarization threatens democracy In her newest book Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel (now available for pre-order), Dr. Loretta Ross emphasizes the importance of calling people through dialogue rather than responding with shame or blame, even when democratic institutions are under attack. By prioritizing shared values instead of judgment, she offers a framework for making strategic choices that can help us progress beyond polarized environments toward more inclusive ones. | Power Literacy: How to Name and Use Power Effectively in the Workplace Whether society at large or the workplace specifically, learning how to use power well is a crucial antidote in deeply divided contexts. Using power consciously and effectively rather than unconsciously and harmfully is a knowledge base and skill sets that can be developed over time. Join Anima CEO Annahid Dashtgard in conversation with industry leaders Julie Diamond, author of Power: A User’s Guide and Nick Davis, Executive Director of Equity & Inclusion at CBC to explore this critical subject area necessary for organizational success. This session will name the different forms of influence—starting with our own—and what we can navigate power well in the workplace to nurture equity and inclusion. | How to Challenge Rising Authoritarianism and Polarization Join us for an insightful discussion with renowned anti-racist writer Tim Wise about what leadership looks like in 2025 and beyond, as we navigate a deeply polarized political landscape with authoritarianism rising across Western nations. This fireside chat will help organizational leaders understand what lessons can be drawn from understanding history and current events to foster fairness, inclusion, and equity in the workplace. |
| 1pm – 2pm EST | Break | Break | Break |
| 2pm – 4:00pm EST | How to be a Non-Polarized Leader when world events spill into the Workplace This session will explore factors for organizational leaders to consider when real world events explode into the workplace whether it’s the climate crisis, the murder of George Floyd or Israel-Palestine. How and when do you decide to lean into an issue and when do you not? How do leaders balance competing factors including psychological safety of employees, rganizational values and missions, finances, and the needs of stakeholders? While there are never any easy answers, this session with Anima co-founder Shakil Choudhury will help identify key questions and issues leadership teams need to map out when responding to external crises and global events. | Grief Circles: A Practice of Dealing with World Events and Resolving Conflict on Work Teams (SIGN-UP REQUIRED) Global conflict results in grief and loss for many employees in the workplace, while conflict on work teams is an evergreen topic. Both issues—often interrelated—can be dealt with effectively and practically using “listening circles”. This session will be a real-time practice as participants will be placed in small groups and led by facilitators through listening circle process to address grief caused by various global conflicts and upheavals. Participants always find this a deep and transformative experience so please join us! Circle Facilitators | Developing Resilience: How to Work with Grief and Conflict in the Workplace Join Anima CEO Annahid Dashtgard in conversation with award-winning Metis playwright, actor, screenwriter and lifetime achievement Award winner Marie Clements as they discuss how leaders can approach, name, hold and handle grief and conflict in the workplace in this time. What does it actually mean to be resilient? How do we avoid minimizing the weight of anxiety and overwhelm? What can we learn from Indigenous communities who have gone through worse to help us move forward? We will also be closing the conference with a harvesting of themes, tools and suggestions from the three days together. |
Conference Sponsors
Canadian Race Relations Foundation
Service Employees International Union
Georgian College
Ontario Principals’ Council
Keynote Speakers
Loretta J. Ross is recipient of a MacArthur Fellow for her work as an advocate of Reproductive Justice and Human Rights. She works as aProfessor at Smith College in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender where she teaches courses on white supremacy, human rights, and Calling In the Call Out culture.
Loretta was the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective (2005-2012) and co-created the theory of Reproductive Justice. Loretta was National Co-Director of April 25, 2004, March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history at that time. She founded the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE) in Atlanta, Georgia, launched the Women of Color Program for the National Organization for Women (NOW), and was the national program director of the National Black Women’s Health Project.
Her newest book, Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel is available now for pre-order! She is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and divides her time between Massachusetts and Atlanta.
Tim Wise, Senior Fellow at the African American Policy Forum is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and educators in the United States. Named one of the “25 Visionaries Who are Changing the World,” Wise is a staunch activist who has dedicated the past 25 years to speaking about issues related to race, racism, and privilege to audiences in all 50 states, on over 1500 college and high school campuses, at hundreds of professional and academic conferences, and to community groups across the country. He has trained corporate, government, entertainment, media, law enforcement, military, and medical industry professionals on methods for dismantling racial inequity in their institutions, and has provided anti-racism training to educators and administrators nationwide and internationally.
He is also the author of several groundbreaking books including Dispatches from the Race War, Under the Affluence and White Like Me. Tim has also been featured in several documentaries, including two from the Media Education Foundation and alongside legendary scholar and activist, Angela Davis in “Vocabulary of Change.” He appears regularly on CNN and MSNBC to discuss race issues and was featured in a 2007 segment on 20/20. He is a father of two children and lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Marie Clements is a celebrated Métis/Dene filmmaker, writer, director and producer with an extensive career spanning film, TV, radio and live performance. She is the founder of MCM production company specializing in exploring Indigenous and intercultural realities. Her multi-award-winning films have been showcased internationally at prestigious festivals such as Cannes, TIFF, MOMA, VIFF, the Whistler Film Festival, the American Indian Film Festival and the imagineNATIVE Film Festival. Notable works include her dramatic feature debut film, Red Snow, The Road Forward, a music documentary and most recently the drama series Bones of Crows for CBC, Radio-Canada, and APTN. She has written 13 plays including Age of Iron and Now Look What you Made me Do, which have won numerous awards.
Other awards and nominations include recognition from the Writers Guild and the Directors Guild of Canada, as well as honours such as the WFF Women on Top Award and the WIFTV Spotlight Impact. In 2019, she was named a recipient of the Telefilm Canada Birks Diamond Tribute to Women in Film recipient and in 2024 recieved the Writer’s Trust Lifetime Achievement Award.
Nick Davis, Nick has had a dynamic 33-year career in media, spanning radio, television, and print. Over the years, he has worked as a reporter, TV and radio host, covering a broad spectrum of topics including current affairs, culture, and the arts. His journalism has earned him multiple accolades, such as the prestigious 2006 Gabriel Award for his reporting on the Holly Jones case. Nick has also received the Reelworld Film Festival Visionary Award in recognition of his efforts to advance diversity within the media industry.
Throughout his career, Nick has had the opportunity to cover two Olympic Games and has contributed to the professional development of emerging journalists across Canada. He was Senior Producer of Metro Morning, Toronto’s flagship morning program and later transitioned into program development, where he was instrumental in shaping local programming across the country. After twenty five years at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Nick is now the Executive Director of Equity and Inclusion where he continues to champion diversity and inclusion at all levels of the organization.
Julie Diamond, Julie Diamond is an executive coach, leadership consultant, and creator of the Diamond Power Index, a Myers-Briggs-type assessment of a leader’s use of power. She has worked in the field of human and organizational change for 30 years, at the forefront of creating transformational learning and development opportunities across a range of sectors and disciplines, from graduate degree programs to leader development programs for business, government, NGOs and not-for-profit organizations. Her work centers on the problems of leadership, learning, and change in individuals, groups and organizations.
For the last 20 years, She has taught seminars and workshops on leadership, collaboration, and the use of power to professionals around the world, across sectors and industries. She is a co-founder of the Power² Leaderlab, a leadership program for women leaders, as well as one of the original founders of the Process Work Institute (PWI), a not-for-profit graduate school dedicated to research and training in process-oriented facilitation. Her book, Power: A User’s Guide, is a leading handbook for using power effectively and ethically, no matter what role you’re in.
Annahid Dashtgard is CEO of Anima Leadership, a socially innovative company offering a compassionate approach to racial justice efforts. She’s an international inclusion leader, author and speaker with over 25 years’ experience working in the trenches toward social change in public, private and non-profit sectors. She has coached thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations and knows the heartbeat of DEIB change patterns like the back of her hand.
Annahid started out organizing national campaigns scaling out widespread change but now focuses on shifting consciousness, one conversation, one compelling story at a time. She’s the author of bestselling inclusion books Bones of Belonging: Finding Wholeness in a White World and memoir Breaking the Ocean: Race, Rebellion and Reconciliation.A leading voice on race, trauma, and immigration, she also hosts her own podcast Soundwaves of Belonging featuring intimate and irreverent conversations with fellow bridge builders. Having grown up in three different countries—Iran, England and Canada—on three different continents, Annahid is a citizen of the world, a lover of stories and a truth speaker for a more just future.
Shakil Choudhury is the CVO of Anima Leadership, a socially innovative company offering a compassionate approach to racial justice efforts. He is an award-winning educator, consultant and author with over 25 years of experience in the field of racial justice, diversity and inclusion. He coaches executive teams and has worked with thousands of leaders across sectors in Canada and the United States to help improve their equity outcomes. Shakil also facilitates dialogue processes to resolve inter-group conflict, having led projects internationally as well as with organizations locally. He is the author of the foundational DEI book Deep Diversity: A Compassionate, Scientific Approach to Achieving Racial Justice. Written in an accessible, storytelling manner, many have called it a “breakthrough” book on issues of systemic racial discrimination due to its non- judgmental approach that integrates human psychology with critical race perspectives. Shakil’s most challenging and rewarding management experience, however, involves his two high-spirited children repeatedly teaching him the humble lessons of fatherhood. To clear his head during the week, Shakil loves to run the beautiful ravine trails near his home in Toronto.
