Two highly esteemed community leaders were elected to the VO Board of Directors at the company’s Annual General Meeting on September 17, 2016, joining a group of 24 members chaired by Pascal Spothelfer. The meeting also reviewed the company’s artistic and financial successes in 2015-2016 and looked ahead to the exciting 2016-2017 Season and Festival.
Nika Collison (Jisgang) belongs to the Ts’aahl clan of the Haida Nation. She has worked in the field of arts and heritage for almost 20 years, specializing in historic and contemporary Haida art and culture.
Serving as curator of the Haida Gwaii Museum at Kay Llnagaay since 2000, she also works as an independent consultant. Throughout her career, Nika has worked with institutions in the creation of major exhibitions and publications. She is a senior negotiator for Haida repatriation initiatives and works on a global scale to build relationships between the Haida Nation, museums, other institutions, and the public.
Dr. Judy Halbert has extensive experience in K-12 education. She has served as a teacher, principal, district leader and policy advisor with the Ministry of Education in the areas of innovative leadership, accountability and Aboriginal education.
She is a co-founder of the British Columbia Networks of Inquiry and Innovation and the Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network and recently served as a Canadian representative to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s international research program on Innovative Learning Environments.
With Dr. Linda Kaser, Dr. Halbert co-authored Spirals of Inquiry for Equity and Quality (2013), Leadership Mindsets: Innovation and Learning in the Transformation of Schools (2009) and, with Helen Timperley, A Framework for Transforming Learning in Schools: Innovation and the Spiral of Inquiry (2014).
