Meet the TEDxVictoria
2026 speakers

Dana Tizya-Tramm

Dana Tizya-Tramm is a Vuntut Gwitchin leader, strategist, father, and former Chief of Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. His work focuses on the strength of Indigenous law, land, and kinship, and the enduring impacts of colonialism and displacement. As Chief, Dana helped lead one of Canada's earliest Indigenous climate emergency declarations, advanced Vuntut Gwitchin's path toward carbon neutrality, and championed the Sree Vyàa Old Crow Solar Project, helping reduce diesel dependence in Canada's only fly-in Yukon community. Today, through Nadlii, he works with Indigenous Nations to build sovereignty in the digital age—helping communities own, govern, and benefit from their data, AI systems, and digital infrastructure.

Daniel So

Dan So is a partner at Dale & Lessmann LLP, where he focuses on franchise law. He helps franchisors expand across Canada and around the world, guiding them through brand protection and the maze of laws that govern franchising. Dan was a two-time guest expert on CBC's Fortune Hunters and a franchise consultant for the producers of CBC's Dragons' Den. He advised provincial governments on franchise legislation and wrote the best-selling textbook Canadian Franchise Law: A Practical Guide. He has also negotiated endorsement deals with Major League Baseball players and partnerships with NHL and MLB venues.

Faraz Forghan-Parast

Faraz Forghan-Parast is an Iranian-Canadian poet, educator, and doctoral researcher in Curriculum and Instruction at UVic. He's also affiliated with the Electronic Textual Cultures Lab, where he studies how generative AI reshapes the way we produce, interpret, and create knowledge. Across his scholarly and creative work, Faraz is drawn to the surfaces—poetic, textual, and technological—that help us see our humanity and our relationships more clearly. His work lives in the tension between inherited traditions and emerging computational systems. He asks how meaning gets made and what stays human in a world increasingly shaped by algorithms.

Jade Fischer

Jade Fischer is a PhD candidate in medical physics at the University of Victoria, where she studies new ways to treat cancer. Medical physics sits at the meeting point of physics, engineering, and medicine, and Jade's research explores techniques that aim to fight cancer while sparing patients harsh side effects. As part of this work, she has run experiments at CERN's CLEAR facility. Jade loves making science accessible, sharing the precision and creativity behind modern cancer research through talks and outreach events. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists Student Council, championing mentorship and student connection.

Jenny Farkas

Jenny Farkas is an artist, writer, and creative economic developer based in Victoria, BC. For a decade, she's chased a deceptively simple question: why do some kinds of talent find clear pathways into the economy while others struggle to get a foothold? Through Creative Coast, artfindsme, community technology hubs, and MakeSpace North Park, Jenny has worked alongside artists, makers, and communities to understand how talent grows and contributes to local economies. As Founder and Executive Director of MakeSpace North Park, she's building shared access to tools, skills, mentorship, and creative workspace. Her argument is bold: creative talent isn't a cultural luxury, it's one of the most overlooked forms of capital we have.

Jon Willis

Jon Willis is a professor of astronomy at UVic, where his work spans two of the biggest questions we can ask. The first is cosmology: how did the universe we live in come to be? The second is astrobiology: are we alone in it? To chase those questions, Jon has used telescopes across the planet and high above it, studying the farthest reaches of the cosmos. He's piloted robot submersibles through alien ocean analogues deep beneath our seas and searched for traces of ancient life on Mars. He's the author of two books on astrobiology, All These Worlds Are Yours and The Pale Blue Data Point, both shaped by years in the field.

Keegan Connor Tracy

Keegan Connor Tracy is an award-winning actor, director, and writer who's been a fixture of Vancouver's film and TV scene for over 25 years. You may know her best as the Blue Fairy on “Once Upon a Time”, but her magic shows up everywhere: in the children's books she writes, in her advocacy for the rights of women and girls, and in the voice that lulls millions to sleep on the Calm app. Her recent film, The Worst Day Ever?, won Best Director at the Toronto International Women Film Festival and the Spirit Award at the Chilliwack International Film Festival. This fall, she casts her spells on Disney's new series "Coven Academy."

Lilly Woodbury

Lilly Woodbury is the Campaigns and Storytelling Director at Surfrider Foundation Canada, where she leads campaigns to protect the ocean, beaches, and waves. Her work tackles overlooked sources of plastic pollution and turns advocacy into policy. She helped secure Tofino's historic ban on single-use plastic water bottles and attended the UN Global Plastic Treaty negotiations as an official observer. With a master's degree in Political Ecology from the University of Victoria, Lilly brings a systems-level lens to environmental work, examining how culture, politics, and power shape both the crises we face and the way we respond. An avid surfer, freediver, and storyteller, Lilly draws her inspiration from the coastal ecosystems she works to defend.

Lisa Lapointe

Lisa Lapointe is a graduate of UBC Law School who spent nearly three decades in British Columbia's public service. She began her career in 1995, serving in policy, the BC Coroners Service, BC Corrections, and the Civil Forfeiture Office before being appointed BC's Chief Coroner in 2011. Over the next 13 years, she led the Coroners Service through some of the province's most challenging events, including the toxic drug public health emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2021 heat dome. Since retiring in 2024, Lisa has continued her commitment to public service through PHS Community Services Society and Moms Stop the Harm.

Naomi Casiro

Naomi Casiro is a physiotherapist, educator, and founder of NeuroFit BC and NeuroFit Academy. She's driven by the belief that movement has the power to change lives. Naomi started as a kinesiologist, where she saw how exercise could transform confidence and independence, not just physical health. After earning her master’s, she focused on neurological rehabilitation, helping people with Parkinson's disease move and function at their best. She founded NeuroFit BC to fill a gap in exercise-based care, then turned her attention to a quieter barrier: the fear of falling. Through NeuroFit Academy, she trains healthcare professionals around the world.

Tamara Krawchenko

Dr. Tamara Krawchenko is an internationally recognized scholar, policy expert, and institution-builder, driven by a single conviction: people deserve lives of dignity and well-being, no matter where they live. Growing up between Canada and Ukraine, Tamara saw firsthand how the quality of governance shapes everyday life. Over 20 years, she's led comparative research across more than a dozen countries. Today, she serves as Associate Director of UVic's Institute for Integrated Energy Systems, ACET Strategic Research Area Lead, and Chair of UVic's Local Governance Hub. Her work champions rural, remote, and Indigenous communities navigating energy and economic change.