Our Team

Partner & Co-Creator

Margaret is a seasoned copywriter, graphic designer and art director with over 20 years of advertising experience in the agency world and as a freelancer. During her career, she has developed successful traditional and social media/online campaigns for numerous Not for Profit organizations and corporate clients, including President’s Choice Financial, the David Suzuki Foundation (Bluedot Tour), The Globe and Mail, The Brick and University Health Network. Margaret’s proudest achievements are her 2x Cassie award-winning campaign work for Plan Canada’s “Because I Am A Girl” initiative, and promotional work for the Ontario Government’s “LifeShare” program (where developmentally disabled adults are matched with volunteer families as an alternative to group homes). As the mother of an Autistic young adult, the latter was a particularly poignant yet encouraging experience.

VP of Human Resources

Michelle Christie is a Human Resources Professional who has owned her own business for over 10 years as she raised her two daughters. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology as well as a Certificate in Human Resource Management. Michelle believes in lifelong learning, challenging herself, being open to new opportunities, giving back to the community and helping others as much as possible.  She has been involved in many outreach activities that help the less fortunate. Four years ago, she expanded her business to include consulting and joined WAKING THE unCONSCIOUS as their Human Resources lead. Prior to being self-employed, Michelle spent many years working for not-for-profit organizations as well as various roles in the Provincial Government’s Ministry of Community and Social Services.

Senior Data Analyst

Nicolas Petrini-Woolley is a dedicated consultant working at the intersection of social justice, technology, and policy. With roots shaped by a mother who worked as a social worker and a father active in Amnesty International’s human rights efforts, Nicolas brings a deep personal commitment to equity and systemic change. He has an academic background in economics and research, and combines a wide-ranging tech stack with a fully equipped multimedia production studio to deliver innovative, data-driven solutions. Nicolas has worked with Canadian government departments, NGOs, and corporate clients, offering insight on policy design, strategy, and communications. His community organizing work spans local and international initiatives, including work with the Black Peoples’ History of Canada, the Vacha Trust (India), SKETCH, and Coalesce community festival. Nicolas is known for his thoughtful, intersectional approach to equity and his ability to turn complex ideas into meaningful impact. 

Consultant

Shari Hughson is an entrepreneur, educator, social innovator, & extreme adventurer. She started her first business in her 20s & won CIBC Entrepreneur of the Year before the age of 30.  Shari recently won Canada’s Top 50 Most Influential Business & Entrepreneur Female Leaders of the Year in 2021 by SME Canada.  Shari also won a 2013 National Honour from the First Nations Health Authority for a project that impacted the mental health of a remote indigenous community.  She has owned 6 companies, and today is a Founder & Fractional C-Suite leader with Neuma Centre (CFO), Elev-Eight (CIO), and Waking the unConscious Tech (COO).  She is also an Adjunct Professor at Queen’s University in Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.  Shari is passionate about making a global difference through grass-roots community leadership. 

Consultant, Expert Ethnographer

Waverly Duck is an urban ethnographer and the North Hall Chair Endowed Professor of Sociology and Associate Director of the Center for Black Studies Research at the University of California Santa Barbara. He is the author of No Way Out: Precarious Living in the Shadow of Poverty and Drug Dealing (University of Chicago Press, 2015), a finalist for the Society for the Study of Social Problems 2016 C. Wright Mills Book Award. His second book on unconscious racism, Tacit Racism, co-authored with Anne Rawls (also with the University of Chicago Press), was the 2021 winner of the Charles Horton Cooley Book Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, 2021 Honorable Mention, Mary Douglas Book Prize, the American Sociological Association Culture Section, the 2022 Book Award winner for the North Central Sociological Association and 2022 Winner of the Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award for the American Sociological Association Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities. He also co-authored and curated a new book with Anne Rawls and Kevin Whitehead, titled Black Lives Matter: Ethnomethodological and Conversation Analytic Studies of Race and Systemic Racism in Everyday Interaction (Taylor and Francis, 2020). Like his earlier work, his current research investigates the challenges faced by socially marginal groups. However, his work is more directly concerned with the interaction order of marginalized communities and how participants identify problems and what they think are viable solutions.

Consultant, Subject Matter Expert in Psychology, Criminology, and Social Work

Dr. Ahonen has a cross disciplinary background including Psychology, Criminology, and Social work. Her primary research areas include youth and adult crime in combination with mental illness, predictors of violence and gun violence, the development of violent crime over time, the treatment of serious behavioral problems, and policy issues pertaining to crime and justice in different countries. She has a particular interest in the development of delinquency and victimization in relation to the developing brain, and vice versa. During her career she has focused on both organizational conditions for behavioral change, including organizational development and leadership in institutions providing treatment and services to delinquent youth. In addition, her expertise is focused on as well as individual and environmental risk and protective factors for young people, with a specific interest in gender and race. 

Consultant

Dr. Rodenburg is an Educational Consultant with the Queen’s University Schools of Medicine and Rehabilitation, and a Term Adjunct Professor with the Faculty of Engineering’s Department of Chemical Engineering. Dirk Rodenburg – Bio Dirk Rodenburg received his BA in Psychology from Queen's University and an MA in Adult Education from the University of British Columbia, where he proposed a model for autonomous tutoring systems within the health sciences. He has twenty years of experience as a software entrepreneur within academia, educational technology, financial services, biotechnology and scientific instruments.

Consultant, Subject Matter Expert in Social Work

Dr. Henrika McCoy is the Morris Endowed Dean and Professor at the Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW). Prior to joining GSSW she was the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Fellow in Services to Children and Families and associate professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin and Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Services and associate professor at Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Dean McCoy received her Ph.D. from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, Master of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania, Master of Jurisprudence from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and Bachelor of Arts in African and African American Studies and Sociology from Washington University in St. Louis. Her research has focused predominately on the experiences of Black boys with mental health issues that precipitated their involvement in the juvenile legal system and those of young Black men ages 18 to 24 and their experiences with violence. Overall, her scholarship explores the impact of structural and systemic racism on Black persons in America. 

Consultant

Dr. Paul Hungler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Ingenuity Labs at Queen’s University. Prior to starting his current position, Major (Retired) Hungler served in the Royal Canadian Airforce and was responsible for on-line learning in the Canadian Armed Forces, which included developing and deploying Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) simulation. Dr. Hungler’s research is now focused on developing dynamically adaptive simulation to enhance education and training. 

Consultant

Marc Giacomelli is a writer, creator and creative consultant based in Toronto. He has been an Associate Producer and Creative Consultant for the NBC/CBC series SCTV Network, and John Candy’s Big City Comedy show, writer-producer on Bob and Doug McKenzie's Great White North and Strange Brew, writer-producer on Rick Moranis’ You Me The Music and Me, as well as author of Columbus Answer All Charges. He is also a founding partner of Naked Creative Consultancy and creative consultant to Intellectual Capital and Joe Hill Communications doing branding, communications and fundraising for Autism Speaks USA in partnership with the NHL; The Globe and Mail; University Health Network, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, Krembil Neuroscience Centre, Princess Margaret Hospital, The Campbell Family Cancer Research Centre and the Hospital for Sick Children.