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Donna C. Llewellyn (she/her/hers)
Executive Director, Institute for Inclusive & Transformative Scholarship (IFITS), Boise State University
Opening Keynote | Monday June 19
Donna Crystal Llewellyn received her BA (major in Mathematics and minor in Economics) with High Honors from Swarthmore College in 1980. She went on to earn an MS in Operations Research from Stanford University in 1981 and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell University in 1984. Donna then studied in Bonn, West Germany with a National Science Foundation Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship while on leave from a tenure track position in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Institute of Technology. In July 1999, Donna became the Director of the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) at Georgia Tech, and in January 2012 she also became the Associate Vice Provost for Learning Excellence. In January 2015, Donna moved west to become the Executive Director of the new Institute for STEM and Diversity Initiatives, which transitioned into the Institute for Inclusive and Transformative Scholarship (IFITS) in August 2020. Donna’s current interests center around education issues in general, and in particular on increasing access and success of those traditionally underrepresented and/or under-served in STEM higher education.
John Desjarlais (he/him/his)
Executive Director of the Indigenous Resource Network; President of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan
Banquet Keynote | Tuesday, June 20
John is Nehinaw (Cree)-Metis from Kaministikominahikoskak (Cumberland House), Saskatchewan. John has a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan and started his career in 2001 in the mining industry and worked in a variety of roles including E&S, maintenance and reliability engineering management until moving onto executive leadership in economic development and construction. John now serves as the Executive Director of the Indigenous Resource Network as well as President of APEGS. John also has extensive regulatory, volunteer, governance, and civil society experience serving on a variety of boards, committees, and other initiatives culminating into several awards over his career including the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2023.
Dr. Elizabeth Croft (she/her/hers)
Vice-President Academic and Provost
University of Victoria
Closing Keynote | Wednesday, June 21
Dr. Elizabeth Croft (she/her) is a visionary and forward-thinking leader with a track record of building inclusive, collegial and collaborative partnerships. On July 1, 2022, she began her five-year term as Vice-President Academic and Provost at UVic.
Dr. Croft holds a BASc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia, an MASc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and a PhD from the University of Toronto. Dr. Croft is recognized internationally as an expert in the field of human-robot interaction.
Before joining UVic, Dr. Croft was Dean of Engineering at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to that, she was a tenured full professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. With the Faculty of Applied Science, she served as Senior Associate Dean, Associate Dean, Education and Professional Development, and as Associate Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In each of her senior leadership positions, her action-oriented approach has delivered results in areas of importance to our university, including innovative academic programming, reconciliation and decolonization, transformational student experience, and equity, diversity and inclusion.