Board of Directors

Ron Dodson is a retired arts educator in Stratford who has been a board member of many groups, including Theatre/Théâtre Canada, Theatre Ontario, the Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators, Off the Wall Stratford Artists Alliance and Gallery Stratford. He was the Artistic Director of the 2016 World Festival of Children’s Theatre and a member of the International Amateur Theatre Association’s Standing Committee for Children and Youth. He is currently the co-chair of the Stratford Arts and Culture Collective.

Nehal El-Hadi is a writer, researcher, and editor whose work explores the intersections between the body, place, and technology.

Nehal completed her PhD in Planning at the University of Toronto, where she examined the relationships between user-generated content and everyday public urban life. As a scholar, her hybrid digital/material research methods are informed by her training and experience as a science and environmental journalist. Her writing has appeared in academic journals, general scholarship publications, literary magazines, anthologies, and edited collections. She is currently the Science + Technology Editor at The Conversation Canada and Editor-in-Chief of Studio Magazine.

Ravi Jain, a Toronto-based stage director, is a multi-award-winning artist known for making politically bold and accessible theatrical experiences in both small indie productions and large theatres.

As the founding artistic director of Why Not Theatre, Ravi has established himself as an artistic leader for his inventive productions, international producing/collaborations and innovative producing models which are aimed to better support emerging artists to make money from their art.

Ravi was twice shortlisted for the 2016 and 2019 Siminovitch Prize and won the 2012 Pauline McGibbon Award for Emerging Director and the 2016 Canada Council John Hirsch Prize for direction. He is a graduate of the two-year program at École Jacques Lecoq. He was selected to be on the roster of clowns for Cirque du Soleil.

Currently, Sea Sick which he co-directed will be on at the National Theatre in London, his adaptation of The Indian epic Mahabarata will premier at the Shaw Festival, and What You Won’t Do For Love, starring David Suzuki will premier in Vancouver in 2021.

Greg Kelly is the Executive Producer of CBC Radio One IDEAS. Greg began his broadcasting career at CBC after earning his doctorate in English literature from Oxford University. His documentary work in radio and television has garnered national and international awards and distinctions. Prior to IDEAS, Greg created and oversaw programs based in the United States and the Netherlands.

Miranda Mulholland is a JUNO nominated artist, arts advocate and entrepreneur. She served for seven years on the board of Governors for Massey Hall/Roy Thomson Hall, including three as Vice Chair of the board and Chair of Nominations and Governance. She founded and is Artistic Director of the Muskoka Music Festival and the sole fundraiser for the NFP which has now brought over 175 bands/artists to Gravenhurst over 8 years. Miranda is also the Creative Culture Advisor for Music Canada (Trade Association for Canada's major labels) where she translates between culture and commerce. She was recently awarded the ABJ Fellowship to attend the Banff Forum, which is given to artists interested in public policy.

Devon is a culture worker with two decades of experience in creating projects that bridge sectors, cities, and neighbourhoods. Involving assemblages of organisations, collaborations include a mural and research project in Kingston Penitentiary, Arrivals Canada, the PanAmPath.com, and creating a levy on outdoor advertising that has raised over $100m for art in Toronto, Canada.

Greatest hits also include organising the first major exhibitions of Street Art at both the Royal Ontario Museum and Art Gallery of Ontario. Devon holds a Masters of Public Administration from the London School of Economics with Merit and an MA in Creative Curating from Goldsmiths College. Certificates include Non-profit and HR Management from Toronto Metropolitan University and Fine Arts from OCAD University. Devon has also taught Cultural Policy at the University of Toronto and Humber College. Volunteer work includes materials and market research with Makermask and the Energy and Aerosols Lab at the University of British Columbia. Devon is a co-founder of AccessArt.ca was the Visual Arts Producer for Provocation Ideas Festival 2022.

Emma Phillips, Treasurer of the Provocation Ideas Festival, is a partner at Goldblatt Partners LLP where she practices in the areas of labour and human rights law.

In addition to her litigation practice, Emma has extensive experience in assessing the systemic roots of workplace harassment, including acting as counsel on an external review on Sexual Misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces, to an independent UN inquiry on sexual abuse by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, and on a public investigation into harassment in the RCMP. Emma regularly acts as an independent workplace investigator and teaches and speaks widely on issues of workplace law. 

Emma was called to the bar in 2006 after clerking at the Supreme Court of Canada. She received her law degree from the University of Toronto in 2005, where she also completed an MA in Criminology. She has a BA in Anthropology from Harvard University.

Mark Rosenfeld is the Founding Director and President of the Provocation Ideas Festival. Previously, he was Executive Director of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, and Director of the Worldviews International Conferences on Media and Higher Education, and Worldviews Annual Lectures.

He has a Ph.D in labour history, has taught at the University of Toronto, University of Edinburgh and York University, and been a policy advisor in several Ontario government ministries.

Don Shipley is an artistic director, producer, and arts consultant, currently engaged as the CEO and Creative Director of Don Shipley Productions Inc. He is one of Canada's leading Artistic Directors, with an extensive career in Canadian and International Theatre and the performing arts. He has been the Creative Director for the 2015 PanAmerican Games, Co-Artistic Director, Stratford Festival of Canada, Artistic Director/CEO, Dublin International Theatre Festival, Artistic Director, Performing Arts and World Stage, Harbourfront Centre, Artistic Director, Grand Theatre Company London, Artistic Founding Director, Belfry Theatre. He has directed at major theater companies across Canada and Europe, including the Shaw Festival, the Stratford Festival, The Grand Theatre, the National Arts Centre, The Vancouver Playhouse, The Belfry Theatre, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Canada Day Celebrations in Ottawa, and Palazzo Theatre in Amsterdam. He has also been awarded Canada Council prizes, Dora Awards, Guthrie Awards, and the prestigious Prix Alliance Award from the Ministry of Culture in France.

Adrianne Xavier is an Onondaga(/Mohawk) woman from the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nations Territory. She is Acting Academic Director in the Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster University, and holds a Ph.D in Social Sciences from Royal Royal Roads University, MA in Intercultural and International Communication from Royal Roads, and a BA in Anthropology from McMaster University. 

Her doctoral thesis was an auto ethnographic account examining the implementation of a food security initiative, "Our Sustenance," at Six Nations. In addition to "Our Sustenance," she has been involved with community initiatives addressing water, addictions, and community health, and wellbeing. She has also pursued a lifelong education and is always learning from her community's ways of knowing and being. This has given her extensive training and experience in transcultural communication, and she is regularly invited to share her knowledge and experience with Indigenous and non-Indigenous academic audiences across Canada and internationally.