OUR TEAM

DR. MADDIE VENABLES

Core Member

Dr. Maddie Venables is a Senior Research Associate for the research arm of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests lie in primary care and medical education. She was involved in establishing the Ottawa Practice Enhancement Network (OPEN) and supports faculty and residents with their research and scholarly work.

NATHALIE SIROIS

Core Member

Nathalie Sirois is an experienced education professional who has worked locally and internationally at many levels in the education system, including as a teacher, a consultant and a system leader. She is a passionately curious educator and a lifelong learner committed to developing and promoting socially just practice required to create and maintain educational contexts built for human flourishing in all its diversity. A fundamental concern regarding equity and anti-oppression has been a thread linking all the chapters of her unconventional career path. She currently works as the Equity, Human Rights and Pluralism Advisor for the CEPEO, the French Public School Board of Eastern Ontario. 
Her quest to understand and shape her own role as practitioner and vector of educational change – both pedagogically and structurally – has brought her to examine how to bridge research and action while including the lived experience and the voices of the marginalized, this in the midst of the rich complexity that characterizes education and society today. Her work evolves more specifically around how to best adapt and apply the said bridge in a French-language minority context. She has spent the last two decades in practitioner inquiry mode using a broad social ecological perspective to champion student success and well-being. This journey has meant experimenting with findings stemming from a variety of fields while also applying a critical and trauma-informed lens to her work. The problems of practice she has grappled with have incited her to learn and borrow  – in a sometimes unorthodox mix – from such disciplines as Developmental Psychology, Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, Genocide Studies, History, Philosophy, Organizational Theory, as well as Cultural and Intercultural Studies and Practice.
In her present work pertaining to the K-12 student socio-demographic data collection, analyses and use, she is exploring how some critical theories including Indigenous and De-colonial Research Methodologies can help ensure the how of this project is ethically coherent with its why.
The tensions inherent to socially just professional and organizational development integrating principles of Adult Development inspired her to become a certified Dare to Lead Facilitator in the category of Courage Catalyst. She locates her work in a lineage of interculturally aware, responsive and sustaining Service-leadership.
Beyond her work in Canada, she has contributed to a variety of collaborative learning initiatives with K-12 teachers and other educational leaders internationally in contexts such as Haiti, Lebanon, France, Morocco and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

DR. MARVIN ZUKER

Core Member

Marvin Zuker was a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice, where he presided over the small claims, family and criminal courts from 1978 until his retirement in 2016. He is associate professor at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto, where he teaches education law. Zuker is the author and co-author of many books and publications, including The Law is Not for Women and The Law is (Not) for Kids.

DR. SACHIN MAHARAJ

Core Member

Sachin Maharaj is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Policy and Program Evaluation at the University of Ottawa.  Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, he was a teacher at the Toronto District School Board and a lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, where he completed his Ph.D. and was a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholar.  Dr. Maharaj's research focuses on school boards, school choice, teacher unions, and policy implementation.  He is also a regular contributor to the Toronto Star, where he has published over 60 articles, and has appeared several times on media outlets like CBC and TVO.