2026 Presenters
Shelley Maguire MSW, RSW has been practicing Social Work for over 24 years. She began her career in Child Protection and later moved to conducting assessments for youth and family court after completing her MSW. Her time in Child protection was extremely valuable and created a foundation for her future social work practice and she formed life long relationships and bonds with her child protection colleagues. In 2007, Shelley transitioned from performing court ordered assessments to providing treatment for youth who have engaged in problem sexual behavior, where she has remained for the last 18 years.
Shelley was an early adopter of trauma informed care at the IWK. She is a strong
advocate for youth and families, and she believes a strong therapeutic relationship is the foundation for all good social work practice.
Addressing and preventing adolescent problem sexual behavior has become the focus of her career and she has been trained and influenced by some of the world’s leading researchers and clinicians in this field of work. She has presented at numerous conferences and workshops, including the 2022 Association for Treatment of Sexual Abuse annual conference in Los Angeles. Shelley is dedicated to raising awareness about sexual abuse prevention and best practices in the field. She is passionate about her work and is committed to ongoing learning, growth and collaboration.
Robert Seymour Wright is a queer, African Nova Scotian Social Worker and Sociologist whose 36 year career has spanned the fields of education, child welfare, forensic mental health, trauma, sexual violence, and cultural competence. He recently completed terms of service as the founding Executive Director of both the Peoples’ Counselling Clinic (Nov. 2017 - March 2024) and the African Nova Scotian Justice Institute (Fall 2021 - March 2024) and currently continues at the Peoples’ Counselling Clinic as Director Emeritus, Consultant and Therapist. Robert’s identity and work are grounded in his integrated and activist spirituality.
Robert has served in developmentally critical and notable positions throughout his career. He was the first Race Relations Coordinator for the Dartmouth District School Board, the Executive Director of Family and Children’s Services of Cumberland County and the Executive Director of the Child and Youth Strategy of Nova Scotia. He was an early practitioner of what has come to be known as Equity, Diversity and Inclusion work and he pioneered the introduction of Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (IRCAs): A specialized, forensic, clinical presentence report for people of African descent. This latter work has received national attention. In August of 2021 the Government of Canada funded to expand the implementation of IRCAs nationally.
Venessa Cavicchi Downing, MSW, RSW, is a social worker who's spent over two decades working in crisis response and community support. Her career began in grassroots organizations supporting individuals with parenting, housing insecurity, homelessness and addiction. Before completing her social work education, she began training as a doula and was a volunteer for ten years, supporting women through both pregnancy and birth. These pre-social work experiences strengthened and solidified her commitment to providing compassionate care and social justice-minded support for people during times of vulnerability.
Venessa now works through Nova Scotia Health in the Mental Health and Addictions Crisis Portfolio as a crisis intervener for the Provincial Crisis Team (mobile crisis). She is a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Coordinator and has trained hundreds of law enforcement members and first responders/receivers across Nova Scotia in crisis response, de-escalation, and mental health awareness.
As a certified CIT International Trainer, Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) provider and approved H.E.L.P.S. instructor, Venessa focuses on accessible and practical strategies that highlight and advocate for anti-oppressive approaches to crisis response in an effort to improve safety, reduce use of force, and strengthen partnerships between clinicians, communities, and frontline responders.
Verena Rizg, MN, NP, is a Nurse Practitioner, systems strategist, spoken-word poet, and one of Canada’s most distinctive voices on mental health, resilience, and what it actually means to show up fully human in spaces that weren’t built for it.
She founded the first BIPOC clinic in Canadian Armed Forces history — earning the Deputy Minister’s Excellence Award, the highest honour in National Defence — and pioneered the Nurse Practitioner role across every federal prison in Nova Scotia. She has spent 15 years doing clinical work in the rooms most people don’t want to talk about, and then walking onto stages to talk about them anyway.
She speaks on the tender subjects — resilience, joy, vulnerability, connection. The things people feel but rarely have language for. She has a gift for saying the thing nobody planned to hear — and making it the only thing people remember.
She is a TEDx host, a specialist in mental health and trauma, and a happily married mother of two daughters — Axia and Kyria — who are, by her own admission, her greatest motivation and her most ruthless accountability partners.
She moves people from insight to action. From inspiration to implementation.
Rachel Reeve is an interdisciplinary artist based in Nova Scotia whose practice explores personal history, place, and ecological materiality. Working across painting, printmaking, mixed media, and installation, she engages organic materials—including plants, fish, and seaweed—as active collaborators. Her intuitive, materially driven process is informed by botanical impressions and gyotaku, the traditional Japanese practice of fish printing, emphasizing reciprocity with the more-than human world. Influenced by time spent living and working in Japan, Reeve’s work reflects values of impermanence, restraint, and respect for nature, responding to coastal and rural ecologies through embodied and relational ways of knowing.
Annapolis Valley Dance Company – Nova Scotia’s only mobile Latin dance school, Annapolis Valley Dance Company, aims to provide a unique, friendly, accessible, and enjoyable learning experience for everyone it reaches. Each program has been thoughtfully designed with community in mind, to cater to the needs and desired outcomes of everyone who steps onto the dance floor. With classes stretching across the Annapolis Valley from Windsor to Annapolis Royal, AVDC has started a movement that has got people on their toes!
As the owner and lead dance instructor, Aurora offers more than 20 years of Latin and Ballroom dance education and professional experience to the company. She is joined by her adorably goofy partner and teaching assistant, Stuart, who serves as a motivator and inspiring role model for all beginners and anyone who may be overcoming their fear of learning to dance. Together, the couple lead the way with their natural sense of humour, light-heartedness and down to earth approach to learning.
After an incredible career of musical success, world travel, professional dancing and wild adventure, Aurora Scott has created Annapolis Valley Dance Company with a specific goal in mind; to bring Latin dance to the Annapolis Valley and to make dance accessible to all Nova Scotians.
Aurora’s mission in life is to “be a loving voice that empowers positive change and makes a difference in the world.” In addition to being a professional singer-songwriter and entertainer, trained recreational therapy provider, certified yoga instructor and experienced Latin and Ballroom dancer, she's an entrepreneur and a natural born leader.
Her passion lies in helping others to improve their quality of life by creating moments that spark joy and promote the best possible outcome for each person she meets.
Aurora and Stuart are true believers that teamwork really does make the dream work. They are genuine, patient, and kind to everyone they reach and go out of their way to make each interaction count. They invite you to get off the couch, step out of the office, overcome a fear, or follow a dream and take a chance on something new. Who knows where it will lead you...
Stephanie LeBlanc started working in the field of mental health in 2006 as a human services worker, and continued to work front line while completing her BA in Psychology and Women Studies at the University of New Brunswick (2009) and her BSW at Dalhousie University (2014). She worked for a term with the Halifax Regional Police Victim Services Unit as a Case Worker, supporting victims of crime while also working on her masters. She graduated with her MSW from Dalhousie University in 2016 and transitioning into a clinical role in Community Get to know you Mental Health & Addictions at Nova Scotia Health. She worked in multiple clinics across the central zone in the last 10 years.
Stephanie is a Clinical Social Worker currently employed both privately and in public health. She works 50/50 within the Mental Health and Addictions Specialty Services at the BPD Treatment Program and at Intentional Outcomes Counselling where she is the Clinical Team Lead.
Her work is rooted in trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, and strengths-based care. She works collaboratively with individuals to create a place of safety where people can explore their experiences, while also building the skills needed for meaningful, lasting change.
Robyn Jackman is a clinical social worker, educator, supervisor, and founder of Intentional Outcomes Counselling, focusing on evidence-based therapy for individuals and couples. Before entering social work, she worked as a behavioural interventionist supporting children with autism. She graduated with her MSW from Dalhousie University in 2016. Her career started in the field of domestic violence before transitioning into a clinical role in Community Mental Health & Addictions at the NSHA.
Robyn’s work has centered on trauma, relationships, emotional regulation, mental health, and ethical clinical practice. Her clinical approach draws from eclectic modalities while remaining grounded in relational, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive practice. She has a particular interest in attachment, relationship patterns, ethics, professional judgment, and reflective decision-making in modern social work practice.
In addition to direct clinical work, Robyn provides leadership, supervision, program development, and professional training within the mental health field. She is also a strong believer in working hard and playing always.
Kiara Sexton - "My name is Kiara Sexton and I'm a certified yoga instructor with over 200 hours under my belt (including Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher Training). I strongly believe in the power and medicine of yoga, not just as individuals but community as well. I strive to make my yoga classes accessible: financially, physically, and mentally. I'm constantly learning how to teach to those who have a different experience than me and how to enhance their experience no matter shape, size, ability, and mental state. You have freedom and choice in my class, whether I call it or not. This would include but not limited to: rest, water, and taking a different pose that your body wants/needs. A reminder to not think of me as the final say, but rather your guide throughout the practice. Take what you need, this is YOUR practice.
I'm extremely open to feedback (good or constructive) as it allows me to see how I show up for people on the mat. If there is anything that you feel I need to know prior to the class (injuries, past experiences, ability, how to make you feel more safe to explore, etc.), I would gladly like to know so I can plan the class with that in mind. I'm excited for this opportunity to create a space for you to explore through movement".
The Plant Space
Kim - A former botany researcher, Kim was drawn to horticultural therapy while healing from severe anxiety & burnout. She was inspired to train as a horticulturalist & horticultural therapy practitioner to help others discover that 'plants make me happy' feeling and support community mental health. Kim is currently the President of the Friends of the Gardens, a volunteer organization at The Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens in Wolfville, NS.
Sherri - With a love of gardening inherited from her father, Masao, Sherri has always found peace in nature. While studying clinical psychology, she developed a passion for healing and helping others and horticultural therapy was a natural fit. Sherri is a skilled facilitator with experience as a tai-chi instructor, early childhood educator and as a caregiver to aging loved ones. She is a founder & President Emeritus of the Canadian Tai Chi Academy, an international non-profit organization.
Shelley Thompson is based in Wolfville, Mi'kma'ki, but trained at: RADA (UK); CFC; WIDC;Meryl Streep/Nicole Kidman’s NYC Writers Lab. Shelley’s acting awards include ACTRA/Gemini’s (film/tv) and Merritt’s (theatre). Her several short films have screened internationally. The last - DUCK DUCK GOOSE about the impact of school shootings - won Best Atlantic Short at Halifax International FF, was a Telefilm Not-Short-On-Talent pick (Clermont-Ferrand, FR) and a finalist in CBC’s Short Film Faceoff. Her feature, DAWN HER DAD & THE TRACTOR premiered at InsideOut 2021, was a Borsos Prize nominee at WHISTLER with sold-out screenings at BFI Flare, London (UK), Inside Out and in Halifax at FIN. In 2022 DHD&TT won Nova Scotia’s Masterworks Prize.
Thompson’s first novel ROAR was published in 2023 by Nimbus/Vagrant. Her recent collection of short stories WINTER SKY: Stories for the Season, was in the top 25 top selling books in the Atlantic Region, Nov ’25 to Jan ’26. She’s a narrator of audio books for the BBC, CBC, Cambridge & Oxford University Press’, & Chivers International. Most recently she produced Lesley Crewe’s bestseller, THE SPOON STEALER and her own novel ROAR, both now on Audible.
Her six part docu-series, TRANSLATIONS, is screening on FibeTV1 and CBC Gem.
Thompson is the creator of a fund to support Trans/Non binary/two spirit individuals. The Dawn Fund reaches across the Atlantic provinces, aiming to alleviate some of the stressors facing this community, and to increase supports, hope and joy.
Sarah McInnis is an accredited music therapist, music educator, and performer with six years of experience working in grief and bereavement care. She currently provides music therapy with Valley Hospice and the Annapolis Valley Palliative Care Team, supporting individuals and families experiencing grief, loss, and end-of-life transitions. Sarah is the creator of The Legacy Song Project, which toured across the Atlantic region in 2023 as both a film and album featuring eight Atlantic Canadians sharing personal stories of grief and loss through music. Originally from Peterborough, Ontario, Sarah has lived in the Annapolis Valley for nearly ten years. She is currently completing a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology and is working toward becoming a counselling therapist. Sarah is passionate about community-based music making and believes that everyone is inherently musical. Her work invites people to reconnect with their own voice and discover how music can hold space for grief, meaning, and human connection. More about her work can be found at www.sarahmcinnis.com.