Cultural Humility: A lifelong journey

Date: May 7, 2025
Type: Online

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Cultural Humility: A lifelong journey

Dr. Nadia Ferrara coaches public servants to connect head, heart, and hand through cultural humility: A Lifelong Journey. In this session, Nadia brings forward her 30+ years of expertise and experience in the combined fields of art therapy and public service to define cultural humility and help us incorporate cultural humility in our everyday lives to help promote a more inclusive workplace. Come away with a better understanding of this lifelong journey of self-reflection, learning, and commitment, which can move us towards more meaningful relationships with ourselves, our colleagues, and those around us.

Event Details

Date & Time: May 7 2025, 13:00 to 14:30 EDT

Audience: All Public Service executives across Canada and internationally are invited to attend APEX’s learning events

Cost: Free

Language: This event will be bilingual where the speaker will alternate between English and French without repeating. Simultaneous interpretation will be available via Wordly, an AI-based interpreting service.

Platform: Participants will attend our virtual event via Teams webinar . A meeting link will be sent once you are registered.

Resources

Video Introduction: Ombuds Offices

Nadia Ferrara picture

Nadia Ferrara

Dr. Nadia Ferrara is a dedicated public servant and a passionate humanitarian. She is currently the Ombudsperson at Indigenous Services Canada and the Privy Council Office. Prior to this, she was Senior Director at Parks Canada where she established the Values, Ethics, Diversity and Inclusion Directorate. Nadia gained ombuds experience when she was the Executive Director at the Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, Department of Justice. Nadia also worked at Women and Gender Equality Canada, and before that, at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada for over a decade, where she worked closely with First Nations and Inuit Health Branch and developed policies and frameworks in collaboration with Indigenous partners.

Nadia remains on Faculty at McGill University as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology where she supervises graduate and undergraduate students in her spare time.

Before entering the Government of Canada in 2003, Nadia worked as an art therapist for 16 years, specializing in cross-cultural psychotherapy with Indigenous peoples in Quebec and Ontario, Canada. Her education includes a Master of Arts in Art Therapy, a Master of Science in Transcultural Psychiatry, and a Doctorate in Medical Anthropology.

In addition to her publications of several journal articles and chapters in various books across North America and in Europe, Nadia has published books on her work as an art therapist and anthropologist with the Crees of Northern Quebec. One of her books, Reconciling and Rehumanizing Indigenous-Settler Relations, is a reflection on her work as an applied anthropologist and advocate for Indigenous Peoples. Her latest publication is entitled, In Pursuit of Impact: Trauma and Resilience Informed Policy Development, and it illustrates the application of a human-centered approach, as Nadia urges us to reconnect with our humanity.

Nadia is also an artist.  One of her sculptures, The Friendship Knot, is permanently placed at her former high school in Montréal, where she was born and raised. Nadia has a daughter, Mikayla, and currently resides in Ottawa, Ontario with her life partner, Lorna.

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