JENNIFER PODEMSKI | WRITER, DIRECTOR & PRODUCER

ROCHELLE GRAYSON | MENTOR & FACILITATOR

Rochelle Grayson, Founder of Mosaic Accelerator, is a serial entrepreneur and digital media executive with over 30 years of experience in business, technology, entertainment, and education. Rochelle launched the Mosaic Accelerator to support, mentor, guide, and invest in non-technical, BIPOC women founders. Rochelle is also an Executive-in-Residence (EiR) with New Ventures BC. She has led and launched several start-ups and innovative digital initiatives, working with a combination of both small and large companies, as well as highly analytical and creative individuals. Rochelle is equally comfortable discussing artificial intelligence (AI), digital business models, digital marketing trends and strategies, online community building, and internet and mobile technologies.

Rochelle holds an MBA in Finance and Business Policy from the University of Chicago, and Six Sigma (Black Belt) Master Certifications in Product Development Management and Business Facilitation. Her career has taken her from New York to Silicon Valley and now to Vancouver, Canada.

REENA SAMRA | FACILITATOR, BIPOC HEALING & WELLNESS CENTRE

Reena (she/her) is the founder and owner of BIPOC Healing and Wellness Centre, a culturally-informed private counselling centre in Edmonton that specializes in therapy for BIPOC grief and racial trauma, and is committed to addressing race and culture in the therapy room. Reena graduated from the University of Calgary with a Master’s degree in Social Work with a Clinical Specialization in Trauma-Informed Practice. Reena is a settler on this land, as a child of immigrants from Punjab, India, who holds multiple intersecting identities of privilege and oppression. As a BIPOC therapist, she has been working for the past decade to center BIPOC mental health, through her commitment to bringing decolonization, anti-racism, intersectional feminism and social justice into her therapy supports for her community. Reena is an activist and advocate for the BIPOC community, through starting spaces for BIPOC grief healing and for support and psychoeducation for newcomer, immigrant and refugee survivors of trauma and sexual violence. She was recognized with Edify Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40 2021 Award for her work with immigrant and racialized folks. Reena is currently pursuing a Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) through California Southern University, studying the impacts of racism, racial trauma, and racial grief on mental health.

SONI DASMOHAPATRA | FACILITATOR

Soni is a passionate consultant, educator and arts practitioner who uses yoga and somatics as pathways of self discovery, healing and artistic creation. Soni has built her career for over twenty years in the sectors of government, higher learning, non-profit, public education and philanthropy, across Canada and Internationally. Currently she is an assistant professor at MacEwan University, Arts and Cultural Management Department. Soni has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alberta, a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Victoria and a certificate in gender studies and human rights from Oxford University, UK. Soni has been involved in the Alberta arts, cultural and Heritage sector since she was a child. She is a trained classical Indian Kathak dancer and yoga teacher. She has been a cultural administrator in the areas of Canadian Heritage and Arts in Alberta and Ontario. Check out her UNESCO article on Arts Education in a Post National State.

CODY LIGHTNING | DIRECTOR, HEY VIKTOR!

Cody is an established actor originally from Alberta, Canada and is a member of Samson Cree First Nation in Maskwacis. Lightning grew up in Los Angeles with his mother, celebrated actress Georgina Lightning, who moved there in the 1980s to pursue a career in Hollywood. He displayed artistic talent early on landing his first role at just 5 years of age. From there he went on to become one of Hollywood’s top Native American child actors of the 90s decade. Lightning has worked with some of Hollywood’s top actors like Johnny Depp, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Marlin Brando, Don Cheadle, Bradley Cooper, Zoey Deschanel, Luis Guzman and Chuck Norris. Throughout his teenage years Lightning continued to work in the film and TV industry travelling extensively across the USA and Canada. His experiences have enabled him to develop a unique ability to relate to people from all backgrounds and have shaped him into a remarkably diverse talent. Additionally, Lightning has experience working in improv, theatre, stand-up comedy, executive producing, public speaking and mentoring. Having spent almost a quarter decade of his life in the entertainment industry, now at the age of 36 Lightning possesses a broad range of impressive talent. Lightning’s directorial debut “Hey Viktor!”, which he also co-wrote and acted in, premiered at Tribeca in 2023, and has been nominated for numerous awards, including 3 Canadian Screen Awards.

JOSHUA JACKSON | PRODUCER, HEY VIKTOR!

Pîsim Kânîpawit (Joshua Jackson) is a contemporary First Nations, producer, director, writer and musician. His background includes acclaimed work with indigenous performance. He has also collaborated nationally and internationally with professional artists across visual, performance and sonic mediums.

As an extremely proud member of the Maskekosihk people (Enoch Cree Nation), Joshua is the founder and president of Lightning Mill INC. He’s the producer of “Hey Viktor” the company’s flagship venture and feature length film. He is currently developing the company’s next feature “Smudge the Blades” and TV series “I’ll Just F***in’ Kill You” alongside Cody Lightning (Marvel) and New York Times bestselling author, Samuel Miller.

As a producer Joshua has established the collaborative process of multiple disciplines in performative works, short films and music videos. The most distinct being “All my Lives at Once- Lostboycrow) as well as consulting on numerous artistic ventures across all disciplines.

Contemporary Indigenous art is and always has been at the core of the process of the work. He has the logical understanding of visual, performative, theatrical, and sonic mediums, blending it with the traditional elements of the old way that add precision in their respective value to the creative process of contemporary Indigenous works.

HENGAMEH E. RICE | PRODUCER, ANAHITA’S REPUBLIC

Hengameh E. Rice are a writing team, with Hengameh born in Shiraz, Iran and Rice born in Edmonton, Alberta. Hengameh brings stories full of passion about the complex, misunderstood and beautiful world of the Middle East. Rice brings the experience of thirty years in the arts and communications. Together they create and produce exciting, compelling stories underrepresented on Canadian stages. Their first play, Anahita’s Republic, had its World Premiere (by Bustle & Beast Theatre) in Toronto in March of 2023, and its Alberta premiere in Edmonton in May of 2023. Nominated for two Dora Awards (Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Set Design – Independent Theatre category) for its Bustle & Beast Toronto production, and for three Sterling Awards (Outstanding Independent Production, Outstanding Performance for a Leading Role, Outstanding Score) for its Edmonton production, the play provoked powerful responses  in both cities.

Set in Iran, Anahita’s Republic is the story of a woman who refuses to wear the hijab, and so promotes the struggle for women’s rights from inside her walled compound, using her brother as an agent.

The playwriting team is currently writing their next play, Sin, a radical retelling of the stories of Fatimeh and Maryam and producing Anahita’s Republic outside of Canada.