Team

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Founder and Principal

What Reconciliation means to Annie: Respectful and reciprocal relationships that support Truth, connection and healing. 

About Annie: As a purpose-driven entrepreneur and a citizen of the Métis Nation, Annie founded Rise Consulting (“Rise”) in 2013 when she was inspired to respond to the call to Reconciliation and advance Indigenous inclusion.  

Championing a values-based approach, Annie creates spaces where clients can realize their strategic visions for inclusion, establish reciprocal relationships and produce impactful outcomes. Annie is a community and industry leader focused on the principles that make those relationships work: recognition of Rights, respect, relevance, reverence, reciprocity, responsibility and relationships. Under her leadership, Rise has lived up to its name — growing into a national brand over the past decade and becoming certified as a B Corporation in 2022 (re-certified in 2025) and in 2025, certified in the Canadian Council of Indigenous Business (CCIB) Partnership Accreditation in Indigenous Relations Program at the silver level. 

Annie holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Calgary, completed the Fundamentals of OCAP® course in 2025 and proudly serves as a Director with the CCIB and Canadian Business for Social Responsibility. In 2024, she was recognized as a distinguished Thompson Rivers University alumnus as an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® finalist.   

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Associate, Translation and Strategic Communications

What Reconciliation means to Annik: Reconciliation is a chance to give everyone a voice, to undo past harms and to learn a new way forward, bolstered by humility, compassion and openness.

About Annik: Annik is a recognized digital and content marketing expert, who has gained extensive experience in translation, copywriting, marketing and strategic communications on which she relies to produce high-quality work and on-time deliverables. Annik supports Rise with translation services, offering our clients Community Relations, Workforce, Leadership, Supply Chain, Business Development, Sustainability, and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) services in both English and French.

Over the last 20 years, she has worked for such businesses as Tremblant, Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton and Banff Lake Louise Tourism. In 2010, she created Accent Communication (then known as Attaché Communications) and quickly became an invaluable partner for her many clients, many of them advertising, branding or content agencies. Annik holds a Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Communications from the University of Ottawa and a translation certificate from the University of Montréal. She takes great pleasure in turning ideas into content that is beautiful, professional and relatable. Her specializations include marketing, advertising, financial services, tourism, web and technology.

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Jr. Consultant – Engagement and Knowledge Systems

What Reconciliation means to Claire: I see Reconciliation as a path of walking together without a clear or pre-determined destination. In my view, the path of Reconciliation unfolds one step at a time as genuine relation-building, truth-telling and mutual trust are developed. 

About Claire: Claire is a non-Indigenous team member originally from Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and currently residing in amiskwaciy-wâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta). She holds a PhD (2018) from Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Department of Archaeology and has experience working on heritage-related initiatives that have aimed to foreground Indigenous knowledge systems, protocols, and cosmologies.  

Claire’s research has examined the intersecting legal orders at play as Alberta’s heritage management framework is applied to Nehiyaw (Plains Cree) ancestral landscapes. This research led Claire to take on a role addressing the repatriation of sacred ceremonial belongings housed in government collections that originate from First Nations in Alberta and Saskatchewan. More recently, Claire spent four years working on Call to Action 79 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which aims to account for Indigenous history, heritage values, and memory practices in federal cultural heritage policies. 

As the mother of two Nehiyaw boys, Claire is passionate about cultivating space for Indigenous knowledge systems to thrive. 

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Consultant – People and Equity​

What Reconciliation means to Kyla: Reconciliation is how we care for each other. It’s recognizing the histories that have got us to where we are now and how we can all work together to ensure a supportive world for all of us. Reconciliation is following the kinship teachings of Wahkotowin–that we are all interconnected and responsible for one another. 

About Kyla: Kyla is an Afro-Indigenous (Dominican/Métis) woman born and raised in Amiskwaciwâskahikan / ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Edmonton) on Treaty 6 Territory. She holds a Masters in Community and Regional Planning degree, focusing on Indigenous Community Planning from the University of British Columbia. She has worked as an educator, a community organizer, and a social planner primarily with Indigenous and marginalized communities. Her experiences and interests are centered around Indigenous engagement, cultural preservation, community health, storytelling and food justice. She is a community planner, an instructor at Concordia University in Edmonton and co-editor of Hungry Zine. Her work aims to build more resilient, just and healthier communities. 

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Sr. Consultant – Supply Chain and ESG

What Reconciliation means to Najah: Living my Canadian dream as an immigrant does not come at the expense of the quality of life for Indigenous Peoples.

About Najah: Najah is passionate about finding common ground where everyone can prosper. She believes that good business that respects people and resources can provide abundant opportunities for all. Najah has over ten years of experience working in the supply chain in both the public and private sectors across multiple industries. Najah completed her MBA in 2021 where she focused on data analysis and sustainability. She is a Project Management Professional and Certified Supply Chain Professional.  Najah was born and raised in Syria. In her early twenties, she moved to Canada and studied economics with a minor in computer science at the University of Calgary. She knows firsthand the effect that conflicts, and poverty have on societies, and she believes that we all have a responsibility to improve the lives of our fellow humans and supply chain is a great instrument to offer fair business opportunities for all.

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Sr. Consultant – Transformational Learning and Engagement

What Reconciliation means to Naomi: Reconciliation is about relationships. At the foundation of relationship-building is respect, courage to listen and unlearn, accountability, humility, and trust. It is where Indigenous identities, cultures, languages are valued and celebrated. It is where Indigenous sovereignty is honored, and communities and Nations define their own pathways for success. 

About Naomi: As a settler with Ukrainian and German heritage, Naomi is grateful to be living and working on unceded Coast Salish territory, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.  

Naomi’s experience spans over fifteen years in community development, project management, educational design and facilitation, and research and evaluation. She has been honored to work with First Nation and Inuit communities including leadership, Elders, families and youth towards strengthening community wellness, economic independence, cultural vibrancy, and land stewardship. She holds a Master degree in Adult Education and Community Development from the University of Toronto. Using this education, it is her aim to engage in meaningful knowledge sharing and encourage relationship-building rooted in trust and reciprocity.  

(She/Her/Hers)

Sr. Consultant – Research, Learning and Equity Systems

What Reconciliation means to Patti: The People are Patti’s direct report. As such, she expresses gratitude to be in kinship with Siksikess’tsuhkoom (Blackfoot Lands) and to be contributing to the resurgence of Siksikaitsitapii, Cree, Algonquin and Toisnot Skaru:re values, language, knowledge, and ceremony in the communities where she has been invited to do so. I am humbled by the Aawaahskataikiksi, ceremonialists, scholars, peers, and friends who have shared nitsitapissini, teachings, and guidance, for close to 30 years. She was taught to share what she knows, to be generous intellectually, physically, spiritually and emotionally. Fulfilling her obligations includes working with reciprocity and commitment to Indigenous futurity.

About Patti:

Patti is a non-Indigenous team member at Rise, situated on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples of the qiqéyt (Qaygayt) and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) First Nations, and alongside the citizens of the Surrey Delta Métis Association Region 2. Patti joined Rise in 2023 with 25 years of experience as an educator and working with and for Indigenous communities, organizations, and programs. She works from a place of unsettling colonial memory while following the guidance and local ethics of Indigenous communities where she is called to do so.  

She completed a Master of Education at the University of British Columbia, where she studied human ecology and the impact of land kinship on the restoration of family integrity. She earned a Master of Arts in Peace and Conflict Studies from Royal Roads University, working with educators and Muslim, Sinhalese, and Tamil youth on adolescent peace circles during the war in Sri Lanka. She is currently pursuing her PhD in the Indigitalization Lab at SFU.