Conversations with WLI sit down with WLI Champions to discuss their career path evolution, exploring themes such as learning from setbacks, developing resilience, and finding your purpose. Join Lisa Prime, from the City of Cambridge and Laura Taylor from York University in Episode 3.

Conversations with WLI sit down with WLI Champions to discuss their career path evolution, exploring themes such as learning from setbacks, developing resilience, and finding your purpose. Join Jocelyn Deeks from Bousfields Inc. Cheyanne Hammell from PCL Construction and Cyndi Rottenberg-Walker from Urban Strategies Inc. on Episode 2.

Conversations with WLI sit down with WLI Champions to discuss their career path evolution, exploring themes such as learning from setbacks, developing resilience, and finding your purpose. Join Dana Anderson from MHBC and Claire McIntyre, Oxford Properties Group in Episode 1.

Welcome to the special edition of the Conversations with WLI, where ULI Toronto's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Reconciliation Committee highlights the changemakers who are doing amazing DEI work in city building in our new Conversations with DEI podcast with Jennifer Khan and Sameer Patel. In this fourth and final episode, they speak with Eli Bauwah, who shares the importance of queer spaces and building community connections to support one another with Eli Bauwah.

Jc Elijah (Eli) M. Bawuah (he/him) is a practicing Urban Planner and Public Consultant with multi-disciplinary experience gained by working in a spectrum of city and community-building roles. He has worked on development applications, master plans, social plans, mobility/transportation projects across Ontario. Eli has co-developed equity initiatives centering the lived experiences and voices of Toronto’s diverse urban stakeholders, while fostering collaborative environments that generate values of reciprocity and sustainability. To Eli, leadership is about allowing yourself to be vulnerable while advocating for what you believe in that may benefit someone other than yourself. This is why he co-founded the Mentoring Initiative for Indigenous and Planners of Colour (MIIPOC). With the goal to advance diversity and representation amongst city-builders and leadership, the Mentoring Initiative for Indigenous and Planners of Colour (MIIPOC) focuses on establishing a national network between experienced planners and emerging planners from marginalized communities. As a former Committee Member of the City of Toronto’s 2SLGBTQ+ Council Advisory Body, he advised and helped to inform strategies aimed at removing barriers faced by the queer community.

Welcome to the special edition of the Conversations with WLI, where ULI Toronto's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Reconciliation Committee highlights the changemakers who are doing amazing DEI work in city building in our new Conversations with DEI podcast with Jennifer Khan and Sameer Patel. In this episode, they speak with Cheryll Case, who shares how one can make the changes that we want to see in our communities and what we can do to support the move to building more equitable and inclusive cities.

Cheryll Case is an Early Career Canadian Urban Leader with the University of Toronto School of Cities, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Waterloo, and is founder, and principal urban planner of CP Planning, a planning firm that facilitates partnerships between the government, academic, charity, private, and non-profit sectors to align on a human rights approach to the planning and delivery of housing. This includes designing, implementing, and guiding national, city-wide, and neighbourhood specific affordable housing programs to protect and increase affordable housing supply. She is a co-editor and co-author of House Divided: How the Missing Middle Can Solve Toronto's Affordability Crisis.

Welcome to the special edition of the Conversations with WLI, where ULI Toronto's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Reconciliation Committee highlights the changemakers who are doing amazing DEI work in city building in our new Conversations with DEI podcast with Jennifer Khan and Sameer Patel. In this episode, they speak with Clarence Qian and Chantal Lee, who provide their unique perspective from those entering the Toronto city building industry and how they experience their sense of community.

Clarence Qian

Clarence Qian is the Director of Development at Distrikt and has responsibility for the management and execution of value creation strategies across Distrikt’s development portfolio.

Prior to joining Distrikt, Clarence was a project manager at BDP Quadrangle, one of Canada’s leading architecture, design, and urbanism firm, where he worked on various international and domestic mixed-use master plans. He also managed the planning, design, and construction of several award-winning mid and high-rise projects in Toronto. Prior to BDP Quadrangle, Clarence was a project manager at Bowan Group, a leading full-service design and development firm in Shenzhen, China, where he worked closely with numerous development partners to ensure the successful execution of real estate projects across Asia.

Clarence holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He is actively involved with the Urban Land Institute, currently serving on the Management Committee as Student Committee Co-Chair for the Toronto District Council. Clarence was an Urban Leadership Fellow at the School of Cities, University of Toronto, and he has contributed as a guest studio critic at OCAD University.

Chantal Lee

Chantal Lee is an urban planner who is passionate about creating thriving cities through effective urban planning, design and policy. Chantal received her Master of Science in Planning at the University of Toronto. She is currently a Transportation Planner at LEA Consulting and a Student Committee Co-Chair at ULI Toronto. Previously, she has worked as a Community Planning Assistant for the City of Coquitlam and a Sustainability Analyst at JTS Consulting. Chantal has also volunteered for city-building non-profit organizations such as Our Greenway Conservancy and Evergreen Brick Works.

Welcome to the special edition of the Conversations with WLI, where ULI Toronto's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Reconciliation Committee highlights the changemakers who are doing amazing DEI work in city building in our new Conversations with DEI podcast with Jennifer Khan and Sameer Patel. In this episode, they speak with Eldon Theodore, Partner at MHBC, to discuss the opportunities planners have to effect change in the planning process, when to pick your battles and how to be a driver for change.

Eldon Theodore, is a Partner with MHBC, specializing in land use planning and urban design. Mr. Theodore holds an Honours Bachelor Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Waterloo and a Masters Degree in Urban Design Studies from the University of Toronto. Mr. Theodore is also a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP) with the Canada Green Building Council.

Mr. Theodore specializes in providing Urban Design and sustainable development services to public and private sector clients across Ontario. His experience includes the application of urban design and sustainable initiatives through policy preparation, site design analysis, community visioning, design briefs and community design guidelines. Mr. Theodore is also trained in conducting intensive design charrettes to help establish places of distinction and create value in a community. As a LEED AP, Mr. Theodore's design expertise also extends to the evaluation, design and accreditation of sustainable sites and built form.

Mr. Theodore's land use planning experience includes obtaining development approvals (Subdivisions, Condominiums, Site Plans, Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendments, Consents, and Minor Variances), project coordination and management, undertaking special studies and associated research, expert witness at the Ontario Municipal Board and presentations to Committees, Council and the general public.

Mr. Theodore is a full member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and a Registered Professional Planner in Ontario. Mr. Theodore is also Chair of OPPI's Community Design Working Group, and Treasurer of the Congress for the New Urbanism's Ontario Chapter.

Everyone is told they should have a mentor, but what makes a good mentor relationship? Join WLI Champions, Ute Maya-Giambattista and Vivan Kwok as they discuss their perspectives on mentorship, narrated by WLI Committee member Christie Gibson.

“Reset is not about going back to normal. It’s about building a better normal for everyone.”

WLI is hosting a Reset Symposium, on May 19th, in efforts to cultivate an on-going feedback loop for participants to build community, share insights and knowledge, test and iterate on solutions in a post pandemic city.

This symposium is a conversation inviting diverse and multidisciplinary perspectives on the collective realization, reckoning and reset needed for cities to build back better.

Gail Borthwick and Andrea Katz discuss with Saira Muzaffar, the catalyst for the reset symposium, the unique format of the symposium - blurring the lines between experts and participants - and the outcomes they hope to achieve.

WLI’s Reset Symposium will be occurring virtually on May 19th, registration is available on ULI Toronto Events Page: https://toronto.uli.org/events/detail/850609E0-456E-4CD6-922C-211F40B7CDF9/

Building designs shape the built environment we all experience, but many of these buildings are not designed by BIPOC. In this episode, Camille Mitchell, a Black architect from Gensler and the Co-Founder of Building Equality in Architecture Toronto (BEAT) and Black Architects and Interior Designers Association (BAIDA) talks to Saira Muzaffar, Director of Marketing at BTY and a member of WLI about her career path, ways to diversify the architecture and design profession, and advice for industry leaders.

Send us your feedback at [email protected] if you have any suggestions for topics you'd like Conversations with WLI to consider for future episodes.