Mr. Keith Henry is a Métis person that was born in Thompson, Manitoba and raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Mr. Henry achieved a B.Ed. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1995.

Mr. Henry began his career in 1995 with teaching positions and has become well known for his strategic administrative and negotiation skills. Since 1998 Mr. Henry has led numerous provincial, federal and industry negotiations on a variety of issues. He has been directly responsible for the financial administration of a number of Aboriginal non-profits and has a proven track record of success.

Mr. Henry started his own consulting company in October 2008 and is the President and CEO of KCD Consulting Incorporated that specializes in human resource development, economic development, project delivery, strategic planning, negotiations, and leadership development. Today Mr. Henry has worked or continues to work with several clients including the Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada, Aboriginal Tourism Association of British Columbia, Treaty 8 Tribal Association, Prophet River First Nations, Halfway River First Nations, Alexis Creek Indian Band, Kelly Lake Métis Settlement Society, Tl’azt’en Nation, Lake Babine Nation, Trondek Hwichen, plus several others.

Mr. Henry has become an international Aboriginal cultural tourism leader receiving Aboriginal/Indigenous recognition as the former CEO for Aboriginal Tourism Association of British Columbia (AtBC). In April 2014 the inaugural World Indigenous Tourism Alliance award recognized the work of AtBC and Mr. Henry’s leadership. Mr. Henry has been spearheading the growth of authentic Aboriginal tourism in Canada as he worked to redevelop the national Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada as an elected chair when this organization incorporated in April 2015. In October 2015 Mr. Henry took the full-time role as the Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada’s CEO. In Canada, Mr. Henry continues to be recognized across the country as one of the leaders in Aboriginal tourism and has led many new initiatives such as the development of national standards on market readiness and authenticity, cruise industry opportunities and the national Aboriginal tourism research project on the economic value of Aboriginal cultural tourism. Mr. Henry was instrumental in the development of the national Aboriginal tourism strategy The Path Forward 2016-2021 which will focus on increasing Aboriginal market readiness, increasing jobs, and increasing revenues. Over the course of the last number of years, Mr. Henry has been invited to numerous international locations to support Aboriginal tourism strategies.

Mr. Henry volunteers time in the Aboriginal community and maintains several board positions including the former President of the Industry Council for Aboriginal Business, current chair of the Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada, current Chair for the Native Education College, former member of the Minister’s Council on Tourism, member of the Vancouver Board of Trade’s Aboriginal Opportunities Committee, member of the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance, International Marketing Committee Destination Canada member, and current President of the BC Métis Federation.

Joe Desjarlais is from a large Métis family in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. He is proud of his mixed Ukrainian and Métis ancestry, with kinship in the Red River of Manitoba and across Western Canada. He currently lives in North Vancouver with his wife Danielle and family.

He graduated from Trinity Western University with a B.Ed degree and has completed an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Humanities with a history focus.

Joe’s journey of his own recovery of identity would not exist in its current form without the opportunities the BC Métis Federation have provided to ground his ideas and experiences in community life and relationship-building with people and communities across the province, creating life-long friendships in the process.

He was the project lead and co-author of the BC Métis Federation Terrestrial Study Final Report and is the coordinator for the current BC Métis Federation Terrestrial Cumulative Effects Initiative. These research projects are at the cutting edge of repatriation efforts in Canada.

Mr. Patrick Brennan is currently serving as a Special Advisor to the President of Vancouver Island University and is the Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Professional Training Centre, where he applies decades of leadership experience in diplomacy, program and policy development, mentorship, and Indigenous affairs.

Mr. Brennan has led and supported many successful fundraising initiatives engaging with major foundations, corporations, governments, philanthropists, and philanthropy networks. He has negotiated many multifaceted partnerships and engages extensively with senior officials in the Government of Canada and many provincial governments.

From 2014 to 2018, he served as the Executive Director for McGill University’s Institute for the Study of
International Development, where he ran executive training programs, built strategic partnerships with key institutions, including government departments, UN Agencies, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, and supported the Institute’s research programmes in collaboration with leading global think tanks, universities, foundations, NGO’s and the private sector.

Prior to McGill, Mr. Brennan served as the Manager of Multilateral Relations in the Intergovernmental and International Relations Directorate of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. During his time at the Department, Mr. Brennan assisted with Canada’s endorsement of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, initiated research for the examination of programming and policy approaches taken by other countries in the area of Aboriginal affairs, supported Canada’s work in the area of the Post 2015 United Nations Development Agenda, and contributed to Canada’s Strategy for Engagement in the Americas.

Mr. Brennan has also worked at the Department of Canadian Heritage on initiatives ranging from
multiculturalism and citizen engagement to public service renewal and the establishment of a forum for the promotion and advancement of policy development within the department. Prior to joining the Department of Canadian Heritage, he worked for six years at the Department of Foreign Affairs in support of international indigenous issues and was the Deputy Director of the Haiti Program at Foreign Affairs and assisted in writing Canada’s bilateral strategy for engagement in the country.

Mr. Brennan has also worked as a program specialist at both the United Nations World Food Programme and at the Canadian International Development Agency. He was posted with the United Nations in Haiti from 1997-1998. Mr. Brennan holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Concordia University in Montreal.

Sherry is the BCMF Office Manager who provides administrative support to the BCMF Board of Directors as well as to the President and other staff. She has worked in Métis politics for more than 20 years and also spends time on her first love – interior design. Sherry is Métis from the Belhumeur & Hayden families in the Qu’Appelle Valley in Saskatchewan. She makes her home in BC now and loves fitness and being outside in the garden.

Bruce Shelvey is a settler from Treaty 2 territory in southwestern Manitoba and now works, lives, and thrives in Kwantlen and Katzie unceded traditional territory in Langley, BC.

After earning his MA in History from the University of Victoria (1992) and his Ph.D. in History from Arizona State University (1999), Shelvey taught at the University of British Columbia and then at Trinity Western University, where he is now an Associate Professor of History and Environment.

Shelvey is the Director of the Masters in Interdisciplinary Humanities program, is a founding member of the Institute of Indigenous Issues and Perspectives, and serves on numerous academic committees aimed at reconciling settler society with Indigenous peoples.

He has taught, researched, and written about Indigenous-Canadian relations for the past 30+ years and has developed specializations in Indigenous Research Methodology and community-based research practices.

Shelvey’s advocacy work with the BC Métis Federation began in 2013, an academic advisory role that has grown alongside the expanding function of the Federation’s Research Division.