Meet Our CNIC Team

Mary Blatherwick teaches visual art and creative education in the undergraduate and graduate programs at the University of New Brunswick. Her research interests include, creativity, visual culture, intercultural understanding, and community-based arts education. She has received numerous awards for her teaching, resource development, production of documentary films on NB visual artists and leadership in the fields of art education and creativity. Recently she co-edited the book titled Creative Dimensions of Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century. Mary is the chair of the Atlantic Centre for Creativity and a founding member of the Canadian Network for Imagination and Creativity.

Michael Wilson, who since 1965, has been a classroom teacher, department head, school board consultant, system coordinator and education professor at 2 universities. He is the founding coordinator of the Imagination, Creativity and Innovation Cohort at the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa.  His professional and research passions embrace creativity and aesthetic experience, in all facets of life.  He can be reached at mpwilson@uottawa.ca

Everyone has magic, seeds of brilliance. How to reveal this magic from within? What are the conditions that enable creative abilities to flourish? Sometimes our attempts to foster creativity can actually stifle it. Author Peter Gamwell, a former teacher and superintendent who has spent more than three decades studying creativity, working closely with such renowned creativity experts as Sir Ken Robinson, has a fresh perspective on how to nurture creativity, innovation, leadership and engagement in education and organizations.

Dr. Gillian Judson is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. She teaches in Educational Leadership and Curriculum and Instruction programs. Her current research looks at the role of imagination in leadership. Her previous scholarship examines imagination’s role in learning (K-post-secondary), imaginative and ecological teaching practices (PreK through post-secondary), and imaginative assessment in the post-secondary context. Her latest books are entitled Imagination and the Engaged Learner: Cognitive Tools for the Classroom. (Egan & Judson, 2016), Engaging Imagination in Ecological Education: Practical Strategies For Teaching (Judson, 2015), and A Walking Curriculum (Judson, 2018/2019).

Alexis Milligan is the founding director of Transitus Creative, specializing in Art Communication and public engagement through the arts transitus.ca.   She has been a lead project partner in knowledge translation and exchange with The Dalhousie University School of Nursing, the Association of Nova Scotia Museums, and with gender consultant Michelle Raine.  Alexis is a recurring guest teacher at NYU Tisch School for the Performing Arts and has been on the faculty of the Fountain Academy of the Sacred Heart, and Neptune Theatre School.  Currently Alexis is pursuing her Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies at UNB - Fredericton.  For more information please visit website: alexismilligan.com.

Goran Matic, Design Strategist & Chief Innovation Officer, Chaordic Design | MDes, EA. Goran leverages patterns from systemic design, creativity, humanities, and information theory to help co-design effective innovation outcomes – focusing on strategies at the intersection of stakeholder engagement and sustainable value creation. Key competencies are in building approaches for collaboration in ‘wicked problems’ and cross-sector environments. Goran regularly presents at leading international conferences – including Relating Systems and Design Thinking (RSD), MindCamp, CREA (Italy), Semiofest and others. His latest work focuses on helping organizations thrive in complex environments. Goran also serves on the advisory board of the UN’s World Creativity and Innovation Week (WCIW) – to help emerge competencies for building a sustainable world.

Ming-Yu Lin is a music educator, a pianist and a Ph.D. candidate in the Arts Education program at Simon Fraser University. She is passionate about looking for the connection between the philosophy of improvisation and classical piano training. She aims to explore a playful piano pedagogy for children.

A product of the system, Stan Baines is a firm believer in one size does not fit all. As a Custodial Supervisor for the Ottawa-Carleton District School board, Stan has been on a creativity and leadership journey within his department and for himself for almost 30 years. Thinking outside of the box is only the beginning for Stan and his staff and always being on the edge of what ways to accomplish more through partnership, collaboration and forward thinking is his goal. Making sure to put words into actions is the key to building connections and tapping into everyone’s resources.

Jessica Sokolowski is a PhD candidate and part-time professor at the University of Ottawa, as well as an elementary educator with the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario. Her doctoral research surrounds arts-based and experiential learning methods, and how arts-based learning enhances the student experience.

A diversity strategist by day, poet by night, Jacqueline’s mission is to heal hearts through words.  As a published poet and author, she enjoys the journey to dance with curiosity, vulnerability, and paradox, to mine possibilities and sacred wisdom.  Her work has been featured in Jubilation, an anthology celebrating Jamaica's 50th Anniversary, the international bestseller, Pebbles in the Pond (Wave 3), Transforming the World One Person at a Time, and the anthology Resilience and Triumph: Immigrant Women Tell Their Stories which captured the first-person stories of 54 racialized immigrant and refugee women across Canada.  She is currently working on her next book which will be released in 2020. In addition to writing, her passions include travelling, being a transformational facilitator with the International Black Summit and serving as a co-host and producer of Black on Black, a community public affairs programme aired every Saturday morning on CHUO 89.1 FM.  

Robin Jensen began teaching art in Nova Scotia in 1998 and is currently a Fine Arts Specialist bringing arts enhancement and integration to classrooms in the Halifax West Family of Schools. She continues to find inspiration learning alongside the doodlers, dreamers, builders, and changemakers she meets everyday in Nova Scotia classrooms.

PhD candidate in education at UNB with Professor Mary Blatherwick, with over 2 decades of experience in the media and education industry. Pan holds post-graduate certificates in New Media & Advanced Film and TV, master in Educational Leadership, and has proven leadership in effectively managing teams and delivering international art and cultural events. He was the keynote speaker at 2018 TIFF Sheridan and a classical pianist.

Todd is the Managing Artistic Director of the Cape Breton University Boardmore Playhouse, part-time instructor of Theatre Arts and Drama, and CBU’s Creative Campus Coordinator. He has a Bachelor of Arts Community Studies degree from Cape Breton University and a Masters in Fine Art from York University where he studied Acting from 1997 to 1999. Along with his administrative and teaching duties, Todd has directed plays by Shakespeare, Beckett, Chekhov, and Stoppard, and has acted in over fifty productions throughout Nova Scotia. As an advocate for Arts in Education, Todd has participated in several artists in schools programs such as Perform and Learning Through the Arts and has directed annual play productions for elementary and high schools in Cape Breton.