People

Amin Ghaziani (he/him) is Professor of Sociology at UBC, where he is also a Canada Research Chair in Urban Sexualities. He is passionate about elevating sexuality and queerness as central nodes for intellectual inquiry. Amin is the author of several books, including The Dividends of Dissent, Sex Cultures, There Goes the Gayborhood?, Imagining Queer Methods, and Long Live Queer Nightlife. His most recent book on nightlife was reviewed by the New York Times, and he was invited to speak about it on the Getting Curious podcast with Jonathan Van Ness.

Christopher (Chris) Hallamore (he/they) is a HR professional with over 20 years’ experience in labour, employee relations, workforce analytics, strategic workforce planning, organization design, and professional coaching. He was the co-founder and co-chair of the BC Hydro Pride Network, an employee resource group for BC Hydro’s 2SLGBTQIA+ employees and contractors. When he’s not working, Chris can often be found in a swimming pool: Chris is a Masters Swimmer, and has swam, coached, and volunteered with five of Canada’s queer swim teams. Chris’s love of diverse queer stories first brought him to Out On Screen in 2008, and he has returned as a hard core Festie every year since then.

Daniel Gallardo is a nonbinary mestizx from Mexhico. They are Nahua del Centro and P’urhépecha on their father’s side of the family and on their mother’s side, they are of settler ancestry, Andalusian-Berber and French. Daniel is a doctoral student with the Department of Educational Studies at UBC, whose research involves the ideological leverage of settler-colonialism and its impacts on race, sexuality and gender in education. They have been working with curriculum development towards social justice for the last 10 years. Since coming to UBC, Daniel is part of the Indigenous Education Office and a Professional Development Coordinator with SOGI UBC.

An immigrant from Mumbai, India, Karan (he/him) is a finance professional with a passion for advocating for marginalized communities and community engagement. He first moved to Vancouver in 2013 to acquire a degree in economics and finance at the University of British Columbia. He has a history of volunteering with several non-profits in India and Canada, most significantly starting an initiative in the DTES of Vancouver called Econ Café in 2016 to serve local marginalized residents. Since then, he has worked in diverse roles in technology, fashion, and consulting, and has had the opportunity to live in several countries, pushed by a desire to understand other human perspectives. With additional passions for engaging in politics, drag as a creative outlet, learning languages, sitcoms, and badminton/volleyball, Karan is most likely to be found at a drag show or on the courts!

Lee Smith is a queer, trans non-binary white settler who grew up on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc territory, situated within the unceded ancestral lands of the Secwépemc Nation. With extensive experience in human resources, they’ve held leadership roles in recruitment, talent management, data analytics, workforce planning, and equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives across both public and private sectors. Lee is particularly passionate about integrating anti-oppression and accessibility strategies into workplace practices.

In addition to their professional work, Lee has a long-standing interest in storytelling through literature and film as a means of deepening understanding and expanding perspectives. Outside of work, they are a parent to two teenage boys and a standard poodle, and they stay active by coaching with an East Van Masters swim team and enjoying the outdoors whenever possible.

As a dual-barred (BC and California) lawyer with Western Canada’s largest management-side labour and employment firm, Michela practices primarily in the areas of access and privacy law and additionally works with clients in the entertainment sector on workplace law matters. She is also heavily involved in firm initiatives relating to DEI and firm engagement and She is the current chair of the firm’s Student Committee.

As part of her privacy law practice, she represents clients in proceedings before provincial and federal privacy commissioners and provide strategic advice to both public and private sector clients on their privacy obligations including with respect to the handling of access to information requests; third party service provider agreements; the implementation of various technology in the workplace (including AI); and the collection, use and disclosure of personal information. Additionally, she provide virtual and in-person workshops to organizations regarding privacy awareness, privacy officer training, and with respect to more specific topics like employee monitoring and collecting diversity data.

As part of her entertainment practice, she assists productions with internal investigations with respect to discrimination, bullying and harassment allegations, and she provides virtual and in-person respectful workplace training tailored to the entertainment industry, including training for minors working in film and television.

She is passionate about issues affecting the LGBTQIA2S+ community and deeply appreciates the opportunities her firm, career and practice areas have given her to educate, share, celebrate and bring awareness to under-represented groups to contribute in whatever way she can to improving workplaces, schools and athletic endeavors for diverse populations.

Nhylar (she/they/he) is a queer GNC communications and digital marketing strategist, poet, curator and community arts event producer born in India, and a recent settler on MST territories. They have also brought their storytelling and strategic expertise to non-profits including Indian Summer Festival, CityHive Vancouver, and Transgender Expressions Haven. Nhylar has produced numerous events bringing together the Desi, Queer and Desi Queer communities in Vancouver, Toronto and beyond. Craving the deliciousness of building inclusive non-binary, femme and QTBIPOC space, he became a collaborator as an event producer and community builder with Queer Mango, Queer Arts Exchange and the Transgender Expressions Haven. At the Transgender Expressions Haven, Nhylar put in their creative power to produce a virtual art gallery that brought trans folks through media art from around the world under the theme of “Queer Digital Intimacy”. What grew out of a Tumblr page connecting poets from around the world in an exchange of queer ideas, has deepened into Nhylar’s full time passion of using language and visuals to communicate the sweet spot of queer reality: giving space to the hardship and pain of oppression and exclusion, while honouring the inner world of queer erotic transcendence. For Nhylar, he was inspired by the epiphany that a single piece of media, or the gathering of the 2SLGBTQ+ community from a deep place of genuine inclusion, can change your core belief about something and make us see the world anew.

Trevor holds two decades of expertise in digital media. He received a Master’s of Visual Media Arts from Emerson College in Boston where he wrote and directed short films showcased at festivals around the world. Trevor has worked in many areas of Media & Communications at TV networks, ad agencies and social media companies.

Trevor is the Executive Director of the Aune Foundation – a private Canadian foundation supporting non-profit organizations focused in mental health, supporting services for underserved groups including 2SLGBTQIA+, BIPOC and Women’s causes.

When he’s not working, Trevor can be spotted walking his adorable rescue dog, Gene, around Stanley Park, eating all the delicious food Vancouver has to offer and maybe even playing the odd game of pickle ball.