MEET THE TEDxPugwash 2024
Speakers
photo credit James MacLean
Linda Carvery
A former President of the award-winning Nova Scotia Mass Choir, Linda embarked on a solo career in 2000, recording her first CD Yesterday/Today.
Linda has since expanded her musical horizons by performing in the Neptune Theatre productions of the musicals Gospel at Colonus and Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She also performed in Eastern Front Theatre’s production of Whylah Falls which staged a series of performances at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
Linda has created and performed in one-woman shows. First came Make That Gospel, Double Double for Halifax Fringe Festival, followed by Soulful Sunday Sounds of Africville.
In 2023, Linda’s Watch Over Me, “a story of resilience told through humour and song,” was mounted by Mulgrave Road Theatre. Linda was also the vocalist in former Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate George Elliott Clarke’s production 5 Poets Breaking Into Song.
Spencer Critchley
Spencer Critchley is a communication strategist, writer, producer and composer. Spencer is a frequent commentator in US and international news media and has contributed to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), National Public Radio and the Associated Press (AP), winning awards for investigative reporting from the AP and Public Radio News Directors Inc. He is the author of the book Patriots of Two Nations and host of the podcast Dastardly Cleverness in the Service of Good.
Spencer has worked for or consulted with, among others, Obama for America, the Monterey Jazz Festival and Viacom’s Choosing Success, described by Wired magazine as “the most inspired piece of educational software ever created.” He composed and produced music for the Emmy-winning film Blink.
Spencer lives in Monterey, California but has deep and long-lasting ties to Nova Scotia. His mother, Molly Simmons Critchley, was from Amherst, as were his grandparents, Charles and Jeanne Simmons. Spencer spends part of his summers at his cottage on the Northumberland Shore.
Bradley Daye
Bradley Daye was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Bradley is a community leader, coach and member of the African Nova Scotian community with a deeply rooted history in the province.
As Halifax Chamber of Commerce’s 2024 Business Leader of the Year, Bradley is guided by the values of reciprocity, community and love. As the grandson of featherweight boxing champion and the first African Nova Scotian Sergeant-at-Arms for the Nova Scotia House of Assembly Delmore Buddy Daye, community development is always top of mind. He is an empathetic leader with a successful background in professional sports having played and coached football at both the university and professional level.
Bradley also has a proven track record of taking an idea from incubation to success, with the successful launch and scale of two social enterprise businesses and a non-profit organization.
He continues to give back through youth football in the north end of Halifax where everything started for him.
photo credit Mitsuko Akaha
Guy Godfree
An award-winning cinematographer, Guy (he/him) works primarily in narrative features and limited series. Some of Guy’s notable credits include:
The series LITTLE BIRD about victims and survivors of the Sixties Scoop, an era in Canadian child welfare when Indigenous children were removed from their families and communities
The film BROTHER which centres around a Canadian family of Jamaican descent growing up in Scarborough, Ontario.
The multiple Canadian Screen Award-winning film MAUDIE, about the Nova Scotian folk artist Maud Lewis.
The Netflix limited series MAID. Inspired by Stephanie Land’s memoir, the story focuses on a young mother who escapes an abusive relationship and struggles to provide for her daughter.
An alumnus of the American Film Institute, Guy is the 2024-25 chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers. He was born in Pugwash, NS, which he recognizes as the traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq people.
photo credit Owen Egan
Mary Ellen Macdonald
Mary Ellen Macdonald is an anthropologist who has been studying death and grief for two decades. Mary Ellen is a professor in Palliative Medicine at Dalhousie University where she holds the J & W Murphy Foundation Endowed Chair in Palliative Care. In this position, she has the mandate to contribute to growing palliative and end-of-life care research and practice across Nova Scotia.
Mary Ellen grew up in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has deep roots in Cumberland and Guysborough counties. She has recently returned to the province after studying and working in Montreal. She is particularly passionate about understanding how communities care for their dead and support their grievers. This understanding is helping her to work with communities to enhance death literacy and grief literacy around the province. She writes about this work in academic publications and at www.GriefMatters.ca
In her personal life, Mary Ellen spends as much time as the weather permits on the North Shore at her family cottage in Linden, and in Amherst where her father lives.
Georgia Price
Georgia Price is a grade 10 student at Pugwash District High School (PDHS). In addition to school, the Nova Scotia Secondary School Students’ Association, Student Council and the Relay for Life Youth Committee, Georgia enjoys skiing, dancing and playing volleyball.
Georgia’s biggest goal in life is to become a pediatrician. She says, “Ever since I began going to the IWK Children’s Hospital in Halifax at the age of 11, I knew this was my dream career and that I was going to achieve it.”
Dr. James Raffan
Dr. James Raffan, PhD, LLD, MSM, is a distinguished Canadian author, geographer, explorer and community builder known for his books that focus on the circumpolar north, indigenous cultures, and exploration, offering insights into the natural world and human connections to it. He has also worked as a researcher, curator, educator, museum director and advocate for environmental conservation and outdoor education.
James’s award-winning teaching, writing, films, radio documentaries and public presentations often weave together his signature music and humour with personal experiences, historical context, and environmental issues, offering audiences a unique perspective on the natural and cultural heritage of Canada and beyond.
Awards and accolades notwithstanding, James would be quick to tell you his main claim to fame is he married a woman from Amherst, Nova Scotia. He and his spouse of 44 years, Gail Simmons, share a cottage on the Gulf Shore of Nova Scotia where they spend a good part of each summer contributing their time and energy to events that benefit the local community.
Hailie Tattrie
Hailie Tattrie (she/her) is a sociologist, a white settler, an educator, and a lifelong learner. Hailie is currently working towards her PhD in Educational Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Hailie has been the Senior Writing Assistant on MSVU’s Writing Tutor Team for the last three years.
Hailie grew up in Oxford, Nova Scotia. She is a graduate of Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick (where her love of sociology and academia, in general, was first ignited) and holds a Bachelor of Arts with honours in Sociology from Mount Allison and a Master of Arts in Sociology from Dalhousie University in Halifax. In between studies at Mount Allison and Dalhousie, Hailie travelled extensively throughout the UK and Europe, at one point working as a nanny in Scotland.
Hailie’s PhD studies address youth in Nova Scotia’s Cumberland County, an endeavour she particularly savours as she is excited to return to her home community to conduct her research.
Emma Wilson
Emma Wilson is currently a grade 12 student at Pugwash District High School (PDHS). Emma’s plan is to pursue an education in screen arts at the Ivany NSCC campus in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Emma is involved in PDHS’s announcement team and is the co-leader of the school’s GSA (Gender Sexuality Alliance) club. She is also the head of assembly for PDHS’s Student Council team.
Emma’s hobbies include digital and traditional art, video games, writing and video creation.