Our Team
The Bent Arrow Team
We are governed by a volunteer board of directors and lead by a team who bring a range of expertise and perspectives to our organization. Our team includes Elders, community leaders, and professionals with backgrounds in law, finance, education, healthcare, social workers and youth workers. They provide strategic guidance, oversight, and accountability to ensure that Bent Arrow continues to make a positive impact on the lives of Indigenous children, youth, and families.
Board of Directors
Don Padget
PRESIDENT
About Don
PRESIDENT
Don Padget practices constitutional law with Alberta’s Department of Justice. Previously, he practiced Aboriginal law with the Federal Department of Justice where he worked to resolve Indian residential school claims, learned more about Aboriginal cultures and history and was seconded to the office of the Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Aboriginal Law. He has worked at a private law firm and appeared in courts at all levels.
Don has enjoyed work within three branches of the public service: as Policing and Law Enforcement Assistant for the Federal Solicitor General, as Law Clerk with the Federal Court of Appeal, and as a Parliamentary Intern for several M.P.s.
Don is on the Board of the U of A Centre for Constitutional Studies, co-chair of the Canadian Bar’s Constitutional and Human Rights law subsection in Edmonton, and volunteers for the Edmonton Community Legal Centre. Don holds a B.Soc.Sci. (Ottawa), M.A. (Politics), LL.B. (Alberta), and a Masters in Constitutional law. Don was born and raised in Edmonton.
Johanne Johnson
VICE PRESIDENT
About Johanne
VICE PRESIDENT
Johanne Johnson is a settler Canadian who is a consultant to organizations seeking meaningful engagement with Indigenous Nations. She also provides human resources services to community-based Indigenous organizations.
She was previously the human resources manager of an Inuit-owned corporation where she engaged with many Indigenous
partner organizations from Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
Earlier in her career, Johanne spent several years in human resources and operational management in Canada’s hospitality industry.
Anna Sinclair
BOARD MEMBER
About Anna
BOARD MEMBER
Anna has been a member of the Edmonton Police Service for 20 years and works in Community Safety and Wellbeing, leading the Community & Youth Response Branch. She has spent most of her career working with community partners to improve the lives of our citizens, particularly the vulnerable population.
Prior to her time in the Community & Youth Response Branch, Anna spent time in Patrol, Major Collision Investigation Unit, Historical Homicide on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry, Police Communications Branch, Search Management and Domestic Offender Crimes Section, and Young People Support Branch, to name a few.
Anna believes we must work alongside our community partners and invest in our youth to make an impact on reducing crime and violence as we walk alongside our youth on their journey toward healing. She is passionate about teaching trauma-informed practices to new recruits and ensuring trauma-informed policing principles are followed within CSWB and promotes wellness strategies in her branch.
Anna advocates for youth to connect to cultural healing principles and land-based teachings and has worked with community partners to reduce systems gaps and believes that working in the social navigation space is the way to achieve this goal.
Bev Laboucane
TREASURER
About Bev
TREASURER
Roger Epp
BOARD MEMBER
About Roger
BOARD MEMBER
Roger Epp is a fifth-generation settler on Treaty Six territory, whose ancestors are buried in a country cemetery between the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan River system.
Roger is an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Alberta, where he also held a number of senior leadership roles: among them, founding dean of the Augustana Campus in Camrose, director of UAlberta North, and, most recently, interim dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. Much earlier in his working life, he was a newspaper journalist.
As a scholar, Roger has learned to write about the prairie West with a sense of care, memory, and obligation. His work includes the book, We Are All Treaty People: Prairie Essays as well as a co-produced documentary for CBC Radio’s Ideas. In 2013 he was asked to be honorary witness at hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at Ermineskin Cree Nation. He continues to carry the responsibilities of bearing witness and finding what the Commission called “a new way of living together.”
Dr Vicente A. Gonzalez
BOARD MEMBER
About Vincente
BOARD MEMBER
Vicente A. Gonzalez is a Professor of Digital Lean Construction and Canada Research Chair within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta. He was faculty at The University of Auckland, New Zealand, for over 12 years before he moved to Canada.
Vicente has been a prolific author in Lean Construction-based planning and control, decision-making tools, and sustainability, and Computer Applications such as AI, mixed-reality, digital twinning and BIM applied to different human and engineering problems, with 155 journal and conference publications and 1 book to date. Vicente has secured CAN$ 63 million+ in research and teaching grants and corporate sponsorships and graduated more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students in his career (including 13 PhD students).
Vicente is member of construction and engineering-related organizations and boards in Canada and abroad.
Javed Sommers
BOARD MEMBER
About Javed
BOARD MEMBER
Javed Sommers, CPA, CMA, is a settler passionate about dismantling colonial systems and working towards a future on this land consistent with the optimistic vision of Treaty 6.
Javed is an accountant who has worked for the federal government for more than twelve years. Currently, Javed works for Indigenous Services Canada where he manages a team building and maintaining relationships with Treaty 6 First Nations in Alberta. Javed also has several years of board governance and financial management experience from a variety of volunteer roles.
In 2019, Javed graduated from the Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta with a Master of Arts degree completed under the supervision of Dr. Shalene Jobin (who first introduced Javed to Bent Arrow!).
Javed is proud to live in the McCauley neighbourhood of Edmonton with his partner and 8 year old kiddo.
Pamela Greene
BOARD MEMBER
About Pamela
BOARD MEMBER
Pamela Greene is an Indigenous History Interpreter at the Indigenous People's Experience at Fort Edmonton Park. In this role, she consistently seeks out and engages with visitors, inviting conversations and demonstrating her knowledge relating to the themes, buildings, and artifacts.
Pam shows an ability to relate how their era connects to other eras represented and their significance to the present. Pam attained a Bachelor of Arts in Native Studies and a Certificate in Indigenous Governance and Partnership from the University of Alberta. She is originally from Fort Vermilion, Alberta which is located in Treaty 8 territory, and is a member of the Little Red River Cree Nation, and now resides in Beaumont with her husband and two adult children. Pam values family, community, and giving back to those in need.
Through Pam's personal, work, and educational knowledge and experiences, she is excited to serve as a board member for the Bent Arrow Healing Society by supporting their mission towards the well-being of Indigenous families, youth, and children to a path of healing and resiliency. ay hay.
Our Leadership Team
Cheryl Whiskeyjack
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
cwhiskeyjack@bentarrow.ca
Candace Cleveland
SENIOR MANAGER
candace.cleveland@bentarrow.ca
Lloyd Yellowbird
SENIOR MANAGER
lloydyellowbird@bentarrow.ca
Murray Knutson
DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
murray.knutson@bentarrow.ca
Lovette Ferguson
SENIOR MANAGER
lovette.ferguson@bentarrow.ca
Jolynn Stevenson
SENIOR MANAGER
jolynn.stevenson@bentarrow.ca
Natasha Cardinal
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO ED & DED
natashacardinal@bentarrow.ca
Keleigh Larson
SENIOR MANAGER
keleigh.larson@bentarrow.ca
