TEDxKalamalka Lake

Speakers

Speakers may not be confirmed. Check the event website for the latest lineup.

• Amy Shelling

  Author

  Amy Shelling is an author whose work currently explores one of the few environments we have the power to intentionally shape: our homes. While much of life is shaped by environments we inherit and expectations we don't choose, our homes remain one of the few places where we have meaningful agency. Amy explores the lifelong practice of intentionally shaping our environments to reduce unnecessary friction. Amy’s writing has earned national recognition, including a fellowship from Varuna, Australia's National Writers' House. Amy's most influential classroom has been motherhood. Raising a family sparked a deep curiosity about the connection between our emotional lives, our daily functioning, and the homes we create. Through her writing, speaking, and future counselling practice, she hopes to inspire greater awareness of how the environments we build become the environments that build us.

• Anna Gorman

  Illustrator and visual storyteller

  Anna Gorman is a graphic recorder, illustrator, and visual storyteller who helps people make sense of complex conversations through live drawing, turning discussion into visual stories that bring thinking to life. A lifelong visual thinker, Anna was the student doodling in the margins of her notebook, a habit once treated as a distraction that became the foundation of her career. After earning a Bachelor of Applied Design from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, she spent a decade discovering that her real strength was not designing spaces but using quick sketches to build shared understanding. Today she partners with communities, organizations, governments, and Indigenous groups across British Columbia. She believes everyone can draw, and that drawing is a powerful tool for listening and connecting. Born and raised in Grindrod, Anna lives and works on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Secwepemc Nation and Syilx (Okanagan) people.

• Jaclyn Whittal

  Meteorologist

  Jaclyn Whittal is a meteorologist, climate journalist, storm chaser and founder of One Earth Communications. Over nearly two decades, she has reported from some of the world's most extreme weather events, including violent tornadoes, Category 5 hurricanes, wildfires, floods and extreme heat. Her work has taken her from the Canadian Arctic to Everest and the Atacama Desert, exploring the intersection of extreme weather, climate change and human resilience. AFellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and The Explorers Club, Jaclyn wasalso named one of the Top 50 Women in Sustainability globally in 2025. Today, she helps organizations translate complex climate and risk science into stories that build understanding, trust and action.

• Jeunesse Pearson

  Storyteller

  Jeunesse Pearson is a speaker, storyteller, and creator of Curious Human, an exploration of how we come to know what we know, and what becomes possible when we begin to see more clearly. With more than 35 years in mental health and human services, including work as a Master Therapeutic Counsellor, she is fascinated by the beliefs and assumptions that quietly shape how we experience ourselves and the world. Rather than telling people what to think, her work invites them to get curious about how they think. She is also the creator and host of Happy on Purpose CA, where she shares conversations with everyday people whose stories remind us that meaning and connection are often found in ordinary lives. After contracting COVID-19, Jeunesse developed Long COVID and was later diagnosed with ME/CFS. The experience challenged her assumptions about identity, achievement, and self-worth, and became the catalyst for the ideas she explores today. She lives in Vernon, British Columbia.

• Lillian Marchand

  Professional Athlete

  She began training at five years old. As a juvenile, she became a multiple-time IBJJF World and Pan Champion before leaving home as a teenager to move to San Diego and train full-time with the renowned Atos Jiu-Jitsu team. Her rise continued through the adult ranks, with major titles at the European, Pan American, Brazilian National and World levels. After earning her black belt in 2025, she became the 2025 IBJJF Black Belt No-Gi World Champion and the 2026 IBJJF Black Belt Gi World Champion. Her journey has taken her from a small gym in Vernon to San Diego, across the world as an international competitor, and now to Europe, where she lives and trains today. Behind every championship is a story of sacrifice, discipline, setbacks, family, and the courage to leave what is comfortable in pursuit of something bigger.

• Lindsay James

  Speaker and Influencer

  Lindsay James, known online as Shameless Elle, is a content creator with more than 2.5 million followers who started making videos out of boredom during the pandemic. As her audience grew, she joked that there had to be a glitch in the algorithm, that people would eventually realize they had accidentally followed her and quietly leave. Being introduced on stage as the keynote speaker and “social media expert” at the Pomeroy 2026 Summit made it difficult to keep calling her success accidental, or to keep believing she needed to become something more before she had something worth sharing. That realization became the foundation of her work: helping individuals and businesses examine what they may have traded in pursuit of “something more.” Her TEDx talk, “The Exhausting Full-Time Job of Becoming Acceptable,” explores the hidden work many of us do in pursuit of acceptance, and the stories we carry from the experiences that shaped us.

• Rachael Reilly

  Student

  Twelve-year-old Rachael has never accepted “because that’s the way it’s always been done” as an answer. Her curiosity leads her to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and look for better ways of doing things. Diagnosed with celiac disease at three years old, she has spent nearly a decade navigating everyday situations, from birthday parties to school lunches, where sharing a meal isn’t always simple. Along the way, she has learned to speak up, not just for herself but for others. Rachael gave her first presentation about celiac disease to her Grade 1 classmates and has been educating those around her ever since. After noticing that school treats often excluded students with dietary needs, she brought her experience to her school district’s Accessibility Committee. A competitive gymnast and volleyball player, Rachael hopes to become a surgeon one day. She believes asking “Why?” is often the first step toward making the world a little more inclusive.

• Yolanda Liman

  Founder, Illustrative storyteller

  Yolanda Liman is the founder of Drawing it Out, a creative facilitation company on a mission to turn meetings into meaningful experiences where people leave with clarity and a shared sense of purpose. She believes the best ideas emerge when people can see their thinking together. For more than 20 years, Yolanda has partnered with First Nations communities, governments, educational institutions, and corporations across Canada, helping groups navigate complexity and turn conversation into action. Her approach uses visual facilitation to make ideas visible, strengthening understanding and helping people see the bigger picture. With a background spanning science, research, and creativity, including degrees in Environmental Studies and Microbiology and Immunology and work as a researcher at UBC’s Faculty of Medicine, she brings a distinct perspective to collaboration. Yolanda lives with gratitude on the unceded and traditional territory of the syilx (Okanagan) and Secwepemc peoples.

• Zeena Zaiyouna

  Conductor, Oboist, educator

  Zeena Zaiyouna is a conductor, oboist, educator, and transdisciplinary artist whose work explores how sound and movement create embodied experiences that expand our understanding of wellbeing and the human condition. Her performances span professional, youth, and intergenerational chamber ensembles, while her wider practice is grounded in learning and play environments. Zeena holds a double Master of Lifelong Learning from Aarhus University and the University of Deusto, where she studied transnational educational policy and pedagogy. Her work has taken her from designing play-based workshops across four continents with Right To Play International, to exploring mental health through music at Toronto Metropolitan University during the pandemic. Most recently, she served three seasons as Music Director and Conductor of the Okanagan Symphony Youth Orchestra. At the heart of her practice: how does sound shape who we become? In November 2026, she brings that exploration to the TEDx stage.