Patrick has built his career bringing unexpected people together. Drawing on skills from business, design, product development, and innovation management, Patrick is an expert at finding opportunities that exist between social and business impact and building organizations to deliver on them. Patrick has spent over 20 years as a global innovation, design, and digital leader.  
Today, Patrick serves as President of Normative, where he runs the People & Operations function and oversees cross-functional teams focused on using human-centered design to solve business problems. He advises multiple SAAS and health startups.   
Patrick earned his Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University and is slowly working his way through a Masters Degree in Inclusive Design with OCAD. He lives in Ottawa with his family and spends his free time training for Ironman races and dreaming of startups. 

Cheesan Chew is a seasoned leader with 20+ years of experience - building businesses, leading innovation, and advising senior executives - from start-ups to corporates.  She currently works with high growth start-ups and corporate executives providing active counsel, extending leverage for leadership teams and coaching to drive high performance in their teams. Areas of expertise include strategic innovation, business, program and product leadership, transformational strategy, systems design, organizational management, customer and employee experience and culture.  
Cheesan started her entrepreneurship journey co-founding Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and design firm, where she led multi-disciplinary teams advising Fortune 500 companies as Chief CX Officer.  During her tenure, she was instrumental in fostering client partnerships with global brands, achieving growth through market opportunity, exceptional client experiences and operational efficiency. Cheesan is currently on the boards of League of Innovators, a national Canadian charity that empowers young people towards entrepreneurship, and The Canadian Club of Toronto, Canada’s preeminent public affairs destination, connecting Canadians with world-class leaders and newsmakers. She is also an active mentor with the Black Wealth Club. 

Keosha, an award-winning artist, activist, and educator, creates spaces for creative liberation. Her poetry and writing focus on self-actualization, womanism, and societal constructs. Rooted in systemic change, she explores Black joy and radical self-care as acts of rebellion.

In 2016, she founded Our Women’s Voices, a Toronto-based non-profit empowering women and girls through arts, education, and community initiatives, totaling over 70 programs.

With a BA in Psychology and a background in creative arts, Keosha educates and speaks publicly on mental health, wellness, race, and gender advocacy.

Her work spans collaborations with Facebook, Nike, and others, including her nationally shared poem “A Prayer for Black Women.” In 2021, she debuted her mental health series “Black & Vulnerable” and received the Community Hero Award from TFC for her contributions. Keosha Love’s storytelling and voice inspire others to use theirs.

Faduma Mohamed is a Somali-Canadian poet, playwright, arts educator, and autism advocate. Writing from a bio-mythological perspective, she has produced two one-woman plays, OUGHTISM and Golden Mind, which offer reflections on her experience as a sibling of autism while challenging the pursuit to find a “cure.” Her commitment to autism awareness extends beyond the stage; her fundraising initiative called #OughtTheBox has raised $12,000 and benefited autistic individuals in Toronto, Edmonton, Atlanta, and London, England. Apart from her advocacy work, she enjoys combining her passion for the arts and education. She works as an Occasional Teacher and recently directed her Grade 3 summer school students to write and perform a horror-comedy play titled The Mystery at Brader Junior High. Currently, she is working on her first collection of poetry, delving into the realm of love and heartbreak. Above all, she believes in the power of dreams.

Hi! I’m Jonathan and I am honoured to be coming back to Nowly for my 3rd year in a row to mentor and work with amazing innovators just like you. I currently work as a Marketing Manager at EHN Canada, but I have a background as a Child and Youth Counselor, Entrepreneur, Web Designer, Musician and Coffee Aging Expert. My expertise is in entrepreneurship, marketing, web design, leadership and mental health. Let’s do something amazing this year. Together🙂.

Matt Gaiser, a Computer Engineering graduate from Queen’s University, is passionate about puzzles of all sizes. He’s a fervent advocate of open innovation and has triumphed in hundreds of challenges, spanning from razor designs to safety sensors for astronaut spaceflight.

His journey into mental health advocacy began with a challenge from a professional services firm on workplace wellness. Matthew’s strategy, emphasizing extreme confidentiality to address career concerns hindering help-seeking, won the challenge.

A winner of the 2023 CoLab Program, Matt, alongside partner Nick Lor, created CogniLink, a platform connecting research participants with researchers to streamline research studies and reduce costs. Currently, they’re focused on expanding the platform across Canada.

By day, Matt works as a software developer, offering technical support to CoLab participants with their projects.

Chey (any/all) is an animator from “LEGO Ninjago: Dragons Rising” and “Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight”, founder of sensory-focused clothing startup “Frog Pockets”, and local leader for a variety of neighborhood projects. They’re proudly queer, autistic, and a young parent. Focusing on creativity and resourcefulness, their experience and connections can open doors for anyone determined enough to take on the challenge. Chey is also a successful 2023 CoLab Program participant and grant recipient for their project, Frog Pockets.

Jonny Morris is the CEO at the Canadian Mental Health Association BC Division and has more than 20 years of experience in community-based mental health services, policy, and advocacy.  He has research and practice experience in suicide prevention, is a trained counsellor, and has taught child and youth care courses at the University of Victoria and Douglas College.  

Jonny is committed to a vision of mental health for all, working at the Canadian Mental Health Association to lead system change efforts in preventing mental health problems, responding to crisis, and improving care when people need to go to hospital. As an advocate for reducing stigma, he regularly speaks with workplaces, colleges and universities, and communities about the opportunity to ensure mental health is a priority.  

Previously, Jonny led the policy and legislation branch for BC’s Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, helping build the newly formed ministry from the ground up. Jonny comes to his work with lived experience personally and as a family member.

Lydia Sequeira is the Director of Service Programs and Innovation Implementation at Kids Help Phone, and passionate about sharing her digital health expertise to advance mental health access and support for young people across Canada. She received her PhD from the University of Toronto and is an experienced academic holding an AMS Healthcare Compassion and Artificial Intelligence fellowship, and a scientific association at the Digital Mental Health Research Lab at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Lydia is deeply committed to building and fostering community within the digital health field, and co-chairs the International Medical Informatics Association Student and Emerging Professionals Special Interest Group. 

Jessie Brar is a storyteller, creator, educator and dreamer.  With a passionate dedication to mental health advocacy, Jessie has graced stages across the globe, using her voice to spread awareness and support for those navigating the complexities of mental wellness. Beyond her impactful work in mental health activism, Jessie is an equity, inclusion and anti-oppression educator for many organizations across Canada and the UK. Through the lens of decolonization, she tirelessly strives to dismantle systemic barriers and foster environments of true belonging and empowerment.  Driven by her belief in the power of storytelling and education to effect positive change, Jessie continues to inspire and uplift communities, challenging norms and championing social justice wherever she goes.