New Leaders Roundtable - Our Role in Advocacy

Over the last three years, our sector has gone through a tremendous amount of change, including an unprecedented increase in turnover of leadership positions. The New Leaders Roundtable is a monthly series curated to support these theatre workers through guest speakers, resource sharing, and peer to peer support.

Each meeting will begin with a 50 minute guided Q&A session with a senior leader in our industry. After the Q&A section, the guest speaker will leave the meeting, and a dedicated 40 minute Peer to Peer Session starts, where the attendees can discuss their shared issues and concerns in confidence, and benefit from each other’s experiences. 

The fourth session, Our Role in Advocacy, will convene on Wednesday January 31st, 4pm - 5:30pm ET. Our guests for this session are Nick Tracey - Senior Director of Administration at Young People's Theatre (YPT), PACT Board Member and Chair of PACT's Advocacy Committee, and Elizabeth Seip, Senior Advisor at PAA. In this session Nick and Elizabeth will talk about what Advocacy means as it relates to Arts Leaders, its importance, and tips on where to begin, as well as participating in the Q&A format of the series.

Nick Tracey began her career over 25 years ago at Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille, going on to work for a number of companies including Factory Theatre, The Dora Mavor Moore Awards (three-time juror in both General and Independent Divisions), Topological Theatre (Board Member), The Toronto Fringe Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and Soulpepper Theatre Company. She is the founder and Chair of the YPT's Sustainability Committee, a member and former Chair of YPT's EDI Committee, a Board Member and Chair of the Advocacy Committee for PACT, Advocacy Committee member with the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, and was a 2015 recipient of a Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Internship. She is also a voice-over performer working primarily in commercials, animation, and corporate material.

Elizabeth Seip is a Senior Advisor at PAA Advisory. She has experience in policy development, and emerging issues in Canada’s arts and culture sector. Prior to joining PAA, Elizabeth worked as a special assistant to a Member of Parliament focusing on policy development and community outreach. She also worked at a public affairs firm, where she focused on several arts and culture-focused files. Elizabeth has volunteered for numerous non-profit organizations that support women’s rights and gender equality in Ottawa and is involved with an organization that supports Indigenous communities in British Columbia. Elizabeth received her Bachelor of Arts with an Honours double major in political science and history at the University of Ottawa, specializing in mid-20th century American history and Canadian politics. She was accepted into the international exchange program at the University of Galway in Ireland where she focused on Irish economic history. Elizabeth holds a Master of Political Management from Carleton University.

During the Roundtable discussion, Christine Rossi-Wright, Senior Program Worker at the AFC, will be present to provide a supportive and empathic ear. At the end of Roundtable discussion, she will summarize what was discussed as a group and provide any insight and takeaways, with the overarching goal of ending each session on a constructive note.

Christine Rossi-Wright BEd, MSW, RSW (Ont.)

Senior Program Worker, The AFC

Christine is a registered social worker and holds a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Windsor. In her role at The AFC, Christine coordinates their Emergency Financial Aid program and provides direct social work support to clients in need. She is an instructor of the Mental Health First Aid Course and facilitates workshops and presentations directly for the arts & entertainment community. Christine's education and experience is complemented by her previous work as an actor in professional musical theatre and her strong ties to the Toronto arts community. Christine draws on her vast and diverse experience to create helpful educational content that primarily focuses on mental health and wellness, in an effort to reduce the stigma in the industry around mental health problems. 

Please register for this session by Monday January 29th, 6pm ET. This session is open to non-PACT members if space allows.

If you have not received a zoom link within 30 minutes of the start of the meeting, please contact zacharym@pact.ca.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email our Program Associate Panthea Vatandoost at pantheav@pact.ca.