Black Aging in Canada

Concordia's Centre for Research on Aging and the Black Perspectives Office warmly invites you to participate in an online panel discussion on the topic of black aging in Canada. 

In particular, this online panel discussion brings together the lived experience and scholarly expertise of academics, community-based partners and practitioners  to shine a light on aging in the Black community and raise the voices of older Black adults in Canada.

Register in advance for this event.

Panelists

• Yvonne Sam, Council for Black Aging Montreal
• Associate Professor Delores V. Mullings, PhD, School of Social Work, Memorial University
• Miranda Potts, West-end Intergenerational Network

Moderator

• Annick Maugile Flavien, founding coordinator of the Black Perspectives Office (BPO) and co-chair of the President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism at Concordia University
  

About the panelists

Miranda Potts

Miranda Potts is trained in special care counselling and is currently an outreach worker at Prevention CDN-NDG and co-founder of WIN, the West-end Intergenerational Network, which aims to bridge the gap between youth and seniors. She also currently serves as WIN’s co-coordinator and as the community health advocate, intervention worker, at the NDG Senior Citizens Council. 

Her enthusiastic leadership in her community has been recognized through appointments to boards and committees of organizations, such as the Montreal Council of Women, Cavendish User's Committee (CIUSSS), Gay & Grey, and Bienvenue NDG.

Dr. Delores V. Mullings, PhD

Dr. Delores V. Mullings is an associate professor, interim associate dean of undergraduate programs and former chair in teaching and learning at Memorial University, School of Social Work.

She is a human rights and anti-racist consultant and trainer, public speaker and the lead editor of a highly anticipated forthcoming text Afrocentric Social Work. She helps to care for her mother who resides in a long-term care home.

Her scholarly interests fall under the umbrella of Anti-Black racism and Critical Race theory and explores Black aging, decolonizing post-secondary education, mothering, parenting, mental health and wellness, LGBTQ+ concerns, settlement and integration, and human rights policy.

Dr. Mullings’ research informs her teaching and learning pedagogy; she has a strong history of community engaged scholarship including community collaboration, supporting students in community service-learning projects, and partnering with interdisciplinary scholars nationally and internationally. She has an innate love for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) which is exemplified in the decolonized learner-centred, community-engaged approach that she employs by integrating a variety of teaching pedagogy to challenge and engage learners in ways that respect their knowledge, life experiences, agency, and differing social locations.

Yvonne Sam

Yvonne Sam is a retired charge nurse, state certified midwife, nursing examiner for the Order of Nurses of Quebec and secondary school teacher for the English Montreal School Board, all careers practiced simultaneously. She holds a MEd degree from McGill University, diploma in adult education from Concordia University, as well as a bachelor of science in nursing from Athabasca University, Alberta.  

A regular columnist for Montreal-based Community Contact, Pride Magazine of Toronto, with occasional articles in the Montreal Gazette, Huffington Post, CBC and Guyanese on Line.

She is the recipient of the 2014 Governor General of Canada Caring Citizen Award and nominee for the 2019 Quebec Prix de la Justice. Currently on the Board of the Council for Black Aging, Yvonne considers herself a passionate community activist fueled by an ongoing quest to "never tire in stoking the fire" in promoting positive change.