Dr. Lisa Monchalin, the first Indigenous woman with a PhD in Criminology has agreed to be the keynote speaker for the conference. Lisa Monchalin is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University where she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in 2004 and her Master’s degree in 2006, both in Criminology. In 2012, she graduated with her Doctorate in Criminology from the University of Ottawa. In 2022, she graduated with her Juris Doctor from the University of British Columbia, Peter A. Allard School of Law. She was called to the Bar in 2023 and is a member of the Law Society of British Columbia. Dr. Monchalin is also the author of The Colonial Problem: An Indigenous Perspective on Crime and Injustice in Canada with the University of Toronto Press. This book became an Amazon bestseller in the field of penology as well as made the University of Toronto Press best-seller list in its first year of publication. She currently lives in kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) traditional unceded territories and ancestral lands, including those parts that were historically shared with the sq̓əc̓iy̓aɁɬ təməxʷ (Katzie), and additional Coast Salish Peoples (Coquitlam, BC).