My Kwantlen Polytechnic Institute colleague Lisa Monchalin was the first aboriginal woman in Canada to earn a criminology PhD and came to Kwantlen to improve the aboriginal experience at our school and to develop an indigenous studies program. In an excellent, recent profile in The Tyee, Monchalin says, “I want to make sure I develop a program which the (aboriginal) community wants, is going to be helpful, and will reach those goals of being innovative and providing students with jobs,” she said.

“We need to have a program that legitimizes that we should be here, that we are welcome here, and this is aboriginal, unceded Coast Salish territory”