2026 NCRW Agenda

Nicholas Kitchen

Nicholas Kitchen is the Director of the Access to Information Review team at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat responsible for leading the current review of the Access to Information Act. Previously, Nicholas held senior roles at Infrastructure Canada and Global Affairs Canada with a wide variety of responsibilities, including strategic policy and planning, portfolio governance, performance measurement and risk management, and parliamentary affairs and issues management.

Shayna Gersher

Shayna Gersher is a Senior Advisor on the Access to Information Review team and is supporting the mandated 2025 review of the Access to Information Act. Previously, Shayna was a manager in the Data Innovation and Partnerships Directorate at Indigenous Services Canada, helping to advance the Transformational Approach to Indigenous Data initiative. Shayna has a background in privacy and personal information protection, having both worked at the Department of Justice’s Centre for Information and Privacy Law, and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Shayna holds a Master of Arts degree from Carleton University and a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree from the University of Winnipeg.

Angie Bain

Angie Bain is a senior researcher with the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. She is a member of the Lower Nicola Indian Band, part of the Nlaka’pamux (Ing-thla-kap-muh) Nation.

Alison McBride

Alison first began working with the Algonquin Nation Secretariat (ANS) in 2005 as a summer student. She returned to ANS full time in 2007 as a researcher, eventually becoming research director in 2020. She is originally from the Timiskaming First Nation.

Shannon Williams

Shannon Williams is Legal and Research Director for Specific Claims at the Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council (NNTC), providing historical research and claims development and submission services to nine Nlaka’pamux communities in the southern interior of BC.

Shannon is a practising lawyer specializing in aboriginal law who was called to the BC Bar in 1997. She is also a member of the BC Specific Claims Working Group, the Claims Research Unit Working Group, the Specific Claims Tribunal Advisory Committee, the National Claims Research Directors Meeting and the National Claims Research Workshop planning committees.

Serena Hunsbedt

I’m a Lytton First Nation member and Senior Researcher at the Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council.

Gordon Lyall

Gord Lyall holds a PhD in history from the University of Victoria. He works as a historian for Mandell Pinder LLP assisting First Nation clients with archival research, government records, oral history interviews, genealogies, as well as drafting claim submissions and community reports.

James Lasaga

James is a member of the 2026 NCRW Host, CMN.

Morgan Chapman

Morgan has been working in the Specific Claims research world since 2013, and took an active role in the NCRW Planning Committee beginning in 2017. Morgan works directly with First Nations throughout several different Treaty areas across Canada to advance their specific claims alongside her small but mighty team.

Hanna Pringle

Hanna Pringle (she/her) is a Research Assistant with Havlik Consulting Group (HCG), currently residing on the unceded territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation in Ottawa, Ontario. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Global Development Studies, as well as a Master of Arts in Global Development Studies from Queen’s University.

She is also a current PhD candidate studying the socioecological politics of land restoration post-extraction. She has years of professional experience working in libraries and archives, and has worked in both claims and genealogical research with HCG.