Presenters & Speakers
Our roster of speakers features esteemed individuals such as Dr. Wade Nobles and Dr. Wesley Crichlow, alongside other notable professionals. Each speaker contributes a depth of expertise, experience, and enthusiasm, promising a profound and enlightening event for all participants.
Speakers & Presenters
Wade Ifágbemì Sàngódáre Nobles, PhD
Dr. Wade Nobles is a distinguished member of the Association of Black Psychologists since 1968 and a former president (1994-95), currently serves as a Professor Emeritus in Africana Studies and Black Psychology at San Francisco State University.
Throughout his career, he has overseen more than eighty community-based research, counseling, and professional development projects in Pan African (Black) psychology worldwide. His lectures span across various countries including Ghana, South Africa, Canada, England, Haiti, Cuba, and his roles as a visiting professor in Salvador de Bahia and Sao Paulo in Brazil. With a vast publication record of over 120 articles, chapters, research reports, and books, his contributions to the field are extensive.
Dr. Nobles is the visionary co-creator of the community-based African Centered Therapist in Residency Project (TnRP) and the lead author of the African American Wellness Hub Complex Design Report (2017) for the Behavioral Health Care Services in Alameda County, California.
Together with his wife, Dr. Vera L. Nobles, they have raised five children and are proud grandparents to thirteen grandchildren. Currently, Dr. Nobles holds the position of chairperson for the ABPsi Pan African Black Psychology Global Initiative.
Ciann L Wilson, PhD
Associate Professor at Wilfred Laurier University who has extensive experience in consulting, advocacy and community development related to Black and Indigenous health promotion with considerable expertise in developing intersectional and anti-oppressive evaluation frameworks. Dr. Wilson’s interdisciplinary research program addresses the multi-faceted and complex drivers that impact the overall health of racialized and Indigenous communities. Her research program consists of community-based research (CBR) projects that utilize evidence-based, art and media-based approaches to elucidate community
Debbie Nicholls
Debbie is a Holistic & Creative Wellness Professional who draws from her cultural, social and spiritual experiences as a way of giving permission to others to freely take up their own space. For almost 25 Debbie has been evolving as a creative and cultivating Movement Medicine as a point of connection with her students, peers and herself.
Debbie had been a professional dancer for 25 years and continues to perform in Dance and/ or Theatre productions locally and internationally. Debbie was the Director of the (TDSB) Toronto District School Board’s Dance Co-op for high-school students for almost a decade.
As a Holistic Practitioner, Debbie is the Founder of For Your Temple a Wellness company that provides unique offerings of Holistic modalities and Sacred self-care/selflove practices. She has a specialization as Women’s Wellness Practitioner and is a Level 2 Breathmaster.
Debbie is the Creatress of AfrikCore; one of her flagship offerings of For Your Temple. AfrikCore is an experience that focuses on movements from the African/ Caribbean Diaspora as a Rehabilitative and Healing modality. AfrikCore allows participants to AWAKEN, ACTIVATE, RELEASE and to tap into the physical, emotional and spiritual potential of their deep core, hips, pelvis and spine; this process is a journey of alchemy! AfrikCore classes are modified for specialized populations (Couples, Seniors, Athletes, Dancers, Feminine focused).
Fimo Mitchell
Fimo is a meditation teacher, a writer and a podcast host. In 2021 he founded When The Village Meditates, a nonprofit committed to creating meditation, yoga, and discussion spaces, along with wellness retreats that centers racialized and marginalized people. Fimo is the author of three books, his most recent release, Pastel Remembrances, is a collection of short stories. Every Tuesday, he hosts the When The Village Meditates podcast featuring ten minutes of meditation and five minutes of insightful speech.
Jermaine Robertson, PhD
Jermaine Robertson, Ph.D. is the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Florida A&M University (FAMU) and a licensed clinical psychologist in Florida. He specializes in working with children and adolescents. Trained in FAMU’s African-centered Community Psychology, Dr. Roberson’s teaching, research, practice, and community work is rooted in African/Black Psychology. Dr. Robertson has worked in rites-of-passage with African men and boys for over two decades.
Keesha Bell
An art psychotherapist-in-training, creative facilitator and art therapy student based in Oshawa, Ontario whose academic foundation includes a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from York University, a certificate in public relations from Toronto Metropolitan University and a therapeutic arts practitioner certificate from CiiAT.
Keesha is an entrepreneur who designs and facilitates in-person and online workshops focused on fostering creativity and mental wellness. he uses her skills and experience to work alongside individuals on their healing journey. Her therapeutic approach is collaborative and uses narrative art therapy to help externalize and reshape one’s personal stories, which can be helpful in managing issues of self-esteem, anxiety, and stress.
Krissy Doyle-Thomas
Professor and Academic and Field Placement Coordinator in Brain Disorders Management and Mental Health and Disability Management at Mohawk College.who earned her PhD from McMaster University in 2010 and completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital’s Autism Research Centre, focusing on brain imaging in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Her current research aims to improve mental health support and increase participation among marginalized communities. She works with community health professionals and academic institutions on research-informed mental health care recommendations and collaborates with Kaela Millar at Mohawk College on Multi-Sensory Environments for Acquired Brain Injuries.
Rameri Reshkhi Moukam, RMN, MA
Registered senior psychiatric and psychosocial mental health nurse and psychotherapist specializing in community-based black mental health. Currently, Ms. Moukam is the Clinical Director of Pattigift Therapy, an African-centered counseling and child and family therapy service in the UK. Moukam also designs and delivers courses and continuing education programs utilizing a bespoke model in African-Black psychotherapy.
Robert seymour wright, MSW, RSW
Robert Seymour Wright is a Social Worker and Sociologist whose 31 year career has spanned the fields of education, child welfare, forensic mental health, trauma, sexual violence, and cultural competence.
A “clinician/academic/administrator,” he has always integrated his work delivering direct practice clinical service to clients with teaching and supervising interns, and promoting lasting systemic change through social policy advocacy. He also consults, trains, speaks and comments on a wide range of issues. His extensive pro bono work gave birth to The Peoples’ Counselling Clinic, a non-profit mental health clinic. His pioneering work with colleagues in cultural competence and conducting cultural assessments has received national attention.
Ronke Latimore Tapp, PhD
Assistant Director of Multiculturalism at the University of Rochester’s University Counseling Center and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatry Department, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Tapp has a lifelong passion for exploring culture and diversity and is devoted to learning, applying, and sharing African Black Psychology in her therapeutic/restorative praxis and teaching. She is co-chair of the ABPsi CABP committee, was ABPsi’s 20-21 CLDI Fellow, is CABP certified and certified in NTU psychotherapy.
Sharon L. Bethea, PhD
Sharon L. Bethea, Ph.D. is President of the Association of Black Psychologist Inc., Professor in the Department of Counselor Education, and Inner-City Studies, and Coordinator of the African/African American Studies program, at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU). Dr. Bethea is also a co-founding member of the Genocide and Human Rights in Africa and the Diaspora Center (GHRAD) at NEIU, where she continues to spearhead initiatives aimed at promoting social justice and human rights. Grounded in African centered pedagogical theory and philosophy, Dr. Bethea’s work has centered on fostering healing, and well-being within African and African Diasporic communities. Dr Bethea recently coauthored articles about Sawubona Healing circles and the women of the Black Panther Party, highlighting their contributions as divine African/Black Women loving, resisting, disrupting, and liberating. In addition, Dr. Bethea co-edited the book, Black Women’s Liberatory Pedagogies: Resistance, Transformation, and Healing Within and Beyond the Academy. Dr. Bethea’s current scholarship centers on, African centered pedagogy, African/African Diasporic healing systems, Civic Engagement amongst African and African American youth, Genocide and Human Rights and Oakland Freedom Schools. She is also committed to fostering transformative learning experiences, as evidenced by her numerous teaching awards and her facilitation of research and study abroad programs with students and colleagues to Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, and Tanzania. The Association of Black Psychologists sees its mission and destiny as the liberation of the African Mind, empowerment of the African Character, and enlivenment and illumination of the African Spirit.
Wesley Crichlow, PhD
Dr. Wesley Crichlow is an African Canadian Critical Race Intersectional Queer Theorist whose work critically connects Theories of Anti-Black Racism and Decoloniality as the signature praxis and framing of his research, teaching and service. His work aims to provide measures to alleviate anti-Black racism, heterocisnormativity, transmisogyny, structural, and systemic inequalities. He teaches at Ontario Tech University (2003-present) within the youth and criminal justice discipline with over 25 years of Critical Race Theory Intersectional methodological approaches to university community mobilization and development.