Visiting Speakers
Each year, we welcome speakers from a variety of disciplines and experiences to speak at the school.
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Andrea Palmer CEO of Awake Labs
2025 Green Carpet Speaker
Andrea Palmer is the CEO of Awake Labs, a software company dedicated to supporting people with cognitive disabilities to live more independently and on their own terms. Her work bridges the gap between technology and disability services, ensuring that innovation is guided by the goals, strengths, and voices of the people being supported.
With over a decade of experience in enabling technology, mental health, and person-centered care, Andrea focuses on translating complex ideas into simple, effective tools that fit naturally into daily routines. Her team works closely with service providers to create accessible, empowering technology that helps people live their best lives.
Andrea is committed to equity, inclusion, and designing with—not just for—people with disabilities. Outside of work, she enjoys jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, and saying hi to every dog she meets.
Andrea Palmer CEO of Awake Labs
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Anne Michaels Author
2018 Rebecca CHISHOLM Clarkes'66 Speaker
My motive for writing is to do something good in the world.
In February 2018, renowned author Anne Michaels spoke to an auditorium of Grade 11 and 12 students.
The Toronto-born writer and poet read her poetry and excerpts from her novels including her acclaimed novel Fugitive Pieces, a book Grade 11 students are studying.
I thought it was really interesting and I enjoyed hearing the excerpts she read
said Grade 12 student Polly.
Ms. Michaels engaged with student questions about her writing process and shared her journey as a writer.
No matter where a book travels, for me, the end has to offer some sort of redemption. It has to take us to the other side
said Ms. Michaels.
Over the course of Ms. Michaels’ career, she has garnered many accolades including being awarded the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Guggenheim Fellowship. She also served as Toronto’s Poet Laureate.
Anne Michaels Author
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Asmatullah Azizi Arab an Afghan refugee who has built a new life in Canada
2019 Green Carpet Speaker
You have the capacity to do more than you think you can. You just need to let your thoughts wander freely to find your true passion and place. That’s when you become unstoppable.
Asmatullah Azizi Arab, an Afghan refugee who has built a new life in Canada, was the guest speaker for the annual Green Carpet Celebration, embodying Branksome’s values of optimism and resilience.
Growing up in Kabul, he dreamed of shaping a better world, especially for impoverished children. In Grade 10 he was accepted to the Army and Navy Academy military school in California. Soon after, Asmat’s family received a death threat from the Taliban.
They believed I was being trained as a spy, he said.
After the Trump administration issued a travel ban on Muslim countries, he realized returning home would be a “death sentence.” Unable to renew his student visa, he sought asylum in Canada. Through family friends he met Cory Miller, the Branksome guidance counsellor who became his legal guardian and helped him to secure a scholarship to Ridley College.
If she had not believed in me, I simply wouldn’t be here today,” said Asmat. “I have a vision for the future of my country and I had promised myself that, no matter what, I will help transform Afghanistan to be a stable country, he said.
Asmat is now at Huron University College on a full scholarship, pursuing the next phase of his dream.
Asmatullah Azizi Arab an Afghan refugee who has built a new life in Canada
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Bernise Wong'13 Creative director and Designer
2022 Installation Speaker
Bernise Wong is a Creative Director and Designer. She has held positions at R/GA New York, Hodinkee, Live Nation, and is currently the Head of Brand at Saysh. She calls New York home, but is also the co-founder of MMM Studio, in her native Hong Kong. Inspired by the cultures of the world and having lived on multiple continents, Bernise strives to bring diversity to her visual language in an attempt to speak inclusively through design. Bernise abhors thoughtless decoration and truly adores sense-making through colour. Her work aspires to always transmit optimism, and she fully embraces playfulness and humour as a means of crossing divides.
Bernise Wong'13 Creative director and Designer
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Chrystia Freeland Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Foreign Affairs
2019 Rachel Phillips Belash Speaker
If we can just keep the world together until you take over, everything’s going to be fine.
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, spoke at the closing ceremony of the 31st World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships, hosted by Branksome Hall and held in Canada for the first time.
A former journalist, author and Oxford University-educated Rhodes Scholar, Freeland has served as various international newspaper bureau chiefs, deputy editor of The Globe and Mail and managing director of Thomson Reuters. Her best-selling book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else won the Lionel Gelber Prize.
In her keynote address as Branksome’s 2019 Rachel Phillips Belash Speaker, Freeland identified distinctive Canadian values such as the belief that “diversity is our strength” and our openness to immigration and trade. She also focused on our challenges.
The threats to liberal democracy are greater now than at any time since World War Two
she said.
Over the last two or three decades, Western industrialized countries have seen a hollowing out of the middle class and we’re reaping the political consequences.
In her insightful and rousing speech, she ultimately conveyed hope and conviction about the upcoming generation’s talents and resolve to make a better world.
Chrystia Freeland Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Foreign Affairs
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CK Purks Hoffler'80 Lawyer
Installation Speaker
Tricia “CK” PURKS Hoffler’80 is the CEO of The CK Hoffler Firm, the trailblazing Atlanta-based law firm. An accomplished attorney, Ms. Hoffler was previously a partner at Edmond, Lindsay & Hoffler, LLP. and a partner at Gary, Williams et al. in Florida. She has represented and is counsel to Civil Rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson, and has managed several billion-dollar commercial cases, including record-setting medical negligence verdicts. Ms. Hoffler has also worked on significant civil rights and children’s rights cases that have resulted in bringing much needed justice for American citizens. Ms. Hoffler has served on the boards of The Pine School (Stuart, Florida), Georgetown University Law Alumni Board (Washington, DC), Planned Parenthood of South Florida (West Palm Beach, Florida) and Women in Philanthropy (Stuart, Florida - founding member). She is also a very active member of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys (GABWA) and hosts an informal shadowing program for lawyers throughout Georgia who she mentors. Recently rated a “Super Lawyer” in 2022, Hoffler also received the Randolph W. Thrower Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Bar in 2022. Ms. Hoffler served as the 78th President of the National Bar Association in July 2020 and has made regular media appearances on television and radio both domestically and internationally. She is a weekly guest host of her own radio show on Atlanta’s WAOK with Juandolyn Stokes entitled “Law and Legal.” She has also appeared and provided legal and political commentary on CNN, ABC, Court TV, and MSNBC. She is a member of Branksome's Board of Directors and was Branksome Hall’s first Black Head Prefect.
CK Purks Hoffler'80 Lawyer
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Denise Pope Senior Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-founder of Challenge Success
Inaugural Visiting Scholar, Chandaria Research Centre
There is a real disconnect between what the girls are hearing and what their parents think about success. We are trying to get people all on the same page.
Dr. Denise Pope helped our community examine preconceptions about success and stress during a two-day visit with faculty and staff, parents and students.
A Senior Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-founder of Challenge Success, she was the inaugural visiting scholar of our Chandaria Research Centre (CRC).
Pope is an expert on students’ experiences of workload, stress and well-being. She shared insights on how to help students adapt to and cope with stress, including the importance of sleep and allowing for unstructured time in their busy schedules.
She also spoke at the annual Branksome Hall Parents’ Association Luncheon, co-sponsored by the CRC.
When we talk to students, the definition of success is very narrow, she said.
You have got to get the grades to get into university, to get the high-paying job, to get to happiness,” Dr. Pope noted. However, when [you ask] parents to define success for their kids, they say happiness, health, balance and well-being.
Pope emphasized the importance of what she calls PDF (playtime, downtime and family time).
Incorporating these into weekly routine are vital to creating healthier, happier students—and adults!
Denise Pope Senior Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-founder of Challenge Success
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Dr. Greg Wells Scientist, Human Physiologist and Author
Dr. Greg Wells has served as a tenured Associate Professor of Kinesiology at the University of Toronto. He is currently a scientist in Translational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), focused on improving outcomes in children with chronic diseases via physical activity.
For over 25 years, Dr. Wells has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and World champions. He is also a veteran endurance athlete and author of four best-selling books including Superbodies, The Ripple Effect and The Focus Effect.
He is the CEO and founder of Wells Performance, a global consulting firm committed to achieving the moonshot of helping teams, schools and businesses become places where people get healthy, perform optimally and reach their potential.
Dr. Greg Wells Scientist, Human Physiologist and Author
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Dr. Lisa Damour psychologist and best-selling author
2019 Well-Being Speaker and 2025 Rachel Phillips Belash Speaker
Dr. Lisa Damour is the author of three New York Times best sellers: Untangled, Under Pressure, and The Emotional Lives of Teenagers, which have been translated into twenty-three languages. She co-hosts the Ask Lisa podcast, works in collaboration with UNICEF, and is recognized as a thought leader by the American Psychological Association. Dr. Damour authored the monthly Adolescence column for The New York Times, is a regular contributor to CBS News, and created Untangling 10to20, a digital library of premium content to support teens and those who care for them.
Dr. Damour serves as a Senior Advisor to the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University and has written numerous academic papers, chapters, and books related to education and child development. She maintains a clinical practice and also speaks to schools, professional organizations, and corporate groups around the world on the topics of child and adolescent development, family mental health, and adult well-being. Dr. Damour also works with industry leaders on topics related to adolescent mental health and was a consultant to Pixar on the film Inside Out 2.
Dr. Damour graduated with honors from Yale University and worked for the Yale Child Study Center before earning her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Michigan. She has been a fellow at Yale’s Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy and the University of Michigan’s Power Foundation. She and her husband are the proud parents of two daughters.
Dr. Lisa Damour psychologist and best-selling author
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