Dan Hughes has been with the department for 27 years. He started in the British Columbia Treaty Process, and moved from there to the field of international relations, where he was a member of the Canadian delegation responsible for the negotiation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
More recently, Dan was with CIRNAC’s Northern Affairs Organization, where he was responsible for providing direction on sectoral input into departmental planning and reporting processes, including the Departmental Plan and the Departmental Report on Results, the annual budget process and audit and evaluation processes, as well as supporting the Assistant Deputy Minister on a wide range of departmental committees. Previous to this, he was responsible for the same issues within Indigenous Services Canada’s Regional Operations Sector.
Dan works on Ottawa time from the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, and is thrilled to be able to assist the NIEDB in achieving its vision of a vibrant Indigenous economy where Indigenous Peoples are economically self-sufficient and have achieved economic parity with Canadian society.
Carolynn Sweeney-Beebe is the NIEDB’s Event Coordinator, and ensures all the logistics for quarterly board meetings are in place, as well as logistics for Standing Committee sessions and other appearances. She has been with the federal government for over 30 years in administrative, human resources and financial roles. She strives to be helpful and takes care of those around her with kindness and friendly gestures (always with a smile!).
Carolynn is remarried to her husband, Marc, who helped her raise her three children. They reside in the beautiful Laurentians of Québec with their dogs. They live on a large acreage where they are learning to be more self-sufficient. This involves making their own maple syrup, beekeeping, raising chickens, growing their own vegetable gardens and flowers that attract the spring hummingbirds and butterflies.
Khaleel Khan believes it is a huge privilege to support the NIEDB’s work. His background is in policy analysis (Nunavut Devolution), mediation (community and civil), land surveying (First Nations Land Management initiative and land development), and in research and teaching (surveying and land use planning).
Through a spectacular and mesmerizing journey over three decades, he has come full circle, from surveying interior and exterior boundaries of Reserves in Ontario, to helping advance fairness in the many aspects of Indigenous land management and broader aspects of economic development.
“Helping to re-imagine and reform these structures and processes is fraught, difficult, frustrating, necessary, and rewarding stuff!”
Fern Keeshig is a member of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation (Neyaashiinigmiing), located along the shoreline of the Bruce Peninsula.
Though she currently resides in Ottawa, she enjoys spending the summers with her family back home. Being the youngest of six, she often refers to herself as a forever learner, and a lover of photography and videogames.
Before her move to the public sector, Fern held many roles in areas of hospitality, health and fitness, retail, administration and the service industry. She attributes a great deal of her professional success to her experience in the private sector. As a 2014 alumni from Algonquin College, Fern later went on to graduate from Carleton University with a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science in 2020.
Through her work with the National Indigenous Economic Development Board, she hopes to amplify the successes of Indigenous Peoples from coast to coast, while also challenging the oppressive programs and policies that are currently established. Fern wants to contribute to a world where all her Relations can abundantly rejoice, unite and celebrate in prosperity on their own terms.
Melriva Martins is a student with the National Indigenous Economic Development Board. She is working towards her Master’s in Public Policy and Public Administration from Concordia University.
Currently, she lives on the Unceded Lands of Treaty and Traditional Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat and Wyandot Nations.
Keith Wood Brooks is mixed Cree, from God’s Lake (Manitou Sakahigan) First Nation, located on Treaty 5 Territory in northern Manitoba. Keith lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, for school and work, but he spends summers and winter holidays back home whenever possible.
Before joining the public sector, Keith was studying at the University of Manitoba where he obtained an honours degree in economics, becoming the first person in his family to graduate from a post-secondary institution. He is presently enrolled part-time in a Master’s program in economics, and has plans to further his education at the Ph.D. level.
Keith was inspired to study economics as a way to better understand the economic gap between Indigenous Peoples and Canadians, and he wishes to study and continue to work in the Indigenous economic development sector as a life-long career. Growing up in an isolated First Nation community made him think deeply about why economic inequality exists and why it persists today, especially for remote communities like his. Through his work with the National Indigenous Economic Development Board, he hopes to narrow the economic gap faced by Indigenous Peoples and live in a world where Indigenous Peoples have the same level of economic opportunity as the rest of Canada.
Erin Downey has been with the department for 5 years and has worked with the NIEDB for most of that time.
Before her move to the public sector, Erin had a long and varied career in media research, production and as arts administrator.
Erin graduated from McGill University with an honours BA in Political Science. She had always had a strong interest in Indigenous rights and feels privileged to work as part of the NIEDB Secretariat, supporting the National Board as it advances its vision of a world where Indigenous Peoples have achieved economic parity with non-Indigenous Canadians.