CBC Manitoba's Community Advisory Board
CBC News | Posted: June 23, 2022 6:56 PM | Last Updated: October 18, 2023
CBC Manitoba's community advisory board is made up of 19 members
CBC Manitoba's Community Advisory Board provides insight into the way our station covers the province. The board helps ensure that CBC Manitoba authentically represents the diversity of experiences, stories, concerns, and achievements of the communities we serve.
Launched in 2022, it includes a range of community members from across the province. Board members are appointed for two-year terms and are invited to share their opinions and perspectives, inform about issues, and provide feedback about CBC Manitoba's content and coverage.
How our board works
- Mission/Purpose
- Authority
- Membership
- CBC Manitoba's responsibilities
- Board member responsibilities
- Board member rules and limitations
- Terms and time commitment
- Remuneration and acknowledgement
- Termination
- Meet our board members
Mission/Purpose
CBC Manitoba challenges ourselves and our audience to make this a better place to live. We aspire to integrate diversity in all aspects of CBC Manitoba, from ensuring representation at the decision-making level to our editorial choices to the makeup of our newsroom to how it is reflected in our content.
CBC Manitoba's Community Advisory Board exists to help inform the way CBC Manitoba covers the province and reflects the communities we serve.
Authority
The CAB helps ensure that CBC Manitoba authentically represents the diversity of experiences, stories, concerns, and achievements of the community we serve.
The board is not a decision-making body; rather, it is an opportunity to provide valuable perspectives and insight for consideration by CBC Manitoba's editorial team.
Membership
Public members appointed to the CAB live in Manitona and are representative of the communities in which CBC Manitoba operates.
A membership recruitment process is used to encourage people from diverse backgrounds and communities to participate. CBC Manitoba editorial leaders select board members based on applications, interviews and/or reference checks.
Membership of the CAB may include, but is not limited to: a mix of gender identities, a mix of income levels, a mix of ages, a mix of geographic locations, diversity of thought and perspective, Indigenous communities, people with disabilities, visible minorities, newcomers and refugees, and LGBT2SQ+.
Each CAB member's unique intersectionality provides further contribution to the group and process.
CBC Manitoba's responsibilities
- Provide an inclusive environment in which CAB members can openly and respectfully share feedback and observations about CBC Manitoba's content and coverage.
- Develop processes and systems to extend insights learned from the CAB to CBC Manitoba's broader newsroom.
- Share feedback, transparency and insight about how the CAB process informs CBC Manitoba's editorial decisions.
Board member responsibilities
- Engage in robust discussions about the role of public broadcasting and how CBC Manitoba can best serve all our communities.
- Provide general feedback on programming, coverage, specific reporting projects and long-term editorial goals or outlooks.
- May serve as a sounding board during breaking news events or form smaller boards for specific coverage needs.
- Help CBC Manitoba identify opportunities for community engagement and voice in alignment with the newsroom's strategic priorities.
- Maintain a respectful and constructive dialogue with all members of the group, allowing all members an opportunity to voice their opinions.
- Disclose real or perceived conflicts of interest.
Board member rules and limitations
- Anything discussed during the advisory board meetings, as well as the overarching editorial plans for CBC Manitoba, are to remain confidential.
- Statements made during the meetings are for background purposes only; members will not be quoted in CBC Manitoba reporting.
- We strive to maintain an environment that welcomes openness and honesty, and requires that all participants honour and respect the experiences and perspectives of those involved.
Terms and time commitment
Each CAB member term is two years. Board members will attend a maximum of six advisory board meetings annually, which may be virtual or in-person.
Smaller boards may be formed for specific coverage needs.
Remuneration and acknowledgement
CAB members receive an honorarium of $75 per meeting attended. CAB members may be acknowledged or credited on CBC websites.
Termination
CBC Manitoba reserves the right to dismiss a board member who is not upholding their responsibilities, has broken stipulations indicated in these terms, or who has failed to attend two meetings without notice.
A board member may choose to withdraw from the board at any time, with written notice to CBC Manitoba.
Meet our board members
CBC Manitoba's community advisory board is made up of 19 members who reflect the ethnocultural, socio-economic, geographic and political diversity of Manitoba.
You can read more about each member's background below (biographies submitted by board members):
- Seid Ahmed
- Dieth Aquino de Leon
- Jennifer Brisson
- Amy Chegus
- Patty Douglas
- Anna Marie G. Gobenciong
- Alia Harb
- Izzeddin Hawamda
- Kristine Janz
- Paula Keirstead
- Naomi Ruth Letkemann
- Garret Munch
- Felicita Ovadje
- Allan Pineda
- Andrea Ritter
- Bobbi Montean
- Brandi Woodhouse
Seid Ahmed
Seid Oumer Ahmed began his career as a journalist in Ethiopia and has lived experience as a refugee, resettling in 2003 in Canada. Seid is a passionate advocate for new Canadians and has extensive experience working with immigrant and refugee communities to adjust to life in Winnipeg.
Serving on the CBC Manitoba advisory board will provide me an opportunity to bring my own lived experience and so many other complex new Canadians' issues to be reflected and captured accurately in CBC news reporting. It also allows me to continue my deep thirst for information, learning and sharing, as well as challenging people's opinions, provoking and enlightening them about extraordinary things they didn't know.
Dieth Aquino de Leon
My name is Dieth Aquino de Leon (he/him/them). I am Filipino, non-binary, immigrant, and a health-care worker. I am a proud member of Queer People of Colour. I am proactive and committed to social work and mental health advocacy through volunteering and participation on virtual and social platforms. I love karaoke, writing and reading, occasionally.
I have decided to join the Community Advisory Board as I am committed to providing inspiration and creating a safe and inclusive environment, especially for our diverse community, including the queer BIPOC, marginalized and racialized individuals. I am also committed to offering insight and advice when it comes to important topics and issues that Manitobans care about.
Jennifer Brisson
Jennifer has spent the last decade volunteering and working with inmates across Manitoba with Initiatives for Just Communities. Alternative responses to harm and crime became a pivotal interest while completing a criminal justice degree at the University of Winnipeg. Jennifer's passion for community building in unlikely ways and spaces brought her to the CBC's Community Advisory Board.
Amy Chegus
I have had the privilege to experience living in southern Manitoba, the Interlake, as well as the northern part of this beautiful province over the last 36 years of my life. I love experiencing the beauty of nature as an avid fisherwoman, plant seeker and explorer.
With this lived experience, I know the diversity of our people from the tundra through the boreal, all the way to the prairies. I am a proud mother to four beautiful children.
I joined the Community Advisory Board because I want to bring positive changes to our community and the people in our province, especially in the north. Socio-economic issues and their core roots are underrepresented and misunderstood by many.
Patty Douglas
I joined the CBC Community Advisory Board because I believe in the power of story to change worlds. Which stories we tell matter. I belong to a number of communities. I am a social justice education researcher in rural Manitoba (Brandon University), former special education teacher, mother of an autistic son and an invisibly disabled, neuroqueer, cisgender white settler.
Anna Marie G. Gobenciong
Anna Marie Gonzales Gobenciong is a multipotentialite; a banker, chef, an honorary soldier and a journalist for the Manila Broadcasting Company.
Before migrating to Canada, Anna was serendipitously assigned to cover the Philippine-Canadian delegation of the Canadian Embassy to the Philippines, spearheaded by then Manitoba premier Gary Doer, who promoted Manitoba's diverse economy through agriculture, gas, mining, energy and tourism.
Anna's passion is to help people improve their lives and to use her skills and talents as a platform to uphold the voice of her community, being of Asian Filipino heritage.
Alia Harb
I'm passionate about community and inspiring enhanced results. I am a longtime community volunteer who enjoys working with people who are motivated about creating a better Manitoba. I am humbled to join the CBC Community Advisory Board in working alongside members, lending our voices to insightful perspectives.
Izzeddin Hawamda
I was born and raised in Palestine and moved to Canada as a teenager. I am a teacher, a co-founder of Gaser-Bridge (a Palestine/Israel interfaith dialogue group), and a PhD student in peace and conflict studies at the University of Manitoba. I hope to highlight individual and collective narratives of marginalized voices.
Kristine Janz
I have experience on many local, regional and provincial boards and will bring a rural perspective to the Community Advisory Board. Lately my focus has been on K-12 education and early childhood education. I am the vice-chair for Prairie Spirit School Division and teach at Baldur Nursery School.
Paula Keirstead
I have been a community advocate/activist throughout my 38-year career. I have focused on cross-disability, women's health and poverty reduction issues. My work has encompassed the local, provincial, national and international arenas. Living as a woman with disability provides me with relevant perspectives to bring to the CBC Community Advisory Board.
Naomi Ruth Letkemann
I am a lifelong Winnipegger and actively participate with many non-profit organizations in Winnipeg, after leaving a career as a teacher. By serving on this board, I hope to foster greater empathy toward marginalized communities. My husband and I have a wonderful little girl and another little one on the way.
Garret Munch
Garret has a doctorate in biochemical engineering in fermentation control and biofuel production, and currently works for the Public Health Agency of Canada. He joined the board to bring a scientific/engineering perspective to coverage of pressing issues to Manitobans. When not working, he is usually reading, boxing or exploring Manitoba.
Felicita Ovadje
Felicita Ovadje is a lawyer and beauty entrepreneur.
As a lawyer and an artist with a passion for making a social impact, she realized the lack of representation of African beauty entrepreneurs at the mainstream malls and shopping centres. This gap sparked the launch of Felicheeta Artistry (F.A.) retail store, specializing in cosmetics for people of colour, all the while continuing a legal practice because she believes representation matters.
Felicita is passionate about community building and wants her efforts to have impact for the Black community.
Allan Pineda
Allan is an entrepreneur, chef, author, producer, event co-ordinator and advocate for the Filipino and cannabis communities in Manitoba.
One of the founders of the non-profit organization Kultivation Festival FAMD, he aims to empower and inspire Filipino youth and younger generations with collaboration in the community through various events and projects.
Andrea Ritter
Andrea Ritter was born and raised in Winnipeg's North End. After relocating to Toronto to pursue her graduate degree, Andrea remained in Ontario's capital for 25 years before moving back to her hometown with her two young children. Andrea is currently a full-time professional communicator in the education sector, a full-time single parent and an active volunteer with several local not-for-profit organizations.
Having grown up in a household where CBC was a main media source, Andrea has been a long-time critical listener and fan of CBC programming. She looks forward to connecting with new people and lending her voice to discussions of key issues of importance to Manitobans.
Bobbi Montean
If no one speaks up for and educates others about our north, then we all lose out on some incredible stories. Bobbi is trying to make sure that doesn't happen.
Bobbi is a tireless volunteer and has discovered that even during a pandemic, she can be involved virtually.
Bobbi started volunteering for Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre in the 1980s and joined the Red Cross effort in 1989, helping thousands of people evacuating from Thompson. More recently, she implemented the Coats for Kids program in her region and was the lead organizer for Canada Day, Winterfest and Santa Parade festivities.
Brandi Woodhouse
Brandi Woodhouse is the owner and founder of RezGal Lashes Inc. She is Anishiniaabe Ikwe from Pinaymootang First Nation, in Treaty 2, Canada, where she grew up and is currently raising her three sons. Her Indigenous heritage is Ojibway and Cree.
RezGal launched in August 2020, and lash orders have already reached around the world. Her goal is to build a high-quality, affordable and accessible brand that young Indigenous girls everywhere can relate to and feel pride for. Her products aim to help Indigenous youth change the narrative of what it means to grow up on a reserve.
Being an Indigenous woman often means overcoming obstacles and breaking cycles that are greatly misunderstood, she hopes to bring awareness to these issues and become a role model for Indigenous girls all over Canada.