Kayla Webber

Kayla Webber is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, specializing in women's and gender studies, and recently joined TMU as an Assistant Professor in the School of Child and Youth Care. She is also a part-time faculty member in the Department of Education at the UTM campus, where she has taught undergraduate courses. Her research and community commitment radically centre Black, Afro-Indigenous, Indigenous, racialized and marginalized youth and community members as agents of change, addressing housing precarity, Black and Indigenous futurities, community-defined wellness, anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, health, policy, gender-based violence, and intervening in youth criminal justice, mental health and decolonized care. Grounded in youth leadership and lived experience, her work challenges systemic inequities while advancing liberatory futures rooted in freedom, self-determination, and collective healing.

Webber was born, raised, and continues to reside in the Eglinton West Little Jamaica community in Tkaronto. She also served a the Toronto Strong Neighbourhood Strategy Advisory Group and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the For Youth Initiative (FYI), where she focuses on building meaningful, supportive programming and spaces for youth in the Little Jamaica neighbourhood. Webber is also active in academia and public policy, previously co-chairing the Indigenous Education Network and currently serving as a stakeholder in the City of Toronto's Anti-Black-Racism Unit Partnership and Accountability Circle. She aims to share her work with grassroots and community organizations and initiatives while staying rooted in the community that continues to remind her of her roles and responsibilities as a community member and as an Afro-Caribbean person, and to ensure that her research is relevant and meaningful. Lastly, Webber was recently named Director of Scholarly Engagement and Programming and UNESCO Chair on Health, Race and Human Rights at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia.