A registered Holistic Nutritionist (RHN) and a Certified Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator (VLCE), Margie works as a plant-based chef and culinary consultant. Through customized cooking classes, corporate wellness programs, coaching, and recipe and menu development for restaurants, she brings her unique lighthearted style to the hearts and minds (and tables) of all she meets. For Margie, when it comes to food, health and happiness, you cant’t have one without the other. Always one to experiment in the kitchen, when she switched to plant-based eating she was determined to discover and create delicious, filling and beautiful recipes that could stand up next to any omnivore diet.
Laurisa Dill, M.Ed, RP is a registered Psychotherapist, consultant, and former Director of The Mindfulness Clinic. She has twenty-five years experience both in HR management and helping individuals achieve optimal well-being. She is passionate about helping people develop skills for coping with stress and improving resilience. She is a Stanford Certified Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) teacher, a UC San Diego trained Mindful Self Compassion (MCS) teacher and Search Inside Yourself teacher trainee. She is engaged as a speaker and workshop presenter by community agencies, health care providers, and workplace organizations. She is founder of Mindful Momentum, a Toronto based organization devoted to offering Mindfulness and Compassion training programs.
Kelly Elliott, founder of Free Your Life, is a transformational coach, accredited, advanced EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) practitioner, advanced Law of Attraction practitioner and author. Her mission is to help and teach others how they too can easily transform their lives in ways they never imagined. With her extensive knowledge and experience with the subconscious and energy healing of the mind and body, she is changing the world for the better, one person at a time.
Doris Fin is an award winning chef who specializes in plant-based cuisine. She teaches interactive culinary classes, caters private events, is currently working on her cookbook “Gather Cook Feast”, and is travelling for her documentary film series featuring sustainable food with various chefs and farmers. As she inspires others to return to the kitchen, she makes the gathering, cooking, and feasting fun and educational for all.
Heather Lillico (MSc, RHN, RYT) is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Yoga Instructor in Toronto. In her private nutrition practice she specializes in nutrition for mental health and sees clients who are anxious, stressed out, and close to burning out. She believes in a mostly whole foods, plant-based approach and has been vegan since 2013. As a yoga instructor her classes have a strong focus on alignment and body awareness, while remaining playful. Heather likes to sequence creatively so you can try something you have never tried before, or see poses in a new light.
Michelle is a yoga instructor and co-owner of Chandra Yoga Shala. Michelle first began her yoga practice at the age of 20, while studying Psychology at Ryerson University. After Michelle graduated, she bought a one-way ticket to India where she traveled and received her 200 YTT at Himalaya Yoga Valley in Goa. Michelle describes the yoga practice as an intimate and therapeutic experience. She believes that yoga is a form of intelligence that is capable of producing cohesion within the self amidst a fragmented world. Michelle also believes the practice to be deeply purifying. strengthening and stimulating. Most importantly, she promotes the notion of the Yoga practice as a mirror into the self; a vehicle for truth and self discovery.
Jack Middleton is a Red Seal Chef and a plant-based educator. He attended chef school at George Brown College and has spent most of his career in French fine dining and Italian cuisine. In 2017 Jack started The Empowered Vegan to help teach as many people as he can how to make vegan food easy and DELICIOUS. Jack’s workshops have an emphasis on food flavour, theory, knife skills and using interesting vegan ingredients to produce dishes that match their meat-based counterparts in satiety and flavour. Whether you are a seasoned cook or a plant-based newbie, you will find Jack’s passion for plant-based cooking contagious.
Virginia Graham (BPsych; BEd) is your host at 21 North Wellness, and leader of the workshop series, ‘Meditations and Talk’. 21 North Wellness is the culmination of her life’s work and interests. Virginia’s work as an educator led her to found Launch Student Career Planning, a student coaching company where she worked with adolescents and their parents. These experiences opened her eyes to the growing number of people who want to improve their emotional and physical health but who feel overwhelmed by the rapid developments and breadth of information in the fields of nutrition, mindfulness, disease prevention, personal development and sustainability. Virginia founded 21 North Wellness to provide others with an easily accessible way to comfortably and efficiently learn from trusted sources. It is her wish that her guests will learn to confidently make changes to their lifestyle that will move them closer to their vision of a vibrant, value-driven life.