W. Y. Alice Chan, Ph.D., Executive Director, Co-Founder

Every non-profit is different, and so is every one of their executive directors. Like some, I like to get in the thick of things.

My passion as an educator-researcher means that I enjoy meeting new people, brainstorming, learning, designing, and developing projects just like the rest of our incredible team. In our work, I am constantly listening and collaborating in excitement as we find ways to promote deep understanding and respect for everyone.

As an explorer of sorts, I have worked in multinational corporations, international religious and non-religious non-profits, and educational settings as a middle school teacher and course lecturer at McGill University and OISE/University of Toronto. My experiences and questions led me to research religious bullying, religious literacy, and religious discrimination, which also led me to life-changing opportunities in California and Georgia, documented in two books – Teaching Religious Literacy to Combat Religious Bullying: Insights from North American Secondary Schools (Routledge, 2021) and Equipping Educators to Teach Religious Literacy: Lessons from a Teacher Education Program in the American South (Routledge, 2022).

These experiences have translated into our CCRL projects in rural Alberta and Ontario, among others, and publications in various outlets, including the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) and the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Other outlets include conference presentations, such as a panel presentation at the US Department of Education’s Center for Faith-based Neighborhood Partnership conference in 2023.

In all this work, I bring insights and lenses from my undergraduate studies in sociology and economics, Masters in Education from OISE/University of Toronto, and doctorate from the McGill University Faculty of Education.  As a Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolution certified Third-Party Neutral practitioner and a certified teacher with the Ontario College of Teachers, facilitation, education, and dialogue skills are also a firm foundation of my work.

If you would like to learn more about religious bullying or review my recent publications, please visit my personal page here: https://alicechan.org.

Our team co-publishes regularly on religious literacy and those publications can be found here: https://ccrl-clrc.ca/publications.

I am deeply committed to ensuring research (especially related to religious literacy) is shared in an accessible, relevant, and tangible way to all members of society. If you would like to discuss any of the work at CCRL, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly – alice@ccrl-clrc.ca.