The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada

Dr. Joe Anderson

Dr. Joseph (Joe) Anderson is Professor of History and Associate Dean of Arts-Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement at Mount Royal University in Calgary. A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, Dr. Anderson has specialized in public and agricultural history throughout his career. He spent a decade with Living History Farms in Iowa, where he served as Director of History and Interpretation. Dr. Anderson has also served in leadership roles on the executive board of the Agricultural History Society, an international organization dedicated to promoting the interest, study, and research of the history of agriculture. His research interests include environmental and technology history, food and culture, and rural life. Dr. Anderson is the author of several publications on these topics, including his most recent book Capitalist Pigs: Pigs, Pork, and Power in America, which details the history of pigs and the pork industry in the United States.

• First appointment: June 18, 2019 to June 17, 2024

Vacant

Ms. Diane Payment

Diane Payment is an ethnohistorian and author specializing in the history of women, Métis history and the Francophone history of Western and Northern Canada. She has an M.A. in history from the University of Ottawa and a degree in French Literature and Education from the University of Manitoba. She spent thirty years working as an historian and cultural resources specialist for the Parks Canada Agency. She is actively involved in her community, as member of the Union Nationale Métisse, past president of La Société historique de Saint-Boniface and as a member of the Manitoba Heritage Council for over a decade. Today, she continues to conduct research and is a consultant to a number of associations and media on a variety of heritage matters.

• First appointment: May 28, 2019, to May 27, 2024

Coming soon

Mr. Michael Philpott

Michael Philpott works as a consultant with Human Space where he is responsible for Heritage for All, a project examining and making recommendations with respect to the accessibility of federal heritage buildings. He previously worked for six years as a heritage officer with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. Mr. Philpott has coordinated and provided training in conservation and research practices and has written for a variety of audiences and on topics of architecture, material culture, and urban planning. He was a member of the City of St. John’s first Built Heritage Experts Panel, is a board member of the Newfoundland and Labrador Historic Trust, and has volunteered with a number of other heritage and urban issues-based organizations. He holds a bachelor of arts (honours) from Memorial University and a bachelor of environmental design studies (architecture) from Dalhousie University.

• First appointment: January 27, 2023, to January 26, 2028

Ms. Sarah Jerome

Ms. Sarah Jerome, an elder with the Gwich’in Nation, is actively involved in promoting the history, culture, traditions, and languages of northern people. Ms. Jerome was one of the last Gwich’in to be raised “on-the-land” and grew up at her family’s bush camp on the Peel River. She attended residential school for twelve years but returned to the land with her family during the summer months, where she continued to practice her traditional skills and language. Today, as an elder, she teaches Indigenous knowledge to youth in the Inuvik region, leading a program which explores educational pursuits, genealogy, language and culture. Ms. Jerome has extensive experience as an educator, with positions as a teacher, principal and superintendent, spanning over two decades. She was the Language Commissioner for the Northwest Territories from 2009-2013, and also a board member of the Porcupine Caribou Management Committee and Gwich’in Renewable Resource Council. She holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Saskatchewan, and an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Alberta.

• First appointment: January 8, 2021, to January 7, 2026

Mr. Russell Grosse

Russell Grosse is a native of the historic Nova Scotia multi-generational Black Community of Cherry Brook. He has been involved in the protection, preservation and promotion of Nova Scotia’s Black Culture and History for over 28 years. An employee of the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia since 1994, he has held the role of Executive Director since December 2013. As a professional video technical producer, Mr. Grosse also donates much of his time to the capture and documenting of Black History. He has also been executive producer of several community cultural productions and artistic showcases that support the promotion of Black culture and history. In 2022, Mr. Grosse was co-chair and event coordinator of the Government of Canada’s National Apology to the members and descendants of Canada, No. 2 Construction Battalion. In 2022, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for volunteerism.

• First appointment: January 27, 2023, to January 26, 2028

Coming soon

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Mr. Aly Ndiaye (alias Webster)

Aly Ndiaye, a.k.a. Webster, hip-hop artist, independent historian, activist and lecturer, was born and raised in the Limoilou district of Québec City. His father is Senegalese and his mother is from Quebec. He has always been proud of his origins and describes himself as a SénéQueb.

His passion for history led him to pursue university studies in this field. He regularly gives lectures on a variety of topics, including the history of the Afro-descendant presence and enslavement in Quebec and Canada. He is also a veteran and one of the pioneers of Quebec's hip-hop movement. Mr. Ndiaye is the author of a hip-hop writing manual, À l'Ombre des Feuilles (Québec Amérique, 2019), a children's book that follows the journey of Olivier Le Jeune, the first person of African descent known to be enslaved, Le Grain de Sable (Septentrion, 2019), and the French translator of Charles W. Mills' Racial Contract (Mémoire d'encrier, 2023).

• First appointment: January 27, 2023, to January 26, 2028

Coming soon

Ms. Rae Mombourquette

Ms. Rae Mombourquette is a Tlingit Acadian citizen of Kwanlin Dün First Nation in Whitehorse, Yukon. She is a granddaughter of the Big Salmon Northern Tutchone people and great granddaughter of the Marsh Lake Tagish Kwan. Ms. Mombourquette is an Indigenous researcher specializing in Yukon First Nation heritage co-management and Yukon First Nations Self-Government Final Agreement Chapter 13 Heritage implementation. Ms. Mombourquette has over 12 years of experience working in the Yukon Heritage field, and is passionate about promoting and preserving all aspects of Canadian history. She has a B.A. in Canadian Studies from Thompson Rivers University and a certificate in Indigenous Women in Community Leadership from the Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University.

• First appointment: June 1, 2021 to May 31, 2026

Ms. Leslie Weir

Ms. Leslie Weir assumed the position of Librarian and Archivist of Canada on August 30, 2019. Prior to joining Library and Archives Canada, Ms. Weir was the University Librarian at the University of Ottawa from 2003 to 2018. She also held positions at the National Library of Canada and the Statistics Canada Library. Ms. Weir also served as President of Canadiana.org, where she oversaw the introduction of the Heritage Project, in collaboration with Library and Archives Canada, to digitize and make openly accessible some 60 million heritage archival images. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Canadian History from Concordia University in 1976, and a Masters in Library Science from McGill University in 1979.

Dr. Tim Cook

Dr. Tim Cook, CM, FRSC is the Chief Historian and Director of Research at the Canadian War Museum. He holds a B.A. (Hons) from Trent University, a M.A. from the Royal Military College of Canada and a PH.D. from the University of New South Wales. He is a frequent commentator in the media, series editor of UBC’s Studies in Canadian Military History, a Director for Canada’s History Society, and the author or editor of eighteen books of Canadian history.

Dr. Cook has won the C.P. Stacey Prize for Military History (twice), the Ottawa Book Award (four times), the RBC Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, and the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize (twice). For his contributions to Canadian history, Tim has been awarded the Governor General’s Award for Popularizing History (The Pierre Berton Award) and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and the Order of Canada.

Ms. Nadine Spence

Ms. Nadine Spence, Klii? aht'a, is an Ahousaht First Nation member, part of the larger Nuu-chah-nulth Tribe on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Since 2001, she has worked for Parks Canada in a variety of capacities and various functional areas in both field operations and national policy development. Among other roles, Ms. Spence has served as Executive Director of Indigenous Affairs, Executive Director of Operations for British Columbia and Yukon, and Director of Natural Resource Conservation.

Ms. Spence holds a Master of Arts in Leadership from Royal Roads University, where her major research project focused on exploring the role of women in the governance of a tribal park protected areas model.