Co-founder | Coach | Facilitator

Ariana Fotinakis (she/her) is the co-founder of Decolonize and Rize, a trauma-responsive coach, breathwork facilitator, and devoted advocate for decolonized well-being. With Anishinaabe (Aamjiwnaang) and Greek ancestry and as the daughter of a Sixties Scoop survivor, Ariana is deeply committed to reclaiming her roots and supporting others in their journeys of healing and transformation.

For over a decade, Ariana has worked with hundreds of individuals and organizations across the globe, offering a grounded and compassionate approach to personal and collective change. She understands the importance of meeting people where they are and believes that everyone holds the capacity to foster meaningful shifts in their lives, workplaces, and communities. Sometimes, the medicine is as simple as having their brilliance reflected back to them.

Ariana’s approach is informed by extensive training in wellness coaching, somatics, and various forms of breathwork, alongside specialized certifications such as The Trauma of Money, Cultivating Safe Spaces, and Trauma-Responsive Support Training. Her work integrates nervous system awareness, cultural reclamation, and systemic change, creating spaces where individuals and teams can build resilience, deepen self-awareness, and cultivate sustainable well-being.

She is passionate about strengthening communities and guiding organizations toward more inclusive, accountable, and decolonized ways of working and being.

Outside of her professional life, Ariana is a devoted mother to a human, a dog, and an ever-shifting flock of chickens. Homesteading on 1/3 of an acre, Ariana is continuing to learn to feed her family and loved ones with simple, home-grown food in a quest to opt out of the industrial food complex.

Facilitator

Ashley Richard is an Indigenous consultant, entrepreneur, and strategic advisor with more than 15 years of experience and has been consulting since 2017. As the founder of Ashley Richard & Associates Inc., she works with First Nations communities, post-secondary institutions, industry associations, non-profits, and businesses across Canada. Her work includes building the Indigenous Entrepreneurship department at United College, University of Waterloo, leading the Indigenous Workforce Development Strategy for Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Manitoba, and leading the Truth and Reconciliation Strategy for The Forks North Portage Partnership.

Facilitator

Ian Foss is a member of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation and an experienced facilitator, trainer, and mentor. Through Cultivating Safe Spaces and a Two-Eyed Seeing approach, he helps people strengthen relational competency, cultural agility, and respectful dialogue. Ian believes that meaningful relationship-building is at the heart of reconciliation.

Facilitator

Jessica Bloomfield (she/her) carries the Cree name Gahh-Geeh-Gayy Iskwêw ("Forever Woman") and is a proud Ininew (Cree) woman from War Lake First Nation in northern Manitoba, located within Treaty 5 Territory. 

As a Senior Strategic Advisor with Indigenous Strategy, Research and Business Development at RRC Polytech, Jessica advances Indigenous initiatives through strategic planning, service design, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement. 

With 12 years of experience in Manitoba's public service, her work is grounded in collaboration, innovation, and systems change. Passionate about Indigenous education, Jessica is committed to creating pathways that support Indigenous student success and belonging.

Beyond her professional work, she enjoys baseball, golf, curling, and billiards, and treasures time spent with her family as a proud Auntie to four nephews and niece, Dia, and Grantie to her great-niece, Jordyn.

Coach | Facilitator

Marilyn Maychak (she/her) is a proud dual heritage woman with Inuit (Nunavut) and Polish-Ukrainian ancestry. She is the founder of Marilyn Maychak Consulting, an Inuk-led coaching and facilitative consulting company, culturally grounded in Inuit ways of knowing and being. She holds a masters degree in education from the University of Alberta with a focus on leadership and school improvement.

Marilyn is passionate about bringing together people who are dreaming and weaving different futures guided by ancestral wisdom and intelligence. Coming together to co-create culturally grounded spaces of belonging through relationship, liberation, education and reciprocity. 

With over two decades of experience working within and alongside education systems, Indigenous governance and equity work as an experienced educator, facilitator, curriculum developer, educational consultant, thought collaborator, advisor, advocate and transformational coach, Marilyn’s approach is informed by training in Indigenous ICF (International Coaching Federation) certified coach program and Indigenous thought leadership. Her work integrates racial equity, somatic awareness, emotional intelligence, cultural reclamation, living systems thinking, emergence, narrative and appreciative inquiry, and storytelling. 

Marilyn believes we can create systems and spaces that tell a deep and vibrant story of intercultural understanding where people feel they belong, know that they matter, and are guided by shared cultural values based on mutual respect and empathy.

Coach | Facilitator

Robyn Soulier-Ritchot (she/her/hers), First Nations Anishnaabe/Nehiyaw Woman from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation. Owner and Founder of Eagle Medicine Coaching & Consulting. Coach, consultant, speaker, facilitator and community member. 

Robyn Soulier-Ritchot is an Indigenous Coach, Consultant, Speaker and Facilitator who empowers individuals, entrepreneurs, and organizations to lead with intention, authenticity, and cultural values.

As the founder of Eagle Medicine Coaching & Consulting, Robyn blends Indigenous knowledge, leadership principles, and holistic wellness practices to help people reconnect with themselves and create meaningful impact through their work and communities.

A proud First Nations woman and advocate for Indigenous economic development, Robyn’s workshops and speaking engagements inspire self-leadership, social impact, and business rooted in values and purpose. Robyn is also a proud member of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, a mother of two sons, ceremonilist and is passionate about the work she does in community.

Operations Baddie

Sarah Jamieson (she/her/hers) supports operations at Decolonize and Rize, helping create the structure, coordination, and care that allows the organization’s work to move forward with intention.

She is also a nervous system educator, certified parent coach, and Autism and disability advocate. Her work explores the intersections of regulation, neurodiversity, caregiving, accessibility, capacity, and leadership, while examining how colonial systems and conditioning continue to shape the ways we understand wellness, parenting, disability, and community.

As a person of settler and colonial ancestry, Sarah is committed to the ongoing work of decolonization—beginning with examining the systems, beliefs, biases, and conditioning we carry within ourselves. She brings a practical, relational, and deeply human approach to both her operational and advocacy work.

Sarah is also the co-founder of Kits Beach Coffee. She lives with her son in Port Moody, on the ancestral and unceded homelands of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Stó:lō (Sto:lo) Peoples.

Co-founder | Facilitator

Vanessa Lesperance (she/her) is a heart-centered mixed heritage Métis woman who is reclaiming her Michif roots. The proud descendant of Louis Lavallee who was part of the Red River Resistance, with ancestral ties to the Métis communities of St. Boniface and St. Francis Xavier, MB. 

Vanessa is the co-founder of Decolonize and Rize and is a facilitator, speaker, and connector. She holds a graduate degree in business from SFU and a masters degree in leadership from Royal Roads University with a focus on decolonizing business through workplace spirituality. Prior to working with Indigenous entrepreneurs (women and youth) from across Turtle Island Vanessa worked in corporate for 11 years which is where she fell in love with leadership. Vanessa has been published in SAY Magazine, Liizbeth Magazine, World Federation Association of Teachers Education; and is a part-time instructor at the Justice Institute of BC teaching a course on Power & Privilege and in the centre of leadership.

She is a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) and sits on the Executive of the Infinity Local in order to build and strengthen community and cultural connection.

Vanessa appreciates a good cup of coffee and is really good at starting to read a bunch of books but not finish them.