Meet the Team
Jacob Crane, Program Manager
Starting his career selling bubble gum at pow wows at the age of nine, Jacob Crane describes himself as a lifelong entrepreneur. Jacob is from Tsuutina Nation in Alberta and brings two decades of experience and a passion for supporting Indigenous communities in Canada and the United States.
As an Indigenous entrepreneur, Jacob enjoys building startup companies that positively impact Native communities. Like many, he wishes to see more conscious tribal investment for future generations that also creates platforms to build stronger robust Indigenous economies.
Jacob was also a part of the Renewing Indigenous Economies Cohort with the Hoover Institute at Stanford University this past summer.
Wayne D. Garnons-Williams, BA, LLB, MPA, LLM
Wayne is the founding President of the International Inter-tribal Trade and Investment Organization, Senior Lawyer, and Principal Director of the law firm Garwill Law Professional Corporation, and leads an international business entitled Indigenous Sovereign Trade Consultancy Ltd. specializing in Tribal Trade and Sustainable Economic Development.
He is the past Chair of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Appeal Tribunal and is currently on the board of directors of the International Law Association Canada chapter, Council of the Great Lakes Region, Capacity Canada and Board Chair of the 60s Scoop Healing Foundation.
He is also a Research Fellow specializing in International Comparative Indigenous law at the University of Oklahoma, College of Law. He was appointed by Order in Council as a member to the NAFTA Chapter 19 Trade Remedies roster and then appointed in 2020 as a CUSMA Advisory Committee Member on Private Commercial Disputes, Article 31.22.
He has recently written four chapters and is co-editor for a textbook published by Cambridge University Press on International Indigenous Trade Environmental law and is teaching a course based on his textbook as part of the Bachelor of Indigenous Entrepreneurialism Program at the University of Waterloo, St. Pauls College campus.
He is the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business 2019 Award winner for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations, the 2020 Queens University alumni award winner as well as the recipient of the 2020 Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) - International Legal Specialist in Peace, Justice and Governance Award. He is Plains Cree from Treaty 6, Moosomin First Nation.
Kelsey Leonard, PhD
Dr. Kelsey Leonard is a water scientist, legal scholar, policy expert, writer, and enrolled citizen of the Shinnecock Nation. Dr. Leonard is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, where her research focuses on Indigenous water justice and its climatic, territorial, and governance underpinnings. Dr. Leonard seeks to establish Indigenous traditions of water conservation as the foundation for international water policymaking.
Dr. Leonard has been instrumental in safeguarding the interests of Indigenous Nations for environmental planning and builds Indigenous science and knowledge into new solutions for water governance and sustainable oceans. In collaboration with a global team of water law scholars, Dr. Leonard has published in Lewis and Clark Law Review on Indigenous Water Justice and the defining international legal principle of self-determination under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Odeeth Lara-Morales, PhD
Odeeth is a Research Assistant at the University of Waterloo, an Associate Fellow at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), and a Project Officer with the United Nations Association in Canada. She holds a Ph.D. in the discipline of sustainable development and tourism and has taught management courses at the Lord Ashcroft International Business School (LAIBS) in Cambridge, UK.
Odeeth is a Nahua Indigenous descendant from Mexico and her research interests focus on environmental studies such as sustainability and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on a local level and internationally through the implementation of sustainable community plans, civic engagement, and market-based approaches. Her research also examines enterprises and sustainable tourism to support sustainable development for ecological and cultural protection, gender equality, and poverty reduction in Indigenous communities.