Chris Forlin (editor) - Promoting Social Inclusion: Co-Creating Environments That Foster Equity and Belonging

Stacey Andrews works for Inclusion Lloydminster and Inclusion Alberta and currently is a Co-Director, Family Initiatives and Advocacy. She is deeply committed to supporting children, youth and adults with developmental disabilities and their families to have good, inclusive lives in community. She works extensively in community development and community capacity building to maximize on creating communities that welcome and include all. Stacey and her husband, Quentin, live in Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada, and have two children one of whom has developmental disabilities. Both she and Quentin are committed to creating a good inclusive life for their son with developmental disabilities and ensuring his life is full of rich opportunities and of equal value to his older sisters.

Christine Ashby is an Associate Professor of Inclusive Special Education in the Teaching and Leadership Department of the School of Education at Syracuse University. She teaches across all levels of the programme from undergraduate to doctoral and co-ordinates the undergraduate Inclusive Elementary and Special Education Programme and the 16 and 712 Inclusive Special Education Masters Programmes. She is also the Director of the Institute on Communication and Inclusion, which conducts research, training and dissemination of information on communication strategies for individuals with disabilities who are non-speaking or who have limited speech. Professor Ashbys teaching and research focus on inclusive education broadly, with specific emphasis on supports for students with labels of autism and other developmental disabilities, communicative diversity, disability studies and clinically rich teacher preparation. Her work seeks to disrupt dominant notions of disability as deficiency and underscores the importance of considering the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities and creating contexts for competence in inclusive schools and communities.

Shawn Chandler Bingham is an Associate Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Honors College at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. His books include Thoreau and the Sociological Imagination, The Art of Social Critique, The Bohemian South and Seriously Funny: Disability and the Paradoxical Power of Humor (co-authored with Sara Green). His current research project explores tiny housing, from the history of the movement to the ways in which it is being commercialized.

L. Alejandra Botia is a Graduate from the University of British Columbia where she obtained both her bachelors degree in Psychology and masters degree in Counselling Psychology. Throughout her time there, she was involved in numerous initiatives that have strengthened her passion for research and its practical application to help others flourish. From a positive psychological lens, her research interests include vocational psychology, body image, sports psychology and peace and reconciliation. Additionally, she has a strong motivation to collaborate on projects that enhance the teaching and learning of post-secondary students. This interest strengthened from having been involved with the Institute for Teaching and Learning scholarly initiative at the University of British Columbia and worked on a project that supported the Cmolik Foundation Scholarship initiative in Vancouver, BC.