Hinda Avery is a former women’s studies professor and artist living in Vancouver, Canada. She is known for large-scale feminist Nazi-busting paintings that were inspired by her mother’s family, Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust.

Anita Rau Badami was born in 1961 in India. Her father, who worked as a mechanical engineer and designed trains, was transferred every two or three years, so that she had a mobile childhood.

She has always loved writing, and sold her first short story when she was 18. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Madras, after which she studied Social Communications Media at Sophia College, Bombay.

She worked as a copywriter for advertising agencies in Bombay, Bangalore and Madras, and freelanced for major Indian newspapers for several years. She also published stories in children's magazines. She moved to Canada in 1991 and in 1995 was awarded a Master's degree in English Literature from the University of Calgary.
Her graduate thesis became her first novel, Tamarind Mem, which was published worldwide in 1996. Her bestselling second novel, The Hero's Walk, won the Regional Commonwealth Writers Prize, Italy's Premio Berto and was also named a Washington Post Best Book of 2001. It was also long listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize. As well, she is the recipient of the Marian Engel Award for a woman writer in mid-career. Anita Badami has, until today, written four novels: Tamarind Mem (1997), The Hero’s Walk (2001), Can You Hear the Nightbird Call (2006), and Tell it to the Trees (2011).

Laura N. Baird was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1955. She studied Theatre Craft and Design at the Banff School of Fine Arts, earning a Senior Diploma in 1974. In 1979, she completed a Senior Diploma from the Emily Carr College of Art. From 1978 to 1981, undertook graduate work at Emily Carr and at the School of Arts, Columbia University. She earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1982. Baird is a conceptual artist, working with diverse media, including photography and textiles. She has lived in various parts of Canada and the United States of America, before settling in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Ronald “Ron” James Baker was the first faculty member hired by President Patrick McTaggart-Cowan for the new Simon Fraser University (SFU) in 1964. Baker served as the university's Director of Academic Planning and as the first head of the English Department. He remained at SFU until 1969, when he was appointed to be the first president of the new University of Prince Edward Island.

Baker was born in London, England, on August 24, 1924, to James “Jim” Herbert Walter and Ethel Frances Baker (nee Miller). He served with the Royal Air Force (1943-1947), during which time he trained in Manitoba. After the war, in 1947, he immigrated to Canada.

Baker married Helen “Jo” Gillespie Elder [ca. 1947]; they would have 5 children (Sharon Ann, Lynn Frances, Ian James, Sarah Jane, and Katherine Jean). In 1975, he married Frances Marilyn Frazer (1932-2010), with whom he had one son, Ralph Edward “Ted.”

Baker graduated from the University of British Columbia (UBC) with a Bachelor of Arts in 1951 and a Master of Arts in 1953, both in English. He went on to do graduate work in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London (1954-1956). Baker had lectured in English during his undergraduate degree at UBC, and returned to the University to become an associate professor in 1962. While at UBC, Baker was involved in the production of John B. Macdonald’s report, Higher Education in British Columbia and a Plan for the Future (1962), which led directly to the development of a second university (SFU) in the Lower Mainland.

In 1964, Baker became the first faculty member hired by President Patrick McTaggart-Cowan for the newly created SFU. Baker served as the University's Director of Academic Planning and as the first head of the English Department. He remained at SFU until 1969, when he was appointed to be the first president of the new University of Prince Edward Island (1969-1978). He continued to teach there as a professor until 1991, when he retired.

Baker served on numerous councils and committees throughout his career, including the Canadian Association of University Teachers (1954-1969), the Royal Society of Arts (Fellow, 1971-1990), the Royal Commonwealth Society (1964-1966), the National Defence Strategic Studies Committee (Chairman, 1986-1998), the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO) (Volunteer Advisor to First Nations Groups, 1988-2004), and the Canadian Citizen Court (Presiding Officer, 1996-2004).

Baker was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (1978), and received numerous awards and honours, including the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal (1977), a Canada 125 Medal (1992), and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal (2002). He also received honourary law degrees from the University of New Brunswick (1970), Mount Allison University (1977), University of Prince Edward Island (1989), and Simon Fraser University (1990).