Vice President
Shirley Ivanauskas-Ward is a Full status-member of the Sucker Creek Alberta Cree First Nation. She’s a mother, a grandmother and great grandmother. Shirley is fully immersed in her Nehiyawewin (Cree) culture and navigates her life by way of those teachings. She was an entrepreneur and successfully managed her own small business for the last 10 years before retiring. Retirement did not last long as she was approached by Corrections Service Canada to work with Federally incarcerated Indigenous women and men in 2011 to the present. Shirley is also a graduate of the Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy and Complex Trauma (IFOT) class of 2014 at the Justice Institute of B.C. It has been humbling to have the privilege to work with Indigenous people on a healing path with culture as the main foundation to well being. As of June 2023, Shirley now serves as Director on the BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres (BCCAFC) Board of Directors.
