CEO of Namaste Data and Data Is For Everyone

Meena Das (she/her) is the CEO, consultant, and facilitator behind Namaste Data and Data Is For Everyone. Through Namaste Data, she advances data equity and human-centered AI practices with nonprofits, foundations, and social impact organizations. Through Data Is For Everyone, she creates tools and learning spaces that help social sector build confidence in navigating the world of data.

Meena specializes in equitable research design, community-centered data collection, survey strategy, data storytelling, and human-centric approaches to AI.

You can learn more about Meena’s work through her community letters, Data Uncollected, or connect with her on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/meenadas.

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Director of Strategic Engagement for Catholic Catholic Immigration Society

Amanda Koyama is the Director of Strategic Engagement for CCIS - Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, a non-profit organization that offers settlement and integration support and services to all immigrants and refugees in Calgary and Southern Alberta. As a strategic leader with over 20 years of experience in Public Sector Engagement, Amanda has spent most of her professional career with a focus on access, engagement, and building and maintaining strategic partnerships.

Amanda is often solicited for as a formal speaker, and to provide Board and Committee leadership in varying networks.  

Executive Director of ALIGN Association of Community Services

Sonja Polz is the Executive Director of ALIGN Association of Community Services, a provincial membership association representing more than 100 community-based organizations across Alberta. In this role, she works closely with service providers, government, researchers, and sector partners to strengthen collaboration, inform policy, and advance evidence-based solutions that improve outcomes for children, youth, families, and communities.

With more than 25 years of leadership experience across the nonprofit, government, and post-secondary sectors, Sonja has held senior leadership roles in community services, served as an Implementation Consultant with Triple P Canada, and is a casual instructor in Bow Valley College's School of Community Studies. Her experience spans program design, evaluation, strategic planning, government relations, and systems change.

Through ALIGN, Sonja champions the use of data, collaboration, and shared learning to strengthen the community services sector. She believes meaningful data is most powerful when organizations work together to turn information into insight, evidence into action, and individual experiences into a collective voice that influences policy and improves services for Albertans.