In 2017, soon after the university announced it would be developing a new strategic plan to replace its longstanding Place and Promise plan, Dr. Linc Kesler, the First Nations House of Learning’s Director and Senior Advisor to the President on Aboriginal Affairs at the time, took steps to renew the university’s Aboriginal Strategic Plan (ASP), which had been released in 2009. This included convening an ad hoc advisory committee to guide his work.
In mid-2018, Dr. Kesler presented a draft Indigenous Strategic Plan (ISP) to the university community for comment. But by then his second and final term as director and senior advisor concluded, thus the draft’s finalization was put on hold until a new director and advisor was onboard.
Subsequently, Dr. Kesler’s dual role was split into two, resulting in Dr. Margaret Moss taking on the FNHL director position and Dr. Sheryl Lightfoot taking on the senior advisor role. After which, the two worked together during 2019 and much of 2020 to finalize the Indigenous Strategic Plan’s development, which was released in September 2020.
Visit: UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan
Under Dr. Moss’s leadership, our unit supported the ISP’s entire development, including its launch and the creation of the plan’s associated implementation documents.
We continue to support the ISP through our unit’s leadership of the Indigenous Strategic Plan Implementation Committee (ISPIC), which among other things monitors the plan’s implementation across campus.