AVIATION SAFETY WEBINARS
The University of Waterloo Aviation Society invites you to join the students for a complimentary aviation safety webinar on safety and discrimination. The session is presented by aviation subject matter experts and aviation scholars who aim to introduce traditional and progressively innovative safety topics to both students and industry.
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The registration will close on Friday, April 2, at the end of the business day at 5 p.m.EST. Note that if you plan to have more than one person from your company attending, you will need to sign up separately for each attendee as there are limited spots available. Registration is on a first-come basis and is limited to 100 spots.
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If you have any questions regarding the registration, feel free to contact the Aviation Society at info@uwaviation.com
APRIL 6- 1000-1200EST
Safety and Discrimination
This session introduces the relationship of discrimination and safety, by exploring Canadian aviation’s unexpected design of imbalances, and identifies the link between CRM and discrimination faced by LGBTQ+ and women-identified people in the flight deck. The session ends with the Canadian air carriers' actions to create safe workspaces for all.

Learn More About the Speakers






Erica Fuhr:
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Erica Fuhr is the Manager, Corporate Culture & Diversity with Chorus Aviation. Erica began her aviation career in 2005 with the regional carrier Jazz, part of the Chorus group of companies. Holding the role of Diversity & Inclusion Manager from its inception in 2009, she was responsible for initiating a D&I strategy for the organization. Collaborating with various internal teams for a holistic approach, many initiatives have been implemented over the last ten years striving to embed diversity & inclusion into the corporate culture. Since June 2019, Erica has been supporting the organization with her newly created role in Corporate HR, to further evolve and align DEI initiatives across Chorus’ subsidiaries. Most recently, she has been developing programming to intentionally connect inclusion with overall employee safety. Erica is a Canadian Certified Inclusion Professional (CCIP) and holds a certificate in Human Resources Management from Ryerson University.
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Molly McCullough:
Molly McCullough is currently working as a curator for Parks Canada. She holds a Master’s degree in Museum Studies from University College London, and has worked in curatorial, collections, exhibitions, and visitor services at national museums in Canada and the United Kingdom. Molly is interested in material culture and interpretation; she has co-written the forthcoming Material Traces of War: Stories of Canadian Women and Conflict, 1914-1945.
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Noreen Newton:
My first job in the aviation industry was as a flight instructor was in 1980 at the Victoria Flying Club. Passionate about a career piloting airplane, my journey took me East to Calgary and then North to Fort St. John, where I was hired as the Chief Flight Instructor of a small flying school, which was part of a larger charter operation. In March of 1987, I was hired as a first officer on a Twin Otter at a regional airline: AirBC. Thirty-four years, many thousands of hours, and different aircraft types later, I still fly for the airline that grew out of the merger of five regional airlines. I continue to be passionate about my career choice.
With almost forty years of experience as a pilot, I returned to graduate school in 2018 to research why so few women were attracted to the aviation industry. The women I interviewed demonstrated how to create a culture of safety in the airline industry.
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Braeden Lavigne (he/him):
Braeden Lavigne , co-researcher of That’s So Gay: A Mixed-Method Study of Anti-LGBTQ+ Language Effects on Flight Safety in Canada, is a proud member and advocate of the LGBTQ+ community. His research has garnered the attention of various organizations seeking to improve culture within aviation. As a student in the Honours Bachelor of Aviation Technology program at Seneca College, he has gained experience in multi-crew flight environments, human factors, crew resource management, air taxi turboprop operations and air carrier operations. He is also a licensed pilot holding multiple ratings including his Group 1 Instrument Rating and experience on various aircrafts and avionic types. Outside of aviation, Braeden pursues a passion for cuisine, and takes pleasure in not only preparing dishes, but enjoying them as well, such as he did during his time living abroad.
Michael Cho:
Michael Cho is nearing completion of the Honours Bachelor of Aviation Technology Program at Seneca College. He has recently concluded his final phase of flight training with the completion of his Group 1 Instrument Rating and is looking forward to commencing multi-crew training with an emphasis on air taxi turboprop and jet operations. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Michael is a proud co-author of That’s So Gay: A Mixed-Method Study of Anti-LGBTQ+ Language Effects on Flight Safety in Canada. What started as a research idea based on personal experiences and observations has quickly surpassed all expectations. He is pleased to have been given the opportunity to present the paper’s findings to Chorus Aviation and the Aviation Safety course at the University of Waterloo.
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Angeline Ram:
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Angeline’s 18 years in the industry of aviation started as a flight attendant summer job. Her career spanning almost two decades includes auditing quality assurance, safety, AVSEC, SMS, CRM, organizational culture, training design and facilitation, and safety system design and implementation, specializing in EASA CAMO and MROs/AMOs. After completing her MSC in Air Transport Management in 2018, she continued her doctoral studies at the University of Waterloo, while she continued to work full time while undertaking part-time studies. In 2020, due to her lived experiences of observing and experienced normalized discrimination in the workplace and the acceptance by management, she resigned and entered academia full time to research the lived experiences of diverse peoples in Canadian aviation.