Zita Dube-Lockhart — Your Brain On Bonds: Community, Connection, and the Science of Resilience

The Science of Resilience explores how stress shapes our minds, bodies, and communities, and why human connection plays in resilience, healing, and growth.

Bio: Zita (they/she) works at the intersection of mind, body, social environment, and clinically significant levels of overcommitment. They hold an MA in Counselling Psychology and an embarrassingly complicated relationship with their voicemail.

Zita is a co-owner of Action Potential Fitness, co-founder of the Centre for Trauma Informed Fitness, and a counselling therapist at the Alberta Wellness Centre for Eating Disorders, bouncing between roles in what can only be described as interdisciplinary chaos.

You can call Zita many things...but they'd really rather you text instead.

Instagram: @the.fitnessanarchist, @actionpotentialfitness, @cftif_canada

Evan Westfal — The relationship between homosexuality and fecundity: Why Being Gay Helps a Species Survive and Reproduce

In this talk, Evan explains to you why being gay really helps different animal species survive. Have you ever wondered why homosexuality has persisted through millions of years of evolution? Shouldn't being gay lead to less reproduction? Is being gay natural? All these answers and more will be offered in a talk that is playful, intellectual, and hella gay!

Bio: Evan Westfal (he/him) is the Programs Manager for the Fyrefly Institute for Gender & Sexual Diversity housed within the University of Alberta, he chairs the Rainbow Alliance Youth Edmonton Committee, and has served as a curriculum advisor for the Sex Information & Education Council of Canada (SIECCAN). Basically, Evan is professionally gay!

Instagram: @evanwestfal

Allison Hadley: The Rainbow Connection – Exploring the intersections between queer culture and nerd culture.

When a queer person does not have any 2SLGTQIA+ mentors or community in their life, how do they find belonging? It is often in the safe(r) spaces of nerdy fandoms where acceptance in fantasy settings can turn into a sense of real life belonging. Why are so many trans people drawn to Deep Space Nice and Fallout: New Vegas? Is Dungeons and Dragons inherently queer? The answers may not be as simple as you think.

Bio: Allison Hadley is a podcast host, author, activist and drag performer. She is passionate about building community resilience through queer joy. She is also a big ol' nerd who grew up on science fiction and tabletop roleplaying games.