Vote Now: 2025 Folk Canada Board of Directors Election

Hello Folk Canada Members! 

It’s time to vote! The 2025 Folk Canada Board of Directors Election is now underway until Wednesday, September 3. 

For 2025, there are 13 candidates vying for 6 board positions. The slate was selected from a competitive pool of applicants by the Folk Canada Nominations Committee, and approved by the Executive Committee on August 6th, 2025. Directors will be elected by electronic ballot, and the results of the election will be ratified at this year’s Annual General Meeting (to be scheduled post-conference) with terms concluding at the 2028 AGM.

The Election is being facilitated through a platform called Election Buddy. All members should receive a link for voting by email from this platform. Check your inbox (and if not there, your spam folder) for a message from invitations@mail.electionbuddy.com.

The deadline for votes is September 3rd at 5:00pm EST.

If you are a member in good standing and have not received your ballot, contact us directly at joel@folkcanada.com

The 2025 Folk Canada Board of Directors Election Nominees: * denotes incumbent

Faye Williams 

Faye Williams is the manager and booking agent for “Richard WOOD Live,” offering holistic representation to acclaimed Celtic fiddler Richard Wood. With a background that spans law, accounting, education, and event marketing, Faye brings a rare combination of strategic insight and heartfelt advocacy to the music industry. She spent over a decade at DcM working alongside David Carver, supporting tours for iconic artists including Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Bob Seger, and The Blind Boys of Alabama. In 2023 and 2024, she was nominated for industry awards by Music PEI, ECMA, and the Canadian Live Music Association. Faye is known for her tireless promotion of others, her collaborative spirit, and her deep-rooted passion for music and community. She is driven by a genuine desire to uplift artists and strengthen the Canadian folk music ecosystem.

Sherry Sinclaire *   

Sherry Sinclaire is a dynamic force in the creative industry, with a wealth of experience spanning music, arts, and entertainment. As the owner of Sinclaire Creative Solutions, she empowers artists and creatives to thrive with innovative digital, marketing, and business strategies. Sherry's impressive career includes roles at industry giants like Bell Media, TELUS, Virgin Records, Ticketmaster and MCA/Universal Concerts (now Live Nation), and working with global icons such as Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson and David Bowie. Passionate about content rights management and nurturing developing talent, Sherry serves on the boards of FOLK Canada and the Hamilton Arts Council, and co-chairs Women in Music Canada's Hamilton/Halton Chapter.

Phyllis Sinclair

Phyllis Sinclair is Cree, and a member of York Factory First Nation in Manitoba.  Currently she resides in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.  Sinclair has been an independent artist for the past twenty years, having grown with the Canadian music industry from analog to digital.  This change has been significant affecting all aspects of her music self-management,  from touring to taxes, promotion to platform in a global environment.  These changes have significantly underscored the importance of maintaining balance, and mental health within the music industry. A supporter of DEIA, Sinclair has participated in the Key Change Talent Leadership Program which aims to make the global music industry more equitable for underrepresented and marginalized artists regardless of ability, ethnicity, gender or orientation.  She holds a Master of Business Administration majoring in Organizational Culture and Marketing.


Jorge Requena Ramos

Jorge Requena Ramos is a multi-disciplinary artist who grew up in Mexico City and now calls Winnipeg Manitoba his home. He has done extensive work as a film director, playwright and television producer. He became the Artistic director of the WECC in 2019 after spending a decade amongst performers, travelling across Canada, the US and Europe with his band “The Mariachi Ghost”. In his tenure at the WECC he has overseen the development and growth of Winterruption, a festival that celebrates life in a winter city at -40 below. He has also helped the WECC transition into an Anti-racist, Anti-Oppressive strategic plan that will see their programming and practices reflect the truly diverse fabric of Canada.

Ann MacKeigan

Ann MacKeigan has over three decades of experience in creating, producing and managing a wide range of network productions for cross-platform broadcast. She created a long-running and prize winning radio program (Global Village) that developed and maintained a network of 200 active correspondents covering music activities  in 85 countries. She went on to become a Manager and Director of Content for CBC Music, and for the past 8 years has been the Executive Producer of Q with Tom Power, and Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, two flagship daily arts and entertainment programs for the CBC Radio Network. Now Ann is launching a new company as a media and communications specialist, CompassMedia, to work with talent inside and beyond CBC. Ann has  won several international awards for her radio programmes and has been an advisor for many arts organizations in Canada.

Chris Greencorn *

Chris Greencorn is an arts administrator and academic based in Kingston, Ontario, with lifelong involvement in the Canadian folk music scene. Raised in Canso, Nova Scotia, Chris grew up at the heart of the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, progressing from volunteer to staff, and eventually Artistic Director. He has served on the Board of Directors of Folk Music Ontario/Folk Canada since 2022, previously sat on the board Home Routes/Chemins Chez Nous (2018-2021), and has juried for several industry organizations.

Chris holds a master’s in ethnomusicology from the University of Toronto and is pursuing a PhD at Queen’s University, studying Canadian women folk& traditional music collectors.

Julie Fowler *

Julie Fowler is a founding member of the BC Music Festival Collective and became the Executive Director in January 2024. She has helped to start three festivals: the Art Matters Festival at Concordia University (2001); the ArtsWells Festival in Wells, BC (2004-2020); and a new festival in Penticton called Ignite the Arts (2022-present). She has consulted for other festivals including 2 Rivers Remix and is on the board of Folk Canada and the Dream Café. In 2020 Julie was honoured with two prestigious awards for her work in the arts, the BC Achievement Foundation Community Award and the BC Museums Association Distinguished Service Award, and in 2025 was an honouree of the Women Behind the Sound Proclamation from the City of Vancouver.

Israel Ekanem

Israel Ekanem is a Nigerian-born, Halifax-based filmmaker, music manager, and community builder with a deep passion for storytelling and cultural preservation. As the founder of Ubuntu Media, he supports artists across disciplines, amplifying underrepresented voices and producing compelling content for stage, screen, and sound. Israel manages artists such as Mayaya and works with collectives like Million Vibes to build stronger bridges between African, Black, and Canadian folk cultures. With over a decade of experience in media production and community engagement, he brings both artistic and administrative strengths to the table. He is deeply committed to fostering inclusive spaces where artists and audiences alike can thrive.

Doug Cox

Doug Cox is a Vancouver Island-based Musician, Producer, Instructor and event organizer with 42 years in the Music Industry. He is a son, father and grandfather. His musical past includes collaborations with such diverse virtuosos as Indian guitarist V.M. Bhatt, Singer/Actor Ronny Cox, bluesman Long John Baldry, guitar slinger Amos Garrett and African musician The Mighty Popo. 

His own projects display a similarly expansive arc, as the folk-blues of Bone Bottle Brass or Steel eventually led to supergroup Strung (Band of Gypsies – with Tony McManus and April Verch), New Orleans funk (JUNO NOMINATED - Make A Better World – featuring John Boutte), or his two Americana albums with Austin based, BettySoo. His music has been featured in numerous film and TV soundtracks. Doug produced Leonard Sumner's stunning debut CD, Rez Poetry. He has produced 30 albums. 

Kejo Buchanan

Kejo Buchanan is a Public Librarian in the arts department at Toronto Reference Library that curates folk acoustic sound through the community radio station MetRadio. Aligning with the spirit and tradition of orality, Jali Journey is a diverse folky trail inspired by the West African professional Jeli (griot), knowledge keeper and sharer, advisor and musician. Also Executive Producer of FolkRecovery.org an oral history project celebrating and archiving BIPOC Canadian folk storytellers. Kejo is an Afro-Canadian with a sensory disability travelling between areas of community, creativity, information and nature. Consistently sharing and creating with community builders, seed planters and those that honour and benefit from collective healing and change.

Anne-Marie Brugger

Anne-Marie Brugger is an Ottawa-based local arts reporter, radio broadcaster and public speaker. A seasoned strategic communications professional, she has been serving as CKCU FM’s Interim Station Director since September 2023. Anne-Marie has been part of Ottawa’s music landscape for over 20 years and has produced and hosted programs on community radio stations. Anne-Marie is well versed in non-profit board governance after serving six years on the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition (OMIC) Board of Directors and, most recently, chairing the Ottawa Arts Council (OAC) Board of Directors and overseeing the merger of the OAC with Arts Network Ottawa into the new Arts Ottawa, a unified voice for the City of Ottawa's Arts Sector. She is also co-curator and producer of FemmeVox, a unique concert series held at the GCTC, which connects and celebrates female identifying singer-songwriters and includes a mentoring and co-writing component.

Cat Bird

I have been involved in the music industry my entire life, from campus radio and starting a record label while in university to being a publicist, booking agent, executive director of a national arts organization, grant writer, radio promoter and manager. I spent the 90s as Sponsorship Coordinator of the North By Northeast Music Festival. I teach grant writing at the Harris Institute for the Arts. The last five years I was the business development director of Linus Entertainment (Stony Plain Records, True North Records) and I currently run both Borealis Music which is the new version of the historic folk label, and New Sun Records which is a fully Indigenous blues and folk label. I currently work with the board of the Toronto Blues Society and the Canada Folk Music Awards as a grant writer and I manage five blues and folk artists.

Kim Beggs

Kim Beggs delivers a heartfelt darkness in a beautiful, backwoods beat driven performance. Sincere, vulnerable, clear eyed, tough, “Beggs observes the world with acute vision, clearly placing her convictions on the side of humanity”.

Nominated for multiple music awards including Canadian Folk Music, Western Canadian Music and Independent Music (USA) awards - and more - for all six of her solo albums, Beggs celebrates 2 decades of music and the release of her 7th solo album, Beneath Your Skin (Sept 2024).

If you are a member in good standing and have not received your ballot, contact us directly at joel@folkcanada.com