Katie Davey (BA'17)
Recently recognized as a 2021 Young Impact Leader by Future of Good for her role in creating Public Policy Forum’s podcast, Policy Speaking, Katie brings an entrepreneurial spirit to public policy challenges of the day. Katie is executive director of the Pond-Deshpande Centre at UNB, having previously served as director of policy at Public Policy Forum.
Katie is the creator of Femme Wonk — a policy and current affairs podcast with an Atlantic Canadian and intersectional flare. Katie served as director of policy and stakeholder relations at the Office of the Official Opposition in New Brunswick, senior adviser for policy and stakeholder engagement in the New Brunswick premier’s office and president of the University of New Brunswick Student Union. She was a member of the Youth Working Group on Gender Equality for the Government of Canada, and a 2019-20 Action Canada Fellow. Katie holds a degree in political science from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Applied Politics from Wilfrid Laurier University. Katie advocates for the integration of economic and social policy.
Season three is Katie's second season as host of UNBeknownst.
Shauna Cole is an educator, career strategist, creator of Career Interrupted and proud UNB alumna. She’s got an MBA and Arts Degree from UNB and is also a Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR) and Senior Certified HR Professional (SHRM - SCP). She regularly teaches courses on effective communication and leadership in the UNB MBA Program. Check out Career Interrupted, her education company, where she shares workplace and job search resources for professionals who believe in inclusion.
Arash Ahmadi is an Electrical Engineering graduate from UNB working in the cloud operations infrastructure field at a company that is the global leader in corporate digital learning. He is also an aviation and space enthusiast who enjoys reading and learning about the history of flight and space exploration. He started streaming as a hobby to be able to share his passion for aviation with likeminded people and that has quickly become a passion of its own. As a content creator, he has been involved in video production and streaming with over 600 hours of experience in providing both educational and entertaining content to a wide range of audiences. His goal is to create a knowledge sharing platform that can attract curious students so they can ask questions and learn from successful people.
Arsham Ahmadi, P.Eng., graduated from the Electrical Engineering program at UNB. He is a licensed professional engineer with a decade of experience in power electronic and embedded systems design. Team building, personal and professional growth as well as enterprise development are his core values. He has served as an elected member of the APEGNB Moncton branch committee and has organized many professional development presentations for engineers and university students. He believes that UNB is a school that has trained many great minds who are making a difference in the world and hopes to leverage his professional experience along with his passion for science, music and multimedia production to discover and tell the stories of UNB alumni from all over the globe.
Armin Ahmadi graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from UNB. He has been involved in the film industry and has recently joined the Star Trek’s film production crew. He is part of the PA (Production Assistant) team and helps prepare and organize resources on the film set. He is the liaison between the public and the production staff during the filming process. His passion for film has been pushing him to further his education by taking acting courses to understand the industry better from within. He also enjoys teaching and has tutored students in math and science as well as ESL to adults at the YMCA. He loves to engage in meaningful conversations and dissect success stories that promote the desire to take a leap and grow.
Emily Barner is a proud UNB alumna from the BBA program and Tibbits Hall. Starting her career with the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, she ended up in Malaysia as the Executive Director of the Malaysia Canada Business Council. In Kuala Lumpur, she went on to join a consulting firm working on creating strategic corporate social responsibility programs. She also developed initiatives to inspire, create and connect entrepreneurs across Malaysia to the global ecosystem, which included programs with the Global Entrepreneurship Week, Kauffman Foundation and Cambridge University’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning. Now based in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on Borneo Island, Emily has continued her work to inspire entrepreneurship and has been Leading Projects and Content Production for programs including efm.live radio, Techfest Live 2020, Midlife Enterpriser, and Rebound.Asia. Emily is the co-founder of the Borneo Tribal Squad Martial Arts and Fitness, managing pro-athletes and running fitness and self-defence programs.
Ian Smith is a career academic who simply refuses to leave UNB. He came from Nova Scotia in 2012 to study physics before discovering his true passion for computer science. This path kept him at UNB for a concurrent BCS/BSc and an MCS before the PhD that he is currently pursuing with the Human-Computer Interaction Lab and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. While his research interests focus on improving motor learning with technology, he loves Fredericton for so much more. Ian can usually be found coaching swimmers in pools around the city or belting out showtunes in community theatre productions (or anywhere else, really).