Kristin Kozuback, C.S.P.

Growing up in Sherwood Park, Alberta near the "City of Champions", Kristin is a sports enthusiast who believes that strong work ethics create winning teams. To serve the team and community, individuals are expected to contribute to the best of their ability, on and off the field.

Drawing inspiration from her work with a range of retail clothing industry leaders, Kristin has developed her own set of winning systems that allow people's talents to shine through. Her diverse career started by selling shoulder pads at the Edmonton-Okanagan Hockey Schools at age 14 each summer. In 1986, she began a 9-year career with retail leader Below the Belt, Inc., leaving to accept a training and marketing position as BC's Retail Merchandiser for Levi Strauss and Co. (Canada) Inc.

Upon falling in love with Canada's 'wet coast', she stayed in the Lower Mainland and worked in the fitness industry until joining an incredible team at the Greater Vancouver Venture Centre (GVVC) in 1999. The team had just won a national award in 1999 for Best Practice in Youth Entrepreneurship in Canada, providing small business training and coaching sessions for clients from all backgrounds, ages and Nations, and she knew it was time to start her own company (Spiritlink Communications) to provide innovative training sessions and implement sales and marketing strategies.

Shift to sustainability and social responsibility

And that is where her career (and vision) began to shift... while learning from community development and socially responsible business leaders at the GVVC, she began to connect with Metis and First Nations entrepreneurs and emerging business leaders striving towards self-sufficiency and self-reliance.

She was soon challenging how Canadian history has been documented and taught through the colonized perspective, with little recognition of the rights and titles of our First Peoples, with little respect for the diversity of cultures and languages across Canada, and with little concern to reconcile past injustices to be able to work together more effectively.

She accepted a position at the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business - BC Chapter to support partnerships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal businesses looking to create mutually beneficial relationships. She soon began coaching, consulting and teaching with organizations like the Assembly of First Nations Youth Group, the Squamish Nation of BC, Touch of Culture Designs, Helping Spirit Lodge Society, and BC's largest Aboriginal Private Post-Secondary College, the Native Education Centre College. She currently teaches in the Aboriginal BEST "Business and Entrepreneurship Skills Training" Program www.aboriginalbest.ca.

Kristin has learned from many students and co-workers, in teaching a variety of courses in culturally-relevant certificate and diploma programs like Applied Business Technology, Office Administration, Small Business Development, and Aboriginal Tourism Management.

Kristin now has 25 years of facilitation, sales development and marketing experience and has developed over 20 sales training and professional development workshops for both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community, including:

"WAARP: Workshops for Aboriginal Artists to Reach Potential", an 8-module workshop series for Aboriginal tourism, arts and economic development
"TORF This! Writing Processes That Work"
"The 21 B's of Effective Youth Engagement"
"Selling Strategies to Get What You Need" communication and sales workshop, and the customized "Sales Skillz: Introduction to Sales Skills for Aboriginal Youth" workshop for the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconcilation
Office Productivity Boosts - Putting the Fun Back in FUNdamental Computer Literacy Skills

Kristin has a team of Aboriginal Advisors (Youth, business leaders and social workers) who keep her connected to many ideas, challenges and opportunities in the Aboriginal community.

Commitment to professionalism

CPSA logo Kristin earned her C.S.P. designation (Certified Sales Professional) in 1999 from the Canadian Professional Sales Association. 15 years of retail, managerial and marketing experience helped her meet the rigorous certification standards, of the Canadian Professional Sales Association, becoming one of less than 1500 salespeople across Canada who had earned the C.S.P. at the time.

She was motivated to earn the designation by a commitment to lifelong learning, a belief that salespeople can be ethical leaders, and desire to maintain a competitive edge.

She has maintained her C.S.P. status and continues to promote ethics in sales and social responsibility.

Lifelong Learning Journey

Kristin is honoured to be pursuing an Indigenous Masters of Education Degree at Simon Fraser University. She is inspired by her students, professors and the readings of anti-racist educators like George J. Sefa Dei, who in "Unmasking Racism: A Challenge for Anti-Racist Educators in the 21st Century," challenges us all to work together to fight the battle to overcome complacency in education, for the benefit all students and communities:
"There is an urgent need for all engaged in the pursuit of social justice and equity to work across the differences and intellectual divides that hamper our abilility to develop a collective resistance."

Other educators are encouraged to consider taking this program, too, to challenge their pwn way of knowing, teaching and learning. Visit the Simon Fraser University website (.pdf file) for details: "This program is intended for educators interested in First Nations education... to examine critically a range of theoretical perspectives on issues of equity and practical concerns that impinge on the quality of education." Yes, it's tough. But the journey is an incredible experience!