Our Team

dorothy vaandering is a professor in MUN’s Faculty of Education and the Director of Relationships First Newfoundland and Labrador (RFNL). She has been researching Restorative Justice in Education (RJE) for 15 years and is passionate about nurturing relational communities where all people are honoured as worthy and interconnected. 

Learning to live relationally in all aspects of life is core to who she is. dorothy acknowledges that she is indebted to so many, young and old, who have been patient with her and accepted her for who she is so that she can now draw on life, teaching, and research experience to explore RJE. 

In 2009, having worked for 20 years as a Primary-Elementary educator in Alberta and Ontario, she started work at Memorial University NL where she is a professor at the Faculty of Education. dorothy focuses on designing and implementing innovative, transformative professional learning approaches for the sustainable implementation of RJE. Engaging in making reconciliation real as a settler-Canadian has become a priority in her work.

She is the author and co-author of a variety of academic and professional publications including “The Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education.” She is honoured to serve as Director of RFNL.

Margaret Cranford is Mi’kmaw with original roots are from Ewipkik (Flat Bay), Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). She presently resides in Conception Bay South, Newfoundland and Labrador and is mother to a beautiful daughter, Nicole. Margaret is a multi-media Indigenous artist who uses art to promote mental wellness and to share the beauty of the Mi’kamq culture. She has spent seven years volunteering with The Children’s Wish Foundation donating her artwork to raise funds to provide wishes for children with terminal and life-threatening illnesses.

Margaret is a strong, relentless advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman and Girls (MMIWG) and is a member of the National Family Advisory Circle (NFAC) for the National Inquiry for MMIWG. She testified as a survivor and helped to present the “Final Report of Calls to Justice” to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June, 2019.

Margaret sees the beauty inherent in Restorative Justice and has been working for the past eight years to facilitate this important healing work as Ewipkik (Flat Bay) Band’s Representative for Restorative Justice on the East Coast of NL. Recently, Margaret was part of the team from First Voice to develop the “Building Trust, Restoring Confidence'' report which she presented to NL Justice Minister, John Hogan. Currently, Margaret sits on the Board of Directors with First Light.

Margaret firmly believes that building strong relationships between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous peoples is the key to moving Reconciliation forward and welcomes opportunities to share Indigenous Knowledge.