Jace Meyer believes in the consequences of your actions. She is an Indigenous public speaker, an adept educator, a science communicator, and the founder and CEO of COYA Productions, passionately advocating for youth and learning.
COYA Productions offers educational programs, courses, and events with a social impact. They mobilize knowledge for social impact creators, Indigenous entrepreneurs, and unheard youth voices.
The Educational Entrepreneur
Meyer grew up in a family where her parents enabled her to say yes to new opportunities. She is a nomadic Métis woman who has dedicated her life to being of service to youth and building community spaces for self-determination.
Jace is a BC trained teacher who has cultivated expertise in co-creating culturally relevant, trauma-informed, and place-based education. Jace authored seven national science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education curricula as a systems thinker and change agent. This influenced the outreach programs of 33 post-secondary institutions through her previous work with Actua Canada and Canada Learning Code.
She began her career by leading a northern outreach program across the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. She has experience teaching in public, non-profit, and industry contexts and has reached over 1.25 million learners from coast to coast.
In 2017, Jace stepped into the world of e-commerce. She created Shopify’s onboarding training program for their research and development teams, notably launching R&D Camp. An onboarding accelerator program for all new employees and RnD Media is an on-demand educational media strategy to support their international expansion and continuous learning of employees through videos and podcasts.
With unwavering support and advocacy for the Indigenous community, Jace championed a new area of work for the e-commerce company.In 2019, she formed a global network of Indigenous entrepreneurship education hubs to support the rise of Indigenous economic well-being globally, raising her role as the lead for Indigenous entrepreneurs.
Jace is a fervent supporter of Indigenous entrepreneurs and has addressed 70,000 audiences worldwide in an effort to co-create the conditions necessary for their success.
Her role as the Executive Director of the Indigenous Innovation Institute, a First Nations Technology Council project, allowed Jace to braid her STEM, education, and E-commerce experiences together. She developed a strategic vision for a community space for Indigenous-led technology innovation during this time.
Creating an Educational Hub
As a serial entrepreneur and a busy mom, Jace launched COYA Productions, Inc. to prioritize experiencing joy with her daughter daily.
COYA is the acronym for Consequences Of Your Actions and is a realization that we are all aligned. This belief resulted in COYA as a company where social impact creators, Indigenous entrepreneurs, and unheard youth voices are supported to co-create their theory of change; build educational programs, courses, and events; and measure the impact of their work.
As a Métis woman-owned company, COYA Productions works towards Indigenous resurgence. They recognize that Indigenous peoples have been strategically and systemically denied access to economic building activities due to colonization and the Indian Act. Therefore, they specialize in building education programs that measure the degree of learning and how that impacts Indigenous communities, especially youth.
COYA exists to live, ensure, reclaim and reinstate the values of traditional forms of commerce based on relationships, knowledge exchange, trade, and sharing.
Every Indigenous innovation they co-create together is informed by the Traditional Knowledge and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) of their Elders and Knowledge Keepers.
They highly respect their Elders and Knowledge Keepers and value their wisdom, time, and energy. Under the Indigenous ways of commerce, their contributions are upheld, and they receive fair and timely payment for their contributions. They ensure that their contributions are never sold or shared outside of their community unless they have prior consent and a legitimate cause exists. They adhere to local protocols to guarantee that all engagements are conducted ethically.
COYA Productions emphasizes trust and relationships, health and well-being, quality of work and teamwork. They prioritize family and encourage families to work together and children to attend meetings. Spending time on land is important as it allows them to celebrate the choice to be on the land, in the ceremony, and be kind to themselves. They consider it the best idea to emerge while gathering, feasting, and playing.
COYA Productions upholds the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous People, Free Prior and Informed Consent, and Digital Identity and Data Protections outlined by the First Nations Principles of OCAP.
Educational Contributions
Along with the network of co-creators she walks with, Jace Mayer is posing large ideas and bold questions about education, social effect, and impact measurement. She currently lives on the territory of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples and serves on the board of directors for the Victoria Native Friendship Center and the Indigenous LIFT Collective. In addition, she is also an advisor to the Founders Fund and Sage Initiative.
In 2022, Jace was honoured to receive the UVIC Distinguished Alumni award for her work serving Indigenous communities and the DMZ Women of the Year award for her work in technology across Canada. In 2019, Jace was recognized as a BMW World Responsible Leader and Future of Good 2019 Young Impact Leader.
As an Indigenomics 10 to Watch, public speaker, serial entrepreneur and Indigenous Engagement Strategist, Jace Meyer has been instrumental in creating an educational hub dedicated to the progress and upliftment of Indigenous youth.
Jace Mayer works towards social impact by supporting underrepresented communities through COYA Productions. To know more about their services and programs, visit their website at https://www.coyaproductions.ca/.
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