Cortney is originally from Treaty 7 territory, where the Bow meets the Elbow River, in Calgary, Alberta. Cortney is a settler on Turtle Island and is of Swedish, Norwegian, British and Irish descent. She grew up with strong activist feminist lesbian moms and spent summers camping and exploring the lands of the Tsuut'ina, Stoney-Nakoda, Siksika, Blood, and Kootenai First Nations. As a settler, Cortney is passionate about working within and for her community to dismantle colonial systems of oppression on all levels (personal, institutional, and societal).

Obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Canadian Studies with a focus on Indigenous/Settler historical relations and a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies from the University of Calgary, Cortney spent many years in Calgary working in community organizing and community-facing roles. She also tried her hand at the private sector at Shaw Cablesystems, where she was part of a specialized team of trainers during the Shaw Digital Phone Launch.

In 2016 Cortney moved out to Lekwungen territory to experience life on Vancouver Island. She enrolled in a social justice-focused Master’s of Education at the University of Victoria. Cortney spent two years learning about, researching, and immersing herself in decolonization theory and how it applied to adult education, leadership, and community engagement practices. Her project focused on effective ways to assist Canadian settlers in decolonization through workshops, resources, and coaching approaches.

Since graduating in 2020, Cortney can be found at the University of Victoria where she works in Development. She also runs decolonial-focused workshops, various projects, municipal campaigns during election years, and consults on equity-related initiatives in Canada, most recently managing an equity scan for an organization in Manitoba.

Through her time in Victoria, Cortney noticed many of her colleagues were amazing consultants, but struggled with the administrative burden that often comes with a small business so they weren’t able to market themselves effectively. Simultaneously, Cortney noticed that many people needed consultants who had an understanding of how to imbed EDI and decolonial approaches to projects from an intersectional lens, and were not finding them. Always interested in connecting people, Cortney launched Decolonizing Directions with the idea of building a collective of consultants who all have an understanding of how to apply principles of inclusion, diversity, decolonization, equity, and accessibility (IDDEA) in the work they do.