About Us
At A Team Coaching, we are an award-winning, proud family-owned and operated business, rooted in family, community, and the belief that we have a responsibility to leave things better than we found them.
Our Story
Shared by Angela Simmonds
Entrepreneurship is part of our family story. I grew up watching my father, the late Junior Sparks, work hard to build a business cleaning offices and providing for our family. I had the privilege of working alongside him, learning from him, and eventually carrying the business forward. But Dad did more than clean offices. Through his kindness, honesty, integrity, and the relationships he built, he challenged perceptions and quietly changed the way people saw him, his family, and his community. I saw firsthand his work ethic and determination, but also the power of how you show up, how you treat people, and what you leave behind.
A Team Coaching may look very different from the business Dad started, but that foundation has never left us. We may not be cleaning offices anymore, but we are still in them now, sitting at decision-making tables as sought-after leaders, working alongside organizations where law, justice, equity, culture, and people come together. We help organizations challenge systems of harm, navigate difficult and complex workplace issues, and build environments where fairness, accountability, belonging, and dignity are not simply values on paper, but part of how people experience the workplace.
Our commitment to justice is deeply connected to that legacy. For us, justice is not only about laws, policies, or processes. It is about people. It is about whose voices are heard, who has access to opportunity, how harm is addressed, and whether the systems we create allow people and communities to belong, grow, thrive, and lead.
Our work honours my dad and the generations and ancestors who came before us, whose sacrifices created possibilities for those who followed. The work may have changed, but the purpose remains: building something meaningful, creating opportunities for others, challenging what needs to change, and leaving things better for the next generation.
This is more than our work. It is our family legacy, and we are still building it.
What We Do
We take a human-centric approach toward fostering inclusive change, where efforts intersect across personal, collective, and systems levels of influence. You can’t unlearn biases if you don’t have policies and leadership to enforce behaviour change, and you can’t make operational or structural shifts without understanding the deeper ‘why’ behind the work.
This is why our services reflect the big picture.
We partner with organizations and people who are willing to learn from their mistakes, and view equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) as a lifelong journey and responsibility. By combining our lived experience, education, law, and political backgrounds, and our network of specialized consultants, we strive to advance lasting systems and social changes that everyone can see themselves as a part of.
Meet the Team
Angela Simmonds
Founder & Lead Consultant
“I highly recommend Angela for any organization who is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and fundamental institutional change.”
-Michelle Ward, Kids First Association
Angela Simmonds is an equity, diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility consultant, lawyer, former member and deputy speaker of the Nova Scotia legislative assembly, small-business owner, and a community mobilizer whose 20-year career extends over the various fields of socio-economic development, education, entrepreneurship, policy, and cultural competency. Her work and expertise on the historical injustice and systemic discrimination with Land Titles Clarification Act has received national attention with support from the United Nations Working Group. Most recently, Angela was recognized as one of the top 100 most accomplished Black women in Canada.
Angela combines her lived experience, education, and backgrounds in law and politics to train organizations and non-for-profits on issues of discrimination, anti-black racism, sexual harassment, and biases. Her background makes her uniquely positioned to address racism, genderism, sexism, and barriers impacting individuals most vulnerable to structural, systemic inequalities in our society. Together, she supports employees and organizations on their path to building cultural competency and integrating equity, diversity, inclusivity and accessibility into their work.
Angelina Simmonds
Director of Learning, Innovation & Community Engagement | Founder of Black Girls Pillow Talk | JD Candidate - Class of 2028
Angelina Simmonds is a community leader, educator, advocate, and emerging legal professional committed to creating more equitable, informed, and inclusive communities. As Director of Learning, Innovation & Community Engagement at A Team Coaching, Angelina leads the development of educational resources, human rights learning initiatives, community partnerships, digital content, and innovative training programs designed to support organizations, leaders, and communities in creating meaningful and sustainable change. She also plays a key role in the development of digital learning resources, online educational content, and innovative approaches to community-centered learning that expand the organization’s reach and impact.
A proud African Nova Scotian from North Preston, Angelina’s work is grounded in community, equity, and the belief that knowledge and connection are powerful tools for transformation. Through her leadership at A Team Coaching, she contributes to the design of learning experiences, human rights education programs, workforce inclusion initiatives, digital learning resources, and community engagement strategies that help individuals and organizations build stronger foundations for growth and belonging.
In 2023, Angelina founded Black Girls Pillow Talk (BGPT), a community initiative dedicated to creating nurturing and empowering spaces for Black girls and young women. Through mentorship, wellness programming, confidence building, storytelling, and community connection, BGPT supports participants in healing, thriving, and celebrating their identities while building meaningful relationships and leadership skills.
Angelina’s commitment to equity and social change led her to pursue a degree in Women and Gender Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University and, more recently, to begin her legal studies at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law. Her academic and professional journey reflects a deep commitment to understanding and challenging systemic barriers while helping create pathways for greater access, fairness, and opportunity.
Angelina’s career journey has expanded across community development, research, education, and justice-related fields. She has worked as a Research Analyst at Feed Nova Scotia, where she uses data and research to better understand the systemic drivers of food insecurity and inequity. Previously, she worked as a Justice Navigator with the African Nova Scotian Justice Institute, supporting individuals and families navigating complex issues related to youth justice, criminal law, mental health, addictions, and social justice. Her experience also includes roles with Acadia University, Halifax Partnership, and the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia.
As she continues her legal studies and professional development, Angelina remains passionate about advancing human rights education, community engagement, innovative learning opportunities, and systems change that support more equitable futures for all.
Our network of trusted partners
Margaret Schwartz
Communications Consultant
Margaret Schwartz (from Punamu’kwati’jk, Dartmouth Nova Scotia), is a natural connector and storyteller. She believes that language has the power to hurt or to heal. And that healing is best actualized when loving words are reflected with informed action.
Margaret holds a degree in Public Relations from Mount Saint Vincent University, and most recently, a certificate in Trauma-Informed Approach to Creating Safe Space from the Radical School of Healing. With ten years of experience across the social impact sector and provincial government, Margaret recently launched her own conscious communications firm, Margaret Schwartz Consulting to bring stories of impact to life and prompt thoughtful communication strategies that deepen relationships across community. Recently, while working with Placemaking 4G, she supported the development of the online, 11-module self-led course, Foundations of Belonging in the Workplace, which was co-created with the Nova Scotia Career Development Association to introduce diversity, equity and inclusion as a fundamental approach for building safer workplace cultures. Margaret serves on boards and committees for both TEAM Work Cooperative, and the Macphee Centre for Creative Learning. You can also find Margaret infusing the arts through poetry with traditional strategy work.
Jude Gerrard
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility (IDEA) Consultant
Jude Gerrard was born in Sheet Harbour, NS, and is a member of the Millbrook First Nation. He has worked for several federal departments including the RCMP, Correctional Services Canada, and Veterans Affairs. He has also worked for many departments within the Nova Scotia public service, including Education and Early Childhood Development, (where he helped establish Treaty Education in Nova Scotia), Communities Culture and Heritage, the Nova Scotia Apprenticeship Agency, and the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism Initiatives. Jude has worked at a number of post secondary institutions in Nova Scotia and served on the National Indigenous Education Advisory Committee for Colleges and Institutions Canada. He was appointed NSCAD University’s first Ombudsperson, and the first Indigenous Ombudsperson at a post-secondary in Canada, and is currently the Director of Indigenous Content and Connections for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
Jude has been a speaker at national and international conferences on systemic oppression and racial identity. He was the first Canadian to be trained as a facilitator in Beyond Diversity2, Courageous Conversations about Race, and received an Award of Recognition from the Pacific Educational Group for his work in reducing the achievement gap for First Nation and African Canadian students. He received his Certified Diversity Executive designation from the Institute for Diversity Certification in Indianapolis, Indiana, was the first Mi’kmaq employee to be awarded the NS Premier’s Award of Excellence, and has received the King Charles Coronation Medal from Universities Canada.