Kerry Swanson

Kerry Swanson has been a leader in Canada’s Indigenous arts and culture sector for over two decades. She is the Chief Executive Officer of the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO), an independent funding and advocacy organization serving First Nations, Inuit and Métis screen-based storytellers across Canada. Since 2019, Kerry has built ISO into a robust, innovative and respected Indigenous-led national funding institution, the first of its kind in Canada, securing permanent federal funding and establishing multiple public and private sector partnerships. She was named Changemaker of the Year by Playback in 2024 and in 2025 as a Dealmaker of the Year in Canada by the Hollywood Reporter.

Kerry was a co-founder of Indigenous Fashion Arts – a biennial multi-platform fashion, textile and craft festival launched in 2018 in Toronto. She was Executive Director and later Board Chair of imagineNATIVE, a renowned international Indigenous film festival. Kerry has served in leadership roles at the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council. She is currently a board director of Forge, an award-winning Indigenous-led arts and culture space in the Hudson Valley, New York and sits on the Board of Governors for OCADU, Canada’s largest arts and design university. She has a Master’s in Communication and Culture from Toronto

Metropolitan University.

Kerry was born and raised in northern Ontario in a Cree/Ojibwe/Irish and French family. She is a citizen of Michipicoten First Nation with familial ties to Chapleau Cree First Nation.