Jeff D'Hondt is a member of the Lenape nation at the Six Nations of the Grand River with additional Belgian Canadian ancestry. He has two decades of experience working in mental health and substance abuse treatment services, which he gained through positions in the correctional system, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, within Indigenous communities, and at hospitals and homeless shelters. He graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in History (with minors in Aboriginal Studies and the History of Science), from Toronto Metropolitan University with a Bachelor of Social Work (where he was also part of the contract teaching faculty), and from York University with a Masters of Social Work (where his research on using theatre to give voice to homeless Indigenous youth was awarded the Gerry Erickson Essay Prize for Best Practice Research Paper).