Sylvia Bashevkin

Education
An esteemed professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto for almost 40 years, Sylvia Bashevkin has championed women’s voices in research and academic leadership throughout her career. She is an author, activist and mentor who is an internationally recognized leader in the field of gender and politics.

When Sylvia began her teaching career, she was the only woman in Erindale College’s political science department. Sylvia has worked to diversify political science curricula to include feminist perspectives, and advocated for the recruitment of women faculty members. She has brought women’s political struggles and triumphs to the forefront of scholarly conversations in her research and analyses of women’s participation in politics. Her books include Women as Foreign Policy Leaders; Women, Power, Politics: The Hidden Story of Canada’s Unfinished Democracy; and Tales of Two Cities: Women and Municipal Restructuring in London and Toronto.

From 2005 to 2011, Sylvia served as the first woman principal of University College, the University of Toronto’s founding college. She served as president of the Canadian Political Science Association and the women and politics research section of the American Political Science Association. Her scholarly distinctions include: fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada, the Jill Vickers Prize from the Canadian Political Science Association, the Mildred Schwartz Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Political Science Association, the Ursula Franklin Gender Studies Award from the Royal Society, and the Bertha Lutz Prize from the International Studies Association.

Sylvia has volunteered with the Committee for ’94, Toronto Women’s Call to Action and the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund.

Through her extensive work as an educator and author, Sylvia has steered those who might not otherwise think about women and girls toward seeing a gender dimension. This in turn has improved the city and country we live in.

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Nneka MacGregor

Social Justice
Nneka MacGregor is a powerful intersectional feminist who is paving the way for change. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Centre for Social Justice, WomenatthecentrE, a unique non-profit organization created by and for women and trans survivors of gender-based violence globally.

Nneka is an advocate who works with governments, organizations and individuals to transform lives and build violence-free communities. In 2006, she was selected by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario as one of 13 experts tasked to review the range of services provided to women and children in the province, identifying gaps and making recommendations. In June 2016, she was appointed by the Canadian government to the Advisory Council on the Federal Strategy Against Gender-Based Violence. An international speaker and trainer, she has developed and facilitated training to various sectors, and was one of the 12 Canadian women delegates appointed to the United Nations’ 63rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

Nneka sits on a number of advisory boards and committees, including the Family Law Committee of the Board of Legal Aid Ontario. She recently became a member of the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee, at the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General, and is also an Expert Panel member of the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability. Her research focus is on the intersection of strangulation, traumatic brain injury and inter-personal violence. She was a recipient of the 2019 PINK Concussions Awards.

An entrepreneur with over three decades of business experience, Nneka is the founder and managing partner at Nneka & Co., where she supports organisations to develop their strategies. The consultancy focuses on Stakeholder-Centric EDI © – a comprehensive framework to engage organisations in equity, diversity and inclusion work. Her expertise is on nurturing women’s leadership in business at the intersection of gender, race and ability.

Nneka recently retired from the Board of Directors of Moatfield Foundation of Bayview Glen School, where she served for 11 years, six of which as Chair and CEO of the Bayview Glen Foundation. She supports other non-profits and charitable organizations with governance training and developing effective Board culture.

It is her commitment to equity across all barriers that makes Nneka a beacon of hope for women and survivors of gender-based violence.

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Dr. Tina Meisami

Health
Dr. Tina Meisami is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon with a long-standing commitment to helping improve the lives of women. In 2010, she founded the Dr. Borna Meisami Commemorative Foundation, along with four women dentists, in memory of her brother who was a compassionate Orthopaedic Surgeon. The Foundation administers ‘Restoring Smiles,’ a program offering free dental and oro-facial reconstructive services to women living in shelters or supportive housing who have experienced gender-based violence. Given the tremendous need for women’s health services, and the commitment of its volunteer doctors, the Foundation has expanded to offer two additional programs namely ‘Restoring Sleep’ for treatment of Sleep Breathing Disorders and ‘Restoring Strength’ for Orthopaedic, Physiotherapy and Rehabilitative services.

Led by Tina’s vision and commitment, over 40 dentist, physicians, and specialists now donate their time and services to ‘Restoring Smiles,’ ‘Restoring Sleep,’ and ‘Restoring Strength.’ The foundation has provided nearly $1,000,000 of free treatment to help women regain not only their physical health, but also emotional and mental health as they continue on their journey to full healing and recovery.

Throughout her illustrious career, Tina has broken down barriers in the field of surgery. She is the first woman maxillofacial surgeon in Canada to subspecialize in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. Tina is currently an active staff surgeon at North York General Hospital where she provides treatment for facial deformities and sleep-disordered breathing. In addition, she is the Director of Dental Sleep Medicine at the University Health Network's Toronto Rehab Institute, Division of Dentistry. She also maintains a private practice at Yorkville Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery where she is the Principal Surgeon.

Tina’s leadership does not stop with her patients or the Foundation. She has been a dedicated mentor to women students and a teacher in the field of oral and maxilliofacial surgery for 18 years, creating meaningful opportunities and breaking down barriers for women in male-dominated fields.

By using her expertise, emphasizing self-confidence and prioritizing patient care, Tina is helping women achieve brighter futures in a tangible way.

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Colleen Moorehead

Corporate Leadership
A true champion for women, Colleen Moorehead is a well-respected business leader, trailblazer and mobilizer. Today she is Chief Client Officer, Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP responsible for implementing Osler’s client-focused business development strategy. Colleen is also the co-founder of ETRADE Canada.

With extensive experience building successful companies and valuable brands, Colleen has held a number of senior corporate leadership positions and amassed a deep understanding of business development strategy in the financial services, technology, and web-based services sectors.

An accomplished leader, Colleen has supported, mentored and advanced countless women throughout her 30-year career and contributed to meaningful organizational changes for Canadian companies and women in business.

In addition to her role at Osler, Colleen is the co-founder and business director of the Judy Project at the University of Toronto’s Joseph L. Rotman School of Management. This initiative is a leadership forum designed to empower and prepare women to take on executive leadership positions. Since its launch in 2003, the Judy Project has supported the ascent of more than 400 women into C-suite positions.

Colleen is also the editor of the best-selling leadership book The Collective Wisdom of High-Performing Women: Leadership Lessons from the Judy Project. The book features personal stories from 70 Canadian women business leaders and highlights their perspectives on the characteristics of great leaders.

As well, Colleen has been recognized and honoured with several awards including the 2021 Trailblazer Award by the Women’s College Hospital Foundation, 2015 Catalyst Canada Honours Champion – Business Leader, and the Business Builder 2010 Award by the Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends.

By paving the way for other women and heralding their accomplishments as she goes, Colleen is ensuring the future for women in Canadian business is successful and sustainable.
 

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Arezoo Najibzadeh

Young Woman of Distinction 
Arezoo Najibzadeh is a rising voice for women’s civic and political participation in Canada. As the founder and managing director of Platform (formerly Young Women’s Leadership Network), Arezoo collaborates with young women and gender diverse leaders and civic institutions to identify and address barriers to their engagement, as well as opportunities for success within grassroots and institutional politics.

Since its inception in 2017, Platform has built leadership capacity among Black, Indigenous, and racialized young women and gender diverse youth. Platform has supported more than 1,000 young women and gender diverse leaders realize their own potential to drive change and has provided professional development to 150 young leaders.

Rooted in transformational feminist leadership, Arezoo’s work is strengthening the social determinant of civic engagement by challenging sexual violence and sexism as barriers to women’s civic participation and leadership. She advocates for intersectional, anti-racist and anti-oppressive policies while providing tools to civic organizations that aim to be harassment-free spaces.

A watershed moment in Arezoo’s career came in 2018 when she established ‘It’s Time,’ a set of survivor-centric, trauma-informed resources for addressing sexual violence in political institutions. This project has provided training to more than 100 politicians, political staff, and volunteers on creating a consent culture within campaigns and in legislatures.

As a resounding voice for issues impacting young women and girls, Arezoo is regularly consulted to lend her expertise and perspective. Most recently, she was a member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women, the World Forum for Democracy, and the Platform Women Convention.

In addition to her work at Platform, Arezoo is a Women Deliver Young Leader and a Muslim Youth Fellow at the City of Toronto.

Arezoo is boldly challenging systemic barriers in her quest to improve the experiences of marginalized young women and gender diverse youth in politics.
 
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Sheila Sampath

Arts
Sheila Sampath is an activist, designer and educator working at the intersection of creativity, capacity-building and social change. Currently, she is a professor in the Bachelor of Digital Communications program at Humber College and a community mentor in Sketch’s NextUp! Mentorship program. She is also the Editorial and Art Director of Shameless, Canada’s intersectional feminist voice for young women and trans youth, and the Principal and Creative Director at The Public, a community-centred social justice design studio she founded in 2008. From 2014–2019, she was an assistant professor of alternative and speculative practices at OCAD University. In 2013, Sheila published her first book, Letters Lived, a collection of reflections from feminist activists.

Sheila has served on the board of the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multi-cultural women against rape (where she was also a counsellor, organizer and support worker) and the South Asian Visual Arts Centre, and is currently on the program advisory committee of the George Brown Assaulted Women and children’s counsellor/advocate program.

Throughout Sheila’s work lies a commitment to building creative expression and civic engagement among marginalized communities, including intergenerational communities of racialized and queer women, girls and trans folks. Through her work at The Public and in collaboration with Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto, she organized and facilitated Fight like a girl, a one-week arts-based activist training camp for racialized teen girls; programming addressing gender-based violence in South Asian communities; and, a series of workshops and participatory public service announcement on elder abuse that later won an RGD So(cial) Good Award.

As an educator, Sheila contributed to building a consent culture at OCAD University, co-creating resources and art installations with students that address sexual and gender-based violence. Her mentorship and feminist pedagogical approach won her a faculty of design teaching award.

Whether through design work or writing, Sheila is challenging the status quo and paving the way for feminists in our city and beyond to amplify their ideas and voices through richly diverse media.

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Vicki Saunders

Entrepreneurship
Vicki Saunders is an entrepreneur, award-winning mentor, and advisor to the next generation of change-makers. She is a leading advocate for entrepreneurship as a way of creating positive transformation in the world.

Vicki is the founder of #radical generosity and SheEO, a global community of radically generous women supporting women-led ventures working on the World’s To-Do List.

Through ‘#radical generosity,’ Vicki is building an alternative funding system that measures the success of ventures by looking beyond profit alone. The program sees a community of women, known as activators, each invest $1,100 with no expectation of financial return, creating a perpetual fund which is loaned out to support new social impact ventures run by women. These women entrepreneurs will also receive coaching through the program.

Since its inception, SheEO has raised over $5 million, invested in 63 ventures globally, and the company has gone public on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Vicki’s commitment to empowering women does not stop with the ‘#radical generosity’ program. She also created the ‘Learning Lab,’ which supports emerging women entrepreneurs across the world with live webinars and online resources. Vicki is always thinking of future generations of women. In 2018 she launched ‘RadGen,’ a program providing girls in grades 10 to 12 with experiential entrepreneurship training.

Recently, Vicki was named as one of 30 “World-Changing Women in Conscious Business” by Conscious Company Magazine and one of the 100 most influential leaders of 2015 from “EBW – Empowering A Billion Women.” Vicki has also received numerous awards for her work at SheEO including: UBS Global Visionary in 2020, Business Leader of the Year 2019 by the Toronto Regional Board of Trade, 2018 Startup Canada Entrepreneurship Promotion Award, and was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 2001.

Vicki sees women’s entrepreneurship as a way of creating positive change in the world – and the ripple effects of her work have far-reaching impact.

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