Angela Johnson
Board Chair

For two decades, Angela has worked as a communications professional, journalist, television producer, educator, and facilitator.

Since 2004, she has worked for the Nova Scotia provincial government’s communications agency, Communications Nova Scotia, where she develops and implements corporate internal communication strategies for the Government of Nova Scotia. Previously, she managed communications for various government departments and helped develop the strategic direction of the province’s Office of African Nova Scotia Affairs. She is also a founding member, marketing and communications committee chair and former co-chair of the African Canadian Women in the Public Service Network, an employee advocacy network of the Government of Nova Scotia.

As a journalist, educator and facilitator, Angela created, produced and hosted the television series Our Community, for CBC Television, which featured stories from Nova Scotia’s diverse communities. For nine years, she taught Foundations of Journalism to first year, honours students in the journalism program at the University of Kings College in Halifax. On a quarterly basis, she is the managing editor for the Halifax-based Black Business Initiative’s magazine, Black to Business. She has also facilitated workshops or coordinated programs for the Canadian National Griot Awards; Canada’s Forum on Diversity and Culture; Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health; Cole Harbour Community Network; Black Business Initiative; and the National Film Board of Canada.

Angela has been interested in women’s issues, particularly those related to disenfranchised women and women of colour, for most of her life. She was the director of the Dalhousie Women’s Centre in Halifax from 2002 to 2004 and coordinated the Girls TV & New Media Camp and the Girls TV Camp & Club in Halifax and Ottawa for the Women in Media Foundation (formerly the Women’s Television Network Foundation) for girls aged 10 – 14 from 2000 to 2004.

Angela is pleased to be able to continue to support growth and contribute to empowering women and girls in this country through the Canadian Women’s Foundation.

Laurie Clarke
Board Vice Chair

As a senior leader in the health, education and the social-service sector, Laurie has over three decades of experience leading fundraising and non-profit organizations.

She was the chief spokesperson in all areas relating to fund development, donor cultivation and stewardship, and government relations/advocacy. She also has extensive experience in board cultivation, development and governance.

Laurie successfully led a variety of organizations to build new financial capital and organizational accomplishment. Most recently, she served as CEO of the BC Women’s Hospital Foundation and member of BC Women’s Senior Executive Committee. In this role she provided leadership in determining the highest priority needs of the hospital and integrating these needs with initiatives to secure private sector, public and government funds.

Prior to Laurie’s six-year tenure with BC Women’s Hospital Foundation, she was the Vice President of Development with the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and the Executive Director of the BCIT Foundation and Alumni Association for over a decade. Laurie provided overall leadership and direction in the creation and management of an integrated fund development program, which included fundraising for special programs, capital campaigns, and endowment funds.
Her dedication to the charitable sector, which included participating in the Association of Fundraising Professional (AFP) both as a member and director, is reflected in her having received a national Gold Award for Fundraising by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

Laurie believes that when women and girls realize their full potential, they contribute to better businesses, industries, communities, and families. That’s why it’s so important to remove obstacles and provide necessary support to those who need it most.

Dr. Ramona Lumpkin
Board Vice Chair

Dr. Ramona Lumpkin joined Mount Saint Vincent University as President and Vice-Chancellor in 2010 and retired from her position in June 2017. Her previous roles included Principal of Huron University College and Vice President Academic and Provost of Royal Roads University. Dr. Lumpkin began her university career in Kentucky where for 13 years she held a variety of positions in higher education that included institutional planning, continuing education, faculty development and university teaching. She holds a PhD in English Literature from the University of Kentucky and is a former Fulbright Scholar to England.

Throughout her career, Dr. Lumpkin has been actively engaged in advocacy on behalf of women’s issues, in promoting the role of women in higher education, and in enhancing access to education for adult and Aboriginal learners.

She is Past Chair of the Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU), Past Chair of IWF (Atlantic Region), Past Board member for Universities Canada, Board member of Women Active Nova Scotia, and Chair of Engage Nova Scotia. In 2014, Dr. Lumpkin was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in recognition of her leadership in post-secondary education, her promotion of community-based learning initiatives, and her support for the advancement of women.

Lisa O’Connor
Board Treasurer

Lisa O’Connor is a Chartered Professional Accountant with over 20 years of experience in various finance roles, including her current role as Vice President, Finance at Superior Propane. She was also Senior Vice President, Finance at Just Energy, where she spent 14 years of her career.

Lisa has been responsible for all areas of finance, including financial reporting for public companies, financial planning and analysis, as well as credit and collections. Lisa has had experience in the board room through presenting at audit committee meetings as well as having served as a board member for an insurance company in Barbados.

Over the years, Lisa has helped and mentored girls and women, including holding a leadership role in the women’s council at Just Energy to encourage and develop female leaders in the organization. In addition, Lisa volunteers as a trainer and assistant coach of a girls’ hockey team. Lisa graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Political Science as well as a diploma in Accounting.

Laurie Young
Board Secretary

Laurie is a senior communications executive, now finishing her term as the CEO of Ogilvy Canada, the Canadian operation of a global network. She has grown with the firm since joining in 1988, an Honours BA in hand from Victoria College, U of T. She assumed increasing responsibility and progressively senior positions, which culminated in the role of CEO – the first woman to hold this post.

Her office has distinguished itself within the industry behind its creation of brands with purpose: brand campaigns such as Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, Huggies No Baby Unhugged, and Hellmann’s Real Food Movement. It is this intersection of business growth and societal impact that she finds most rewarding.

She has been active as an industry leader: board member and chair of the Institute of Communication Agencies, chair of various award committees and industry conferences. A life-long learner, she’s taken courses in executive finance, leadership, digital transformation, and women in leadership.

She has spent her career coaching and mentoring women to help them overcome gender bias in career choices and advancement, through seminars, workshops, and one-on-one coaching. She sees working with the Canadian Women’s Foundation as a new, very real and broader way to continue helping women and girls reach their potential. Having had some terrific mentors and “support sisters” over her career at work, and as a mom, she wants to pay forward that advantage.

Danielle Bisnar
Board member

Danielle Bisnar is a human rights lawyer and partner with Cavalluzzo LLP, a law firm in Toronto dedicated to advancing social justice and workers’ rights.  Danielle practices in the areas of labour, administrative, human rights, Indigenous rights, professional regulation and pay equity law. She has particular expertise in the health care, policing and public sectors and regularly acts for clients in female-dominated professions including nursing and midwifery.

Danielle has represented human rights applicants in a number of significant claims of systemic discrimination, including with respect to discrimination on the grounds of race, disability and unequal pay for women.  Danielle has acted as counsel to the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) in developing the law on family status discrimination in the workplace.

Danielle’s commitment to striving for equality and justice for women and girls and advancing the aims of social movements flows from her lived experiences as a child of immigrants, union member and feminist community organizer with Filipino migrant workers and their families.

Danielle obtained a JD from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2010.  Prior to law school, Danielle completed a BA at the University of British Columbia and graduate degrees in Social and Political Thought at York University and in English Literature at Dalhousie University.

Danielle is a proud feminist mother and student of two young kids who do not quit.

Jennifer Flanagan
Board Member

Jennifer Flanagan is the co-founder and President and CEO of Actua, a national charitable organization that engages Canadian youth in transformational experiences in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), and contributes significantly to future innovation in Canada.

Jennifer leads a national network of university-based organizations across Canada that deliver interactive STEM programs, annually engaging 225,000 youth in 500 communities. Over the past decade, Jennifer has led the development of specialized national programs to engage under-served youth populations, including Aboriginal youth, girls and young women, youth living in rural and remote communities and other at-risk youth. To accomplish this work, Jennifer partners with leading corporate sector companies, governments and other non-profits.

Jennifer is a long-time advocate for the empowerment of girls and young women, having served on the boards of the Girls Action Foundation and the International Network for Women in Engineering and Science. In addition, Jennifer has served on many other national and international boards and committees dedicated to furthering educational opportunities for youth. In 2007, Jennifer was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women and in 2011 she was the recipient of a Y Women of Distinction Award (Education and Training) and was named one of Ottawa’s Top Forty Under 40. She holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Management from McGill University in Montreal.

Shawna Paris-Hoyte, QC
Board Member

For over three decades Shawna has worked tirelessly for equality and the human rights of women, children, youth and families in her role as a lawyer, clinical social worker, forensic social worker, and educator. In 2008, Shawna successfully argued the case of R. v. LTH at the Supreme Court of Canada and established precedent-setting police procedures across Canada regarding the rights of youth under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Throughout the years, Shawna has been a member of many community boards, advisory committees and regulatory bodies. She held the position of President of the Board of Directors of the Community Justice Society of Halifax, and is a past member of the Board of Examiners for the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers. She is the founder of the National Institute of Forensic Social Work, which she established in Canada in 2016 to bridge the professions of law and social work. Shawna is also a founding member of the Black Community Advocates Association of Nova Scotia started in 2000. Shawna was appointed to the Federal Government Task Force on Visible Minorities by the President of the Treasury Board of Canada and assisted in drafting the Federal Government employment equity plan, entitled Embracing Change in the Federal Public Service, regarding the hiring of visible minorities in the Federal Public Service.

Shawna is held in high regard and recognized for her dedication to the community and her professions. She has received numerous awards and recognition for her work on a local and national level. In 2017, Shawna was nominated by the Canadian Lawyer Magazine for the, Top 25 Most Influential lawyers in Canada. She received the Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Association of Social Workers/NSCSW in 2016. In 2015, she was inducted into the Hon. Bertha Wilson Honor Society. In 2014, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Black Law Students Association of Canada. In 2011, she was appointed to the Queens Counsel. Shawna is the inaugural recipient of the Hon. Justice Lome Clarke, Q.C. award for Access to Justice in 2010. In 2009, she received the People Making a Difference award from the Black Law Students Association of Canada. In 2006, she received the Elizabeth Fry Society – Rebels with a Cause award. In 2003, she received the Black Community Advocates Association of Nova Scotia Recognition Award, and in 2001 she received the Treasury Board of Canada Service Award.

Shawna holds several degrees including a B.A., BSW., MSW., and a J.D. from Dalhousie University. As well, she holds certificates in mediation, community development, and the legal aspects of health administration. Shawna is currently pursuing a PhD at Memorial University in Newfoundland. Her previous graduate research and current doctoral research is specific to women, children and families regarding the impact and influences of trans-generational and inter-generational trauma. Her other research interests concern race, gender and resiliency after historical and racial trauma, gender based violence, professional development in forensic social work and human service practice, collaborative family law, and corrections reintegration programming.

Shawna is the proud mother of two adult children, Sierra and Bryce, and grandmother to a beautiful and brilliant little girl named Alayah.

Marilyn Roycroft
Board Member

Marilyn has 30 years of experience in public affairs, government, education, strategic planning and social justice. She is a former Deputy General Secretary of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), and handled media and government relations for its predecessor, the Federation of Women Teachers’ Associations of Ontario (FWTAO). From 1992-95, Marilyn was seconded to the Office of the Premier of Ontario as Director of the Public Appointments Secretariat.

Marilyn was a researcher with the New Democratic Party at Queen’s Park from 1973-78, special assistant to Stephen Lewis and Michele Landsberg from 1978-81, and executive assistant to NDP Leader Bob Rae from 1981-85. She managed more than 15 provincial and federal elections and party leadership campaigns from 1973-95, and was a member of the Ontario NDP’s Provincial Executive, Women’s Committee and several election planning committees.

Marilyn has been a board member and vice-president of the Social Planning Council of Metro Toronto, a member of the Child Poverty Action Group, a member of the national fundraising committee of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), a board member and Vice Chair of LEAF, a Board and Executive member of the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People (now YPT), a Director of the Canadian Education Association (CEA), and a member of the Breakfast Fundraising Committee for the Canadian Women’s Foundation (Canadian Women’s Foundation). She has also volunteered at Out of the Cold programs at Metropolitan United Church and Regent Park Community Centre.

Currently, she is a board member of the LEAF Foundation and chair of the Girls’ Fund Advisory Committee of the CWF. She also volunteers at Christie Gardens, a seniors residence near her home in Toronto. Marilyn is married to Peter Mosher and has two sons, Max and Tom Mosher.

Jody D.M. Johnson
Board Member

Jody is Associate General Counsel at TC Energy in Calgary, Alberta and leads the Litigation, Arbitration and ADR department. In her thirteen years with the company, she has conducted and participated in numerous mediations, arbitrations and lawsuits in defense of and on behalf of TransCanada. Being part of the Litigation, Arbitration and ADR department, she works with a wide variety of business units within the company, including power, pipelines, land, risk, insurance and HR and her practice takes her to many of the provinces across Canada.

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Jody completed the French Immersion program and spent a year at the University de Grenoble in France. She obtained her BA at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 1993 and her law degree at McGill University in Montreal in 1997. She was a member of the Board of the Calgary Girls’ School for seven years, including three years as Board co-chair. In addition to the Calgary Girls’ School, she has been a member of fundraising committees for Future Generations, raising funds for programs for women and children in Afghanistan; Discovery House women’s shelter; the Calgary Counselling Centre; Youth in Motion; the Glenbow Museum; and the Chickwagon.

Jody has a keen interest in the advancement of women and children. Additionally, her passions include her children, travelling, hiking, biking, skiing, literature and cooking.

Learn more about Board Co-ChairsJody Johnson and Dr. Kristin Blakely.

Dr. Kristin Blakely
Board member

Dr. Kristin Blakely is a public sociologist committed to advancing gender equality through scholarly teaching, advocacy, and board work.  She teaches undergraduate courses in sociology at Glendon College of York University and leadership courses focused on gender and diversity at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies.  Kristin is a frequent guest speaker on feminism and gender issues at conferences, in schools and at non-profit organizations.  She is co-author of Gendered Worlds (Oxford University Press: 2008) and has published in such journals as Contemporary Sociology, the Journal of International Women’s Studies, the International Journal of Qualitative Methods, and the Journal of Family Issues.

As a board member, Kristin has served as President of YWCA Toronto and on the executive of YWCA Canada, where she also chaired the Young Women’s Leadership Committee and founded the National Advocacy Committee.  In 2009, she was named YWCA Canada’s Outstanding Young Woman. Kristin was a representative at the UN for Sociologists for Women in Society – an organization of feminist sociologists, attending and reporting on the Commission on the Status of Women.  She served as a cabinet member of Mount Sinai Hospital’s Women’s and Infants’ Health campaign and on the hospital’s Governing Council.  At present, she is a research partner of the International Innovation and Inclusion Network, chairs the Foundation’s Teen Healthy Relationships Advisory Committee, and is a member of the Consultative Committee for the Gender Equality Network Canada.

Learn more about Board Co-Chairs Dr. Kristin Blakely and Jody Johnson.

Sarah Mariani
Ex-Officio Representative

Sarah Mariani is a business analyst at North America’s largest urban innovation hub, supporting Canada’s most promising startups by helping them grow, create jobs and solve society’s greatest challenges at MaRS Discovery District. Outside of the office, Sarah supports Young Diplomats of Canada as their Alumni Relations lead – connecting young policy makers to decision-making tables around the world. As a researcher, Sarah has published work on youth entrepreneurship, women’s economic development and digitalization.

Jas Kaur Hothi
Board Member

Jas Kaur Hothi, CPA, CA fundamentally believes when we empower girls and women, we’re not only transforming their story. We’re slowly but surely knocking down barriers and opening doors to change the narrative for all women, full stop.

An EY Canada Partner and National Practice Leader, Jas guides Canadian businesses as they reimagine their strategies for the transformative age. She founded the firm’s Financial Services Enterprise Risk practice in Canada, and serves in critical C-suite roles at media and entertainment companies, crown corporations and non-profit organizations looking to reinvent themselves from the outside, in.

At its core, Jas’ work focuses on advising corporate boards, executives and business leaders on all aspects of their risk transformation strategy. But it’s how she does it that sets her apart. Jas fosters a sense of belonging, and cultivates a culture of inclusion, among her team of diverse practitioners from coast to coast. Above all: she encourages others to do the same, and leads by example. Jas is the Executive Sponsor for EY’s Professional Women’s Network nationally and in Toronto. Jas has proactively sought ways to use her voice as a catalyst for change. Some days, that meant leading EY Power Up sessions geared to help women achieve career growth. Other days, it’s serving as a mentor, both within the firm and the broader community. Jas is also a founding member of the United Way Next Gen cabinet at EY, which seeks to engage young talent’s support of at-risk communities.

As a Canadian Women’s Foundation Board Member, Jas is working to create true momentum, finding new – and better – ways of solving gender-based violence, inequality, and barriers for girls and women from all communities. She brings formal Institute of Corporate Directors training, vast professional experience, tremendous passion for the cause, and deep commitment to making progress in every possible way.

Dr. Dawn Lavell Harvard
Board Member

Dr. Dawn Lavell Harvard, Ph.D., is a proud member of the Wikwemikong First Nation, the first Aboriginal Trudeau Scholar, and has worked to advance the rights of Aboriginal women as the President of the Ontario Native Women’s Association since she was first elected in 2003.

Dawn has been the Director for First Peoples House of Learning at Trent University since 2016, having left her previous role as President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada in order to return to her roots as an educator.

Dawn is a full-time mother of three girls. Following in the footsteps of her mother Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, a noted advocate for Indigenous women’s rights, Dawn has been working toward the empowerment of Aboriginal women and their families ever since joining the Board of the Ontario Native Women Association as a youth director back in 1994. She is also a co-editor of the original volume on Indigenous Mothering, “Until Our Hearts Are on the Ground: Aboriginal Mothering, Oppression, Resistance and Rebirth,” and has released a book along with Kim Anderson, “Mothers of the Nations.” Recently, Dawn co-edited a book with Jennifer Brant, entitled “Forever Loved:  Exposing the Hidden Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada.”