Melissa Alexander

Community Service
Melissa Alexander has made an enormous impact in the lives of incarcerated women.

After experiencing incarceration, she set out to ensure women in prison had every opportunity to advance and build a thriving life upon release.

Not only was she the first parolee to return to the program Building Up, which helps incarcerated women enter the trades, but she returned to Walls to Bridges, a program out of Wilfrid Laurier University that creates greater opportunities for incarcerated people, to receive a postsecondary education. Since her release, she has dedicated countless hours to the program as a faculty trainer – training instructors from numerous postsecondary institutions – and as a public workshop facilitator.

In addition to her work with incarcerated women, Melissa is deeply devoted to her community. She serves as both a Peer Support Worker on the Non-Crisis Peer Support Phone Line for adults dealing with mental health challenges and as a Community Peer through the City of Toronto’s Youth Equity Unit, developing meaningful relationships with the young women she serves. She brings new supports, resources, insights and respect to women across the Greater Toronto Area who have experienced personal and structural trauma and violence. She is also a Toronto Community Benefits Network Ambassador and speaks publicly about how getting a skilled trade through the Community Benefits Agreements has made a difference in her life.

Those who know Melissa describe her as an ambitious, principled and caring person who is committed to drawing on her lived experiences to inspire and empower others.

As a driven champion for women who have been incarcerated, Melissa will continue to advocate and create opportunities so women and girls can prosper and thrive.

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Manvir Bhangu

Young Woman of Distinction
From a young age, Manvir Bhangu wanted to change the conversation on gender in the South Asian community.

Today, she is the founder and Executive Director of Laadliyan, Celebrating and Empowering Daughters, a Peel Region nonprofit created to empower South Asian girls and women using education, engagement and awareness. 

Through Laadliyan, Manvir has directly supported over 5,800 girls and women in the South Asian community with everything from bridging intergenerational divides, to navigating living in Canada as an international student, to accessing free menstrual care packages. As a part of Laadliyan, she also created the Born to Rise Mentorship Program after noticing young South Asian girls and women lacked support and guidance in making academic and career decisions. The program, which pairs young South Asian women with a peer mentor, helps them explore academic and career options that are best aligned with their interests.

In 2018, Manvir successfully co-authored a paper for the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health on the prevalence of son preference in the Indo-Canadian community after partnering with St. Michael’s Hospital to conduct qualitative research on the topic.

Manvir’s work has already earned her significant accolades. In 2018, she was named to the Brampton’s Top 40 under 40 list by the Brampton Board of Trade, and in 2022, she won the Women Working in Social Activism on Behalf of Women and Children Award given by the Peel Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario.

Her drive for creating inclusive spaces and mentorship opportunities for South Asian girls and women exemplifies Manvir as an extraordinary change-maker and an inspiration for young women leaders everywhere. 

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Agapi Gessesse

Social Justice
Agapi Gessesse is an award-winning, influential and fearless change-maker named 2020 Top Black Woman to Watch in Canada.

She is the Executive Director of the Careers, Education, Empowerment Centre (CEE) for Young Black Professionals and the Founder of Lehizibu Consulting and Strategy group. Agapi ensures hundreds of Black women and girls have the skills and resources needed to succeed.

Agapi has captivated audiences on local and international stages and has been featured and invited as a commentator on media outlets such as CTV National news, Business News Network, Bay Street Bull, Breakfast Television and more. She speaks and writes on topics such as anti-Black racism, government relations, the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) initiative, workforce development and youth engagement.

For over a decade, Agapi has worked to enhance the lives of Black youth through her work with Toronto Community Housing, United Way Greater Toronto, and as the Executive Director of POV 3rd Street, an organization focused on breaking barriers for young people in the media and film industry.

Agapi devotes considerable energy to creating transformative change by advising large organizations to create policies and practices that ensure Black women are recognized as a key source of talent in the professional world. She also advances the position of Black women on several prestigious boards and committees, including Amnesty International Canada, the Province of Ontario’s Premier’s Council on Equality of Opportunity, and the Canadian Poverty Institute.

Her roles and mandates focus on social impact, and her career leaves a trail of talented, brilliant minds to show for her visionary leadership.

Agapi affirms, “Allyship is critical to affect change” within her work and in the development of Black women leaders. 

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Dr. Notisha Massaquoi

Health
Dr. Notisha Massaquoi has been a powerful force in Black women's healthcare for over 30 years.

As the Executive Director of Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Community Health Centre – a centre specializing in providing primary healthcare to Black and racialized women – she played a critical role in shaping community-level healthcare programs for two decades, changing the lives of thousands of women in Toronto.

She has founded and contributed to a number of organizations and projects that uplift Black Canadians, such as Africans in Partnership Against AIDS and TAIBU Community Health Centre. She has also served as a board trustee for many organizations to ensure anti-Black racism is a prominent consideration in Canadian research and healthcare institutions. On the international stage, she has worked with the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS on organizational responses to HIV and migration and with the United Nations Social Development Forum on racism and its impact on workforces.

Currently, Dr. Massaquoi holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, with a graduate appointment in the Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. She is also the founding Director of the Black Health Equity Lab (The BHEL).

For her work, Dr. Massaquoi has received several awards including the Alliance for Healthier Communities’ Joe Leonard Award for extraordinary leadership, commitment and support for accessible healthcare, and the Black Health Alliance Legacy Award.

With Dr. Massaquoi at the table, equitable outcomes for Black and racialized women’s health can become a reality in Toronto.  

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Daphne Taras

Education
Daphne Taras has been a trailblazer for women in male-dominated fields.

Her work within the labour relations field garnered significant recognition and earned her a spot testifying before a senate subcommittee on issues of gendered pay equity and as an expert advisor to a federal commission on employment standards.

As Dean of Canada’s largest business school, the Ted Rogers School of Management, she formally and informally mentors academics, inspires prospective leaders to apply for decanal positions, and lobbies senior leaders to change taken-forgranted institutional practices that prevent women from achieving equity with their male counterparts.

Recently, Dean Taras has focused on student retention. She challenged the idea that an 80 percent retention-to-graduation is acceptable. Instead, she asked “why lose 20 percent of our talent and brainpower?” With early detection and compassionate interventions, her staff have prevented hundreds of students from dropping out. She is especially proud of the growth of the School’s co-op program, which brought over $110 million directly to students in the past five years.

Dean Taras is also an accomplished academic with more than 100 published works. Among her many honours, she received the Labor and Employment Relations Association’s Excellence in Education Award. In 2012, she was recognized as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 by the Women’s Executive Network and a Top 10 Woman of Influence in Saskatchewan. She is also a YWCA Saskatoon Women of Distinction in Education, making her the rare recipient of similar awards in two provinces. In 2021, she received the top award from Toronto Metropolitan University for her leadership.

Through her visionary management style, development of meaningful initiatives and unrelenting commitment to gender equity, Daphne Taras is a force for transformation. 

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Dr. Umut Duygu Uzunel

Volunteerism
Dr. Umut Duygu Uzunel is a lauded ophthalmologist devoted to providing free, essential eye care for women and children in underserved communities. 

Her commitment to changing the lives of her patients is truly selfless. Dr. Uzunel spent her annual vacations and personal earnings to fund her work in remote villages. Over the course of her time volunteering, she has examined an astounding 20,000 individuals and performed more than 3,000 operations, with her work often saving a patient’s vision.

Dr. Uzunel has overcome immense personal struggle to continue her work, most importantly, she has been impacted by a muscular disease that causes muscle weakness and requires assistance. She also fled her home country of Turkiye after the government objected to her involvement with a nonprofit and hid from the police for three months. In Canada, she went on to share her powerful story with The Shoe Project, a “growing family of immigrant women, Canadian authors, and theatre artists passionate about writing expressively, and creating public performances where the brave and moving stories of newcomers and refugees are presented to the public.” Through this project, she has been able to raise awareness of the experiences of refugee women and the challenges they face to make it to Canada.

As a Canadian and new graduate from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, she is again able to provide her life-changing volunteer work in Africa, completing her most recent trip in June, 2022.

“Umut” means “hope” in Turkish. As her name denotes, she is a shining beacon of hope for women and children trying to access vision healthcare locally and internationally. 

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Charlie Wall-Andrews

Arts
Charlie Wall-Andrews is committed to ensuring the music industry is more inclusive through research, creativity, and leadership. 

As the Executive Director of the SOCAN Foundation and inaugural Vice-Chair of Music Canada’s Advisory Council, she is a leading voice for advancing inclusion within the Canadian music industry. She has led many initiatives that give women access to the resources and skills needed to succeed.

When Charlie learned of the lack of women represented on the Billboard Top 100 chart as artists and producers, she spearheaded the Equity X Production Mentorship Program to help level this disparity. Thanks to Charlie’s efforts, the program has allowed over 100 women across Canada, thus far, to access the software, training and confidence to produce music for themselves and others.

Outside of her role at the SOCAN Foundation, Charlie is currently a Board member of the Canada Council for the Arts and has worked with Women in Music Canada and the Women’s Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub to develop an Entrepreneurship Accelerator which supports women and gender diverse artists and entrepreneurs in the music industry to access training, mentorship and peer support.

She was appointed a global Legacy Fellow for the Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship, received the Universal Women’s Network National Leadership Award, aand was named one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 by the Women’s Executive Network .

Charlie is completing her Ph.D. in Management at Ted Rogers School of Management, specializing in strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship. She has lectured at the University of Toronto, Northeastern University, and Toronto Metropolitan University.

Through Charlie’s visionary leadership, there are greater possibilities for women and girls in Canada’s music industry.  

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