Nominees Announced for the 2019 YWCA Women of Distinction Awards

Comments 1 by Rebecca Bollwitt Friday, March 8th, 2019 — 11:14am PST

31shares

In celebration of International Women’s Day, YWCA Metro Vancouver has announced its 66 outstanding nominees for the 36th Annual Women of Distinction Awards.

PatriciaGraham_YWCA_Awards — Patricia Graham accepts her award in 2012

The full list of nominees is follows….

Nominees for the Women of Distinction Awards

Arts, Culture & Design

JESSICA BOUCHARD, Associate Director of The Polygon Gallery
LAURA BYSPALKO, Managing Director of the Indian Summer Arts Society and Co-founded the Indian Summer Festival
DANA CLAXTON, Department Head of the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at UBC
ANICKA QUIN, Editorial Director of Western Living Magazine and Vancouver Magazine
CLAIRE SAKAKI, Executive Director of Bard on the Beach
KELLY TWEEDDALE, President of Vancouver Symphony Society and VSO School of Music
JENNIFER TWINER McCARRON, CEO of Thunderbird Entertainment & Atomic Cartoons

Business & the Professions

TRACEY ARNISH, Chief Member & Employee Officer at Coast Capital Savings
SHELLEY BROWN, Retired Partner and Board Member at Deloitte
NICOLE BYRES, Lawyer and Partner at Miller Thomson LLP
EMILY CLOUGH, Lawyer and Partner at Clark Wilson LLP
CAREY DILLEN, President of YYOGA
CONNIE FAIR, President & CEO of the Land Title and Survey Authority of BC
MICHELLE GRANT, Senior Vice President at Ernst & Young
CATHY IMRIE, CFO & Senior VP of Ocean Wise Conservation Association
KRISTI MILLER, Founder & National Managing Director of First West Capital
LISA SOUTHERN, Lawyer and Founder of Southern & Associates
PENNY WILSON, CMO of Hootsuite

Community Champion

JOYCE FOSSELLA, Executive Director of Warriors Against Violence Society
BIANCA FUSCO ZANATTA, Reach for Outer Space
ANNA GODEFROY, Co-Founder and Director of Binners’ Project
MO KORCHINSKI, Project Manager for Unlocking the Gates Peer Health Mentoring Program
COLLEEN YEE, Inspector of the Centralized Operations Services Section of the Vancouver Police Department

Education, Training & Development

MARGOT LEIGH BUTLER, Academic Director of UBC’s Humanities 101 Community Program
SONIA BUTTERWORTH, Assistant Dean, Postgraduate Medical Education at the UBC Faculty of Medicine
BETHANY EDMUNDS, First female Associate Dean of Computing at BCIT, TEC Hub
DOREEN MANUEL, Director of the Bosa Centre for Film and Animation at Capilano University
TANIS SAWKINS, Director of the Partnership Development Office at Vancouver Community College
SHERYL STAUB-FRENCH, Professor of Civil Engineering at UBC
MARIE THOM, Early Learning Teacher Consultant at Richmond School District No. 38

Entrepreneurship & Innovation

STEPH CORKER, Founder of The Corker Co
CAROLYN CROSS, Chairman and CEO of Ondine Biomedical
ASHLEY FREEBORN, Founder and Managing Director of Smash + Tess

Environmental Sustainability

ANNA MATHEWSON, Manager of Sustainability for the City of Surrey
SHELBY KITT, Member of the Sustainable Transportation Action Research Team at SFU
LAUREN HORNOR, Partnership Lead, Western Canada for Swim Drink Fish Canada

SHELINA BABUL, Associate Director & Sports Injury Specialist, BC Injury Research & Prevention Unit, BC Children’s Hospital and Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
NURJEHAN “JANE” DEVJI, Recently retired CEO of Delta View Campus of Care (now Good Samaritan Delta View Care Centre)
SHEILA D. EARLY, Forensic Nursing Educator, Founder of the first sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) program in BC
ALLISON EDDY, Chief of Pediatrics at BC Children’s Hospital and Head of Pediatrics at UBC
VICTORIA LEE, President and CEO of the Fraser Health Authority
HEIDI OETTER, Registrar and CEO of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC
CAMARA VAN BREEMAN, Nurse Practitioner at Canuck Place Children’s Hospice

Non-Profit

LYNDA EDMONDS, CEO of Fraserside Community Services Society
FIONA FAMULAK, President of the Vancouver Regional Construction Association
GENESA GREENING, President & CEO of BC Women’s Hospital Foundation
LISA HUBBARD, Executive Director of North Shore Neighbourhood House
NINU KANG, Director of Communications and Development at MOSAIC
NGRID KASTENS, CEO of Pacific Community Resources Society
PATTI MACAHONIC, Executive Director of the Ann Davis Transition Society
CHRISTINE MOHR, Executive Director of Options Community Services
ALONA PUEHSE, COO of Open Door Group

Research, the Sciences & Technology

SUZANNE LEWIS, Chief Medical Officer & VP Research at the Pacific Autism Family Network
CAREESA C. LIU, Researcher at Simon Fraser University
MARIANNE VIDLER, Pre-eclampsia and Eclampsia Monitoring, Prevention and Treatment Research Program Manager, Faculty of Medicine at UBC
CHERYL WELLINGTON, Scientist, researcher and Professor at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at UBC

Young Woman of Distinction

TANVI BHATIA, Program Facilitator for Leave Out Violence
PRECIOUS ILE, Chair for Coast Capital Youth Get It Community Council
ZEBA KHAN, Founder of PERIOD at UBC
SHAWNA NARAYAN, Founder and Executive Director of Empower The Future
ROCHELLE PRASAD, Founder of a non-profit called Camp We Empower
JENNIFER WILDI, Coordinator of Canuck Place Visits and Chair of School Visits with the Reading Bear Society

Outstanding Workplace

ACL
FINCH MEDIA
GLOTMAN SIMPSON CONSULTING ENGINEERS
VANCOUVER AIRPORT AUTHORITY

Vote for the Connecting the Community Award

In addition to the award category in which they are nominated, all nominees are eligible to win the Connecting the Community Award – the only award category where the recipient is selected by popular vote. Each nominee has chosen a YWCA cause that is important to her for a chance to donate $10,000, courtesy of Scotiabank, to the YWCA program of her choice. VOTE NOW »