Speaker & Presenter Bios
Kelly Diels is a writer and feminist marketing consultant and her approach is based upon the marketing strategies of movements and revolutionaries (if you’ve worked with her you’ll be able to testify). Her chief inspirations for how to get visible and get sh*t done are the Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr – the man was a master strategist – and the black lesbian feminist poet Audre Lorde. She is a published writer and social critic. She has a BA with honours in Poli Sci. She has five children. Every Sunday she writes blazing epistles of righteousness. And she is a rampant feminist. Her feminism and her work are about justice.
Anna Dewar Gully is a creative strategist, systems thinker, and women-in-business and leadership evangelist with 15 years of experience leading strategy, strategic planning, and strategic communications for large and complex organizations in Canada and the UK. She’s also a female entrepreneur, a writer, and a mother to two small girls. Driven by questions about how we can make the world work better for all people, Anna is passionate about working as an advisor and partner to women entrepreneurs and leaders. Anna holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy and Management from the University of London (UK) and a BA from McGill University.
Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi - With more than 10 years of teaching experience in higher education, Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi’s research interests include gender and diversity, identity construction, transformational and experiential learning models, portfolio learning and critical reflection. She developed a passion for innovation in teaching and learning in 2012 when she led the design and delivery of a portfolio learning model in five new Bachelor of Business Administration programs for an Ontario-based college, fostering self-awareness, growth mindset and 21st century skills. In 2013, Golnaraghi was a co-recipient of a significant research grant through the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities for her work in experiential learning in higher education business courses. She has published her research in books, magazines, blogs and peer review journals including the International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management and Equity, and Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal.
CV Harquail, Co-Founder of Feminists at Work and faculty at Stevens Institute of Technology, is a feminist management professor and consultant whose work weaves together the fields of organizational change, social justice, and digital technology. CV has worked with over 100 teams of entrepreneurs, helping them use Lean Startup processes to bring business ideas forward and adopt new technologies. CV also helps business leaders incorporate feminist values and goals into their companies, changing the world by transforming business.
CV is currently documenting how feminism has already transformed business in an upcoming book and she has presented her research at Harvard Business School, Stern Business School (NYU), Kellogg (Northwestern), Booth (UChicago), and TEDxHoboken. She has published in AMJ and AMR, and her essays on feminist business/ product design appear in two major Women’s Studies anthologies. She writes at the Huffington Post, Forbes.com, Women2.0, and the Harvard Business Review, as well as her blog AuthenticOrganizations. Read more at cvharquail.com.
Holly Nimmons started her business “Opis ” in 2006 after many years of association management. Opis helps leaders and organizations to manifest their vision, providing services to non-profit/social profit organizations, including strategic planning, leadership support and community engagement programs. Holly’s past leadership roles include YWCA Canada, the College of Midwives of Ontario, and the Coalition for Music Education in Canada. She conceived and implemented start-up for national programs such as Youth4Music, Wise Voices for Music, and Women’s Empowerment through Music.
Holly’s advocacy skills were ignited in the early 80s for feminism and women’s health when she became a founding leader of the Ontario midwifery consumer movement, which led to the regulation of midwifery in Ontario.
Dr. Barb Orser - Professor Orser is a Full Professor and the Deloitte Professor in the Management of Growth Enterprises. In 2010, Dr. Orser was recognized by the Women's Executive Network as a 100 Most Power Women in Canada (Champion Category) and The International Alliance of Women World of Difference 100 Awards. In 2011, she received the University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management Award for Service, Teaching and Research.
She is an active advisor to the federal government and the former Chair of the Taskforce for Women's Enterprise Growth (2009-2011), a Canadian non-partisan consortium of prominent women business owners, SME service agencies, academics and industry associations. Prior to joining Telfer School of Management in 2005, she was an Associate Professor at Carleton and Ryerson University and Program Manager of the Conference Board of Canada Centre of Excellence for Women's Advancement. Barbara Orser is co-author with Catherine Elliot of Feminine Capital: Unlocking the Power of Women Entrepreneurs, published by Stanford University Press in 2015.
Céline Peterson started her own business “Social Legacy” in 2015 after several years of freelance Social Media Consulting and Management. She provides services to the highly successful Kensington Market Jazz Festival, the ArtsGames and International Jazz Day as well as legacy profiles for Al Jarreau and Oscar Peterson. Céline is sought after for her remarkable public speaking skills, and will soon host the Canadian Network for Learning and the Arts 2017 Conference (Celebrating Canadian Diversity: Building Bridges through the Arts and Learning).
Vicki Saunders has co-founded and run 4 ventures in Europe, Toronto, and Silicon Valley including Zazengo (an online platform for consumer and employee engagement for Fortune500 companies focused on sustainability), KidsNRG/The NRG Group (which went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2000), and Impactanation, a global consulting firm focused on engaging youth to tackle the grand challenges we are facing.
Vicki was recently named one of the 100 most influential leaders of 2015 from “EBW – Empowering A Billion Women”, alongside Marissa Mayer, Melinda Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, and Michelle Obama. In 2001, Vicki was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. She has spoken regularly at events around the world including; The World Economic Forum in Davos, Women of Influence Series in Canada, TEDx Conference, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs events and the Tallberg Forum.
Tuti B. Scott is a consultant for strategic philanthropy and investing and a coach to high-achieving leaders. A life-long athlete, Tuti engaged thousands of supporters for the Women’s Sports Foundation where she raised $70 million to support women’s leadership and equal access to sports for women and girls. Known as the “Chief Inspiration Officer” of the women’s funding movement, Tuti has been a leader in social justice philanthropy, women’s rights, and women’s sports for more than three decades. An energizing author and speaker, “Coach Tuti” inspires people and organizations to up their leadership game to create and fund change.
Tuti has assisted many founders and leaders such as Geena Davis, Noreen Farrell, Serene Jones, Jane Sloane and others in their work. Her clients have included Women Moving Millions, Root Capital, Third Wave Fund, Civil Liberties and Public Policy among others. Tuti has been a featured speaker and workshop producer for the Women’s Funding Network, the Jewish Women’s Funding Network, and several of member funds of these networks. She currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Tides and is a founding Board member of the Women Win Foundation. She is proud to call herself an intersectional feminist and bold philanthropist.
Suzanne Stein is a member of OCAD U’s Digital Futures Office (established in 2009), focusing on new technologies and research methods. She presently holds adjunct Faculty positions at AHO (Norway), the CFC (Canada), and the Unfinished Busines School (virtual). Previously she was Deputy Director and Principal Research Fellow in Technology Futures at SMARTlab (United Kingdom) and part of Nokia Corporate Strategy’s Insight & Foresight group. Earlier work included Sapient Corporation, as Discipline Lead for the Experience Modeling (XMod) group in London, and Director of the User Experience Group.
Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall is a design anthropologist, public intellectual, and design advocate who works at the intersections of critical theory, culture, and design. As Dean of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University, she is the first black and black female dean of a faculty of design. She leads the Cultures-Based Innovation Initiative focused on using old ways of knowing to drive innovation processes that directly benefit communities.
With a global career, Dori served as Associate Professor of Design Anthropology and Associate Dean at Swinburne University in Australia. She wrote the biweekly column Un-Design for The Conversation Australia. In the U.S., she taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She organized the U.S. National Design Policy Initiative and served as a director of Design for Democracy. Industry positions included UX strategists for Sapient Corporation and Arc Worldwide. Dori holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University and a BA in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College.
Natalie Wood loves bowties and likes to say that she wears three different kinds of bowties that match the work within which she is engaged. She is an award winning contemporary visual and media artist; She is a tenured faculty in the Social Service Worker program at George Brown College; and she is a Co-founder and Co-ordinator of the Social Innovation Hub (SIHub) at GBC. The SIHub was nominated for a GBC Innovation Award in 2016 and is now considered an integral part of the Centre for Community and Social Services which is implementing plans to scale it across the Division and the College. Other selected awards include a Black Leadership Award from the Black Student Success Network at GBC 2017, Community Based Research Award of Merit, from the Centre for Urban Health Initiatives & the Wellesley Institute 2007, the New Pioneers Award for contribution to Arts and Culture 2006, and the City of York Civic Recognition Award for using the Arts to support marginalized communities 1997 and numerous grant awards from Toronto, Ontario and Canada arts council.
Rania Younes’ education and her ability to inspire and motivate has crafted 20 years of progressive marketing experience, which has taken her to exciting positions as Senior Strategic Planner at Ogilvy & Mather, Project Manager at Brand Momentum, and Brand Manager for many leading brands. In the last seven years, social justice and economic opportunity became a key focus after Rania became involved with various NGOs and her role as programs director at the Canadian-Arab Institute. Rania is the co-founder of a grassroots initiative WelcomeHomeTO, which works closely with local community groups to articulate and bring attention to their settlement challenges. She co-founded a professional networking organization with a mission to empower newcomers through professional development, civic action, and mentorship. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Arab Community Centre of Toronto.
Rania is a mother of three who is equally as involved in her children’s education as she is committed to her career. She has received an AMI Primary Diploma from the Association Montessori International, which has inspired her to initiate community youth programs that tackle identity, integration, and development conversations. Rania holds a Bachelor in Arts, specializing in journalism, mass communication, public relations, and advertising.
Renee the Voice
Toronto-based, Renee started singing at the age of 14, when her voice matured. Like magic, a star was born. She performed in multiple school musicals but at the age of 18, when someone gifted her a small, pink ukulele, she was inspired to compose her first song. Renee, who attended school in Tobago for a portion of her lifetime, wrote quite a bit of poetry while living on the small island – these writing skills would later contribute to her song lyrics.
Renee has been blessed to write an endless number of songs since then, about various life happenings. Freedom, suicide, depression and Love are among some of the topics Renee explores with her music. Her first performance at an open mic event (RISE Edutainment) in the year of 2012 has led her to be asked to perform at a growing number of venues over the past few years. The spontaneity of her entire music career takes Renee by pleasant surprise. Looking ahead, with a piano, guitar, ukulele, and neverending inspiration, Renee continues to prosper and shine.
“Shine bright!” Renee is one star, in this huge galaxy.
Britta B.
A proud and recognizable resident of Toronto’s Regent Park, Britta B. has made a name for herself as a spoken word poet both in competitive and feature performances nationwide, including the National Poetry Slam and Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. She’s also held the Toronto International Poetry Slam championship title while representing Toronto at the Woman of the World Poetry Slam. As an Arts Educator and Leadership Workshop Facilitator, Britta has worked with students of all abilities and backgrounds in more than 250 schools and community centers nationwide.
In 2016, Britta was selected as an Artist-In-Resident for The Power Plant Power Youth Program, mentoring youth in Regent Park through meaningful and artistic engagement with an emphasis on community collaboration. Britta is also a returning juror and mentor for the tdsbCREATES program.
Britta features as a lead cast member in the musical and award winning documentary film, The Journey, based on the revitalization of Regent Park. She has spoken at several TEDx events including TEDx Distillery District Women and has had numerous performances on the St. Lawrence Center for the Arts’ stage for Dwayne Morgan’s production of When Sisters Speak. Most recently, Britta toured across Canada as the resident poet for the second installment of Ask Her Talks presented by the Stephen Lewis Foundation. With a passion to provide ongoing mentorship for “at-promise” youth, Britta also facilitates after-school leadership programming with UNITY Charity and a self-care project for youth residing on the Fort Chipewyan reserve in northern Alberta. To find out where Britta is performing or if you would like to book her for an event, feel free to introduce yourself at missbrittab@gmail.com.
EFF PRODUCERS
CV Harquail, Co-Founder of Feminists at Work and faculty at Stevens Institute of Technology, is a feminist management professor and consultant whose work weaves together the fields of organizational change, social justice, and digital technology. CV has worked with over 100 teams of entrepreneurs, helping them use Lean Startup processes to bring business ideas forward and adopt new technologies. CV also helps business leaders incorporate feminist values and goals into their companies, changing the world by transforming business. She is currently documenting how feminism has already transformed business in an upcoming book and she has presented her research at Harvard Business School, Stern Business School (NYU), Kellogg (Northwestern), Booth (UChicago), and TEDxHoboken. She has published in AMJ and AMR, and her essays on feminist business/ product design appear in two major Women’s Studies anthologies. She writes at the Huffington Post, Forbes.com, Women2.0, and the Harvard Business Review, as well as her blog AuthenticOrganizations. Read more at cvharquail.com.
Petra Kassun-Mutch is an activist entrepreneur, former book publishing executive, and mom who is capable of both dining at the Waldorf and living in her car. She is the founder and CEO of Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, Former executive director for the Imagination Catalyst, OCAD University’s start-up incubator. She’s a social entrepreneur in residence at Community Innovation Lab and the founder of Liisbeth.
Lex Schroeder is a writer/editor and business strategist in the systems thinking community, Co-Founder of Feminists at Work, and the Marketing & Editorial Team Lead at Imagine Philanthropy, a strategic philanthropy and invesing firm. As Co-Founder of Feminists at Work, Lex brings a feminist lens to transforming businesses, organizations, and systems. Her focus these days is creating new knowledge at the intersection of gender justice and the future of work. Lex has led strategic initiatives at The Berkana Institute, The Lean Enterprise Institute, and Take The Lead, a U.S. nonprofit dedicated to gender parity in leadership across all sectors by 2025. During Take The Lead’s early startup years, she co-developed and scaled a unique leadership development program flipping power on its head serving 500+ women, recruiting and managing an intergenerational team of 30 leaders across the country.
Lex has presented workshops or spoken on collective leadership at NYU, Yale, See Jane Do, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Her views on leadership have been featured in ELLE France, Fast Company, and Boston.com. Lex is trained in the Art of Hosting, a set of participatory leadership methods and way of working with emergence and collective intelligence during gatherings that allows for responsive design. She lives in Harlem and tries to get to the Maine coast as often as she can. Her favorite dance troupes are Ballez and STREB Action Lab.
Kelly Diels is a writer and feminist marketing consultant and her approach is based upon the marketing strategies of movements and revolutionaries (if you’ve worked with her you’ll be able to testify). Her chief inspirations for how to get visible and get sh*t done are the Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr – the man was a master strategist – and the black lesbian feminist poet Audre Lorde. She is a published writer and social critic. She has a BA with honours in Poli Sci. She has five children. Every Sunday she writes blazing epistles of righteousness. And she is a rampant feminist. Her feminism and her work are about justice.
Anna Dewar Gully is a creative strategist, systems thinker, and women-in-business and leadership evangelist with 15 years of experience leading strategy, strategic planning, and strategic communications for large and complex organizations in Canada and the UK. She’s also a female entrepreneur, a writer, and a mother to two small girls. Driven by questions about how we can make the world work better for all people, Anna is passionate about working as an advisor and partner to women entrepreneurs and leaders. Anna holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy and Management from the University of London (UK) and a BA from McGill University.
Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi - With more than 10 years of teaching experience in higher education, Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi’s research interests include gender and diversity, identity construction, transformational and experiential learning models, portfolio learning and critical reflection. She developed a passion for innovation in teaching and learning in 2012 when she led the design and delivery of a portfolio learning model in five new Bachelor of Business Administration programs for an Ontario-based college, fostering self-awareness, growth mindset and 21st century skills. In 2013, Golnaraghi was a co-recipient of a significant research grant through the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities for her work in experiential learning in higher education business courses. She has published her research in books, magazines, blogs and peer review journals including the International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management and Equity, and Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal.
CV Harquail, Co-Founder of Feminists at Work and faculty at Stevens Institute of Technology, is a feminist management professor and consultant whose work weaves together the fields of organizational change, social justice, and digital technology. CV has worked with over 100 teams of entrepreneurs, helping them use Lean Startup processes to bring business ideas forward and adopt new technologies. CV also helps business leaders incorporate feminist values and goals into their companies, changing the world by transforming business.
CV is currently documenting how feminism has already transformed business in an upcoming book and she has presented her research at Harvard Business School, Stern Business School (NYU), Kellogg (Northwestern), Booth (UChicago), and TEDxHoboken. She has published in AMJ and AMR, and her essays on feminist business/ product design appear in two major Women’s Studies anthologies. She writes at the Huffington Post, Forbes.com, Women2.0, and the Harvard Business Review, as well as her blog AuthenticOrganizations. Read more at cvharquail.com.
Holly Nimmons started her business “Opis ” in 2006 after many years of association management. Opis helps leaders and organizations to manifest their vision, providing services to non-profit/social profit organizations, including strategic planning, leadership support and community engagement programs. Holly’s past leadership roles include YWCA Canada, the College of Midwives of Ontario, and the Coalition for Music Education in Canada. She conceived and implemented start-up for national programs such as Youth4Music, Wise Voices for Music, and Women’s Empowerment through Music.
Holly’s advocacy skills were ignited in the early 80s for feminism and women’s health when she became a founding leader of the Ontario midwifery consumer movement, which led to the regulation of midwifery in Ontario.
Dr. Barb Orser - Professor Orser is a Full Professor and the Deloitte Professor in the Management of Growth Enterprises. In 2010, Dr. Orser was recognized by the Women's Executive Network as a 100 Most Power Women in Canada (Champion Category) and The International Alliance of Women World of Difference 100 Awards. In 2011, she received the University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management Award for Service, Teaching and Research.
She is an active advisor to the federal government and the former Chair of the Taskforce for Women's Enterprise Growth (2009-2011), a Canadian non-partisan consortium of prominent women business owners, SME service agencies, academics and industry associations. Prior to joining Telfer School of Management in 2005, she was an Associate Professor at Carleton and Ryerson University and Program Manager of the Conference Board of Canada Centre of Excellence for Women's Advancement. Barbara Orser is co-author with Catherine Elliot of Feminine Capital: Unlocking the Power of Women Entrepreneurs, published by Stanford University Press in 2015.
Céline Peterson started her own business “Social Legacy” in 2015 after several years of freelance Social Media Consulting and Management. She provides services to the highly successful Kensington Market Jazz Festival, the ArtsGames and International Jazz Day as well as legacy profiles for Al Jarreau and Oscar Peterson. Céline is sought after for her remarkable public speaking skills, and will soon host the Canadian Network for Learning and the Arts 2017 Conference (Celebrating Canadian Diversity: Building Bridges through the Arts and Learning).
Vicki Saunders has co-founded and run 4 ventures in Europe, Toronto, and Silicon Valley including Zazengo (an online platform for consumer and employee engagement for Fortune500 companies focused on sustainability), KidsNRG/The NRG Group (which went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2000), and Impactanation, a global consulting firm focused on engaging youth to tackle the grand challenges we are facing.
Vicki was recently named one of the 100 most influential leaders of 2015 from “EBW – Empowering A Billion Women”, alongside Marissa Mayer, Melinda Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, and Michelle Obama. In 2001, Vicki was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. She has spoken regularly at events around the world including; The World Economic Forum in Davos, Women of Influence Series in Canada, TEDx Conference, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs events and the Tallberg Forum.
Tuti B. Scott is a consultant for strategic philanthropy and investing and a coach to high-achieving leaders. A life-long athlete, Tuti engaged thousands of supporters for the Women’s Sports Foundation where she raised $70 million to support women’s leadership and equal access to sports for women and girls. Known as the “Chief Inspiration Officer” of the women’s funding movement, Tuti has been a leader in social justice philanthropy, women’s rights, and women’s sports for more than three decades. An energizing author and speaker, “Coach Tuti” inspires people and organizations to up their leadership game to create and fund change.
Tuti has assisted many founders and leaders such as Geena Davis, Noreen Farrell, Serene Jones, Jane Sloane and others in their work. Her clients have included Women Moving Millions, Root Capital, Third Wave Fund, Civil Liberties and Public Policy among others. Tuti has been a featured speaker and workshop producer for the Women’s Funding Network, the Jewish Women’s Funding Network, and several of member funds of these networks. She currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Tides and is a founding Board member of the Women Win Foundation. She is proud to call herself an intersectional feminist and bold philanthropist.
Suzanne Stein is a member of OCAD U’s Digital Futures Office (established in 2009), focusing on new technologies and research methods. She presently holds adjunct Faculty positions at AHO (Norway), the CFC (Canada), and the Unfinished Busines School (virtual). Previously she was Deputy Director and Principal Research Fellow in Technology Futures at SMARTlab (United Kingdom) and part of Nokia Corporate Strategy’s Insight & Foresight group. Earlier work included Sapient Corporation, as Discipline Lead for the Experience Modeling (XMod) group in London, and Director of the User Experience Group.
Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall is a design anthropologist, public intellectual, and design advocate who works at the intersections of critical theory, culture, and design. As Dean of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University, she is the first black and black female dean of a faculty of design. She leads the Cultures-Based Innovation Initiative focused on using old ways of knowing to drive innovation processes that directly benefit communities.
With a global career, Dori served as Associate Professor of Design Anthropology and Associate Dean at Swinburne University in Australia. She wrote the biweekly column Un-Design for The Conversation Australia. In the U.S., she taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She organized the U.S. National Design Policy Initiative and served as a director of Design for Democracy. Industry positions included UX strategists for Sapient Corporation and Arc Worldwide. Dori holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University and a BA in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College.
Natalie Wood loves bowties and likes to say that she wears three different kinds of bowties that match the work within which she is engaged. She is an award winning contemporary visual and media artist; She is a tenured faculty in the Social Service Worker program at George Brown College; and she is a Co-founder and Co-ordinator of the Social Innovation Hub (SIHub) at GBC. The SIHub was nominated for a GBC Innovation Award in 2016 and is now considered an integral part of the Centre for Community and Social Services which is implementing plans to scale it across the Division and the College. Other selected awards include a Black Leadership Award from the Black Student Success Network at GBC 2017, Community Based Research Award of Merit, from the Centre for Urban Health Initiatives & the Wellesley Institute 2007, the New Pioneers Award for contribution to Arts and Culture 2006, and the City of York Civic Recognition Award for using the Arts to support marginalized communities 1997 and numerous grant awards from Toronto, Ontario and Canada arts council.
Rania Younes’ education and her ability to inspire and motivate has crafted 20 years of progressive marketing experience, which has taken her to exciting positions as Senior Strategic Planner at Ogilvy & Mather, Project Manager at Brand Momentum, and Brand Manager for many leading brands. In the last seven years, social justice and economic opportunity became a key focus after Rania became involved with various NGOs and her role as programs director at the Canadian-Arab Institute. Rania is the co-founder of a grassroots initiative WelcomeHomeTO, which works closely with local community groups to articulate and bring attention to their settlement challenges. She co-founded a professional networking organization with a mission to empower newcomers through professional development, civic action, and mentorship. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Arab Community Centre of Toronto.
Rania is a mother of three who is equally as involved in her children’s education as she is committed to her career. She has received an AMI Primary Diploma from the Association Montessori International, which has inspired her to initiate community youth programs that tackle identity, integration, and development conversations. Rania holds a Bachelor in Arts, specializing in journalism, mass communication, public relations, and advertising.
Renee the Voice
Toronto-based, Renee started singing at the age of 14, when her voice matured. Like magic, a star was born. She performed in multiple school musicals but at the age of 18, when someone gifted her a small, pink ukulele, she was inspired to compose her first song. Renee, who attended school in Tobago for a portion of her lifetime, wrote quite a bit of poetry while living on the small island – these writing skills would later contribute to her song lyrics.
Renee has been blessed to write an endless number of songs since then, about various life happenings. Freedom, suicide, depression and Love are among some of the topics Renee explores with her music. Her first performance at an open mic event (RISE Edutainment) in the year of 2012 has led her to be asked to perform at a growing number of venues over the past few years. The spontaneity of her entire music career takes Renee by pleasant surprise. Looking ahead, with a piano, guitar, ukulele, and neverending inspiration, Renee continues to prosper and shine.
“Shine bright!” Renee is one star, in this huge galaxy.
Britta B.
A proud and recognizable resident of Toronto’s Regent Park, Britta B. has made a name for herself as a spoken word poet both in competitive and feature performances nationwide, including the National Poetry Slam and Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. She’s also held the Toronto International Poetry Slam championship title while representing Toronto at the Woman of the World Poetry Slam. As an Arts Educator and Leadership Workshop Facilitator, Britta has worked with students of all abilities and backgrounds in more than 250 schools and community centers nationwide.
In 2016, Britta was selected as an Artist-In-Resident for The Power Plant Power Youth Program, mentoring youth in Regent Park through meaningful and artistic engagement with an emphasis on community collaboration. Britta is also a returning juror and mentor for the tdsbCREATES program.
Britta features as a lead cast member in the musical and award winning documentary film, The Journey, based on the revitalization of Regent Park. She has spoken at several TEDx events including TEDx Distillery District Women and has had numerous performances on the St. Lawrence Center for the Arts’ stage for Dwayne Morgan’s production of When Sisters Speak. Most recently, Britta toured across Canada as the resident poet for the second installment of Ask Her Talks presented by the Stephen Lewis Foundation. With a passion to provide ongoing mentorship for “at-promise” youth, Britta also facilitates after-school leadership programming with UNITY Charity and a self-care project for youth residing on the Fort Chipewyan reserve in northern Alberta. To find out where Britta is performing or if you would like to book her for an event, feel free to introduce yourself at missbrittab@gmail.com.
EFF PRODUCERS
CV Harquail, Co-Founder of Feminists at Work and faculty at Stevens Institute of Technology, is a feminist management professor and consultant whose work weaves together the fields of organizational change, social justice, and digital technology. CV has worked with over 100 teams of entrepreneurs, helping them use Lean Startup processes to bring business ideas forward and adopt new technologies. CV also helps business leaders incorporate feminist values and goals into their companies, changing the world by transforming business. She is currently documenting how feminism has already transformed business in an upcoming book and she has presented her research at Harvard Business School, Stern Business School (NYU), Kellogg (Northwestern), Booth (UChicago), and TEDxHoboken. She has published in AMJ and AMR, and her essays on feminist business/ product design appear in two major Women’s Studies anthologies. She writes at the Huffington Post, Forbes.com, Women2.0, and the Harvard Business Review, as well as her blog AuthenticOrganizations. Read more at cvharquail.com.
Petra Kassun-Mutch is an activist entrepreneur, former book publishing executive, and mom who is capable of both dining at the Waldorf and living in her car. She is the founder and CEO of Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, Former executive director for the Imagination Catalyst, OCAD University’s start-up incubator. She’s a social entrepreneur in residence at Community Innovation Lab and the founder of Liisbeth.
Lex Schroeder is a writer/editor and business strategist in the systems thinking community, Co-Founder of Feminists at Work, and the Marketing & Editorial Team Lead at Imagine Philanthropy, a strategic philanthropy and invesing firm. As Co-Founder of Feminists at Work, Lex brings a feminist lens to transforming businesses, organizations, and systems. Her focus these days is creating new knowledge at the intersection of gender justice and the future of work. Lex has led strategic initiatives at The Berkana Institute, The Lean Enterprise Institute, and Take The Lead, a U.S. nonprofit dedicated to gender parity in leadership across all sectors by 2025. During Take The Lead’s early startup years, she co-developed and scaled a unique leadership development program flipping power on its head serving 500+ women, recruiting and managing an intergenerational team of 30 leaders across the country.
Lex has presented workshops or spoken on collective leadership at NYU, Yale, See Jane Do, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Her views on leadership have been featured in ELLE France, Fast Company, and Boston.com. Lex is trained in the Art of Hosting, a set of participatory leadership methods and way of working with emergence and collective intelligence during gatherings that allows for responsive design. She lives in Harlem and tries to get to the Maine coast as often as she can. Her favorite dance troupes are Ballez and STREB Action Lab.