Board of Directors - Elections 2019

Alanna Sokic is a key member of the Global team in Toronto, where she coordinates the firm's cannabis-related mandates across the country. Alanna works on complex public affairs campaigns, assisting clients through challenging and complicated issues. She is an active contributor to Canada’s burgeoning cannabis industry, having been named a ‘must-know’ professional under 30 by PostMedia Network and named to the Board of Advisors for the Ontario Independent Cannabis Association. 

Alanna's involvement with Equal Voice dates back to 2017, where she assisted with the inaugural 'Daughters of the Vote' program; serving as on-site logistical support to the Board of Directors and coordinated all delegate travel. Alanna currently serves as the Election Readiness Co-Lead for the Toronto Chapter of Equal Voice. In this role, Alanna helped spearhead the coordination and logistics for the Chapter's 2019 Election Pop-Up Panel series. 

Alanna earned a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in Political Science and Communications Studies and spent a semester abroad in Brussels at the L’Universite libre de Bruxelles. 

Emily Howe-Conlin is the Firm-wide Communications Specialist for a leading international law firm. Her previous communications work has been for companies and organizations in the health, agriculture, government relations and aviation spaces. She holds a BA in Communications from Carleton University, and an MA in Communications from the University of Ottawa. She has been a member of Equal Voice since 2016, and volunteered on the Toronto Chapter’s Steering Committee as Co-lead of Election Readiness for 2018-19. She wants to help achieve equal representation of womxn in politics in Canada by supporting the various activities, programs and voices of EV Toronto. 

Hyacinth Khin joined Equal Voice because she believes that full and equitable participation of women in public life is essential to a fairer and more equitable society. As Vice Chair, she hopes to contribute to the strategic planning and execution of initiatives to support, encourage, and empower more women to become strong political leaders. Hyacinth is currently a Senior Client Advisor at the Ministry of Economic, Development, Job Creation & Trade in the Ontario Public Service. At the Ministry, she works on investment and trade policies and programs to drive economic development across the province’s regions and industries. Prior to this role, she worked at the Law Society of Ontario in equity and diversity initiatives, including the status and retention of women in the legal workplace and on challenges faced by racialized licensees. She holds an Hons. B.A. (Political Science) from the University of Toronto, a Post-baccalaureate Certificate in Public Administration and Leadership from Ryerson University and a Master’s in Public Policy, Administration & Law from York University. She currently serves on the executive committee of the University of Toronto’s Political Science Alumni Association, is recent past President of her graduate student association, and volunteers for various organizations, including United Way, Common Thread Community Chorus, and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Megan Boyle is currently Director of Public and Regulatory Affairs with Red Bull Canada. She has a demonstrated history of working in the food & beverages industry, having previously worked for the Canadian Beverage Association for almost four years as their Senior Director of Government Relations.

Prior to that, Megan worked as a Senior Consultant with a focus in Health and Life Sciences and spent 8 years as a political staffer at Queen’s Park working for two Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs).  

Megan is active within the Toronto volunteer community and currently sits on several Boards including the Empire Club of Canada; Equal Voice Toronto and Parkinson’s Canada.

Born in Vancouver, B.C., Megan and her family moved to the GTA at a young age and has called Toronto home ever since. 

Stefanie Di Domenico is passionate about driving positive change to get more women into politics and inspire others to support women along the way.

As a seasoned professional with stakeholder engagement through experiences with non-profits and government, Stefanie knows that in order to succeed, we need to collaborate – no matter what stripes we wear. As a public servant, she understands the importance of the multi-partisan nature of Equal Voice, allowing us to bring together diverse voices in support of one goal – breaking down the barriers to bring more women into politics. Having successfully supported volunteer management and fundraising efforts, Stefanie knows how to get people on board and listen to the needs of our members to retain their active participation.

As your Head of Strategic Development, Stefanie will commit to diversifying our partners, so that all women have access to the supports Equal Voice offers to engage in politics, build on our relationships with political parties to attract more female leaders to share their experiences and insights, and openly work together with other members interested in the strategic development of our chapter. Of course, working closely with the Head of Community Inclusion to ensure that Equal Voice is open to all.

Fatouma Ahmed completed a double major in International Studies and Sociology and a Certificate in Law and Social Thoughts and Bilingual Excellence. She also completed a Masters of Public Policy, Administration and Law and a Graduate Diploma in Justice System Administration.

Over ten years in the public service, Fatouma has been instrumental in connecting with a diverse array of civil society and religious organizations, municipalities and youth groups. Her continued engagement is a testament to her dedication, efficiency, depth and breadth of her stakeholder relationships in Toronto.

As an immigrant woman, Fatouma’s experience of social exclusion and marginalization inform her activism in areas impacting the inclusion of new immigrants, illustrated by her establishment of the Somali Canadian Alliance for Families.
 

As the Head of Community Inclusion, Fatouma brings a unique and fresh perspective. Minority women are often underrepresented in leadership. It is time for them to take back their voice and have a seat at the table. Diversity adds strength to any organization and the fusion of different perspectives challenges social norms. Fatouma will apply a Gender-based Analysis Plus to consider identity factors, like race, religion, sexual orientation, age, and disability ensuring Equal Voice is safe, inclusive and accessible to all.

Danielle Waters cares deeply about intersectionality and has made it the cornerstone informing her politics, organizing, advocacy, volunteer and work life as well as her art practice. She has worked on three campaigns locally and has helped organize multi party debates in Ottawa as a part of campus life.

She is devoted to bringing true cultural inclusion in regards to 2SLGBTQ communities while striving to establish true allyship with racialized communities, especially those that are indigenous. If elected she will make inclusion an action taken rather than simply a nice word we discuss while never quite hitting the mark.

In her professional career she has worked in private industry as well as public service federally. Most recently this has taken the form of working with Indigenous communities both remote and easily accessible all across Ontario in the realm of Child and Family Services.

She has sat in the Clinical Quality Committee of CAMH overseeing the Clinical Operations of an internationally renowned hospital in order to advocate for the most marginalized and truly bring diversity and cultural inclusion into practice.

Emma Maris is a lawyer, living in Mississauga, called to the Ontario bar in 2002. Emma has had a broad litigation practice, including aboriginal law, professional negligence, medical malpractice, institutional abuse and personal injury. She previously worked for the Cornwall Public Inquiry, established by the Government of Ontario to inquire into events surrounding allegations of abuse and the response of the justice system and other public institutions. Emma has also earned Honours degrees in political science and criminology, focusing her studies on women in politics and gender equality. Emma has a long history of volunteerism and activism. Recently, she has been an active volunteer in local schools, providing literacy support, along with being an active volunteer with Equal Voice Toronto. Emma has also volunteered for political campaigns, most recently as Social Media Chair for a campaign in the 2019 federal election. Emma has a passion for issues of gender equality, specifically interested in media narratives of women in politics. Emma is an avid social media user, anxious to apply those skills to spread awareness of Equal Voice, grow its membership, particularly with younger voters, in furtherance of the goal of gender parity in politics.

Kate Cornell is an arts advocate, and writer based in Toronto. Kate advocates nationally on behalf of the arts sector as the Co-Chair of the Canadian Arts Coalition/la Coalition des arts. As spokesperson for the Coalition, she has been interviewed by the Globe and Mail, Canadian Press, and CBC’s The National. With a in Communication and Culture, her graduate research focused on Canadian cultural policies for dance at the federal level. Her research has been published extensively in anthologies, journals, magazines, and online. Kate has worked in arts management for two decades at a range of organizations including: the Canada Dance Festival, Toronto Dance Theatre, the CanAsian International Dance Festival, the National Ballet of Canada, the Canadian Society for Dance Studies/La société d’études en , and most recently as the Canadian Dance Assembly’s Executive Director. Over the years, Kate has taught at several university performing arts and education programs; she now acts as a mentor in arts management internship programs. Kate sits on Advocacy Committees at the municipal and provincial levels; notably, she is a founding member of the Mass Culture/ Mobilisation Culturelle research lab initiative. Kate Cornell is the proud recipient of the John Hobday Award in Arts Management (2016) from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Emma Riach works for a distinguished human rights organization called the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. It advocates for systemic policy, legal and social change with a focus on promoting the human rights of marginalized people. Since graduating with a degree in political science, Emma has worked internationally in communications and fundraising roles for diverse non-profits. With more than five years of experience planning successful events on a modest budget, Emma can bring an unmatched attention to detail and organization. But more importantly, Emma is a proud intersectional feminist who’s incredibly passionate about advancing the work of Equal Voice and wants to help shape important programs and events that are helping to change the landscape of female representation in this country.

Joanne Pitkin is a senior communications and public affairs professional. Since 2010, she has worked in strategic communications, media relations, issues management and public affairs for clients in Canada's finance, defence, technology and manufacturing sectors. She is currently a Director in the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs practice at Argyle Public Relationships. 

Joanne has been involved in Equal Voice for over eight years, recently serving on the national Board of Directors as NCR Chapter Co-Chair. During her term as NCR Chapter Co-Chair, Joanne oversaw the chapter's steering committee activities and played a pivotal role in organizing the chapter's first campaign school. 

In addition to her involvement in Equal Voice, Joanne volunteers with Women in Governance (La Gouvernance au Féminin), a not-for-profit organization supporting women in leadership development, career advancement and board governance, and is Vice-Chair for the Canadian Advocacy Network, an organization dedicated to providing pro-bono public affairs counsel for non-profit and charity organizations. In October 2017 she joined the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers network and this year lead the Toronto Hub's national initiative on civic engagement. 

Yaelle Gang is currently the chair of the Toronto Chapter of Equal Voice. In this role, she has led many successful projects including election readiness events, a campaign school, a speed networking event, a women in politics book club, a leadership summit for Daughters of the Vote delegates and more. She is passionate about the work Equal Voice does to get more women elected to government and about the multi-partisan nature of the organization.

In her day job, Yaelle is the editor of an investment publication for Canadian pension plans. Prior to this, she was a financial communications manager at a provincial agency and has a wealth of experience from her time on Parliament Hill, where she was a policy advisor to the federal minister of state (finance) and worked on two federal budgets. Yaelle also served as the legislative assistant to a member of parliament on the finance committee.