Five Richmond women are up for this year’s YWCA Metro Vancouver’s Women of Distinction Awards.
The Women of Distinction Awards, launched in 1984, honours individuals and organizations whose work has contributed to the well-being and future of the community, according to a news release.
The 37th annual awards ceremony will be held May 11 at JW Marriot Parq Vancouver.
Here’s Richmond’s nominees, and a little bit about them:
Nominees for Entrepreneurship and Innovation award:
Amiee Chan, president and CEO, Norsat International Inc.
Engineer Amiee Chan revived a nearly-insolvent company by expanding it into the export market, and achieving innovative product development and consistent revenue growth, according to a news release.
Her company, Norsat International Inc., is a satellite communications company. Under Chan’s leadership, Norsat won a BC Export Award for advancing technology innovation.
Chan holds three US patents and has been involved in high-level research teams, such as the NASA ACTS (Advanced Communications Technology) program. She is also an inductee to the Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Award Winner Hall of Fame.
Chan also champions the advancement of women in traditionally male-dominated industries, and mentors young women in science and technology fields.
Madeleine Shaw, co-founder, Lunapads
Lunapads manufactures washable, cloth menstrual pads and underwear, and distributes a commercial menstrual cup, helping to divert twenty million disposable pads and tampons from North American landfills every year.
Shaw’s zero-waste company also works to provide marginalized girls around the globe with menstrual products.
Shaw also founded event series and registered charity, G Day, to help support girls’ self-esteem and family relationships, and Nestworks Workplace Society, a chain of family-friendly workspaces, in response to the child-care crisis.
Teara Fraser, founder and CEO, Iskwew Air
Iskwer Air is the first Indigenous woman-owned and operated airline in Canada, founded by Teara Fraser, in an industry where less than three per cent of executives are women.
Fraser obtained her commercial pilot’s license at age 32, and launched her first business KÎSIK Aerial Survey Inc., in 2010. She sold that business in 2016.
She launched Give Them Wings to inspire Indigenous youth with the possibilities of flight and to help provide a roadmap to achieving their goals. In addition to this program, Fraser founded the Raven Institute, which hosts a gathering space, leadership programs and reconciliation efforts.
Nominee for Reconcilation in Action award:
Mary Point, manager of Indigenous relations, Vancouver Airport Authority
Mary Point is YVR’s first Indigenous relations manager, and leads and oversees the airport’s groundbreaking YVR-Musqueam friendship and sustainability agreement.
Since the agreement was signed, more than 150 applicants, representing over 10 per cent of Musqueam, have sought employment at the airport. Ninety people have accepted employment at YVR.
In her previous role as Musqueam’s community planner, Point worked with a team to produce an award-winning sustainable community plan that provides a path and vision for Musqueam First Nation to be self-governing and self-sustaining.
Point was also one of the first to act and inspire others to protect the ancestors of Musqueam sacred space during the First Nation’s action to protect the open graves of their ancestors under the Arthur Laing Bridge.
Nominee for Non-Profit award:
Shachi Kurl, executive director, Angus Reid Institute
In her role as executive director with Angus Reid, Shachi Kurl commissions and analyses public opinion data on topics that include housing, transit, education, women’s rights and healthcare, work that has helped improve the lives of Metro Vancouver residents.
She has led the non-profit institute from its infancy to its prominent place in the B.C. and Canadian public and social policy sector.
Shachi leverages her role as a public policy and polling expert to build profiles for marginalized communities and the unique challenges they face as a result of inequality, poverty and systemic discrimination.
