2009 Women of Distinction Nominees

YWCA Metro Vancouver is pleased to announce 60 extraordinary nominees for its 26th annual Women of Distinction Awards.

This year’s nominees are:

Arts, Culture & Design

Sponsored by TD Waterhouse

Fiona Black – Director of Programming, Capilano University Theatre
Jane Heyman – Theatre Director
Chen Lizra – Dancer and Founder, Latidos Productions
Wendy Newman – Executive Director, ArtStarts in Schools
Terry Sabine – Administrator, Powell River Academy of Music

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Business & the Professions

Paulah Dauns – Adjudicator, Indian Residential School Adjudication Secretariat
Helen Goodland – Executive Director, Light House Sustainable Building Centre
Margaret Ostrowski Q.C. – Lawyer and Adjudicator
Martha Rans – Program Coordinator, Artists’ Legal Outreach, Alliance for Arts and Culture
Inge Roecker – Principal Architect, ASIR Studio / Living Lab / Assistant Professor UBC SALA
Rebecca Tunnacliffe – CEO, Physiotherapy Association of BC

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Community Building

Sponsored by Industrial Alliance Pacific

Renata Aebi – Director, Youth and Employment Services, Family Services of Greater Vancouver
Nalda Callender – Executive Director, National Congress of Black Women Foundation
Jas Cheema – Manager, Diversity Services, Surrey Memorial Hospital
Christy Clark – Host, The Christy Clark Show
Ann Howe – Coordinator, Out of the Cold
Caroline MacGillivray – Founder and President, Beauty Night
Adrienne Montani – Provincial Coordinator, First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
Glenda Watson Hyatt – Communicator and Public Speaker

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Education, Training & Development

Sponsored by Port Metro Vancouver

Melania Alvarez – BC Education Coordinator, Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences
Gira Bhatt – Assistant Professor, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Mary Anne Bobinski – Dean, Faculty of Law, UBC
Sophie Lavieri – Senior Lecturer of Chemistry, SFU

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Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Joyce Gwilliam – President, Insights Vancouver
Colleen Nystedt – President & CEO, MovieSet Inc.
Ratana Stephens – COO and Co-founder, Nature’s Path Organic Foods

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Health & Active Living

Sponsored by Teck

Lori Brotto – Director, UBC Sexual Health Lab
Alice Choi – Executive Director, Health and Housing Services, S.U.C.C.E.S.S.
Heather McKay – Professor, Centre for Hip Health and Mobility
Tonya McLaughlin – Director, Government Programs, WTF Taekwondo Federation of BC
Ann Meraw – Swim Instructor, Coach and Author
Anne Riddick – Founder, Ankylosing Spondylitis Association of BC
Dixie Lee Vance – Therapist/Supervisor, Urban Native Youth Association

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Non-Profit & Public Service

Sponsored by BC Housing

Shawn Bayes – Executive Director, Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver
Susan Borthwick – Regional Director, Lower Mainland, Canadian Red Cross
Joy Hayden – Director, Resource and Program Development, Down Syndrome Research Foundation
Miriam Jurigová – Program Coordinator/Legal Advocate, MOSAIC
Shirley Kepper – Regional Director, UNICEF Canada
Christine Kinney Ludlow – Executive Director, Tri City Family Place Society
Teri Nicholas – Executive Director, Family Services of Greater Vancouver
Audrey Salahub – Executive Director, Asante Centre for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Nola-Kate Seymoar – President and CEO, Sustainable Cities Foundation
Diane Sowden – Executive Director, Children of the Street Society
Judy Emily Williams – Co-chair, Fraser River Coalition and Chair, Wreck Beach Preservation Society
Adele Wilson – Executive Director, Marguerite Dixon Transition Society

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Technology, Science & Industry

Sponsored by Goldcorp Inc.

Elizabeth Croft – Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UBC
Charmaine Dean – Professor of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SFU
Adele Diamond – Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, UBC, and Canada Research Chair
Judy Illes – Director, National Core for Neuroethics and Professor of Neurology, UBC
Sheila Innis – Professor, Dept. of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC, and Director, Nutrition & Metabolism, Child & Family Research Institute
Margo Moore – Professor of Biological Sciences, SFU

Read about the nominees.