Jenny Ahn

Labour

For more than a quarter of a century, Jenny Ahn has been a force for women within the labour movement. In the 1990s, she became the youngest and first woman of colour elected to the National Executive Board of the Canadian Autoworkers Union (now Unifor). Her work there won historic improvements in wages, benefits, job security, and opportunities for women across sectors—including manufacturing, rail, and road and air transportation, as well as retail, hospitality, and caregiving—in both private and public sector workplaces. Internationally, she has held key roles at Union Network International (UNI) Global Union and the International Domestic Workers Federation, advancing workers’ rights and gender equity.

She currently serves as Executive Director of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, where her advocacy secured a landmark federal amendment that protected postsecondary institutions, preserved access to education, safeguarded hundreds of jobs—many held by racialized and Indigenous women—and reinforced the public role of higher education.

Her ability to unite diverse movements underscores her strength as a strategist and builder of collective power, leveraging community action to challenge inequity and drive systemic change. As co-founder and past President of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance and a founding member of the Asian Canadian Women Alliance, she has built networks that fight racism, empower women, and advance systemic change.

Beyond the labour movement, Jenny co-organized A Quest for Justice, an exhibition sharing the untold stories of “comfort women,” and has mobilized large scale demonstrations, including Toronto’s annual International Women’s Day March, helping to amplify underrepresented voices and broaden public understanding.

Sara Asalya

Immigration

Sara Asalya is a recognized champion of immigrant rights. Her leadership in advancing newcomer women’s economic resilience and wellbeing has earned her recognition as one of Canada’s Top 25 Immigrants, a Top 25 Woman of Influence and a Top 50 Woman Leader in the Non-Profit sector for two consecutive years.

As the Executive Director of Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto (NEW), Sara leads one of the few gender-specific newcomer-serving organizations in Canada dedicated to advancing the economic and social inclusion of immigrant women. Under her leadership, NEW has experienced remarkable growth and transformation. In just three years, she tripled the organization’s annual revenue and expanded its operations from two to seven service delivery sites across the GTA, enabling NEW to quadruple its service offerings and increase the number of newcomer women accessing its services. The organization grew from serving 800 clients to more than 20,000 annually. Sara has positioned NEW as a national leader in the non-profit sector, shaping policy conversations, influencing systems change, and advancing equity and opportunity for newcomer communities across Canada.

Sara’s lived experience as an immigrant to Canada inspires her bold advocacy for the immigrant community. Her flagship Sister2Sister Advanced Leadership Program has mentored, supported and created pathways to labour market inclusion for 1000+ newcomer women since its inception in 2019. She has authored op-eds in major media outlets, published peer-reviewed academic research, and testified before provincial and federal legislative committees. Her thought leadership has helped shape public dialogue and policy on immigrant rights, workforce inclusion, and gender equity across Canada.

Kehkashan Basu

Young Leader of Distinction

When Kehkashan Basu founded the Green Hope Foundation at 12 years old, she set out to build a youth-led social innovation enterprise rooted in climate justice and gender equality. Today, she is a globally recognized advocate, serving as a United Nations Human Rights Champion and National Geographic Young Explorer. She has addressed over 500 global summits on climate change, gender equality, peace, and sustainable development.

Her leadership has earned her Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal and the Spirit of the United Nations Award. She has also been named to Forbes 30 Under 30, Clean50 Emerging Leaders list, and the Financial Times and Oxford Saïd Business School’s Top 50 Rising Stars in Environmental, Social, and Governance sectors globally.

Through Green Hope Foundation, Kehkashan's work has positively impacted more than 600,000 women and girls across 29 countries. In rural Bangladesh, she established the solar-powered Academy of Hope for Women and Girls, providing climate education and vocational training. She launched solar mobile libraries reaching thousands of out-of-school girls across Asia and Africa, and created solar STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) labs that equip girls with digital skills. She built solar water systems in Kiribati and Cambodia, reducing waterborne diseases by 50 percent to enable girls return to school. She also developed agrivoltaic farms and solar irrigation systems that strengthen women’s food security in Canada, Suriname, the Sundarbans, Liberia, Bangladesh and India. Her clean energy grids offset 4.5 million kilograms of CO₂ annually, demonstrating how investing in women and girls drives measurable climate impact and lasting community resilience. 

Juana Berinstein and Ellen Blais

Health

Juana Berinstein and Ellen Blais, co-Chief Executive Officers of the Association of Ontario Midwives (AOM), are a ground-breaking team. Rooted in the Haudenosaunee Two Row Wampum, their collaborative leadership model has enabled midwives to provide care rooted in dignity, choice and equity to thousands of women and gender diverse people across the province.

Juana, a senior leader at AOM for almost two decades, has been the strategic architect behind numerous transformative wins for midwifery. Her work has expanded access to midwifery and birth centres, created programs to support midwives in rural and remote areas, acquired funding for people without health insurance, improved access to care for LGBTQ+ and racialized people, and enhanced access to reproductive choice. Notably, her unwavering advocacy has improved the lives of midwives by negotiating collective agreements and campaigning to close the gender pay gap.

Ellen, a Haudenosaunee midwife whose family is from the Oneida Nation of the Thames – a First Nation located southwest of London, Ontario – is a Sixties Scoop survivor. She possesses a deep, hands-on knowledge of Indigenous midwifery and has been a relentless advocate for its resurgence—as AOM co-CEO, the inaugural Executive Director of the National Council of Indigenous Midwives and a co-founder of Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto. Ellen was the recipient of the first Jack Layton Indigenous Leadership Award, and the City of Toronto Managers Award of Excellence for the co-development of the Toronto Indigenous Health Strategy. Ellen created and led a team at AOM to create core-funded Indigenous midwifery programs across First Nations communities in Ontario as well as ground breaking regulatory changes for Indigenous midwives. She is on the Survivors Circle for Reproductive Justice expert panel addressing the forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous women. Ellen has also advised the federal government on the development of Indigenous midwifery nationally.

Through their shared leadership, Juana and Ellen have advocated to ensure practitioners can deliver dignified access to care—centering the needs of Indigenous and underrepresented communities. Together, they have advanced Indigenous sovereignty and equity and raised the profile of midwifery within the healthcare system. Their transformational work has earned national and global attention, including that of the Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health, Women Deliver and the International Congress of Midwives.

Chinyere Eni

Corporate Leadership

"It’s what’s left that counts," is a guiding principle for Chinyere Eni. Her rise in the banking industry is defined as much by her dedication to inclusion as by her drive for excellence. Since beginning her career as a bank teller, Chinyere has propelled herself to Head of RBC Origins, leading RBC's Indigenous markets strategy and business. Her leadership in launching RBC’s first Reconciliation Action Plan helped establish clear, public accountabilities focused on enabling the prosperity of Indigenous communities through greater access to capital and economic participation.

As a woman of African and Indigenous heritage, Chinyere has made a point of opening doors for others. She is a generous mentor, committed to empowering women, girls and gender diverse people from historically underrepresented communities to navigate and flourish in professional spaces.

Chinyere’s dedication to uplifting others extends beyond the professional realm. Since losing her leg to cancer as a child, she has donated her time and influence to health-focused causes, including mentoring child amputees through War Amps (starting when she was just 14 years old), serving on the Board of Directors at Women’s College Hospital and contributing as an ambassador and advisor for Princess Margaret Hospital, a top five cancer research centre globally. Equally passionate about education, she serves as a Board Governor at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Chinyere has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the RBC Global Citizen Award and, most recently, WXN's 2025 Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award in the executive category.

Janice Rubin

Law

Janice Rubin recognized early in her legal career that protections against workplace harassment were sorely lacking in Canada. With tenacity and vision, she left a large firm to build her own practice and give employees the protections they needed. More than 35 years later, her advocacy, investigative work, and public awareness efforts have fundamentally transformed how Canadian workplaces protect women, gender diverse people, and other historically marginalized communities, leaving a legacy of safety, accountability, and empowerment.

In 2003, at a time when women-led firms were rare, Janice co-founded a law firm. Today, she and her colleagues have created one of the largest workplace and institutional investigation practices in the country. Janice has been at the forefront of its efforts, helping to spark greater legal protections for employees and enhanced legal responsibility for employers to create safe work environments.

Janice is also a fierce supporter of emerging women in legal professions. She has hired and mentored many, and she is a role model for women who wish to create and run their own legal practices.

Janice has co-authored two books, taught at Osgoode Hall Law School, and received numerous awards including the Law Society of Ontario’s prestigious Law Society Medal, Chambers and Partners’ Corporate Social Responsibility and Inclusion Award, Employment Lawyer of the Year (2015) by the National HR Awards, and Lexpert’s Zenith Award (2014). In 2023, she was also named one of the 25 most influential lawyers by Canadian Lawyer.

Join us on May 28 at the Carlu to celebrate these remarkable award recipients. Learn more here.