Monika  Queisser

Monika  Queisser has worked with the OECD since 1997.  She currently supervises and coordinates the work on social protection,  social indicators,  pensions,  affordable housing,  family and  LGBTI  policies.  In 2007-8, she worked as an adviser to the OECD Secretary-General. Prior to joining the OECD, Ms.  Queisser worked at the  World  Bank in Washington,  D.C. where she was a member of the pensions and insurance group in the  Financial  Sector  Development Department.  Ms. Queisser began her career with the German Ifo Institute for economic research in Munich. Her professional experience also includes employment as a journalist at daily newspapers and broadcasting in Germany.

Emanuela Pozzan 

Ms. Pozzan has more than 15 years of experience working in the Middle East, Africa and Asia on gender equality and non-discrimination in the world of work. Her educational background includes a degree in Middle Eastern Studies and a Master of Science in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies with focus on gender equality and forced migration. Her career included serving for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NGOs, UNFPA and the ILO. She is now working in the Gender, Equality and Diversity (GED&ILOAIDS) Branch at the ILO HQ in the capacity of Senior Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination Specialist. She coordinates a portfolio of initiatives around access to work for women, care economy, pay equity and violence and harassment in the world of work.  Ms. Possan is part of EPIC (Equal Pay International Coalition), led by the ILO, UN Women, and the OECD. The Coalition’s goal is to achieve equal pay for women and men everywhere.

Deborah Spar

Dr. Spar is the Jaime and Josefina Chua Tiampo Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and Senior Associate Dean for Business and Global Society. Her current research focuses on issues of gender and technology, and the interplay between technological change and broader social structures. Spar tackles some of these issues in her latest book Work Mate Marry Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny. 

Dr. Spar served as the President of Barnard College from 2008 to 2017. During her tenure at Barnard, Spar led initiatives to highlight women’s leadership and advancement, including the creation of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies and the development of Barnard’s Global Symposium series. 

Before joining Barnard, Spar spent 17 years on the HBS faculty as the Spangler Family Professor as well as the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development. A prolific writer, Spar’s books include Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery, Chaos, and Wealth from the Compass to the Internet (2001), The Baby Business (2006), and Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection (2013). 

Janelle Benjamin

Janelle Benjamin is the Founder of All Things Equitable Inc., a new Greater Toronto Area-based Management Consulting Firm, addressing workplace inequities for all historically marginalized groups. Her firm goes beyond diversity and inclusion and offers creative solutions for leadership development and employee engagement and education.

Janelle is a Juris Doctor who has worked in government, in professional regulation, and in the not-for-profit sector since 2006. She has extensive experience setting policies; assessing practices; monitoring and enforcing compliance; and tracking and reporting progress both in regulatory bodies and in fledgling government agencies/divisions tasked with oversight for the implementation of ground-breaking diversity and inclusion legislation and initiatives like the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act for people with disabilities and the Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act for professional and highly-skilled newcomers. She also has experience leading and championing corporate diversity and inclusion strategies.

Ian Howcroft 

Ian Howcroft is the Chief Executive Officer of Skills Ontario, as well as a member of the OACETT Council and the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing.

Skills Ontario is building Ontario’s future skilled workforce. As a charity organization, Skills Ontario enables and empowers Ontarians, including young women, Indigenous youth, underrepresented groups, and more, to consider a career in the skilled trades and technologies. The organization’s programs focus on engagement with students, teachers, parents, volunteers, employers, and mentors in order to connect education, experience, and employment. Skills Ontario delivers presentations, hosts competitions and discovery events, runs challenges, camps, and workshops, and connects students to employers. Visit skillsontario.com for more information.

Alyson Colón

Alyson Colón is the Associate Director at the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.  Alyson is committed to advancing the conversation on gender dynamics in the workplace and larger society through rigorous research and practical and impactful approaches.

Prior to joining the Institute for Gender and the Economy, Alyson served as the PhD Program Coordinator at the Rotman School of Management, informing the strategic direction of the program and supporting the research activities of the students and faculty.  In addition to her tenure at the Rotman School, Alyson has held successively senior roles in the non-profit sector, including work as a gender auditor for international development organizations.

Alyson holds a Master’s degree in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Toronto, and a post-graduate certificate in Fundraising and Volunteer Management from Humber College.

Ed Gough Jr.

Ed Gough Jr. (Dr. Vibe) is a sought-after speaker in the areas of fatherhood and manhood. His purpose is to bring purpose and clarity to fathers and men’s lives. He believes that “the better men are, the better the world will be”. 

Ed has been the host and producer of his own award-winning online show The Dr. Vibe Show™ for the last decade. He has done over 2000 interviews with people from all over the world. He has gotten into the minds of powerhouses such as Kenneth Brawell (CEO of Fathers Incorporated), Lorenzo Ieraci (Director General · Public Services and Procurement for the government of Canada) and Lisa Hickey (CEO – The Good Men Project – one of the most viewed websites for men in the world). His main mission is to peel back the layers of the mainstream society’s construct around fathers and men, to reveal the positivity that is often clouded.

As of April 2020, as part of the Dad Central Ontario team, Ed is part of the Dad Central Ontario collaboration with Dove Men+Care promoting paternity leave and fatherhood. 

Lauren McKeon

Lauren is the deputy editor of Reader’s Digest Canada. She was previously the digital editor at The Walrus where, in 2019, they won gold at the Digital Publishing Awards for our online series Sex-Ed: Beyond the Classroom. She has also been the editor of Canada’s progressive, independent This Magazine and have worked as a reporter, editor, and writer in the Arctic, living in Yellowknife, and travelling Canada’s territories and northern Alberta to write about everything from prisons to the Peel Valley. Her feature work has been recognized several times at the National Magazine Awards, including four honorable mentions, one silver and, in 2015, a gold in the personal journalism category for my Toronto Life piece “Save me From My Workout.” She has taught long-form writing at Humber College and have a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Non-Fiction from the University of King’s College. Her work has most recently appeared in Toronto Life, Chatelaine, Hazlitt, and The Walrus.

Her new book Women of The Pandemic: Stories from the Front Lines of COVID-19 was published in April 2021 with McClelland & Stewart. She is also the author of No More Nice Girls: Gender, Power, and Why It’s Time to Stop Playing By the Rules and F-Bomb: Dispatches from the War on Feminism. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Best Canadian Essays 2017 and Whatever Gets You Through It. 

Seghen Woldai

Seghen Woldai is a Manager in the Healthcare Consulting practice at Deloitte. She has worked on the strategic planning and large-scale transformation of several academic hospitals and local health regions. Prior, Seghen worked in academic research as an immunologist and biosafety officer, and later in pharmaceutical advertising, navigating the complex regulatory requirements in Canada and the US. In addition to her work experience, Seghen holds a Bachelor of Science in Forensic Science, a Master of Science in Microbiology & Immunology, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Toronto. She also proudly serves as the Director of Engagement on the Lean in Canada board.