Fearless Women Podcast By Janice McDonald Janice McDonald

My fearless friends I'm excited to introduce you to another remarkable person who is breaking barriers and soaring higher.

Today’s guest is the unstoppable Brenda Allen. She is the Chief People Officer at De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited. Rugged. Reliable. Canadian. That’s De Havilland. The company has a passionate team of innovators based at their facilities in Canada and a global network of support via their seasoned experts, De Havilland proudly carries on its tradition as a leader in aviation since 1928. Brenda Allen has had a fascinating career in many different industries before her current role so she has a unique perspective and tons of practical wisdom.

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For many of us, watching TV is an ideal escape from the everyday…especially kids;
The Zone is a beloved after-school TV program on the Canadian television channel YTV. It currently airs between 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. I’m joined by Spencer Litzinger and Melony Manikavasagar two of the hosts of this fun tv show.

Spencer is always trying to put a smile on your face with her larger-than-life funny personality! She’s from Toronto and completed her post-secondary education at Humber College. She’s been hosting The Zone for nearly five years! She’s also a proud dog mom to her puppy, Scruffy. A perfect day for Spencer is any day spent with her friends, laughing and dancing. Spencer can often be found posting her daily adventures on her Instagram stories and TikToks, that's one of her favourite hobbies!

From Brampton, Ont. Melony has over three years of experience in live broadcasting and on-air hosting. She’s currently working towards her Bachelor of Arts in Media Production at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) specializing in radio broadcasting and film/television. While completing her studies, Melony has had the opportunity to engage her creative spirit by working as an on-air radio host and editor for CJRU 1280 AM. The multitalented all-star has also worked as a background actor, interviewer, editor and director. In her free time, Melony enjoys playing the piano, drawing, writing poems and treating herself to pizza. As a South Asian female, Melony is excited for the opportunity to continue representing people of colour on YTV and inspiring positive connections through TV and pop-culture content.

Listen until 11:30 to hear Spencer talk about facing her fears.

“ I have to face my fears. I have to stay on top of taking care of myself, going to therapy, checking in with how I'm feeling, and it's really like realizing it's okay. Like it's okay to have a bad day. It was just those bad days back then were so intense and so long that there's this big fear around feeling sad again. So it's just like relearning to, face the fear. It's okay to feel sad some days. It's not the end of the world. Check in with yourself, take care of yourself, and also like be grateful that you can feel emotions.”

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I'm excited to introduce you to someone making the world a better place…this time through her creativity with pen and paper. Today, I’m joined by award-winning Canadian author Ashley Spires, who has just recently released a children's book called The Most Magnificent Idea. It's the sequel to The Most Magnificent Thing. It's also being adapted into a television series called Millie Magnificent.

Listen until 01:58 to hear Ashley talk about the inspiration for her first book!

“ I tried to change the beginning, the middle of the end, the plot, all the bits and nothing was working, and I did the most dignified thing I could think of, which was laid down on the floor and cried and wanted to quit because I realized that's a very important part of the creative process. I also realized it's something that we all feel, we all feel like this, especially children.

So once I came out of that very undignified moment of falling apart and quitting, Figuring my career plateaued. I realized that that was the story. That was the story I needed to tell”

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Dr. Jasmine Mah is a physician and researcher who is passionate about
healthcare for older adults. She holds an MD from the University of Ottawa, an
MSc from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Dalhousie University.

Jasmine’s research on social vulnerability, frailty and aging has been nationally
recognized as a recipient of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Scholarship, Killam
Scholarship, and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Award. Among her
honours, she is the elected co-chair of the Canadian Resident Geriatrics Interest
Group and winner of Dalhousie University’s Three Minute Thesis Competition.
She is also the co-founder of Let Science Connect, a social enterprise bridging
academia to society through effective science communication.

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Prativa is the co-founder of Let Science Connect, an initiative aimed to restore trust in the scientific process by bridging science communication gaps between academia and the rest of the world. She is also an epidemiologist, operating at the intersection of global health and policy, and a Ph.D. candidate at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, investigating methods in health systems strengthening, particularly in the context of crises.

She has served as a global health consultant and expert advisory committee member for various international agencies including the UN, the WHO, the GPMB, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Bank, with a special focus on institutional design for global health governance, monitoring efforts to better understand drivers of risk of health emergencies, as well as health systems resilience & service delivery during periods of shocks. Previously, she advised the Government of Canada in designing and drafting the country's first comprehensive global health research strategic plan.

Her commitment to working with groups facing vulnerable conditions emerged through her work with the refugee resettlement program in Québec, where she acted as a point of contact between a wide range of Canadian ministries, local community partners, and refugee families across Québec.

In 2018, she was selected to be a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum, and in 2021, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Prativa is a graduate of McGill University’s Faculty of Science and has received a Master’s in Public Health in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from Columbia University as a Merit Scholar Recipient. She is also a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar (2021) as well as a recipient of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research’s Doctoral Foreign Study Award among other distinctions. Most recently, she served as the Canadian head delegate for the G7 Youth summit in Berlin, Germany (2022), and the sole Canadian representative as part of the Global Shapers delegation of young community leaders to the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos (2023).

Fluent in French, English and Nepali, Prativa is a former nationally-ranked chess player. She also regularly appears on CBC and CTV News and other media outlets providing Canadians with practical suggestions and advice regarding COVID-19.

Listen until 06:59 to hear Dr. Baral talk about her experience at Davos and being proud of who you are.

 ”Leadership is something that's been kind of advertised by corporate America, right? And you gotta wear that navy blue suit and speak a certain way and not show compassion or empathy or whatnot. And I think, I hope that our global definition of leadership is changing. And so if I go back next time to Davos, I think I would wear a lot more colours than I did.

So I did wear, you know, a red dress at a certain point and a red blazer at a certain point. But Davos, let me see that you want to stand out. I can't hide the fact that I'm a woman. I can't hide the fact that I'm brown. And so instead of trying to fit the mould and wearing a navy blue suit, which, you know, there's nothing wrong with wearing one, but I would wear something brighter and bolder.

Why would you want to hide your identity or the pieces of you that make you, you just wear the bright colours if that's what you want to wear, and just be because there's no one else like you. Right?”

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A big shout out to our listeners from all around the globe including the USA, UK, Canada, Zimbabwe, Mongolia, Japan, Australia and so many more countries…hello!
Love love love having you join us. I’m thinking about you and hope you’re doing alright out there.

My fearless friends, with so much uncertainty in the world, it’s helpful to hear true, inspiring stories from people who have overcome so much.

Am excited to welcome my guest today. Maryam Monsef has a fascinating story and so much wisdom to share.

Let me tell you a little about her from her long and impressive bio.

Maryam Monsef is a globally recognized feminist, leader, and changemaker. And the Founder and CEO of ONWARD - a company supporting leadership development for emerging and existing leaders - with a special focus on women.
An Afghan-Canadian activist who comes from a long line of strong and resilient women and who, against all odds, escaped war and survived poverty and displacement.

She rose from refugee to community organizer, to Cabinet Minister where she drove social and economic justice files for the Government of Canada at home and abroad.

Listen until 29:02 to hear Maryam talk about being shaped by events in her childhood.

“Throughout my childhood, you know, I have this image of in the evenings everybody huddled around the radio. Waiting for news that the war was over, that it was safe to go home, or it was safe to go outside, and that people who were missing family members who had disappeared were waiting to hear their names on the radio.

So being 10 years old, me feisty, you know, opinionated, encouraged to do big things and to lead was also shaped by and trying to process. This big political stuff that was having real impacts in our lives. So it's a testament to the love and the nurturing that we received from my family and my extended family that we turned out okay.

Because looking back I was like, oh, that must have been a really hard time to be 10.”

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