Board of Directors

Amy S. FitzGerald

British Columbia

Amy S. FitzGerald is the Executive Director and formerly the Director of Training & Programs at the BC Society of Transition Houses (BCSTH). In BC, Amy has also been a policy analyst. She has been a public interest lawyer for over 20 years serving as the domestic violence Assistant Attorney General at the Vermont Attorney General’s Office working on unsolved homicides and domestic violence litigation, policy, training and legislation, a Legal Services lawyer and Public Defender in Vermont and NYC. Amy was the founding chair of Vermont’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission and served on Vermont’s Child Fatality Review Team.

Tsungai Muvingi Van Landeghem

Prairies (Co-chair)

Tsungai (Sue) Muvingi Van Landeghem is the Associate Provincial Coordinator with the Manitoba Association of Women’s Shelters (MAWS). Her background includes a B.A. in Psychology, post-graduate diploma in International Management, and extensive work with non-profit organizations.

She was born and raised in Zimbabwe where she started volunteering with charitable organizations from a young age. Tsungai is passionate about advocacy and working with organizations that support vulnerable people in local and international communities including family violence, intimate partner violence, and gender-based violence.

As a member of Conquer Academy, a performance development coaching academy, Tsungai challenges herself in all areas of her life to grow in leadership, integrity, mental toughness, and service to others.

Her various roles and previous work have included event planning, fundraising, emergency disaster services, poverty alleviation, peace literacy and peace initiatives, coaching and mentoring adults, residential support work, and travel across Canada, the USA, and Europe.

Maureen Levangie

Atlantic

Maureen Levangie joined the Domestic Violence Association of New Brunswick as Executive Director in August of 2024. She has a Master of Gender Studies from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, and she is passionate about intersectional feminism, reproductive justice, and the ways that community outreach can help diverse populations such as those impacted by DIPV. Maureen values taking a sensitive and person-centred approach to her work and her research, and she is particularly interested in the way that individual stories play a role in education and activism.

Hawa Dumbuya-Sesay

Territories

Hawa took on the role of Executive Director in 2020. Prior to that, she held the position of Director of Child and Youth Services within the YWCA NWT. Hawa has extensive experience working with families, victim services, youth, and adults with disabilities. She has worked in community development in Sierra Leone on a project to reduce maternal mortality in rural areas, provided support to women and children arriving at shelters fleeing family violence, and has worked extensively with people experiencing homelessness, poverty, and mental illness. Her wide worldview, compassion, and expertise are invaluable to YWCA NWT. Hawa has a Masters in Social Work from the University of Calgary.

Maïra Martin

Ontario

Maïra Martin has been the Executive Director of Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes since 2015. Through this organization, she advocates for the recognition of gender-based violence and for access to quality French-language services for Francophone survivors. Raising awareness about gender-based violence has always been central to her commitment: in France, she coordinated an awareness campaign on intimate partner violence targeting youth, and with Action ontarienne, she launched the first provincial awareness campaign against sexual assault in Ontario. Her ongoing community engagement has also led her to work with asylum seekers and people with low incomes.

Michelle Parsons

Public Director

Julie St-Pierre Gaudreault

Quebec

Nola Mahingen

Public Director

Nola Mahingen is First Nations from Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from SIFC, now known as the First Nations University of Canada. Nola has worked with the Yorkton Tribal Council since January 2002. Most of those years were in the Justice Unit. Positions she held were South Justice Coordinator and Southern Court Worker. In January 2005, she was successful in the position of Director of Justice. In December of 2014, Nola moved over to Safe Haven, a Women’s Shelter, working as an In-House Counsellor and Family Violence Outreach, where she became the Director of Safe Haven to 18 employees.

Dr. Julie Young

Co-chair & Public Director

Julie Young is Professor at Humber College in the Bachelors of Community and Social Services Degree Program. She holds a PhD, Masters and Bachelors from Western University. Julie is known as a social justice thought leader with a passion for diversity and inclusion, social enterprise and community building.

She is a member of the National Advisory Council on Gender-Based Violence (Federal Ministry of Women and Gender Equality – WAGE) and a GBV Expert on the National Research Program conducted by the Centre for Research and Education for Violence Against Women. She has worked alongside women and survivors of violence in Canada, and also internationally in Rwanda and the Skid Row area of Los Angeles. She is the 2020 recipient of the Excellence in Brescia University College’s Teaching Award.

Her current research program addresses women’s empowerment, the financial and social inclusion of those experiencing poverty, and gender bias within the family court. She is the past Chair of the London Race Relations Advisory Council, the Royal Bank Equity and Diversity Council, and Londoners for Opportunity. She is known by her students as a professor with an interactive classroom that bridges the distance between the academy and the real world. She is most passionate about launching the next generation of do-gooders and game-changers.