Women’s Shelters Canada is thrilled to announce our three new Board members: Claudette Dumont-Smith, Saadia Muzaffar, and Beverley Wybrow!

Claudette Dumont-Smith

Claudette Dumont-Smith has been actively involved in the field of Aboriginal health since 1974. She is a registered nurse and has acted in various executive capacities with the Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada and worked as a consultant for various National Aboriginal Organizations as well as at the regional and local levels. Ms. Dumont-Smith has moderated health conferences across Canada and has collaborated on a number of papers and manuals about various aspects of Aboriginal health care programs.

Ms. Dumont-Smith has served as a member of the Aboriginal circle of the Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women, a blue ribbon panel initiated by the Government of Canada in 1991, as Associate Commissioner for the National Aboriginal Child Care Commission of the Native Council of Canada, and served as Commissioner for the Indian Residential School Commission for one year.

Ms. Dumont-Smith is also an accomplished writer/researcher whose articles on a wide range of topics have been published by the Health Council of Canada, and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada, among others.

Ms. Dumont-Smith was the Executive Director of the Native Women’s Association of Canada from 2010 to 2016.

Saadia Muzaffar

Saadia Muzaffar is a tech entrepreneur, author, and passionate advocate of responsible innovation, decent work for everyone, and prosperity of immigrant talent in STEM. In 2017, she was featured in Canada 150 Women, a book about 150 of the most influential and ground-breaking women in Canada.

She is founder of TechGirls Canada, the hub for Canadian women in science, technology, engineering, and math – and co-founder of Tech Reset Canada, a coalition of business people, technologists, and other residents advocating for innovation that is focused on maximizing the public good. She is part of Canada Beyond 150: Policy for a diverse and inclusive future‘s Feminist Government initiative, and an advisor to Government of Canada’s Economic Strategy tables for the Access to Skilled Talent working group.

Her work on modern leadership explores big ideas and impactful strategies that address growing challenges for business leaders in today’s connected & vigilant markets; and has been featured in CNNMoney, Fortune Magazine, Globe & Mail, VICE, CBC, TVO, and Chatelaine.

Saadia is also a Pushcart Prize nominated short fiction writer. In February 2018, her work joins that of Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale), Gabby Rivera (America), Hope Larson (Batgirl), and Amy Chu (Wonder Woman) in Dark Horse Comics‘ new anthology featuring comic and prose stories. Recently Saadia and her team released Change Together: A Diversity Guidebook for Startups and Scaleups. 

Beverley Wybrow C.M.

Bev was President and CEO of Canadian Women’s Foundation, Canada’s public foundation for women and girls, from 1991 until her retirement in 2014. The Foundation works to empower women and girls in Canada to move out of poverty, out of violence and into confidence.  Since 1991, the Foundation has raised money and supported more than 1,600 programs across Canada. It is now one of the ten largest women’s foundations in the world.

Bev is a founder and first chair of the 1985 inter-agency steering committee which led to the establishment of the Assaulted Women’s Helpline, an Ontario-wide 24 hour crisis line for women experiencing violence.

Her extensive volunteer experience includes Board Member and President of YWCA Toronto, Board Member of Global Women’s Funding Network and the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation. She is currently a Board member of the Assaulted Women’s Helpline; Board member of MCC Toronto, the church that performed the first legal same-sex weddings in the world, and that worked to legalize same-sex marriage in Canada; and Co-Chair of MCC Toronto’s LGBTQ+ Refugee Program Strategic Advisory Committee.

Bev received the 2007 City of Toronto’s Constance E. Hamilton Award and in 2009, a Women of Distinction Award from YWCA Toronto. On December 31, 2012, Bev was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.