Bernadette Butler is the CEO and Co-Founder of StoryTap, a tech firm that works with companies to increase their brand engagement by giving their customers a voice and the ability to share it through personalized videos. With offices in Vancouver and Toronto, Bernadette says StoryTap also works with clients to create easy to use video assistants.  Bernadette says she’s excited for where women are going in the tech world, but says there are still a lot of challenges for female founders. Early on in her career, Bernadette joined a variety of networks where she received tips from well-meanin ..read more

There’s no two doubts about it; Miriam Micael has a cool job. She’s a project management engineer with the Canadian Space Agency. Miriam has worked on several projects since joining the CSA three years ago, including working as a risk coordinator with Canada’s 1.2-billion dollar RADARSAT Constellation Mission, which launched last June. On this episode of Run It Like a Girl, Miriam talks about a new initiative at the Space Agency, the Junior Astronaut initiative where activities revolve around three themes: fitness and nutrition, science and tech, and teamwork and communications. Check out Mir ..read more

Joanna Chiu is a senior journalist for the Toronto Star based out of Vancouver......and says there is very little diversity in the leadership of Canadian newsroom, with most decision-makers being white men. Joanna kicked off her reporting career with a newspaper in Hong Kong, before heading into mainland China and working for a couple of major publications from Beijing, where it was important to exercise caution. Now back in Canada and working for the Toronto Star, Joanna believes Canadians are starting to realize the issues around diversity, racism and xenophobia here at home. On this episode ..read more

Inspector Sheri Meeks was given the advice to not change who she is to take on a role, but make the role change to fit her. In this episode Sheri talks about rising through the ranks as a woman in a predominantly male field. She discusses the importance of having mentors, and not being afraid to be yourself. Sheri talks about her career, her struggles to maintain a healthy work-life balance and the specific challenges women have traditionally faced in policing.  ..read more

A split second decision shortly before her 50th birthday changed Jen Rice’s life forever. She sold everything she owned in the United States and bought a one-way ticket to Europe with the assumption she was going to land a consulting project in Geneva. When the project fell through, Jen found herself jobless and homeless in Europe. Jen still remembers the moment she finally gave herself permission to just stop and forget about life for a while. In this episode Jen talks about resilience, starting over and finding what you're passionate about.  Learn more about Jen: https://www.jenrice.co ..read more

Angela Lilly is an amateur elite triathlete - competing in a grueling sport that involves swimming, running and cycling. She’s also competed in 7 Ironman events over the course of a decade, achieving 7th in her age group and a ranking of the 12th overall amateur woman at the Ironman World Championships in 2007. Angela says she’s had her share of setback, something that is part of the journey for every athlete.   Angela, who is a high school teacher by day, has a husband and two children, known collectively as Team Lilly. On this episode of Run It Like a Girl, Angela tells us how she manag ..read more

Sarah Ditmars has combined two of her passions into a career that continues to evolve. Her first love was sports.  Sarah says she played every sport growing up, and recalls when her parents, fed up with her incessant use of the recycling bins as targets, broke down and bought her a basketball net. Sarah’s other love was science, a passion that would direct her down the road of athletic therapy...as part of her kinesiology studies at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario. Following graduation, Sarah was hired as the athletic therapist and trainer for the Trenton Golden Hawks of the O ..read more

Broken Chair:  A Daughter’s Journey Denyse Mouck is the author of Broken Chair:  A Daughter’s Journey - a work of historical fiction that follows the journey of four generations of women as they try to survive the sexist restrictions of their times.  A key character in the story, Rhita, is based on Denyse’s mother.  To use the cliche - Denyse says she walked a mile in her mom’s moccasins in order to learn about and develop her character. Denyse says she never really viewed herself as a writer, and became involved  in everything from politics to pottery and painting….bu ..read more

Liz Benditt is the definition of a survivor.  Based in Kansas City, the mother of two discovered, about 10 years ago, that she had skin cancer. Just 11 months after that, Liz was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and then, in 2015 basal cell carcinoma - skin cancer was discovered on the bridge of Liz’s nose, requiring two surgeries to repair. And unbelievably, two years later, Liz was diagnosed with breast cancer. To make use of an old adage - Liz took all of these lemons, and made lemonade. In October of 2020, she took her health experiences and launched the Balm Box, offering practical sel ..read more

I had the great pleasure of working with Lesley  Gunn for several years at a professional services firm in Toronto. I learned a lot from Lesley about leadership, advocating for my own career and to not be afraid of failure.  When Lesley  first started her career like so many others she found herself in a job that she didn't find fulfilling. However, it ultimately helped her understand where she didn't want to focus her career. After some interesting job experience with a newspaper in London, England, Lesley returned to Canada and began working in the staffing business where she ..read more