As a public speaker, facilitator, and lecturer, Joanna focuses on the intersection of entrepreneurship, impact, youth, and future of work. She was the founding Managing Director of the Centre for Social Innovation & Impact Investing, co-creator of the award-winning Coast Capital Savings Innovation Hub, and previously steered the ship at The Next Big Thing, Canada’s only full inclusive youth entrepreneurial program.

Find her lecturing about entrepreneurship and innovation at Simon Fraser Beedie School of Business and at Emily Carr University; mentoring youth led start-ups such as SmartSweets, Blume, WizeMonkey, GrantMe; and driving conversation around social impact and innovation as the chair of the Scale Institute. Joanna’s work focuses on building changemaking ideas from concept to reality, to big impact.

Her career began in the community economic development arena as a Chamber of Commerce Manager/EDO actively pursuing economic development opportunities. Motivated by the grassroots development approach and the business development aspect of Western Diversification Canada’s Community Futures Program mandate, Jolynn joined a Community Futures team in 1994 where she worked for ten years.

Seeking new opportunities, Jolynn became a Human Resource Manager of a five-star golf and casino resort. Jolynn’s work experience gave her the desire to continue to expand her knowledge base and as a result graduated with a Master of Leadership and Training, Organizational Leadership and Change Management from Royal Roads University of Victoria, BC.

She currently works on freshwater issues, as VP Program Development with AquaAction, a national charity that engages young Canadians and propels their sustainability-motivated tech-ingenuity to develop innovative solutions.

Kariann is happy to now be living with her family on the traditional, unceded territory of the Lekwungen-speaking people, and thoroughly enjoys cold water ocean-dipping.

She is inspired by the work of Scale Institute and is a proud member of the board since 2018.

She has the unique ability to build deep relations among stakeholders with diverse interests, including business, government, community and NGOs, and has recently run a number of large scale purpose-driven campaigns. Her most recent work focused on reconciliation, joining the leadership team at Reconciliation Canada to deliver the Walk for Reconciliation, in both Vancouver and Ottawa, bringing together over 150,000 people from all backgrounds.

Michelle is a trained coach through the Coach Training Institute and most recently decided to complete the Evaluation for Social Change program at Simon Fraser University, as part of her determination to create positive social and systemic change.

She is grateful to be living and raising her family on the traditional, unceded territory of the Lekwungen-speaking people. In her spare time, you can find her hiking or skiing with her family, selling photography prints from her travels, and walking her very large Bernedoodle.

Laurel holds a Community Economic Development Certificate, Social Return on Investments and Intercultural awareness Certificate. She also holds a MSc, Applied Mathematics and BSc, Actuarial Science. She is currently completing the UN Principles of Responsibility Investing (PRI) program and has completed other sustainability investing courses.

She is a Faculty Member of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Training Institute and Leadership Council Member for RESOLVE, a natural resource mediation and conflict resolution NGO.
She is an enthusiastic speaker, avid traveler and a certified meditation teacher.