Global HERizons provides mentorship support to young women in rural Canada who want to create positive social change at the national and global levels.
Here you can meet our current mentor squad members! Click on a name or picture to find out more about a mentor.
2019-2020 MENTOR SQUAD
 Amy Bartlett |
 Elly Vandenberg |
 Jen Smith |
 Jessie Thomson |
 Julia Sanchez |
 Kate Higgins |
 Myroslava Tataryn |
 Sally Dimachki |
 Emilie Coyle |
ELLY VANDENBERG
Elly Vandenberg is a champion for global sustainable development with extensive experience in policy, programming, governance and management. Elly has played leadership roles in international and national global development organizations. Her development expertise influenced the Government of Canada’s approach to global development and her contribution to students as professor of global practice at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
Along with peace-building and human rights experience in Latin America and work in such challenging contexts as Iraq and South Sudan, Elly holds a degree in international development from the University of Toronto, international Hostile Environment Awareness Training, specialist certificates in management, York University/Manitoba Institute of Management and certification in professional executive coaching from Integral Coaching Canada®. Drawing from her experience working in government and the not-for-profit sector, Elly provides strategic advice and executive coaching to Canadian and global leaders. Elly is currently senior strategic advisor to the United Nations World Food Programme.
JEN SMITH
Jen Smith has been working various capacities as a Social Worker for the past 12 years. Focusing primarily on Mental Health and Addictions, Jen has vast experience with youth and adults in both the Community and Government sectors in Alberta, British Columbia, and Newfoundland & Labrador. She has spent the last two years at Memorial University’s School of Social Work, teaching Groups and Team Leadership, Mental Health, Social Justice, and Social Policy. Jen is passionate about Harm Reduction, and volunteers with community initiatives for people who use drugs. Jen resides in St. John’s, NL with her family and her overly large dog, spending all of their free time hiking.
JESSIE THOMSON
Jessie Thomson is a civil society leader on international refugee protection. She is currently the senior director of Program Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at CARE Canada and spent the last 5 years as Sr. Director of CARE Canada’s Humanitarian Assistance and Emergency Team. She has worked as a protection delegate with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Pakistan, and as a senior policy adviser at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, leading policy development related to refugees. Jessie is also co-chair of an Ottawa-based private sponsorship of refugees group and is the President of the Board of the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO).
JULIA SANCHEZ
Julia Sanchez is a Canadian of Peruvian origin. She was previously the President-CEO of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC) and is currently running to serve as a federal Member of Parliament. Julia has close to 25 years experience in international development, including 13 years living and working in developing countries. She holds a double major in Political Science and Economics (1985) and an MA in Economics (1996) from McGill University. Established in 1968, CCIC is the national coalition of major Canadian voluntary sector organizations working globally to achieve sustainable human development, end global poverty and promote justice and human dignity for all.
KATE HIGGINS
Kate Higgins is an international development professional with 15 years’ experience managing high-impact initiatives in a variety of strategy, research and policy roles. Substantively, her work has focused on global sustainable development, inclusive growth, women’s economic empowerment and chronic poverty. She is currently the Deputy Executive Director at Oxfam Canada. Previously, she worked at CIVICUS, where she led the development of a new strategic plan, and led a flagship initiative called DataShift. Prior to that, she led the Governance for Equitable Growth team at The North-South Institute in Ottawa and was a Research Fellow with the Growth, Poverty and Inequality program at the Overseas Development Institute in London, UK. Kate started her career with the Australian Government, where she worked on AusAID’s Papua New Guinea program and Indonesia program. Kate grew up in Sydney, Australia, and now lives in Ottawa with her partner and two young children. She has also lived and worked in Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Thailand and Uganda and has worked on assignments in many other countries, including Colombia, Indonesia, Peru, Tanzania and Yemen. She has degrees from the University of Oxford and University of Sydney.
MYROSLAVA TATRYN
Myroslava Tataryn has dedicated her work-life over the past 13 years to ensuring access to health services and humanitarian assistance for people with disabilities worldwide. In the initial years of her career, Myroslava’s work focused on profiling the need for disabled women to have better access to sexual and reproductive health services, as well as work squarely at the intersection of disability rights and the AIDS pandemic, first in South Africa (2005-06) and then Uganda (2008-09). Five years after completing her undergraduate studies at Queen’s University in Canada, Myroslava returned to academic work in order to complete her Masters of Public Health in Developing Countries at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK. Subsequent positions at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) saw her evaluating post-earthquake rehabilitation interventions in Haiti (2011) and managing a paediatric disability prevalence study in Malawi (2013). More recent work with Handicap International (HI) in Ethiopia (2014), and Jordan and Lebanon (2015-16) applies her technical and advocacy experience to the humanitarian sector. Myroslava regularly facilitates training on inclusion for NGOs and UN agencies, and is a sought-after presenter on current issues related to disabled peoples’ marginalisation in contexts of crisis and displacement. After over 8 years living and working overseas, Myroslava returned to Canada in 2016 and calls Ottawa home.
SALLY DIMACHKI
Sally Dimachki is currently a Project Coordinator at Refugee 613, a coalition of settlement agencies, community services, private refugee sponsors, and local institutions, working together on refugee integration in Ottawa, Canada. As an immigrant to Canada, Sally is passionate about amplifying the voices of immigrant & refugee women and creating opportunities for women in leadership. She was the Delegate of France at the 2012 G(irls)20 Summit and is currently the Chair of the G(irls)20 Steering Committee. Sally is also the Vice-Chair of the Board of Immigrant Women Services Ottawa. In March 2017, she served as the Youth NGO Delegate on the official Canadian Government Delegation to the 61st Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Sally holds a Master’s in Human Rights and Genocide Studies from Kingston University of London. She has previously served on the Executive of the Young Diplomats of Canada and has worked for the Parliament of Canada, Nobel Women’s Initiative and the National Judicial Institute.
EMILIE COYLE
Emilie Coyle leads the Refugee Hub’s work on national programs and bringing over 15 years of leadership and management experience in the non-profit sector, primarily in immigrant and refugee-serving organizations to the role. She has worked as a Research Coordinator, Community Developer, and Project Manager before becoming a lawyer. Her experience in the settlement sector has taken her from Canada’s west (Edmonton) to the east (Halifax) and now to Ottawa. Emilie is passionate about the power of community and actively pursues ways to encourage community-building wherever she finds them, sponsorship being one example. She also loves a good book and welcomes suggestions for ones to add to her ever-growing collection.
AMY BARTLETT
Amy Bartlett is founder of Global HERizons and a native rural New Brunswicker who has herself made the leap from rural to global. She has spent almost 15 years working in Canada and abroad to help create positive change in the world from the grassroots to global levels. A lawyer by trade and an international development nerd by profession, her expertise includes advocacy and mobilization, development effectiveness, organizational strengthening, governance and accountability, and civil society coordination. Not to mention championing more women from diverse backgrounds in Canada to get involved in international development. Her unique perspective has been built through a diverse range of professional engagements, from Director of the Refugee Hub and Executive Director of RESULTS Canada in Ottawa, Canada; to head of the Global Secretariat of the Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness in Brussels, Belgium; to management of the Civil Society Index programme at CIVICUS in Johannesburg, South Africa; to implementing a rural conflict education and prevention programme in Huancavelica, Peru. She has studied at Queen’s University for her law degree (LL.B.), and attended Dalhousie University for her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree and Master of Law (LL.M.).
Global HERizons 