Asa Singh Johal immigrated to Canada with his parents in 1924 and started working at the age of 12 years with his father operating a portable mill in Alta Lake.

The sudden passing of Jagdeep Singh Bakshi in 2015 left a void in the maritime community that rippled across the globe.

After six years, filmmaker and author Dianne Whelan will complete her journey by paddling through British Columbia.

Kathy Kinloch has spent over 30 years as a respected health care provider, educator, and leader. She is currently the President of the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), which serves approximately 50,000 students annually. Holding this position since 2014, she was previously President of Vancouver Community College for three years, and the Dean of BCIT’s School of Health Sciences before that.

Devinder Gill is the Regional Vice President, Business Financial Services for RBC Royal Bank in British Columbia. Culturally and socially breaking barriers in her current role, she is the first female to be appointed and the first South Asian to hold this position.

Jessie Shokar is a woman who has adapted and persevered. She has overcome adversity and taken challenges head-on. She is tenacious in her career as a Branch Manager with RBC Royal Bank. She achieved The Global Citizen Award in 2018, Leadership Award 2020, Award for Care, Empathy & Resilience during COVID for Clients and her team, and recognition for three consecutive years of High Employee Engagement.

Rita Chohan is best known for her successful home staging business, An Elegant Touch Home Staging and Design.  She is a socialite, respected in her community. She has a sense of fashion and entrepreneurship even from her adolescence.  Our readers are familiar with her business acumen, but there is more to this successful woman who is not afraid to forge her distinctive path.

Armed with an education and a firm conviction of who she is, Rena Dhir is the perfect example of a woman who can have it all. Her strength comes from the guidance and support she received from her parents, and now from her husband and children. She is tenacious and attributes her joy in life to maintaining a work-life balance. She sets goals and achieves them, always striving for better.

Joslyn Young, Manager, External Relations – Gateway Strategy at Vancouver Fraser Port Authority sat down with Drishti to share her own background and discuss her position with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. Joslyn is the eldest of five children who had “wonderful parents who raised my siblings and I to believe in ourselves and always strive to excel.”

Orene Askew grew up on the Squamish Nation Reserve. An Afro-Indigenous, she has faced adversity and confusion growing up because she is not your typical-looking indigenous woman, for she looks black. A politician and serving as a Squamish Nation elected Councillor, a motivational speaker, inspiring youths across the country with her story about being resilient, sharing a life-changing event, and her challenges of being mixed race. She is the youngest of 4 from a large family that includes 10 grandchildren.

An Indigenous, Musqueam young woman, Zoë Craig-Sparrow, the daughter of Laura Sparrow and James Craig and the granddaughter of Edward and Susan Sparrow, is a feminist activist born and raised on Musqueam’s unceded territory in Vancouver, Canada.

As the CEO of Options Community Services, and Habitat Housing Society, Christine Mohr sees the impact that the inability to access affordable housing has on people’s sense of security and well-being. Christine is one of the leading forces behind the Women of Options Campaign, a life-changing initiative raising money for affordable housing units in Surrey, BC.

As a lawyer by profession, Puneet Sandhar has always prioritized being actively involved in community programs and initiatives. Immigrating to Surrey in 2002, Puneet is a managing partner at Sanghera Sandhar Law Group, specializing in land development and Real Estate law.

Paulina Cameron could not have written the script where she would be today. She looks back at what she cared about deeply. In that case, it makes absolute sense through careers and entrepreneurial endeavors, striving to be open to opportunities that held the possibility for growth, learning, relationship building, and impact.

Maheen Sohail was born in Lahore, Punjab (Pakistan), and moved to Canada at 16. She completed her high school in Waterloo, Ontario, and got her degree in Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University. At Simon Fraser University, Maheen was the Student Union President for her program. During her undergrad, she also started an International NGO focused on Education. Her experiences as a leader and entrepreneur proved to be helpful in the rest of her career. Today, Maheen works in Silicon Valley, as a Senior Product Designer at Facebook.

Manpreet Dhillon ranked #15 globally on the 2020 EmPower Ethnic Minority Future Leaders list. She has over 20 years of leadership, coaching, human resources, and community development expertise. Professionally, she is an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Consultant and founder/CEO of Veza Global, a tech and consulting organization. She spent over 15 years working in gender equality and economic empowerment for marginalized and racialized individuals.

Pam Kaur was born and raised in the UK and moved to Canada in 2003. She plays many roles and has played throughout her life—mother, daughter, sibling, aunt, friend, mentor, and coach. Being a mother is the most rewarding of all. Mothers are influential creators because we bring life into this world.  A wise soul once said, “A mother is the first form of God that a child meets entering into this world.”

Pardeep Purewal is the daughter of Punjabi farmers and that is where her work ethic comes from. She was driven by their struggles and sacrifices for a better life. She began her career as a Co-op student with the Province in the Ministry Responsible for Multiculturalism. Later, she progressed to a Director level, resulting in an enriching career in the provincial government in the anti-racism, human rights, victim services, and crime prevention sectors. For the last ten years, she has had a rewarding role as a Communications Manager with a local municipality.

Born in England, Kamaljit Lehal immigrated to Canada in 1975 with her parents and two brothers. Having always dreamed of being a lawyer, she pursued her law degree at UBC and started her legal career in 1990 at a local law firm. Two years later, Kamaljit opened her firm, Lehal Law, providing legal services to the local community.