CEO Message

March is Women’s History Month, an annual celebration of the vital role and contributions of women to society. Profound Impact is proud to celebrate women through the stories you’ll read in this month’s issue of Profound Connections, as well as activities we’re sponsoring throughout the month.

This month’s Impact Story profiles Zainab Azim, a young woman whose passion for space, education, neuroscience and public policy has inspired her to found an organization that works towards providing access to quality education, serve as a mentor in the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs Space4Women program and present her research to audiences around the world – all before completing her undergraduate degree!  Read about Zainab and her plans for expanding her work in mentoring and in the policy space to empower young girls and women interested in pursuing space and STEM fields.

In this month’s Researcher Spotlight we feature Julita Vassileva, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan. You’ll learn about Julita’s passion for promoting the status of women in computer science and in all areas of science and engineering where women are underrepresented. You can also learn about her ground-breaking research on applying AI to solve educational and social problems.

International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8 each year and the theme for IWD 2024 is Inspire Inclusion. Profound Impact is proud to be a sponsor of IWD 2024 events presented by WCT-WR, the Waterloo Region Chapter of Women in Communications and Technology. WCT-WR will host two live events on March 8 and March 27 that will include conversations featuring trailblazing professionals in the arts and culture sector, entertainment, and musical interludes.  Full information about those events and registration information is available here.

In last month’s newsletter, we announced the launch of Women Funding Women (WFW).  Founded by myself, Profound Impact board chair Deborah Rosati and Lara Zink, VP of Client Service and Development at Delaney Capital Management, WFW is a collective working to address the funding gap faced by women-led ventures.

We’re excited about the incredible energy generated by WFW’s two-day launch event on February 7 and 8. Our keynote speaker was Joanna Griffiths, founder and President at Knix, who shared her story with our collective.  

You can also tune into the From Fear to Fire podcast, where I speak with Heather Hansen O’Neill about how WFW is leading the charge to challenge established norms within the venture capital sphere, redefining the landscape for women founders and funders.

Are you a researcher looking for the perfect funding match? For a limited time, Profound Impact is offering a free evaluation of our AI-powered tool, Research Impact, to individual researchers, colleges and universities. You can view a video here or sign up for a live demonstration during one of our Demo Days.

Thank you for your support and we hope that you enjoy this month’s edition of Profound Connections!

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

CEO Message

Message from the CEO

Canada’s Advanced Manufacturing sector received a huge boost in February with a new investment of $177 million from the Government of Canada to the Global Innovation Clusters program, which includes NGen, Next Generation Manufacturing Canada. This month’s Research Spotlight focuses on advanced manufacturing in Canada and how NGen projects build and expand innovation in manufacturing through collaborations between industry and researchers that provide solutions to challenging, real-world problems.

March is Women’s History Month and, as a female-founded company with female-identifying individuals comprising 60% of our staff, Profound Impact is delighted to recognize and celebrate the achievements of women in this issue of Profound Connections.

Dr. So-Ra Chung, Professor and Principal Investigator at the Centre for Smart Manufacturing at Conestoga College is also profiled as part of our Research Spotlight on Advanced Manufacturing this month. So-Ra is passionate about teaching her students via hands-on, project-based learning and working with industry partners on tangible problems.

Wendy Powley, Associate Professor in the School of Computing at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario is the subject of this month’s Impact Story. Wendy has inspired and supported thousands of young women as a professor and mentor and through CAN-CWiC, the annual celebration of Canadian women in computing. You’ll meet Wendy and learn more about how she founded the CAN-CWiC conference in 2010 and has single-handedly worked to make it the most important and prestigious Canadian conference for women in computing.

Profound Impact is a proud sponsor of the program developed by the Waterloo Region Chapter of Women in Communications and Technology to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) throughout the month of March. Check out the Women Empowering Women Digital Community (WEWDC) at https://wewdc.com/iwd2023wr to
join sessions related to this year’s IWD theme of #Embrace Equity.

Happy Women’s History Month and IWD 2023 and, as always, thank you for your engagement and support.

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone