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Alan Kearns
Core Team
Managing Partner and Head Career Coach
Alan Kearns is a leading thought leader on all things work. Author and contributor to The National, The Globe & Mail, National Post and CBC Radio, he shares the latest trends and changes in the Canadian workplace. Voted one of the Top 40 under 40, he is the Managing Partner and Founder of CareerJoy, an award-winning national boutique HR services firm serving 500+ leading Canadian organizations including World Vision, Shopify, The United Way, Toyota and The Government of Canada. From St. John’s to Victoria, he oversees a team of smart, wise, certified professionals offering a variety of HR services including leadership coaching, transition support, employee engagement and workshops. His team is committed to making work better for Canadian professionals and organizations. He believes in the inherent value of the individual and is committed to supporting change and igniting growth. People made better is work made better.Amanda Lockhart
Core Team
Practice Lead, Government Solutions
Passionate about people, Amanda is as enthusiastic about the successes of her team members as about her own and, is always there to support others when needed. Her years of experience in operational-based roles have provided Amanda with strong knowledge in process development, project management, and systems development. A Concordia graduate in Therapeutic Recreation, Amanda is very involved in her community through both volunteer work and her seat on the board of directors for a non-profit organization.Claire Cotton
Core Team
Director of Operations
Claire is driven by a burning desire to inspire and uplift others. She thrives on personal growth and constantly encourages herself and her team to reach new heights. Claire's attention to detail is next level, and she firmly believes in the power of well-organized systems and processes to streamline day-to-day operations. But what sets her apart is her unwavering commitment to integrity and radical candour. She values open and honest communication, never shying away from difficult conversations to foster a culture of trust and growth within her team. Claire's leadership style is a winning combination of passion, organization, and a genuine love for seeing others succeed.Christy Zavitske
Core Team
Finance Assistant & Bookkeeper
Christy is an experienced finance professional with expertise in bookkeeping, administration, and customer service. Known for her meticulous attention to detail and ability to handle multiple tasks, Christy excels in managing financial responsibilities efficiently. With a personable demeanor and strong interpersonal skills, they build positive relationships with clients and colleagues. Her diverse background also includes administration and customer service roles, adding valuable versatility to her skill set. Christy thrives on embracing new opportunities and continuously expanding her knowledge in the ever-evolving finance industry. Outside of work, Christy actively embraces the role of a supportive parent by volunteering and being involved in her children's sports and activities. She finds great joy in dedicating her time and energy to contribute to the success and enjoyment of her kids' extracurricular pursuits.Claire Dillon
Core Team
Practice Lead, People & Culture Solutions
Claire has over 15 years experience in sales and brand management in the healthcare and luxury fashion industries. She is passionate about understanding her clients’ needs and takes pride in finding the best possible solution for each client. She graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University with a degree in Political Science and never lets an unknown word pass her by without making a note to look up the definition later.Deborah Plant
Core Team
Director of People & Culture Solutions
Deborah is a Learning and Development Consultant with 15+ years experience designing, delivering, and implementing strategic, engaging learning programs for Canadian corporations. At CareerJoy, Deborah designs and develops customized learning solutions to enhance leadership competencies, increase employee engagement, and drive cultural transformation. Credentials:- Adult Education Certificate, St. Francis Xavier University
- Adult Education Diploma, Seneca College
- Human Resources Post Graduate Diploma, Durham College
- Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Simon Fraser University
George Muenz
Core Team
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
With over 40 years of experience, George is one of our senior coaches and among the most respected career and leadership coaches in Canada. George specializes in working with clients with their very personalized and individualized needs, all while focusing on real-world strategies. Known for his ability to help clients understand and articulate their capabilities, value, and potential, George is a perfect fit for the CareerJoy team. An expert in outplacement, career transition, job search, and on-site termination support - George has experience working with clients that vary from startups to leading international firms like IBM, Price Waterhouse and Motorola. In addition to this, George is very experienced in working with clients from entry-level to the C-Suite.Gina McNeil
Core Team
Senior Career Success Advisor
Gina is heavily committed to professional development and lifelong learning. She has more than 25 years of progressive public and private sector leadership experience, from municipal leadership roles to marketing to customer experience/loyalty programs for a niche global brand. Gina’s passion has always been serving as an inspiring leader. She enjoys bringing people together to collaborate on ideas, information, and possibilities, and is skilled at achieving positive, unified outcomes where everyone feels valued. A strong believer in paying it forward, Gina has been a passionate advocate for community initiatives that promote inclusivity, betterment, and growth. Among her achievements is instituting and coordinating the first Positive Recreation Opportunities for Kids (PRO Kids) Program in Atlantic Canada, helping approximately 600 underprivileged children and drawing sponsorships, donations, and volunteers from 150+ organizations. Gina’s easy-going sense of humor and wit is a defining management strategy to bring out the best in everyone, instill pride, and engage them in cultivating relationships that go beyond customer service.Jennifer Facchin
Core Team
Director of Coaching and Culture
An accomplished Facilitator and Certified CareerJoy CQ Career Intelligence Coach™, Ms. Jennifer Facchin is dedicated to guiding individuals on their path to achieving unprecedented results, by aligning their actions and values and propelling the development of their career and leadership skills. Working with professionals of all levels and functions, Jennifer specializes in adopting a consultative approach to sieve through her clients’ stories, looking for the gold that will make their candidacies shine. Having identified their key assets and accomplishments, Jennifer helps job seekers formulate their Professional Value Proposition, determine well-defined goals, and get through every stage of the job search process with confidence, including resume writing and interview preparation. On top of being an ICCP-1 Integral Associate Coach™, DiSC Certified, and International Coaching Federation Member Certified, Ms. Facchin leverages an unmatched ability to connect with individuals and teams to optimize potentials and transitions. With expertise spanning across recruitment, leadership development, employee engagement, OD projects, training and facilitation, business development management, and corporate store management, she has been successfully supporting teams from the private sector for the last 15 years. As a firm believer that the culture of an organization is meant to be lived, Jennifer uses a global vision to instill positive change aligning with both the corporate mission and the employees’ values and aspirations. At CareerJoy, Jennifer wears many hats in contributing to the organization’s expanding footprint as a thought leader in the Canadian industry. Notably serving as a Leadership CQ Facilitator and CQ Team Lead, she mentors aspiring teams to help them reach their full potential and expand their impact in their workplace while championing the importance of employee engagement and how to maximize it via good leadership practices. A transcendental leader and relationship builder, Jennifer embodies everything she preaches by overseeing an internal group called the ‘Culture Crew’. Formerly known as the ‘Happiness Crew’, this group ensures that everyone at CareerJoy is living by the organization’s values, by integrating Diversity and Inclusion workshops, Wellness best practices, Lunch & Learns, and regular meetings focused on accountability, growth, and innovation. Jennifer also plays a pivotal role in driving the continuous improvement of client offerings, by coordinating cross-functional teams to offer best-in-class services, while humanizing and modernizing tools to empower clients and help them take the reins of their own development ICCP-1 Associate Certification
Jessika D’Oliveira
Core Team
Corporate and HR Solutions Coordinator
Jessika is a detailed-oriented individual who loves new learning opportunities and taking on new challenges. She has more than 10 years of experience in client-facing roles as well as two years of experience in the HR space. She is dedicated to creating meaningful connections with her clients as well as her colleagues. As a natural leader, she is proficient in interpersonal relations and has strong communication skills.Kristine Tod
Core Team
Practice Lead, People & Culture Solutions
Kristine is a solutions-focused consultant who is passionate about advancing workplace culture. An empathetic listener, she is happiest supporting clients based on their own unique needs. She has 20 years of corporate experience developing exceptional long-term relationships with clients, partners and peers within the healthcare, education, and not-for-profit sectors.Martina Wall
Core Team
Marlene Carrington
Core Team
Practice Lead, People & Culture Solutions
For over 25 years, Marlene has been supporting her clients by recommending the adoption of sound HR solutions spanning hiring practices, talent and leadership development, team effectiveness, high-potential programs, and organizational transition. If she graduated in Political Science at Acadia University, what Marlene truly loves is having a positive and lasting impact on people and their professional lives, for organizations ranging from start-ups to large enterprises across multiple industries. She is also a long-time member of the Strategic Capability Network, Women’s Executive Network, Women of Influence, and more recently Lean In Toronto. First and foremost, Marlene is fascinated by people, what they do, and how they do it, and she has an unfading passion for devising tailored strategies that make it all better.Meagan Tavenier
Core Team
Practice Lead, People & Culture Solutions
Meagan is a Hospitality professional with over 18 years of experience in hotels and event planning. She thrives on meaningful interactions and assisting others in achieving their personal and professional goals. Meagan specializes in building nurturing relationships that are meaningful and supportive, and takes pride in finding the most impactful solutions for her clients. Alongside her corporate practice, Meagan supports our professional to leadership level individual clients through transformative career transitions.Melanie Waters
Core Team
Career Success Advisor
With a progressive and diversified career spanning over a decade and various exciting roles and mission-critical initiatives within respected organizations, Mel has earned a strong reputation as a people-driven and forward-thinking professional. Her broad experience with a wide range of clients has allowed her to develop the capacity to accurately understand their varying needs, which in turn enables her to envision optimal solutions to complex challenges, define meaningful goals, and provide personalized and empathetic support to achieve them. First and foremost, Mel likes to think of herself as an optimistic connector of people who believe in the power of teamwork to achieve a common mission. She leverages excellent organizational skills to handle high volumes of concurring tasks and projects and contributes to cultures of cross-functional collaboration.Noemie Muller
Core Team
Corporate Success Advisor | Marketing Specialist
With 4 years of experience as a team leader and nearly a decade serving the public, the breadth of my knowledge and expertise allow me to thrive as a Corporate Success Advisor at CareerJoy. Across progressively prominent and exciting roles at the CN Tower, the Canadian Red Cross, and CareerJoy, I have grown to learn the importance of flexibility and resilience to meet the ever-evolving requirements of fast-paced work environments. My most recent experience in operations has also sharpened my ability to create clarity amidst chaos, empowering and guiding my teams to success despite significant challenges. A self-proclaimed tech enthusiast, I am passionate about remaining abreast of the latest rends and upgrading my technical skills to continuously improve processes and better support my clients and teammates. But first and foremost, I find my greatest sense of joy and fulfilment when I help organizations achieve their goals and people advance their careers in a meaningful way, based on what is truly important to them.Tracy Saxton
Core Team
Instructional Designer
Tracy is passionate about professional development and brings over 10 years of experience working in higher education and creating engaging career-oriented learning experiences for post-secondary students. At CareerJoy, Tracy is an Instructional Designer developing learning solutions to enhance leadership competencies, increase employee engagement, and drive cultural transformation.Adrien-Alexandre Allin
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Adrien-Alexandre has spent his life exploring and understanding of the human mind and body, involving disciplines from physiotherapy to an array of artistic media. As a professional coach, he leverages his varied and unique experiences while working with clients across Europe and now Canada. His leitmotiv: The success of each individual depends first and foremost on the respect for their values. Adrien-Alexandre helps clients undergoing change or transition to develop their personal and professional assertiveness, to break conventional boundaries, and to implement successful strategies for an optimistic, responsible global society. He provides the tools and support for conscious growth, bringing a positive and proactive vision through a personalised and focused intervention. With his human-centered and tailor-made approach, Adrien-Alexandre supports individuals, teams, or organisations to develop their full potential, improve individual and/or collective effectiveness, and deploy new skills and capacities to achieve set objectives. Adrien-Alexandre's multicultural career has provided him with a wealth of competencies and expertise in intra/interpersonal skills, communication, and conflict management.Akilah Myrie
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Akilah is a passionate, energetic, and thoughtful Certified Coach Practitioner specializing in Career Coaching. She identified at a very young age that her purpose would be to help and support others, it is through her own career journey that she realized how pursuing the right career path has a tremendous impact on the direction of one's life. Having worked with a career mentor early in her professional life, Akilah understands the profound value of career coaching and is dedicated to helping others identify the career path that corresponds to what they want and who they truly are.
As a career transition coach, Akilah supports her clients to accomplish their career goals by using a collaborative approach to remove the internal and external roadblocks that make them feel stuck. She guides individuals in discovering and walking the path that's right for them, whether that means climbing the corporate ladder, making a career change, or becoming an entrepreneur.
Akilah is also an amateur abstract painter and an explorer who enjoys exploring new countries and cultures.
Education and Professional Training:
• Certified Coach Practitioner, Certified Coaches Federation, Canada, 2020 • Life Coach, Coacheroes, Canada, 2020 • PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Project Management Institute, USA, 2017 • ITIL Foundation V3 (IT Service Management), Axelos, UK, 2014 • Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute, USA, 2012 • MSc. Computer Based Management Information Systems, Distinction, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, 2010 • Web Development and Administration, Distinction, Mona Institute of Applied Sciences Mona, Jamaica, 2008 • BSc. Computer Science & Electronics, Honors, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, 2007"Angelica Aite
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Angelica Aite has always had a passion for fostering cultures of innovation, transformation, inclusiveness, agility, psychological safety, and resilience.
An HR consultant and facilitator with more than 30 years of experience, Angelica has led HR initiatives at the Department of National Defence, Global Affairs Canada, the House of Commons, and the Privy Council Office, and at private firms. In those roles, Angelica advised and trained senior management and members of Parliament, Governor in Council Appointees, boards of directors, and CEOs on a wide assortment of HR policies, codes of ethics, terms and conditions, performance management, and employee relations.
Angelica’s positive outlook inspires, motivates, and builds effective and collaborative relationships with staff and clients alike. She is fluent in English and French and has authored HR publications on career development and on aging at work.
Angelica’s certifications include:
Anna Consoli
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Anna has a passion for helping people make a meaningful change in their careers. Anna’s coaching involves partnering with her clients in their journey from uncertainty to clarity. Her goal is to help clients enhance their self-awareness, explore skills, and identify strengths, providing them with a clear understanding of the unique value they can bring into a new job or role.
Through deep questioning Anna guides her clients toward uncovering fears and blocks so they can shift their mindsets to gain confidence, motivation, and inspiration. Clients learn to observe their thoughts, feelings, and actions and intentionally choose the ones that serve them better.
Anna has had extensive experience with complexity and vulnerability during her career in academia and health research. Those experiences have helped her to bring empathy, compassion, and kindness to her coaching practice. As an authentic and non-judgemental career coach, Anna takes an honest and insightful approach to helping her clients feel safe, inspired, and empowered by their own resources, abilities, and talents.
Catherine Decarie
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Catherine is a former Chief Human Resources Officer, an experienced financial services executive, a lawyer, a member of ICF, and a certified professional coach through Integral Coaching Canada. In her coaching practice, she collaborates with leaders, and senior teams, enabling them to overcome obstacles; build new capabilities; and create lasting, sustainable change.
As a former Chief Human Resources Officer, Catherine has worked with countless leaders and executives helping to increase their effectiveness, evolve their careers, implement significant organizational change, and develop high performance cultures. She brings more than 25 years of business experience to her coaching and consulting work. This includes the insights and perspectives gained during her tenure in multiple C-suite positions, as well as working with numerous Boards of Directors as a Corporate Secretary.
Catherine has completed the Advanced Management Program at the Columbia School of Business, and also attended the Institute for Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cambridge. She is a member of the International Coaching Federation, a graduate of Queen’s Law School, and licensed to practice law in Ontario.
Chantal Simard
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
After 32 years of service at the Government of Canada – half of which as an executive –, Chantal is now dedicated to helping people and organizations achieve their goals through training, coaching, and mentoring. With a Professional Coach Certification from the renowned Erickson International, Chantal is currently in the process of obtaining her accreditation from the International Coach Federation (ICF).
Fluently bilingual in English and French, Chantal has worked her way up progressively prominent roles, across multiple government departments with a variety of social and economic agendas. Her broad experience has allowed her to gain a keen understanding of best practices related to program development and operations, policy analysis, and team leadership and management. She has dealt with a variety of HR-related matters encompassing mental health issues, grievances, performance management, and workplace wellness for teams of up to 70 employees. As part of her last position at Employment and Social Development Canada, Chantal has ideated and developed a robust, well-defined action plan that significantly enhanced mental and workplace wellness.
Chantal has earned a strong reputation as an empathetic active listener, a creative problem solver, and an action-oriented leader. First and foremost, she is the proud mother of two daughters who, outside of the time she spends with her family, finds her greatest joy and purpose when she has a positive impact on people’s personal and professional lives!
Chris Backus
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
As an influential and ethical leader, Chris Backus has had a dynamic career spanning a variety of unique work cultures.
Chris' professional background includes 18 years of service as a police officer with the RCMP, where he earned specialized distinction as a Conflict Management Specialist, Certified Crisis Negotiator, and Senior Commander/Leader with the ability to navigate complex situations while achieving successful outcomes. He has also worked as a strategic advisor to the United Nations Operations in the Ivory Coast, tailoring and facilitating specific communication and negotiation strategies to improve outcomes in the midst of violent political conflict.
Within his business leadership acumen, Chris has served as CEO of both public and private companies. He has coached many high-level government and private sector clients in leadership development, strategic communications/negotiations, emotional intelligence, and change management. He has extensive experience conducting breakthrough interest-based (win-win) negotiations in situations of organizational conflict.
Debora Dekok
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Debora has been a Resume Coach with CareerJoy since 2005 and is also one of CareerJoy’s Biographical Career Report (BCR) analysts. In this role she gets to know her clients’ most satisfying life accomplishments and analyzes those accomplishments to uncover common threads to propel their career direction forward.
Throughout her career in journalism, Debora enjoyed getting to the core of a story by gathering information and retelling the story in an easily understood way. At CareerJoy, she does the same with resumes. Debora hones in on a client’s unique skills and experiences, and reframes them with clarity and precision, creating a clear, concise and readable resume so employers can easily understand a client’s career highlights at a glance.
Professional designations
Delia Noel
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Special Counsellor by trade, Organizational change and development consultant by profession.
28 years in the helping and social services field working with youth and families in crisis. Over 15 years of presenting various workshops and professional seminars.
My purpose in life is to help change the world, one person at a time. I aspire to do this by supporting people to have a safe space to question their own beliefs and how those beliefs allow them to navigate the world they live in.
Erin Patchell
Senior Advisor, People & Culture Solutions Consultant
Erin builds trusted partnerships, taking a great deal of care to understand organizational cultures, business objectives and people management scenarios in order to tailor consulting, learning, training and coaching solutions. Her highest priority is to support her client partners in the Federal and Provincial governments to build their culture from the inside out - top to bottom and bottom to top - living to their highest values, to make real business transformations happen and generate measurable bottom-line results.
Erin has more than 10 years of experience working with senior professionals including coaches, facilitators, learning designers, marketing experts and HR consultants. Her mission is to explore the best ideas, systems, methods, frameworks, tools and assessments and serve as an integrator to connect people and resources.
As a trained professional development coach, Erin is an evangelist of growth mindset and courage, and takes a special interest in service delivery excellence, curiosity, creativity, innovation & agility, organizational learning, culture change and leadership development.
Jaime-Lee Patrick
Corporate Success Specialist, Finance Administrative Assistant
An optimistic and motivated professional, Jaime-Lee brings over fifteen years of customer service experience gained in wide-ranging and exciting settings including hospitality, aviation and assisting the Board of Directors and Executive Director of Operations for the Canadian Olympic Committee. A highly-adaptable team member, she strives to support her clients through resourceful and constructive collaborations to reach their goals and achieve success.
Jaime-Lee has always been driven to help people navigate through situations, both challenging and rewarding. A global citizen from her love of travel, Jaime-Lee carries an abundance of experience and enthusiasm for what the world has to offer and welcomes opportunities to share and grow with her clients and colleagues.
Jan Williams
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Jan is a prime example of success in the career coaching world - as head of her own successful cross-cultural training company in Europe, Jan achieved considerable success in training managers to communicate effectively in international environments. Jan's professional coaching background ranges from executive and leadership coaching to career and employment coaching.
Jan’s experience includes career management/advice/identity/exploration, outplacements, career transitions, job search, on-site termination, and leadership development. Jan has experience working with clients that vary in professional status. In addition to this, Jan is experienced in dealing with almost every industry in Canada.
Professional Designations
Jane Fenton
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Jane is a Certified Executive and Health Coach specializing in Career Transitions. Her expertise is uniquely tailored to coaching clients who are navigating endings and embarking on new beginnings.
Clients who partner with Jane tap into her soul-centered presence and heartfelt passion for people who are committed to deep personal growth. Through sharpened self-awareness and active learning, clients gain high-performance outcomes and solution-focused results.
A professional coach of 15 years, Jane has lived and raised her family in ten countries around the world. Her experience negotiating employment, as well as logistical, cultural, practical, and linguistic barriers in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Australasia helps her to identify great opportunities in every pivot.
Jane’s global odyssey has equipped her with a dynamic range of competencies and expertise in the non-profit, media / communications, investment / finance, and healthcare sectors.
Jane is an ACC coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She is also the co-founder of a Toronto-based eating disorder centre that has helped more than 30,000 women, men, and youth.
CREDENTIALS/EDUCATION
Jacqueline McGinn
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Jackie is a former senior leader in the financial services sector, with a unique blend of skills and experience in enterprise risk management, business operations, and human resources. She is a certified professional coach with Integral Coaching Canada, with a deep background and extensive experience in lean transformation and cultural change. Her passion is helping leaders, teams, and organizations adapt and transform in ways that promote both personal growth and strong corporate performance.
Throughout her career, Jackie has had a consistent record of building high-performance teams that tackle complex corporate challenges and achieve breakthrough results across multiple disciplines. Over that time, she has been leading, coaching, and implementing people and process changes to shift culture and enhance performance. In particular, she has led several large-scale change initiatives focused on building programs to advance and embed capabilities to manage enterprise risks, sustain high performance, and coach leaders and teams to be successful.
She firmly believes that the greatest successes are those accomplished in teams and in the critical role of leadership and culture in sustaining long-term impact.
Accreditations:
Janet Mrenica
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Janet has more than 30 years of bilingual leadership management.
As a coach, she is passionate about supporting people through uncertainty, understanding diversity and inclusion, and enabling the career/leadership development and agility of the next generation of leaders, executives and teams. She facilitates courageous conversations that matter with a coaching style that integrates circle and somatic practices. Janet’s career with the federal public service, including 13 years at the executive level, involved both national and international contexts within Canadian federal government agencies, science-based, social and international departments, and in social enterprise/not-for-profit sectors. She has led numerous organizational and system transformation initiatives. She is a Fellow CPA/CMA, recognized for the breadth of her career in community advocacy, strategic financial management, corporate and policy sectors. While at Environment and Climate Change Canada, Janet was awarded the 2015 CPA Canada National Award of Excellence in Public Sector Management in the Team Innovation category for Executive leadership for the Integrated Management Framework for Environmental Contaminated Sites. She has volunteered in capacity building of the public service by leading the financial management community with the Financial Management Institute – Capital Chapter, and in infrastructure, through the Women’s Infrastructure Network – Ottawa Chapter. She brings to the table her training and exploration of circle practice, mental health, and grief and loss programming through the lenses of healing and reconciliation with indigenous peoples and climate low-carbon economies. For her personal care and wellness, Janet is an avid walker, spending much time in nature, with her two grandchildren, and walking her dogs. Education & Memberships: • ICF Associate Certified Coach • Certified Integral Professional Coach • Certified Trauma Informed Coach • Climate Change Engagement Coach • Practitioner of Neil’s Wheel & the Enneagram • The Working Mind Manager, Mental Health Commission of Canada • First Aid Mental Health, Mental Health Commission of Canada • Member of the Global Climate Coaching Alliance Instruments: • Certified EQi-2.0 + EQ-360 • Highlands and DISCJudith Cane
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Judith has worked in the financial services industry for 27 years first as an insurance agent, then as a full service adviser and finally, since 2010, as a Money Coach. She has worked with hundreds of clients to create a clear picture of their financial situation, build a realistic spending and savings plan, implement a “Get Out of Debt and Stay There” strategy and finally help them begin to achieve their financial goals.
She has spoken on stage and in workshops across Canada and is an engaging speaker who has an ability to connect with audiences, both large and small, at a personal level. Her listeners walk away not only inspired, but also armed with practical, actionable information that they can use to achieve their financial goals and live the life they want. She has presented workshops with Industry Canada, Invest Ottawa, Enterprise Renfrew County, Canadian Medical Protective Agency, National Research Council Canada and Veritaaq.
Judith is Canada’s Money Coach and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, Canadian Living and Chatelaine. She has a weekly segment on 1310NEWS and is seen once a month on CTV Morning Live talking about everything money so if you are up early enough, you’ll see her there.
Professional Designations
Jennifer Klatt
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Jennifer Klatt is edgy, funny, (a little sweary), and loves to challenge the status quo. She has been known to communicate what executive teams and clients need to hear, which is not always what they want to hear. With over 25 years of leadership in public and private organizations, she quickly climbed the corporate ladder to discover her passion for innovation, leadership development, and unlocking people’s potential.
In her climb to the top, she shattered the proverbial glass ceiling for women in a masculine-dominated industry. In 2011, at the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure, Jennifer was the first woman to hold a position as an Assistant Deputy Minister and went on to lead the Operations Division where she was responsible for leading a team of over 1,000 employees and budgeting over $300M.
She has also served as an Executive-In-Residence at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy where she was a key leader on a major refresh for the suite of workshop programming that met the needs of the public service clients and workshop attendees. She was also instrumental in developing and delivering several key policy developments, accountability, performance measures and leadership workshops.
She is a professional accountant but by no means is she a typical accountant. She has drawn upon this experience to bring in significant culture change as the CFO at SaskBuilds and eHealth in Saskatchewan. As part of this change management work, Jennifer taps into a unique blend of boundless compassion and no-bullshit honesty to help leaders authentically and intentionally connect with themselves and the world around them. Her mantra with individuals and groups has been...
Her Professional Qualifications include:
Julien Lafreniere
Executive Resume Writer / Translator
Holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and avid writer since I can remember, I had already produced a number of papers, including a novel and various articles, when I got the opportunity of making my debut as a Resume Writer at a world-renowned organization. Soon after, my skills and dedication to consistently surpass customers’ expectations allowed me to get noticed and be promoted as a Senior Resume Writer and Language Expert (English and French) for the Canadian region.
Since 2019, I have the pleasure of contributing to CareerJoy’s continued success as a Translator and Certified Resume & Branding Coach. Passionate about meeting new people, I take pride in building close rapport with my clients to understand their unique backgrounds and desires, helping them confidently attack the job market with high-quality, tailored documents.
Kate Desormeaux
Kate Desormeaux | Corporate/Client Success
With more than 10 years working in the hospitality and retail sector, Kate is an experienced customer service ambassador who enjoys problem-solving new challenges with creative strategies.
She is an effective customer service provider because she has a natural affliction and savvy for project planning, connecting, creative marketing campaigns, and improving processes with people and technology.
Kate has an Advanced Diploma in Business Administration from Cambrian College in Sudbury, ON. She has also worked with animal rescues and is passionate about helping lost or abandoned animals find their forever homes.
Julie Cusmariu
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Julie Cusmariu is a Certified Professional Coach, Certified Mentor Coach, Experienced Facilitator, Intuitive Consultant, and Podcast Host and Producer with over 15 years of experience in the field of coaching, healing, and transformation.
Julie supports leaders and change makers trust their intuition, make better decisions, gain clarity, and lead with meaning and purpose. For over 10 years, she has been interviewing thought leaders, scientists, psychologists, and bestselling authors as part of 'Julie in Conversation’, a popular podcast dedicated to individual and collective healing and change. Julie facilitates, coaches, and mentors individuals and groups worldwide to create safe, inclusive, and brave spaces promoting and nurturing diversity, equity, and belonging. Julie is pulled by curiosity and fuelled by passion and is both fascinated and humbled by the human experience, daily.
Kathleen Johnson
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Kathleen is a Senior Leadership Coach at CareerJoy, offering one-on-one career transition coaching. She also facilitates Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) guidance in the private and public sectors.
She earned a Coaching Certificate in 2017, and a DEI Certificate from Cornell University in 2020. She has coached entrepreneurs, executives, and professional artists in life and business and advises organizations on becoming fully inclusive.
In 2021, Kathleen became the Secretary of the Race Equity Caucus for her party and ran in the federal election, with the greatest showing for her party ever in that riding. Kathleen was also a founding member of the Alberta Humanist Association and joined the board of Humanist Canada on which she still sits.
In March of this year, Kathleen relocated to Victoria, BC where she first served as a Ministerial Advisor in the Ministry of Education and Child Care, and has now moved to the Provincial Health Services Authority as a Senior Consultant in Diversity Equity and Inclusion for BC's health system.
For many years, Kathleen advised the non-profit organization Braintech Robotics in providing robotics programming to BIPOC youth, creating the framework for their Social-Emotional Learning programming.
Recently she was selected to sit on the board of the Odihi Foundation where she mentors and coaches women and girls of color to achieve their dreams in life and in business. Kathleen has spoken to major corporations such as Bank of America on topics such as Blackness in Canada and has appeared on major media outlets, national platforms, and international podcasts.
Kathleen has a B.A. in Sociology and Cultural Anthropology from Carleton University.
Lama Younes
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Lama is a certified and ICF accredited coach and has 15+ years of experience in corporate HR. She worked for General Electric and Deloitte covering local, regional, and global HR roles in Canada, the Middle East/Africa, and the US, across various businesses and levels from the front line to C-suite. In the workplace, she is known for making authentic and lasting connections by focusing on talent development and well-being. Through these experiences, she has deep insights into leadership that creates a positive work environment and excellence in performance and results.
Coaching Philosophy
Lama’s solution-focused coaching puts the client and their goals front and center, which means the coaching conversation doesn’t end until there are actionable and measurable takeaways, and likely a few insights as well! Her coaching philosophy is to provide a purpose-driven, judgment-free space for the client while asking powerful questions that lead to the best solution. Lama works to empower her client to feel safe bringing their whole self to the session, helping them to deliver sustainable decisions and best performances back to their workplace. She is especially passionate about the development and mental well-being of women in the workplace.
Lama holds a solution-focused coaching diploma from Erickson International and an Honours B.A. from the University of Toronto.
Laurie Fenske
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Laurie’s coaching successes are rooted in her ability to lead clients to find their best solutions within themselves. Clients are drawn to Laurie’s passion and commitment for helping clients to achieve substantial improvements in their work through high-energy coaching sessions and workshop facilitation.
Drawing from her extensive professional experiences, Laurie offers Individual Executive and Leadership Coaching for clients who are striving for more but need leadership guidance to reach their top goals. She has also had great success as an Organizational Strategic coach, partnering with organizations or entrepreneurs seeking to elevate their business to the next level of success. Laurie offers customized training programs and workshops to enhance the learning and development successes of individuals or teams.
Credentials
Lillian Thomsen
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Lillian specializes in executive level competition preparation including identifying leadership competency gaps and opportunities for growth, interview preparation and conducting mock interviews followed by individual assessments. She has also done extensive coaching of public servants and of colleagues in the not-for-profit sector, where she is very active.
She has extensive experience facilitating retreats, change management and leadership development workshops in both the public and not-for-profit sectors and is bilingual in both official languages.
Credentials
M.A. (ABD) in Soviet History, Joint BA with full majors in both history and economics.
Lean certificate (green) in healthcare
Lisa Pierosara
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Lisa is a senior certified professional coach, facilitator and collaborative program leader with a history of fostering transformative change, communications excellence and leadership effectiveness.
After many years coaching young professionals at the Schulich School of Business and working with Canadian employers for the MBA program, she consults as a professional certified affiliate coach with CareerJoy, among other projects with executive clients across all business sectors (public, not for profit and corporate). Lisa walks the talk of pursuing next-level work that “fits” with who you are and what you want, a common goal for her seasoned roster of career coaching clients. For her executive and leadership development clients, she brings her background in branding, communications, DEI, and management effectiveness to co-create relevant leadership strategies and help clients create and sustain the conditions for high performance.
Credentials
BA French; College degree in Marketing
ICF PCC (with training by both Adler & CTI)
Management Effectiveness (Reddin Global)
CoachingOurselves
CareerLeader
Lisa Shepert
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Lisa began her coaching journey in 2002 when she transitioned out of a corporate job to coaching and committed to a life-long love for people development.
Driven to support others through change, learning, and growth, Lisa has modeled this change in her own career by gaining certification in three coaching models: Career Development Practitioner, Mentor Coach, facilitator, and trainer.
A Career and Leadership Coach for more than 20 years, Lisa has coached professionals and leaders in government as well as the private sector. She once led a change management program that saw an unsustainable leadership style turn around to leaders adopting a coach approach, inspiring other leaders to elevate their leadership game. She has implemented and managed internal coaching programs at two organizations, and developed mentor coaching programs to support the learning and application of behavior change.
Clients appreciate Lisa’s curious and collaborative approach. Using well-honed listening skills and intuition, she is candid and respectful in helping clients learn and navigate desired change. If she’s not making you think then she’s not doing her job.
Lisa is an International Coaching Federation (ICF) Professional Certified Coach and is active in her local ICF Chapter. She served for four years on the Board and has hosted several Community of Practice discussions. She is active in peer coaching circles because she believes it’s important to support the coaching community and to learn from other coaches.
Lisa lives in Edmonton and enjoys reading, movies, travel, cabin life, and time spent with loved ones.
Credentials
Lynda Peto
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
A member of the CareerJoy team since 2014 - Lynda’s personal success leads her to be an essential tool for mid-career transitions. Lynda’s coaching philosophy involves unlocking each client's potential and supporting them in developing and achieving a sense of agency in their careers.
Lynda’s an expert in career management/advice/identity/exploration, outplacements, career transitions, job search, and on-site termination. In addition to being well versed in group coaching methods, and expert at working with clients of all ages and career points working in any industry in Canada.
Credentials
Favourite Clients
Student, early career, mid-career - interested in people in general and always find something interesting to share. Most favourite clients are the motivated and are doing this work for themselves and not to please others (eg: Mom and Dad :))
Marie Josee-Dionne
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
MJ has a vision of building a world of excellence, inspired by passion, determination, and compassion in which each human being is valued.
Throughout her 28-year carer in the federal public service, MJ worked for 15 years as an executive in strategic planning, governance, strategic policy, program development, change and risk management, audit, and evaluation.
She holds an executive certificate in public leadership from Harvard Kennedy School, an Executive Coaching Certificate from Royal Roads University, and a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in interpersonal and organizational communication from the University of Ottawa. She is also certified in Emotional Intelligence 360 EQ-I 2.0, and SCHOR360, and is on her way to obtaining her certification in Leadership Circle Profile.
MJ is a member of the International Coaching Federation, ICF Québec, International Coaching Coalition and Institute of Coaching McLean, an Affiliate of Harvard Medical School.
Marieke Bosch Larose
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Marieke Bosch Larose is a Certified Coach and Facilitator with over a decade of experience in the fields of coaching, advising, mentoring, and personal empowerment. She combines her love of philosophical inquiry with powerful coaching tools and intuitive listening, empathy, and non-judgmental support to create the safe and inquisitive space her clients need to truly explore who they are and what they want.
She is passionate about helping people move past perfectionism, step into their innate worthiness, and meet themselves with deep compassion to lead vibrant, purposeful, and fulfilling lives. While she leads from a grounded and calm place, Marieke loves to inject lightness and fun into her coaching as an intentional way of supporting her clients on their personal and professional development journeys.
Margaret Van Amelsvoort-Thoms
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Margaret Van Amelsvoort-Thoms is a bilingual CareerJoy Senior Leadership Facilitator. She is also a former Director General with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS).
After a 35 year career in the public service, of which 30 years were spent in human resources. Before her retirement, she was on assignment as the Special Advisor to the Chief Human Resources Officer. Previously, she was the Executive Director, People Management & Community Engagement at the Treasury Board Secretariat. In this role, she was responsible for supporting transformation of human resource, including the business model; facilitating strategic planning for human resources decision-making; HR community capacity-building; and she was also responsible for people management policies such as Employment Equity, Performance Management and Values and Ethics. A graduate with a BA from McMaster University, Ms. Van Amelsvoort-Thoms has worked in human resources for the public service for 30 years.
In 2018, she was the recipient of the Human Resources Council Michelle C. Comeau Award for Career Contribution in Human Resources in the public service.
Neal Black
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
Neal is a certified coach, a speaker and a facilitator with more than 40 years of experience helping individuals, teams and organizations take critical next steps. His experiences include training leaders and groups on how to integrate coaching in their roles.
Neal enjoys “aha” moments when people get excited about possibilities and are energized by the path forward. He understands that people learn best when they are curious, engaged, and actively involved.
Neal has held the position of Associate Director of Leadership Development with responsibilities for more than 400 staff. Neal has also taught virtually for more than 10 years and has trained over 100 speakers how to engage and train people online. He coaches beginner speakers to become seasoned presenters. Neal has created several leadership courses, as well as a series of short videos on topics such as Building Trust, How to Accomplish the Most Important and Difficult Conversations.
Neal has presented across Canada and internationally on topics of leadership, relationships and team cohesion.
Paula Connolly
Senior Leadership and Career Coach
For 20+ years, Paula has helped clients improve their individual and business outcomes. Her deep understanding of workplace challenges and how to achieve results comes from years of designing and presenting customized training programs for businesses and the government.
Paula’s expertise in human resources training and coaching for government clients has seen her lead hundreds of training sessions. She applies adult learning principles and knows the best results occur when participation and questions are encouraged. Paula is adept at adjusting her approach to suit each group’s specific needs, giving participants opportunities to reflect, challenge, discuss, and experience new ideas and skills to enhance their growth and learning.
As a Career Coach, Paula has had great success helping clients plan their careers, improve their resumes and prepare for government interviews.
Originally from Prince Edward Island, Paula dabbles in oil painting and is an avid sports fan.
Paula’s training and coaching successes include:
- Designed and delivered 50+ Career Planning seminars for provincial government’s Administrative Professionals Learning and Development Program including career coaching for over 500 participants
- Provided career training and coaching to clients experiencing downsizing or restructuring: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Pan/Para Pan American Games Secretariat, CIRNAC, Ministry of Community and Social Services
- Provided individual coaching to 30+ government managers to prepare for executive positions
- Designed and developed courseware for over 40 classroom and on-line training workshops on diverse topics
Professional Designations:
