Executive Director Cat Champagne Hailing from Lethbridge, Cat is an experienced Shelter Director who has supported survivors of domestic and gender-based violence as well as led collaborative rural and urban housing initiatives to secure safe housing options for survivors and their children. At Safe Haven Women’s Shelter Society and YWCA Lethbridge & District, she excelled at public and government relations, policy development, and fund development, including securing capital funds. She has extensive experience in the justice system helping survivors and their families navigate multiple levels of court. Her experience supporting rural and urban service providers gives her a broad view of the sector and survivor experiences across Alberta. Cat’s experience serving people with disabilities, who experience a disproportional amount of domestic violence, has expanded her understanding of services, options, and opportunities for survivors with disabilities as well as cemented her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. Cat brings energy and enthusiasm to solving the complex barriers survivors of domestic violence experience. Her strong leadership skills and experience in the sector will continue to build ACWS’ work and advocacy to end domestic and gender-based violence. Managers Jennifer Ness, Manager, Finance, HR & IT Jennifer Ness (she/her) has been with ACWS for over ten years starting as a project assistant and has worked her way up to her current role of Manager of Finance, HR and IT. Her passion is working with and for passionate people – she thrives on helping others achieve their goals and lifting them up. In her current role, she works to keep the budgets balanced, resources available to staff and the day-to-day operations running smoothly. She has 20+ years in the administrative field working in a variety of private and non-profit entities. Tosha Duncan, Manager of Programs and Services Tosha Duncan (she/her) has more than twenty years of service delivery experience in the field of intimate partner violence, with a focus on risk assessment, safety planning, crisis management, team development and interagency collaboration. She has spent most of her career within Central Alberta with the Red Deer shelter however she has more recently practiced in Northern Alberta as well as Nova Scotia. Her practice and her educational background is rooted in a feminist, trauma-informed, harm reduction and intersectional perspective, with fostering resiliency as a central tenet. As a therapist, she has specialized in working with women who have experienced trauma and is authorized to provide psychosocial intervention through the Alberta College of Social Workers, drawing upon the modalities of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) to inform her practice. She also worked as the domestic violence support coordinator and domestic violence unit social worker with both the shelter and the City of Red Deer. Miranda Pilipchuk, Manager of Research and Evaluation Miranda Pilipchuk (she/her) received her Ph.D. in philosophy at Villanova University, specializing in gender-based violence, feminist theory, critical race theory, decolonial theory, and legal theory. Before joining the ACWS, she worked as an adjunct professor and social justice facilitator at Villanova, and as the managing editor of a Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Miranda has received several research awards and fellowships, including a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, the Sir James Lougheed Award of Distinction, the Villanova Gender and Women’s Studies Graduate Research Award, and the Greater Philadelphia Women’s Studies Consortium Graduate Research Award. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals and encyclopedias, as well on public blogs. Staff Chantelle Chornohus, Member Support and Communications Specialist Natalie Craig, Database Support Fathima Fahim, Member Support – Programs & Services Hannah Friesen, Data Management Lead Devona Gibson, Member Support – Programs & Services Wei Ling Goh, Member and Data Support Lannah Guyon, Member Support – Programs & Services Husna Khaidir, Administrative and Finance Support Alice Leef, Learning and Logistics Support Jessica Mawji, Practicum Student Feni Worku, Communications and Administrative Coordinator
