Executive Director Cat Champagne Catherine (Cat) Champagne is the Executive Director of the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters (ACWS) and is passionate about strengthening Alberta’s response to gender-based violence through advocacy, collaboration, research, and capacity building. She is committed to ensuring women’s shelters have a strong provincial voice and the resources they need to support survivors and create lasting systems change. With more than 15 years of experience in the justice system, disability services, and the non-profit sector, Catherine has dedicated her career to supporting individuals and families experiencing vulnerability. Her leadership in both rural and urban communities across Alberta has given her a deep understanding of the diverse realities facing survivors and the organizations that support them. Before joining ACWS, Catherine held executive leadership roles with women’s shelters, where she led organizational growth, secured funding, developed innovative programs, and built strong partnerships across the community and government. Today, she continues to bring people together to advance evidence-informed policy, strengthen the women’s shelter sector, and improve outcomes for survivors across Alberta. Catherine believes meaningful change happens through strong relationships, practical solutions, and courageous leadership. She is dedicated to supporting ACWS members, building collaborative partnerships, and ensuring every survivor has access to safety, dignity, and the opportunity to thrive. Managers Jennifer Ness, Manager of Finance & Operations 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 Julia Hines, Communications & Executive Coordinator Husna Khaidir, Administrative and Finance Support Alice Leef, Learning and Logistics Support Jessica Mawji, Member Support – Programs & Services
