About Us

About Lean In

Our Story

“The more women help one another, the more we help ourselves.”
~Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In

Lean In Canada is a community of professional women empowering each other to build purposeful and fulfilling careers. Since 2013, we have grown from an audience of 20 people to over 6000 members across the country in various professions. We built our organization for people just like us: professional women who are passionate about driving their careers forward to the next level and beyond, and who want to achieve greater success not only in work, but in life as a whole.

We want a world where people of every gender can pursue their dreams without bias or other barriers holding them back. Where girls grow up to be confident, resilient leaders. Where more women run companies and countries. We are driven by the belief our society and economy would be better if women and girls were valued as equal to men and boys.

Our Team

Stacey Dakin

National President and Chair

Leila Weller

Director, Strategic Partnerships

Seghen Woldai

Director, Strategic Initiatives

Mansi Vagt

Director, Marketing

Susan Elford

Director, Network Liaison

Daisy Gao

Director, Treasurer/Secretary

Susan Elford

Director, Network Liaison

Susan Elford is a Leadership Coach to career-loving women and PR Strategist to not-for-profits and small businesses. President and Sole Proprietor of Elford Communications and Susan Elford Coaching & Consulting, Susan stepped away from her corporate communications career in late 2002 to launch Elford Communications. Prior to launching her business, Susan’s career in communications served at senior advisory levels in the provincial government of Newfoundland, building communications programs for energy companies in Canada, and as a senior consultant in agency work that served clients in telecommunications, government, energy and private business. When Susan looks back at her career highlights, she is pleased that they all reflect what happens when good communications planning meets a commitment to succeed: authentically showcasing her clients.

Susan’s passion for building community and effective, strategic communications programs that showcase her clients authentically, has seen her developing the not-for-profit community in Calgary and supporting the growth of her small business clients through hands-on training and coaching and fostering their capacity in marketing and communications. Susan’s passion for community extends beyond her business and you will find Susan actively volunteering with her children’s schools and sports as well as with her professional development organizations and community association. Susan is thrilled to put President, Lean in Calgary, at the top of this list and is excited about building capacity in women leaders in this way.

Susan’s corporate and personal coaching clients include leaders in organizations across Canada. Her leadership coaching work focuses on building the careers of professional women who want all that life and a fulfilling career can offer them, from wherever they choose to serve: from the workplace, from their businesses or from their homes.

Susan is academically trained and holds two university degrees, one in English and the other in Public Relations. Susan is also certified by the Canadian Public Relations Society, the International Association of Public Participation and the Coaches Training Institute.

On the personal side, Susan has lived in Calgary for 20 years, is married and has two almost teenage daughters. She spends her free time outside as much as possible, running, skiing and walking her adorable dog.

"After each Lean In Canada event, I feel like my batteries have been re-charged; I am motivated and have connected with other like minded, driven women."

- Alana Elmaleh

Advisors

Jackie Foo

Lorraine Leduc

Kristina Smith

Angela Payne

Jackie Foo

Jackie Foo is a seasoned executive, specializing in Telecom and Retail. She has successfully led 5 major retail chains and 2 national call centres. She has extensive experience in building and transforming organizations. Jackie is passionate about leading and developing people. Her energy is infectious and she has shaped so many careers with her inspirational leadership style.

As an executive advisor to Lean In Canada, Jackie has participated in networking events, led speaking engagements and has contributed to our national expansion strategy.

Jackie currently leads the Retail Centre of Excellence (RCoE), providing shared services to Bell Canada’s sales channels including Corporate Stores, Dealers and National Retail (over 2500 points of distribution). She is best known for creating retail programs for store management, sales, service, operations, merchandising, store design and distribution that result in record sales growth.

Prior to leading the RCoE, Jackie was the former Chief Operating Officer for The Source - one of Canada’s leading Consumer Electronics and Wireless retailers with 650+ locations across Canada. Jackie also held the role of Vice President of Bell Corporate Stores. She was responsible for all aspects of retail operations for Bell and Virgin Mobile branded stores.

Outside of her career, Jackie loves to travel the world with her husband, Steven, and daughters Sidney (19) and Rachel (6). She lives in Thornhill, Ontario, Canada, just north of Toronto.

Angela Payne

National Lean In Canada President from June 2020 to June 2022.

Having spent her whole career in the Human Capital space, Angela’s interest and passion starts with people. Everyone who knows her recognizes her ability to make authentic and long-lasting connections. This “superpower” has enabled Angela to not only build and grow successful teams but also become a strategic coach for many other leaders inside and outside of her organization.

In her current role as co-founder of LeedHR, Angela is responsible for both development and delivery of client programs, ultimately creating better organizational leaders. Her mission is to help leaders “lead well” through Emotional Intelligence, in order to increase their team’s and personal effectiveness. Angela has expert knowledge of how to create and maintain a thriving workplace. Her broad-based business and management experience including cross functional P&L’s has allowed Angela to build talented, productive, engaged, and diverse teams. In her most recent corporate role as Monster Canada’s SVP and General Manager, Angela was instrumental in transforming its business processes and culture by providing continuous inspirational leadership grounded in sound financial acumen which helped impact the bottom line. Her positive impact to the business was also leveraged across continents as a formal coach and mentor for many women in leadership positions. Previously as Country Manager at Lee Hecht Harrison, she lead a successful merger and business integration between both LHH and Knightsbridge resulting in the largest career transition and management business in Canada. During this merger, she lead the modernization of the professional career transition and career management practice by developing its playbook and technology upgrades, directly impacting the quality and efficiency of delivery.

Angela, is a York University graduate and has continued her studies at INSEAD in business and IMD in Leadership Development. She’s a regular contributor to industry events where she speaks about recruitment, leadership, and her greatest passion – female business leadership.

In her spare time, Angela enjoys discovering new travel destinations with her husband and daughter while keeping up an ever expanding log of the best places to shop!

Founders

In 2013, when Sheryl Sandberg's book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, was released, it was something that Christina Rupsingh, Despina Zanganas, and Sarah Kwan individually knew they needed to read. One of the key points of the book was this: that we need to actively build our own support systems in order to be successful. After discovering each other's mutual passion for supporting professional women, they began meeting in Despina's office with a group of 20 as Lean In Toronto, and before long, knew they were on to something special. In 2014, they incorporated the organization and became Lean In Canada, with the mandate to build a thriving community of women who come together and celebrate each other's successes and ambitions.