Sharleen Gatcha
Calgary Network President
Lean In Calgary is a city-wide network that publicly launched in 2019. Lean In Calgary was founded by Susan Elford who served as Network President until July 1, 2022 before taking on the role of Director, Network Liaison for the Lean In Canada Board and Sharleen Gatcha stepped into the role of Network President. Sharleen joined Lean In Calgary as Co-Lead, Circles in April 2020 after becoming a Circle Leader of the YYC Calgary Circle in 2019.
Susan started the first Lean in Circle in Calgary geared towards the working woman who was encountering roadblocks in her career due to motherhood, family responsibilities, or other gender-inspired challenges in early 2015 after reading Sheryl Sandberg’s book: Lean in: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. Susan’s story is similar to that of the founding president of Lean in Canada and many other circles and networks around the world. Women the world over read Sheryl’s book and wanted to be a part of creating more equality in the workplace.
Lean In Canada is a community of professional women empowering each other to build purposeful and fulfilling careers. We all share that common purpose and drive to be our best, including efforts to remove gender-based obstacles that are in our way. There is so much work to do to continue the journey towards equality.
Lean in Calgary is proud to share the following accomplishments since launching in 2019:
Going forward, Lean In Calgary will continue to build on Lean in’s mission to support women in the workplace across Canada and around the world and will host events that get to the heart of what matters most to them. There is still so much work to do in this regard.
Join us, won’t you? Make a commitment to yourself to participate in at least one event with Lean In Calgary this year or next. Together we are stronger!
Join our organizing committee today – click here to view our volunteer opportunities.
“Birchcliff Energy Ltd. and the Birchcliff Women’s Initiative Committee (BWIN) were honored to work with Lean In Calgary in June 2022 to plan and host an inclusive, engaging, and interactive workshop focusing on unconscious bias in the workplace. The feedback we received from our team members was both positive and thought-provoking! We look forward to further interactions with Lean In.”
- Kristen Lewicki, Associate General Counsel and co-chair of BWIN