Board of Directors
Nancy Zhang
Board Chair
Nancy is an IT Professional working as a Senior Business Analyst in Insurance industry. She immigrated to Canada in 2001 from China. Nancy believes in gender equality, which is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. She joined IMWAH in June 2020. She is passionate to work with people from diverse backgrounds and support women and girls who need help.
Joanna Strzelec-Stewart
Board Co-Chair
Originally from Poland, Joanna joined IMWAH because she’s passionate about gender equity and building a community of strong, supportive women. Professionally she wore many hats, from creating advertising for international brands, owning home decor stores to helping newcomers enter the Canadian job market. Joanna’s favourite pastime is reading while sipping good coffee and listening to jazz. She loves entertaining and cooking for friends or family.
Alicia Xu
Board Treasurer
Originally from China and residing in Canada for the past decade, Alicia is committed to supporting immigrant and migrant women as they integrate into their new communities while preserving cultural diversity. Professionally, Alicia works in the banking industry and is a CFA and CBV charterholder. In her spare time, she enjoys pursuing various interests, such as learning the piano as an adult student, exploring walking trials and experimenting with cooking.
Kothai Kumanan
Board Secretary (Interim)
Growing up in a bicultural environment, Kothai has always been aware of, and sensitive to, the complexities and richness of migration. Immersed in social activism as the Tamil-Canadian daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants, as a teen Kothai worked with refugees and later, while living overseas as a migrant herself working in refugee camps on the Thai/Burma border.
After returning home to Nova Scotia, Kothai is an engaged and dedicated professional who has worked for over two decades in health policy, evaluation, and research in primary health care, palliative care, and program evaluation. She has worked consistently throughout her career to nurture cross-cultural understanding and create inclusive and diverse workplace cultures. Some of the initiatives she has been involved with include developing a cultural competence framework for the government of Nova Scotia; a member of the provincial Department of Health and Wellness Diversity Committee; and in the areas of health human resource planning, program planning and research in credentialling of internationally licensed health care providers.
Nenyo Kwasitsu
Nenyo Kwasitsu advocates for gender equality, equity and the advancement of newcomer women like myself.
She manages the Master of Health Services Research Graduate Program across four campuses, UNB, UPEI, SMU and MUN.
As a board member of the Immigrant Migrant Women’s Association of Halifax (IMWAH) her work currently focuses on helping newcomer women to empower themselves through her role as Treasurer and member of various Committees on the IMWAH Board.
Shweta Pai
Shweta Pai is passionate about advancing gender equality in society. Having volunteered with IMWAH, she realized that there are many women who need help and could benefit from having a network of strong and supportive women.
She is a product manager in the healthcare industry and is passionate about digitally solving the several unmet needs of our patients.
Ebun Oladele
Ebun Oladele is passionate to advance gender equality and the representation of racialized women in society. Experienced Programs specialist and volunteer professional with demonstrated history of working in the Post-Secondary and non-profit management sector.
An advocacy enthusiast with a Master of Science (MSc.) in Applied Peace and Conflict Studies and a Master of Arts (MA) in Women and Gender Studies.
Honorary Member
Felicia Eghan
Drs. Felicia Eghan is a relationship Coach, mediator and educator. She helps clients to build better functional marriages and families. She holds certificates in SYMBIS (Save Your Marriage before It Starts) and Marriage Enrichment from ENRICH Canada. Felicia is also a graduate and licensed member of Relationship Coaching Institute (RCI), and holds a mediation certificate from Henson College, Dalhousie University.