Women's Month 

She Builds: Stories of Immigrant Women Entrepreneurs 

March 19, 2026 

Three initiatives within Desautels, The Laidley Centre for Business Ethics and Equity, the Desautels EDI Team and the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Initiative joined forces to co-host this event in honor of International Women’s Day.  

The event featured a screening of the How She Dares, a film by McGill alumna and Vietnamese-Canadian filmmaker Zoonie Nguyen. The film traces Nguyen’s extraordinary journey from war refugee to corporate leader and global advocate for women entrepreneurs. Building on the themes of the film, the event transitioned into a panel conversation featuring Nguyen alongside fellow women entrepreneurs, who reflected on their experiences building businesses in Canada. 

Audience members watch How She Dares.

Panelists engaged in conversation. Left to right: Joy Bennet, Shauna Callender, Hala Scandar and Zoonie Nguyen.

The Women of Desautels: Past, Present, Future   

March 31, 2025  

For Women’s Month, we collaborated with the EDI Initiative at Desautels to discuss the past, present, and future women of Desautels. The panel featured the granddaughter of the first BCom graduate (past), current BCom students (present) and accomplished Desautels alumna (future).  

Pat Antlif shares the story of her grandmother, Desautels’ first female graduate.

Group photo (left to right): Lindsay Holmgren (Director of the LCBEE), David Laidley (Benefactor of the LCBEE), Tasmia Abbas, Katherine Lake, Dean Yolnde E. Chan, Samira Sakhia, Andrea Nicholls, Pat Antliff, Janet Drysdale, Joy Bennett, and Nikita Boston-Fisher (Associate Director of the LCBEE).

Working Women in the Post-COVID Era  

March 20, 2024  

At this Women’s Month Event, panelists articulated what they learned from COVID-19 in the interest of finding a better path forward for women in the workplace. Our esteemed panelists shared their experiences and insights from the pandemic and expressed ideas for improving the position of women in healthcare, government, research and finance.

Panelist Félicia Cá shares her experience as a female researcher in the post-COVID era.

Panelists– Félicia Cá, Mayor Christina Smith, Dr. Jana Taylor and Dr. Lindsay Holmgren– pose in front of a Laidley Centre Banner.