Workshop Facilitator: Tammy Towill, MBA, FCPA, FCMA, Partner, Cordura Group, and Chair, School of Business, Capilano University
Reflection Session Facilitator: Tanis Frame, MSc, long time facilitator and sought after leadership coach
Click on Facilitators for the full list and biographies of scheduled presenters.
Begins October 7, 2025 with sessions every other Tuesday until March 3, 2026. All sessions are live virtual via Zoom.
Take the next step in your leadership journey
Any journey is best shared. This program is designed to give you resources to thrive in your career, while building connections with other awesome women in the profession. Learn and practice new skills, get to know yourself better, and share stories and experiences with women in the accounting profession.
Begin with a Career Navigation for Women Workshop where you will explore common career success factors for women and create a personal career navigation roadmap, then continue your learning journey through a series of 90-minute seminars on topics of importance to your career path and leadership development. In this cohort-based program, you will develop relationships and provide support and peer mentorship throughout your personal journeys.
To ensure the best learning experience, we have established the following program commitments and guides.
Need to convince your employer that this program is crucial leadership training? Here’s suggested communication that you can consider using.
Eligible CPD Hours: 19.25 Program Fee: $850 or 24 PD Passport Credits
To qualify for the certificate, registrants should attend and complete all sessions. Some sessions will be recorded – those who miss a live seminar can only claim attendance if they watch the recording and complete the accompanying quiz. The opening workshop and reflection sessions will not be recorded.
Date & Time
Session
October 7, 2025 8:30 am - 12 pm
Career Navigation for Women Workshop
Facilitator:Tammy Towill, MBA, FCPA, FCMA Partner, Cordura Group and Chair, School of Business, Capilano University
For women in the accounting profession who want to be more purposeful about the navigation of their career journey, this interactive virtual session will reveal the 7 common career success factors for women, provide peer-to-peer sharing of ideas, allow time for reflection exercises, and offer live role modelling and coaching. The session aims to support women in the profession, helping define and pursue career success that is unique to them today and for their future.
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Assess and create personal career goals and roadmap
Apply new leadership perspectives and skillsets
Develop strong inter-personal relationships with others in the program
Support your own – and each other’s – growth as leaders and financial professionals
October 21, 2025 11:45 am - 1 pm
Reflection & Connection Session 1
Facilitator: Tanis Frame, MSc Facilitator and Leadership Coach
November 4, 2025 8:30 am - 10 am
Session to be recorded
Leading Through the Crunch: Thriving Amid Change, Challenge & Career Shifts
Facilitator: Dr. Shahana Alibhai, MD, CCFP Lead Physician, Abbotsford Youth Health Centre
In a profession rooted in precision, accountability, and deadlines, navigating constant change can take a silent toll - especially for women in leadership. Whether you're climbing the ladder, steering the ship, or redefining your next chapter, this session offers a space to pause, reflect, and recalibrate.
Join us for an engaging and practical conversation designed specifically for women accountants leading in times of transition. Together, we’ll explore how to recognize early signs of burnout, apply evidence-based tools to enhance resilience, and reframe change as a catalyst for growth - not just for your teams, but for yourself. Through storytelling, interactive strategies, and real-world insights, this session empowers you to lead with clarity, care, and renewed confidence - wherever you are in your career journey.
November 18, 2025 11:45 am - 1 pm
Reflection & Connection Session 2
Facilitator: Tanis Frame, MSc Facilitator and Leadership Coach
December 2, 2025 8:30 am - 10 am
Session to be recorded
Define and Refine Your Professional Presence for 2025
Facilitator: Katherine Lazaruk, B.Ed, AICI CIP, PCC, CLC Founder and President, Lazaruk Consulting Inc.
In this 90-minute session, you’ll learn why executive presence is dead and what you want to be doing now to define, strengthen and leverage your professional presence. Hint – it’s not about fitting in to get ahead!
By attending this session, you will obtain:
Three ways to deepen and focus your professional presence so it fits you and fits your world
Tips and tricks for both your virtual and in-real-life (irl) presence via live coaching demonstrations (if you’re in a volunteering mood, bring your speediest hand-up, as up to two participants will be chosen in real time)
Personalized Q&A
December 16, 2025 11:45 am - 1 pm
Reflection & Connection Session 3
Facilitator: Tanis Frame, MSc Facilitator and Leadership Coach
Among the most critical skills today is the ability to negotiate everyday workplace situations with increased acumen, to advance your career and to navigate transitions, shifts in the market and the way business gets done.
Getting your voice heard at the executive table, in compensation or promotion reviews, negotiating resource allocation for your team or making deals with vendors for your company, are all achievable with increased negotiation acumen. In this interactive session, you will learn practical tips and strategies that you can implement right away, and a 5-step blueprint to apply in all your negotiations.
By the end of this session, you will learn:
How negotiation acumen builds better relationships
Key mindsets that dispel anxiety and increase your success in negotiation
How to Amplify Your A.S.K.™ and pitch your ideas confidently
How to discern a good deal from a “bad” deal
January 20, 2026 11:45 am - 1 pm
Reflection & Connection Session 4
Facilitator: Tanis Frame, MSc Facilitator and Leadership Coach
February 3, 2026 8:30 am - 10 pm
Session to be recorded
Silence Your Inner Critic and Step Into Your Power
Facilitators: Jen Murtagh, ACC, CLC & Sonja Baikogli Foley, CLC Co-founders of Maturn, leadership coaches
How do you navigate the critical voice in your head? You know the one - the voice that makes you second-guess your ideas in meetings, hesitate to apply for that promotion, or believe that others are more capable than you. Pause for a moment and reflect: How has that voice shaped your leadership journey? What opportunities has it cost you?
The inner critic often speaks in harsh tones, feeding self-doubt and fear. Some days, it feels like an endless loop, keeping you stuck instead of moving forward. But here’s the truth: while that voice may never fully disappear, you can learn to quiet it. When you do, you unlock greater confidence, impact, and leadership potential. Join us to explore practical strategies to manage your inner critic, elevate your career, and lead with unshakable confidence. It’s time to step into your full power.
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Cultivate Compassionate Awareness of Your Inner Critic
Strengthen Your Ability to Distinguish Between Self-Doubt and Realism
Master Tools to Quiet Your Inner Critic and Step into Your Full Potential
February 17, 2026 11:45 am - 1 pm
Reflection & Connection Session 5
Facilitator: Tanis Frame, MSc Facilitator and leadership coach
March 3, 2026 8:30 am - 12 pm
Session to be recorded
Beyond Burnout: Resilience, Grit, and a Fulfilling Life
Facilitator: Tammy Robertson, MA Leadership coach, trainer and consultant
In this final session of the Women in Leadership program, we will look at the habits that make us more likely to burnout and how to develop deep resilience and greater confidence in our leadership. While the root causes of burnout lie in deeper workplaces issues like work overload, poor communication and unsupportive relationships, there is much you as a leader can do to support yourself and your team’s wellbeing.
We’ll explore the role of values, beliefs, and mindset and how the way we think determines our actions, responses, and habits. You will learn how to set boundaries, become more present and find more joy and lightness in a day. You will discover where your inspiration comes from and how to fuel it. Ultimately the biggest threat to your leadership is losing the excitement, energy, and enthusiasm to care about who you are and the difference you are making. This is an opportunity to build your resilience practice personally and encourage others to do the same, while contributing to a more robust work culture. Daily practices matter. We will focus on what you can do, where you are, with what you have. It’s time!
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
carve a new path from Burn Out to Resilience
gain insight into burnout as a leadership and cultural issue and what a leader can do to address the systemic issues
identify personal patterns that are not sustainable and replace them with habits that build energy
reduce stress of overwhelm and build presence, focus and daily productivity
find moments of joy, laughter, and lightness even in times of adversity
build out your leadership practice and hold yourself accountable to what matters most
Dr. Shahana Alibhai, MD, CCFP is a TEDx speaker, bestselling author of Feel Better, and a leading voice in emotional and mental health. With 12 years in practice, she is a family physician and Medical Director at Foundry Abbotsford, B.C.’s largest youth health centre, where she builds emotional resilience through science-backed strategies and storytelling.
Featured on CTV, Global, Medium and Forbes. She’s inspired audiences at Yale, UBC, Scotiabank, and beyond. A proud mom of three.
Sonja Baikogli Foley, CLC, has over 15 years of experience across nonprofit, public, and private sectors, with a focus on impact-driven work. Born to Iranian refugee-status parents in Sweden, her lived experience fuels her commitment to equity.
She has worked in media, participated in the UN, served on the YWCA Canada Board, was appointed to the West Vancouver Police Board, and led Intergovernmental Relations at the City of Vancouver. Sonja co-founded Maturn to support women at the intersection of motherhood and leadership. She is also a certified leadership coach and DEI/AREI consultant, holding a MA in International Relations and a BA in Communications.
Tanis Frame, MSc, is a long-time facilitator and sought after leadership coach who helps passionate people create the impact they are called to make in the world while thriving deeply in all aspects of their lives.
Tanis is relentlessly curious about what cultivates thriving and what gets in the way. She is known for her ability to create powerful space for learning, and for making growth and connection fun. When she’s not helping everyday humans live deeply aligned lives of meaning, impact and joy, you’ll find her playing in the mountains with her husband, teen girls, dog or her horses.
Carrie Gallant, JD, is a women's empowerment and executive leadership coach, and coauthor of Conversation Secrets for Tomorrow’s Leaders: 21 Obvious Secrets Leaders Do Not Use Enough. As a former lawyer and executive, she truly understands the minefield many ambitious women navigate on their way to the top.
Carrie helps women business leaders to communicate and negotiate with confidence, earn their full worth and influence change with impact. She is founder of The Gallant Leader™ Institute and the EARN Your Worth™ Leaders Lab, an accredited Negotiation Consultant with ENS International and certified in Conversational Intelligence® and Authentic Leadership for Teams®. She is also a Licensed Associate with the Impostor Syndrome Institute™. Carrie's Art of Negotiation for Women model and training is featured in Tara Mohr's acclaimed women's leadership program, Playing Big; WNORTH’s 360 Leadership Program; and the Women's Enterprise Centre of British Columbia.
Katherine Lazaruk, B.Ed, AICI CIP, PCC, CLC, holds a second level international designation of Certified Image Professional (CIP) with the Association of Image Consultants International, her Certified Leadership Coach (CLC) certificate, and Professional Certified Coach (PCC) designation with the International Coach Federation.
She helps women rapidly accelerate their progress towards senior leadership and in senior leadership. When she’s not acting as a fire starter for ambitious women, she can be found singing in various genres, writing and publishing poetry, drinking the occasional interesting cocktail, or watching too many movies with her film editor husband. She’s sometimes slightly irreverent and is always delightfully uncontained. Her first business book on what's beyond executive presence is due out this year.
Jen Murtagh, ACC, CLC, is the co-founder of Maturn, a leadership strategist and former C-suite executive with over 20 years of experience spanning corporate, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial sectors. She has led national campaigns, raised millions for women’s health and youth initiatives, and is recognized for building purpose-driven brands and inclusive workplace strategies.
Named one of Business in Vancouver’s Forty Under 40 and a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade Woman of Promise, Jen serves on several advisory boards and nonprofit committees. A heart disease survivor, she is also a passionate advocate for women’s heart health and a trusted voice on advancing women in leadership.
Tammy Robertson, MA, is an unapologetic optimist who believes in grit and gutsiness and that we are all wired for resilience. With over 25 years of experience Tammy works with CPA’s from BC to NL, providing resilient leadership coaching, training and consulting.
She works with leaders both in industry and public practice, to build robust work cultures that attract and retain bright people who want to make their time count. Tammy will give you fresh insight, along with the tools you need to “SHOW UP” and lead and keep your “Heart in the game!” even as the rules and positions change.
Tammy Towill, MBA, FCPA, FCMA is a partner in the Cordura Group and Chair of the School of Business with Capilano University, providing business advisory services and related education and training programs to organizations and communities seeking growth or change.
For over 25 years, Tammy has worked with private and public sector companies throughout North America and Europe, providing education, training and facilitating in the areas of leadership, strategy, business planning and curriculum development and implementation. She has served on and worked with several boards in Canada and the US.
