December 19, 2024
Five years ago, a vision was set in motion to redefine career development by and for Indigenous, Black, and racialized women. Today, Accelerate Her Future (AHF) stands as a thriving community and movement—one rooted in purpose and our values, a “nothing about us, without us” philosophy, and intersectional gender equity.
As we celebrate our 5th Anniversary, we are not just reflecting on our journey but honouring the remarkable people, organizations and partnerships that have shaped our path and fuel our future.
This is a celebration of all of us, together!
Although we launched in 2019, AHF was in the making for a few years and was born out of our Founder, Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi’s lived experiences, research, and mentorship experiences with over 200 young people.
“I remember going to a leadership development program for women in the US. While I made wonderful connections and took away learning, I didn’t feel the “one size fits all” approach to this program focusing on gender spoke fully to my set of experiences and identities,” reflects Dr. Golnaz. “And when I asked about it, they said, oh that’s ‘intersectionality’ and we don’t embed that in this program.”
Dr. Golnaz recalls telling her colleague on the flight home about her vision for a program for women from diverse cultural backgrounds. This experience was the linchpin for what was to become AHF. So she set out to join social impact communities and held coffee chats with entrepreneurs and experts in the field.
“One of my first coffee chats was with a woman who has deep expertise in diversity and inclusion,” recalls Dr. Golnaz. “As I shared the vision and concept, her response was to stick to my teaching job and work through existing community organizations and charities. She went on to say a program for Indigenous, Black, and racialized women would never work because the audience is too broad.”
Eventually, Dr. Golnaz was joined by Sumayya Daghar, a former research assistant and research partner as the first team member. The two worked together in the early days on strategy.
“I’ll never forget our train ride in the UK back from a conference where we presented our research on constructions of Muslim women in 2015. Golnaz shared a vision with me for Indigenous, Black, and racialized women in Canada,” explains Summaya. “And it was then that I knew I wanted to be a part of it. Golnaz didn’t just talk about the vision, she made it happen. And it’s because of her determination, leadership and unwavering mission that AHF exists today.”
They hosted a design session with approximately 20 women of colour to better understand their experiences with career planning, career development and advancement. It became unequivocally clear to Dr. Golnaz and Sumayya that the lived experiences of women of colour were not an anomaly. This same design session was where the members of the founding AHF team came to be. And so, Dr. Golnaz along with Chanele McFarlane, Nadia Allick, Rashmi Venkatesh, Sumayya Daghar, and Tennile Cooper went to work designing AHF’s first Summit in 2019 and the beginnings of what became the Fellowship Circle two years later.
The Founding Accelerate Her Future Team Meetings
We hosted our very first summit in October of 2019 at the University of Toronto with about 100 early-career women and mentors in the space. Dr. Golnaz self-funded the early years including the summit.
“Chanele McFarlane and I were on a call with Shavonne Hasfal-McIntosh, who at the time was a DEI lead with a Canadian tech company. Not only did she accept our invitation to speak but was also first corporate contact to ask for our sponsorship package,” recalls Dr. Golnaz. “I was self-funding AHF by putting all my teaching and consulting revenue into the startup. To have someone who understood our vision and mission was a deeply emotional and memorable moment.”
The experience for our team as well as the participants was powerful to say the least. What’s amazing is the number of individuals from that first pilot who are still a part of our community.
Attendees at the Accelerate Her Future Summit Pilot in 2019
As we were gaining momentum from our first summit, COVID scrapped our plans for 2020 along with prospective sponsors. We then surveyed our community and hosted a series of webinars to highlight topics that affected our community with 300+ women attending our virtual spaces in the summer of 2020.
Since then, our journey has been defined by resilience, adaptability, persistence, determination, and collective action. True to our “nothing about us, without us” philosophy and the importance of centering the voices of our community, we formed the AHF Advisory Group in 2020 which has been in place since.
Through consultations with our Advisory Group, in Fall of 2020, AHF launched its signature Fellowship Circle program which is one of our most popular offerings and is running to this day. At that same time, Natasha Sidi joined our team and has evolved her role from graphic design, to Operations & UX Lead and the Fellowship Circle program facilitator. In 2021, Deborah Eliezer came on board as a Riipen Level Up Intern later becoming a full time Research & Digital Marketing Associate.
The Accelerate Her Future Team in 2021
Because of our programming and community, we have seen Fellows and Mentors dream bigger, self-promote themselves in their workplace, grow and advance, and fulfill their career goals.
We have seen Fellows and Mentors accept job opportunities through connections made in our network and we’ve seen collaboration between individuals in different ways.
Pull out box: “We really appreciate all the Fellows and Mentors who have contributed to making the Fellowship Circle a safe space where participants feel very comfortable being vulnerable,” adds Deborah. “Thank you to each and every one of you.”
At the heart of AHF is our incredible community. From our founding team to our current team and Advisory Group, as well as community members, and partners who amplify us and open doors for us.
At our 5 Year Anniversary Celebration event in October 2024 held at the IGM Financial offices, we hosted approximately 80 members of our Fellowship Circle community in the GTA. We had the honor of hearing from community members who have been with us over the years. Their reflections on AHF and our journey highlight the deep impact of our work—from building lifelong mentorship to fostering leadership journeys that are awe inspiring.
The Accelerate Her Future 5 Year Anniversary Event
As we mark five years of impact, we extend an open invitation to our community and beyond to continue co-creating with us. Whether as a Fellow, Mentor, partner, or supporter, your contributions matter in creating a world where Indigenous, Black, and racialized women can lead, thrive, and flourish.
Thank you for being a part of our story.
