These three exciting concurrent presenters are our Women in Leadership Panel!
Cierra Bray - Leadership Starts with You!
From a very young age I enjoyed being involved and helping my school and community. In the last 5 years, I have been committed to supporting the community but behind all the community involvement, I was dealing with a lot of internal junk that would come out in spurts, questioning my reputation, my commitments, and my joy for life. With a lot of soul-searching and digging, I've realized that I can't be a good leader until I take leadership of myself first. Through trials and tribulations, books, articles, videos, retreats, masterminds, I have figured out how to be the REAL me and I've never felt better. I'm ready to take on the world!
Powered by passion and purpose, Cierra Bray is an entrepreneur advocate, community catalyst, founder, speaker and the friend who says what you're thinking. She is the creator of YQG Talks, an event that gives community members the opportunity to share their story, owner of CGal Media, a social media agency working with sustainable companies, host of Real Talk with C the podcast, and she is currently working on a project called GEN[Z]en, educating youth to be more peaceful.
Cierra is a 2x college drop out, 1x college graduate, a retired insurance broker, proud student debt holder, a Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Visionary Prize Winner, a past Miss Universe Canada competitor and the 2018 Ambassador for the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance Summit in Argentina.
Cierra is an essential oil snob, vegetarian turned vegan, a grocery store price matcher, bathroom phone user and professional smoothie drinker.
She is so excited to be here today to empower YOU to be REAL.
Cessidia DeBiasio
Cessidia De Biasio is a young professional with a passion for helping others. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts, Social Work (Honours with Great Distinction) from the University of Windsor and was awarded the 2015 Board of Governors Medal in Social Work. Cessidia was a Child and Family Access Worker at the Windsor-Essex Children's Aid Society for 2 and a half years and in 2018 completed her Bachelor of Commerce - Honours Business Administration (with Great Distinction).
In 2014, Cessidia founded The Addolorata De Luca Leadership Scholarship (www.adlscholarship.com), as a way to pay it forward and help other students at the University of Windsor. This charity provides University of Windsor student leaders with financial assistance and recognizes the strength and sacrifices that our ancestors endured for today's generation. She has single-handedly raised over $30,000 to date. She created a grassroots social media campaign entitled Our Journey to Canada, which showcases Windsor-Essex residents' immigration stories to Canada.
Cessidia was also a Board member on the first ever Student United Way Global Leadership (United Way Worldwide). She has been involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Windsor-Essex since 2013, first as a Recruitment and Human Resources Committee Member and currently as a Board of Director. Cessidia has been on the Workplace Excellence Committee at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH) since 2016 and was appointed as the youngest Director at HDGH in September of 2017.
Cessidia was selected as one of Leadership Windsor-Essex's winners for the "40 Leaders Under 40" and was the 2017 Athena Scholarship recipient. Currently, Cessidia is employed as the Student Awards Outreach Coordinator at the University of Windsor.
Nour Hachem Fawaz
Nour Hachem-Fawaz, B.A.
· Employer Relations, Co-op Coordinator at the University of Windsor
· Founder and President of Build a Dream
· Current Professional MBA student
· Change Influencer
Nour draws on 10 years of experience as a workforce advisor, mentor, and influencer to inspire youth to make informed career choices that challenge the status quo. Her ability to connect with audiences and provide insight allows young women (and their parents) to consider often-overlooked career opportunities.
An excellent facilitator, Nour uses Build a Dream as a tool to build relationships between families, industry, government, and educational institutions; these stakeholders are offered real-world examples of how embracing diversity and creating equitable workplaces can lead to success.
Nour’s outreach and advocacy has resulted in numerous awards including the University of Windsor’s Alumni Association “Odyssey Award”, the Women’s Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor (WEST) “Innovation Award”, and the Leadership Windsor Essex “Alumni Award of Distinction”.
Growing up in a region rich with skilled trades, Nour has embraced the strengths of her city and uses each day to follow her passion: getting more women to the leadership table. She realizes that redefining how people see women’s roles begins with her own – as a wife, a mom, and a professional – and that requires honesty, “You can have it all but not all at once, and that’s okay.”