The VOW

Born in Iran and raised in Tehran Atousa Sepehr received her bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and worked as an electrical engineer for almost 10 years in Tehran. In 2011, she made the decision to move to Canada with her husband with hopes of finding work as skilled worker immigrants. On this podcast, Atousa and Tanya discuss the current situation going on in Iran. Protest movements bega...

Eve Aboka is a Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Advocate, and a Career and Academic Advisor with a restorative justice lens approach to informing organizational change, career development and social justice. She is the Founder and C.E.O at Capability Career Group (CCG) and an Executive Director at Immigrant Champions of Canada (ICC). Through the Working Workplaces Program at Capabil...

Beth Hoel began her career in criminal justice in 1998 at just eighteen years old when she began working in the Presentence Division of the Maricopa County Adult Probation Department while attending college at Arizona State University.  During this time, Beth went to the Maricopa County jails where she interviewed hundreds of inmates awaiting sentencing for felony offenses ranging from drug s...

In this solo episode, Tanya shares with her listeners of the importance of kissing a lot of frogs to truly find your prince. Her marriage with her husband, Chad is a reflection of the values and morals that have been instilled in her from her upbringing. The episode concludes with Tanya reading one of her favorite proverbs from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

Ashley is an author, recipe creator, and fitness enthusiast with a master’s degree in nutrition. After being awarded a tennis scholarship in her late teens, she moved from Kelowna to the United States to start her post-secondary studies. For over a decade, she’s worked as a nutritionist in the US and Canada – offering individualized guidance and meal prep services. She takes a compassionate approa...

Welcome to The VOW's first mini episode where Tanya discusses her experience and the residing trauma that she deals with from being bullied as a younger girl. It is through her vulnerability that she is able to find the blessings in the hurt. Tanya discusses the importance of identifying the triggers that spark the trauma response in the body based on past experiences. As a leader of love in her o...

The Voice of Women host, Tanya Eklund shares with her listeners about the triumphs, tribulations, and life lessons that she has learned throughout her life. In these mini episodes, Tanya dives more into her own personal story and opens up about her journey in life, love, business and everything in between.

Lisa Webb is a true global citizen, having lived on four different continents and travelled to over 60 countries with her husband and two kids. She’s spent over a decade of her adult life rebuilding her community, networking, and finding sisterhood all over the world. Lisa has chronicled her journey through writing as a Canadian Expat Mom , publishing six children’s books, two anthologie...

I owned a 6-figure digital marketing company for 9 years, working with brands to create digital 'spaces' that represented who they were through their websites and social media. After battling through another case of 'burnout' I decided to close it down, change course, and follow my own motto: 'Figure out what you love to do and find a way to make money doing it. Interior design and home...

Marci Warhaft is courageous & resilient, she is an author, a rebel, a couch and a body image advocate. Her book The Good Stripper: A Soccer Mom's Memoir of Lives is Marci's story of her earlier years in which she shares her destructive behaviours, a bank robber father, eating disorders, a struggling marriage, and her sexuality. Marci is a mother of 2 that was married for 22 years and has...

Jodie Tilley is an Aussie import and has now lived in Canada for 27 years! After graduating university on the sandy shores of the east coast of Oz, she set off on her mountain adventures to the Canadian Rockies. Staying long term in the great white north was never her intention, but serendipity played a part and many years later she met her now husband and is mum to very active twin 6 year old boy...

Jo Burston is one of Australia’s most successful female entrepreneurs. She has launched six businesses, the standout being Job Capital which went from $0 to $ 40 million turnover in five years and has kept her on the list of Australia’s top 30 female entrepreneurs since 2013. Jo has worked in partnership with the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) and Office For Women (OFW) as well as global br...

In 2015, Gloria Di Sabatino and her husband started trying for a family. After a few miscarriages later a series of unlikely diagnoses, including a rare balanced translocation found in less than 1% of the world's population leading to recurrent miscarriage and infertility, they soon found out that her husband carried this condition. After losing six babies in 4 years, and breaking clinic records,...

Award winning journalist, Linda Olsen, is a proud born and raised Calgarian. She graduated from SAIT in Calgary in 1988 with Honors in Broadcast Journalism and started her career that same year at Global Saskatoon. Linda joined Global Calgary in 1995 and since then, as a reporter, anchor and producer, has covered some of the biggest events to hit the city, including the ongoing Covid-19 pande...

Vanessa Ferlaino is an author, artist, and activist changing the world one day at a time. She believes that only when we hear ourselves, can we make a difference in our lives and the world around us. At the age of 27, she has many accolades. She spent 10 years in medtech and tech as an award-winning corporate innovator, investor, executive, and advisor. The headlining speaker for Google x Women Te...

Darby has over a decade of experience working as an accessibility strategist. She established Level Playing Field in 2015 and is an expert in Universal Design and international accessibility guidelines and standards. Darby has successfully contributed to the removal of barriers at municipal, provincial and national levels, ultimately establishing inclusive environments all across Canada. Darby’s e...

After the loss of her son-in-law Darryl, in an impaired driving crash, Denise Dubyk became a founding member of the MADD Calgary Chapter in 2001. She has been involved with the mission of the Chapter since that time and held the positions of President, Vice-President, and Treasurer currently sitting as a Board Member. In 2003, Denise was the recipient of MADD Canada Western Region Award and the Jo...

Carol Todd has impacted the world as an educator, an advocate, parent and leader for social action in speaking openly about the bullying, cyberbullying, exploitation and the mental health challenges that Amanda went through.  In 2012, Carol’s daughter Amanda took her own life at the age of 15, following the posting of a YouTube video that detailed the exploitation via an international pr...

Singer/songwriter/guitarist, Lindsay Ell, has learned to care a little less about what everybody thinks. She says, “following my gut instinct, truly saying what I want to say—that’s the magic, the elements that make you relatable and real. Before, I was worrying about writing for radio, for fans, but now this is what I know, this is my journey. And the more honest I get, the more effective it is.”...

Sarah is a multimedia journalist and youth advocate, and she is currently working in radio with CBC Calgary. She has helped research and create segments for the Eyeopener and the homestretch. It’s been an interesting journey for her as she started working at the beginning of the pandemic. It was definitely interesting and a challenge learning to do everything from home but she is slowly finding he...

Megan fell in love with learning about the brain from a young age, as she was diagnosed with epilepsy. The onset of epilepsy changed her demeanor, her life, and her identity. Let’s just say that life got messy! She started to study more about the mind and brain, in 2015 and went on to pursue a Masters in Counselling Psychology shortly thereafter. In 2017, Megan chose to learn more about somatic (b...

Fania Wedro was born Fania Hellman in Koretz, Poland on August 25, 1927. When she was fourteen years old, the Nazis took away her father and the other men living in the village. Fania then spent six months in a work ghetto in Koretz, where she escaped two mass killings by the Nazis. After escaping the second mass killing, she lived in hiding in the forest for eighteen months.  After being lib...

Mandy Balak is the Found and Creator of ACE. She brings entrepreneurial experience to the table having built three purpose-based businesses in the media, events, personal growth and community-building space. It was in pounding the entrepreneurial pavement that Mandy found her truth - her greatest desire is to see others win and her purpose is to make sure they withness themselves along the journey...

Eva McKenzie was born and raised on Vancouver Island where she would meet her future husband Corey at the age of 17. They would marry on August 3, 1996 and give birth to their daughter, Sydni in March of 1999. In 2002 the family moved to Calgary for Corey to continue working in his construction trade. Eva always had an ambition to be a make-up artist and in 2003 she would pursue that dream and att...

Nicole Jensen is a 23 year-old, Calgary based woman who has embraced her passion for writing, authentically showing up for herself and sharing her ongoing journey with body positivity in a time when social media is so prevalent. As a recent Mount Royal University Public Relations graduate, Nicole is using her passion of writing and connection to foster meaningful relationships with others through...