WNORTH Calgary Roundtable | Shahzia Noorally & Carmen Cheng

About Shahzia Noorally

Workshop Facilitator

Shahzia (she/her) is someone who stays grounded in the possibilities and her purpose is rooted in influencing a more equitable and just world. In her 9-5 she's a diversity and inclusion practitioner who centers equity deserving people while teaching those in positions of power to use their privilege to advance anti-racist and equitable workplace cultures. Outside her work, she hosts The Equity Gap Podcast – a straight talk podcast focused on infusing a justice lens into the advancement of equity in the world. When not working you can find her leaning into mentorship, community development and anchoring all she does to advance how those of us from equity deserving groups show up in the world to take up all the space we desire and deserve. She is a proud first generation, Pakistani Canadian Muslim and a late in life diagnosed ADHDer who lives, works, and plays in Treaty 7 territory.

About WNORTH

WNORTH is an award-winning membership network that bridges the gender power gap by elevating women in the leadership pipeline.

We bring together professional women at a high level to share their systems, networks, knowledge, and experience and to collectively code leadership and management environments to women’s experiences through boutique in-person and virtual events and programs.

We have hosted over 15k past event attendees, 350+ events, and 400+ speakers and have over 1,200 members worldwide. Corporate Members include PwC, Indeed.com, SAP, and Accor Hotels.

Our mission is to develop more women to leading positions in business, and in doing so, we will elevate the teams they work in, the families they lead, and the communities in which they live. 

Apply to join us at wnorthconnect.com. 

About Carmen Cheng

Carmen Cheng (she/her) is a first-generation Canadian-born Chinese woman residing on the traditional Treaty 7 territory in Moh-kins-tsis (Calgary). For more than 20 years, Carmen has worked in different facets of human resources, with a focus on talent strategies, leadership development and change management for companies such as WestJet, Shaw, Alberta Innovates, and Newalta. Carmen currently works with ENMAX managing Talent Strategies and Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging. Carmen’s passion to learn about others’ cultures and experiences called her into her work in inclusion. By broadening her scope to EDI work, she has been able to expand her perspective as an HR professional recognizing the impact people practices and organizational culture has in driving belonging and equity for its people. 

Outside of HR, Carmen has been a food writer where she has focused on sharing stories of food cultures and highlighting small producers and food businesses for the past ten years. Carmen regularly shares her food adventures on various forms of media and publication including Avenue Calgary, CBC Radio, and Eat North. She also participates on the panel of Air Canada Enroute’s Best New Restaurants in Canada.