Native Women’s Association of Canada CEO Lynne Groulx Named Among 2022’s Top Most Powerful Women CEOs in Canada

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 20, 2022

OTTAWA – The Native Women’s Association of Canada congratulates its Chief Executive Officer, Lynne Groulx, for being named among Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada. She was named as one of Canada’s top CEOs for 2022 by the Women’s Executive Network’s (WXN) Diversity Council of Canada.

In the years since November 2016 when Ms. Groulx joined NWAC as its CEO, she has scaled up operations from a staffing complement of 12 to 170 employees – an expansion that NWAC President Carol McBride says translates into better supports and broader programming for Indigenous women and Two-Spirit, transgender and gender- diverse people across the country.

“Lynne is an absolutely fearless, tenacious, committed, and brilliant Indigenous woman and business leader,” says Ms. McBride. “She is very deserving of this prestigious award and the Board of NWAC is extremely proud of her.”

Winners of the WXN Diversity Council of Canada Top 100 Award are described as ‘warriors’ who recognize their own fears and confront them with strength, as well as creators who write their own stories without hesitation and trailblazers who forge their own paths through roadblocks and challenges.

Over the course of her time as CEO, Ms. Groulx has amassed a striking number of noteworthy accomplishments. Under the backdrop of COVID-19 and other significant challenges, Ms. Groulx completed two major infrastructure projects, including a state-of-the-art, 50,000-square-foot Social, Cultural, and Economic Innovation Centre that highlights the important role Indigenous women play as social and economic leaders in Indigenous communities, and across Canada.

Ms. Groulx also oversaw the building of a land-based, culturally rooted, healing lodge in Chelsea, Que., named a Resiliency Lodge by NWAC’s Elders. A second Resiliency Lodge is currently being built by NWAC’s affiliated members in New Brunswick.

The Lodges were initiated as part of NWAC’s own action plan to implement the 231 Calls for Justice of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, a strategy that is being driven by Ms. Groulx. Plans are now underway to build similar lodges in provinces and territories across Canada.

As importantly, Ms. Groulx supported the Board of Directors in negotiating a historic Accord with the Government of Canada that secured core funding for NWAC’s Provincial and Territorial member associations.

The WXN Diversity Council of Canada recognized Ms. Groulx’s “incredible, fought-for achievements” and Council Owner and CEO Sherri Stevens said: “We are honoured that you are a part of our influential community that now numbers over 1,400 remarkable women. You do not walk alone.”

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