By Major Kathryn Foss, NCR DWAO Military Co-Chair – The Guard

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Defence Advisory Groups (DAG) under the Employment Equity Act. DAGs have as a mandate to provide a voice to members of the four protected employment equity groups within the Defence Team as a way to advise senior management on removing systemic barriers to employment.

The National Capital Region (NCR) Chapter of the Defence Women’s Advisory Organization (DWAO) is hosting a set of “Lunch and Learn” events called our “Inspiration Series”. We are inviting inspiring women from across the Defence Team in the NCR, each of whom have had a different journey, each journey with a different set of challenges along with a different set of lessons learned.

We have asked our guest speakers to consider a single sentence to set the stage for their talk by responding to this question:

“What would you tell a younger version of yourself, just entering the Defence Team, to inspire them?”

We are gathering together a mix of officers, non-commissioned members and public servants including, in order of events, Brigadier-General Lise Bourgon, Deputy Chief of Staff Operations – Canadian Joint Operations Command; Deputy Minister Jody Thomas, and Chief Warrant Officer Colleen Halpin, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Chief Warrant Officer.

We are also working to spread the events across multiple locations in the NCR to make attendance easier for Defence Team members. The events are open to all members of the Defence Team in the NCR.

Please RSVP to Major Kathryn Foss, then bring your lunch to learn from the experiences of these amazing women!

Details of each event can be found in the NCR community calendar.