Jason Enns is a wealth management advisor for RBC Private Banking. With more than 24 years of experience, he works with families to ensure a formal foundation of human capital and financial strength is in place. In addition to a Bachelor degree from University of Regina, Jason holds a designation in Family Enterprise Advisory, Certified Financial Planning, and Personal Financial Planning. With a commitment to community development, his years of service work include: coaching sports, service club membership, and support of youth education.

Jason’s personal belief is that children and women are at great risk if the family dynamics break down. Informally, Jason has been an ambassador to the agency since 2012. His belief is that the agency plays a strong community role in preventive programs in addition to the welcoming beds for women and their children.

“FearIsNotLove is so much more than a physical women’s shelter, and delivers a myriad of domestic violence and abuse-related services and programs.  This new name emphasizes this evolution, and allows both the community at large and most importantly, potential victims of domestic violence and abuse and those who use abuse, a better understanding of the services we provide.”

John came to Calgary in 1980 after graduating with his law degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax. He joined Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP at that time and has practiced at BDP his entire law career. He is semi-retired but maintains the role of Senior Counsel. He practices in the areas of corporate finance and financial services.

John and his wife Mary have three grown children and one grandchild. They are active in the community and are members of the Calgary Winter Club, Bearspaw Golf Club and the Desert Mountain Club (Scottsdale, Arizona). John has always been active in sports, particularly hockey and golf. When not playing games, John and Mary love to travel and have traveled extensively. In addition, John is a bit of a music geek and enjoys reading and gardening.

With more time on his hands, John has a desire to contribute back to the Calgary community and feels he has skills he can contribute to FearIsNotLove. He is delighted to have been elected to the board of directors where he is a member of the governance committee.

Imran immigrated to Calgary in 1981 from Kenya and grew up in Calgary. He obtained his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary and articled at PwC, where he obtained his Chartered Accountant designation. He later achieved a Masters in U.S. Taxation from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

Imran has worked in various finance roles in Oil and Gas, the innovation arm of University of Calgary and Brookfield Residential since leaving PwC. He joined FYidoctors in 2014 as CFO and has helped grow the organization from 60 clinics to over 300. He is also a director at the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing settlement and integration services to refugees and immigrants living in Southern Alberta.

Imran and his wife Rachel have two young children and spend their time in the variety of kids activities. They both love to travel and experience theatre. Imran is also an avid golfer and loves most sports.

Debbie’s purpose and passion is to help create the conditions for organizations and people to thrive, grow and fulfill their greater potential. She is deeply honored to support the leadership and profound impact that FearIsNotLove (originally, the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter) brings to the lives of families in our community through her role with the Board.

Debbie is an accomplished former C-level executive and certified executive coach who brings over 30 years of business, people, culture and leadership development experience having worked across Canada and internationally. She now owns Younitive, a small boutique consulting practice specializing in executive coaching, C-suite teaming and culture shaping and is a co-founder of Belongify. She has an ICD.D designation through the Rotman School of Management and Institute of Corporate Directors, a CPHR designation in Human Resources and is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation. Debbie has completed various business, HR and management programs through Michigan University Ross School of Business, University of Calgary and Royal Roads University. When Debbie isn’t working or volunteering she is semi-retired (sort of) and can be found traveling, biking, wine “tasting” with friends or backyard bird watching with her husband Barry.

Courtney is a partner at Dentons Canada LLP where she practices as a corporate/commercial lawyer and is the co-lead of the Energy Department. Her primary focus is helping clients with their corporate needs and energy-related challenges. She regularly advises clients on matters of corporate governance and strategic decision making. Courtney currently sits on the board of Rocky Mountain Liquor Inc, a TSXV publicly traded entity, and is a Trustee on the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation, where she also acts as the corporate secretary. 

Born and raised in and around the Calgary area, Courtney loves that she continues to call the city of Calgary home. 

Courtney is honored to have the opportunity to contribute to FearIsNotLove through her work on the board of directors and on the governance committee.

Having just joined us in Sept 2022, Cathy’s bio is in the works. Stay tuned to learn more about her.

Jason is Vice President of Business Banking in Calgary with the BMO Financial Group, a role he has held since 2017. Jason’s primary role at BMO is to support and develop his team to serve their customers and communities, grow their book of business while managing the overall risk profile. Jason holds a BComm from the University of Saskatchewan (2010), an MBA from Queen’s University (2016) and is a CPA, CMA. Jason’s first exposure to FearIsNotLove (originally the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter) was in 2013 as an attendee at a luncheon held at the Emergency Shelter and additionally worked on the Take a Stand Initiative as part of the Capstone for his MBA. Outside of work, you can find Jason with his family (Yun & Amelia), barbecuing / smoking meat, volunteering as a golf and hockey coach with Special Olympics and occasionally on the golf course.

Timothy D. Mitchell is a senior partner at McLennan Ross LLP, where he practices management-side labour law. He has represented numerous private and public sector employers in western Canada, in all aspects of labour and employment law and has been peer-rated and ranked by numerous legal publications as a leading lawyer in Alberta in the areas of labour and employment law and one of the top 500 lawyers in Canada. In his twenty-five plus years of specialized management-side practice, Tim has had the opportunity to represent clients before a wide variety of courts and administrative tribunals, including in applications for leave to the Supreme Court of Canada. Tim provides a regular column in the Canadian Employment Law Today journal and has co-authored a book on employment law. Tim has previously served on the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter Board of Directors.

“Imagine how free we would feel & how much we could accomplish without fear.” Susan L Taylor

Connie is very grateful for the rewarding career she had with the Royal Bank Financial Group. While at RBC, Connie was given the opportunity to hone her skills in many areas including: Human Resources, Financial Planning, Branch Management, Marketing, Communications and ultimately in Wealth Management.

After leaving RBC, Connie was drawn closer to an organization with which she’d had a long-standing volunteer relationship. As a full-time team member at United Way of Calgary and Area, she was able to utilize her sales and relationship management expertise while expanding her fund development skills in her roles as Campaign Manager and later, as Director of Major Giving.

As a woman who was widowed at an early age, with a 10-year-old son to raise, Connie remains profoundly grateful for the solid foundation laid down for her by two extraordinary women. One was her grandmother who possessed great wisdom, unwavering faith, and a wicked sense of humour and the other was her mother who was a fiercely independent, successful businesswoman.

As a way of honouring the impact these women had on her life, Connie made a personal commitment early on to walk alongside the young women that were placed in her life. Part of her personal mission statement is: To support women; raise them up so that ultimately they can see themselves not just surviving but thriving. This is what drew Connie to volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary and Area, the Canadian Women’s Foundation, and SheEO.

As a previous Director with Alberta Red Cross and a founding Director & past Board Chair of the Montgomery Business Revitalization Zone, Connie is honoured to be able to utilize her previous experiences & make a contribution to an organization as INGENIOUS as FearIsNotLove.

Ryan Schneider is a professional engineer with 20 years of experience in software development and consulting including executive, technology, operations and customer/outreach roles. 

He is the former CEO of Computer Modelling Group. Ryan holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Calgary.

Ryan has served as a volunteer on and off over the past several years. He and his wife support numerous causes but many have a common theme – family, kids or food (the food bank more recently). Ryan believes that FearIsNotLove’s mandate for both prevention as well as helping families through current struggles will benefit our communities, children and families (and their families and relationships and so on) for the long-term.

A leader and innovator in programs, services, and organizational operations, Kim Ruse has built a career exemplified by excellence in scaling and growing non-profit organizations, developing strong teams, and transforming cultures. As the current CEO of the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter, Kim more than doubled the size of the agency over eight years, building a healthy and effective team.

In each of her leadership roles within non-profit organizations over the past 20+ years, Kim has championed innovation projects that improve social conditions and systems. At the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter, Kim spearheaded multiple innovative violence prevention programs, such as the Innovative Systems Response Project, and co-authored Shelter 2.0, a discussion paper on enhancing women’s shelters’ impact on ending violence, the Shelterlink App and Men &. 

Kim was honoured with the McKillop Award in 2011 for her commitment to the Calgary community. In 2018, she was presented with an Alberta Government Inspiration Award for her leadership and most recently in 2022, she was honoured as one of six Calgary Influential Women in Business.