Congratulations to our 2021 Awards of Excellence Recipients!

It is my pleasure to announce Career Professionals of Canada’s 2021 Awards of Excellence Program recipients. This year’s competition proved rigorous, as always. A total of 52 candidates were selected from all the submissions received. I’d like to offer special thanks to our 2021 team of judges who were presented with the difficult challenge of selecting the recipients this year — this was not an easy task!

CPC’s membership comprises some of the very best in our profession. Please do send your congratulations to 2021’s Awards of Excellence winners, honourable mentions, and nominees!

Outstanding Career Leader

• Winner: Maureen Farmer
• Nominee: Gail Kastning

Outstanding Career Professional

• Winner: Kim Cooper
• Honourable Mention: Edwyna Laughton
• Nominees: Felisha Ali | Maureen Farmer | Mohammad Hayat | Ksenia Lazoukova | Michael McClure | Elaine Piper | Sweta Regmi | Julia Shmelkova |Brent Warman

Outstanding Community Outreach Strategist

• Winner: Kristin Vandegriend
• Honourable Mention: Wanda Kusumajuda Pichette

Outstanding Employment Interview Strategist

• Winner: Komal Parekh
• Honourable Mention: Rita Kamel
• Nominees: Ksenia Lazoukova

Outstanding Résumé – Career Change

• Winner: Rita Kamel
• Honourable Mention: Lynne West
• Nominees: Felisha Ali | Edwyna Laughton | Judy Marston | Lorraine Morris

Outstanding Résumé – Creative

• Winners: Lori Jazvac
• Honourable Mention: Nataliya Masyuk

Outstanding Résumé – Executive

• Winner: Barb Penney
• Honourable Mentions: Lori Jazvac | Lynne West
• Nominees: Marian Bernard | Jude Gaal | Judy Marston | Elaine Piper | Karine Touloumjian

Outstanding Résumé – Internationally Educated Professional (IEP)

• Winner: Rita Kamel
• Honourable Mention: Karine Touloumjian
• Nominees: Carolina Feican | Ksenia Lazoukova | Nataliya Masyuk

Outstanding Résumé – New Graduate / Entry Level Professional

• Winner: Barb Penney
• Honourable Mention: Karine Touloumjian
• Nominees: Felisha Ali | Jude Gaal | Judy Marston | Lorraine Morris

Outstanding Résumé – Technical

• Winner: Lori Jazvac
• Honourable Mention: Barb Penney
• Nominees: Elaine Piper | Karen Shane

Outstanding Social Media Strategist

• Winner: Leanna Monardo
• Honourable Mention: Sweta Regmi

Outstanding Volunteer Contributors (Executive Director’s Awards)

This year, Sharon Graham is thrilled to award the Executive Director’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Contribution to these exceptionally admirable members of Career Professionals of Canada. Each of these members has gone far above and beyond in supporting CPC in our initiatives. Sharon is also pleased to award Honourable Mentions to five volunteer teams for completing outstanding work on behalf of CPC.

Recipients:

• Felisha Ali for her proactive review of the CPC website. Through her efforts, we strengthened our content marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
• Michelle Ashley for her proactive leadership of CPC’s Facebook Group helping it to grow to more than 850 members.
• Carol Brochu for her thoughtful and consistent article contributions, bringing original ideas and unique content to the CPC News Feed.
• Ksenia Lazoukova for providing program content mapping that was instrumental in developing our Certified Work-Life Strategist (CWS) Marking Guide.
• Barb Penny for overhauling and managing CPC’s new social media program supporting CPC’s online communications and community building.
• Michelle Precourt for her proactive leadership of CPC’s Linked-In Group helping it to grow to more than 4000 members.

Honourable Mentions:

Ambassador Team for reaching out to our new CPC members and providing them with direction, support, and camaraderie.

Social Media Team for exceptional work done to deploy CPC’s social support for the career development community in Canada, and for helping recruit and support CPC members from across Canada.

Tele-networking Team for developing, managing, and moderating sessions, and for providing members with meaningful discussions and useful tips and resources that will enhance their effectiveness.

Communications Team for the great amount of informative and meaningful content produced over the course of a year. The team provided relevant and useful posts every single week without fail.

Certification Team for consistently and meticulously reviewing and evaluating submissions, turning around assessments seamlessly within tight deadlines.

Outreach Team for representing and promoting CPC to various organizations who are involved in or have an impact on career development in Canada.

Work-Life Strategy Program Development Team for developing and validating CPC’s new Certified Work-Life Strategist (CWS) designation, along with the eGuide and the associated course.

SEO Marketing Team for helping boost CPC’s recognition as an authority site, and for creating a program to help members boost their own profiles by writing professional News Feed articles.

2021 Awards Judging Team for reviewing all submissions and selecting our outstanding recipients. Awards judges are not eligible to participate in the program. However, Sharon wanted to express her sincere thanks to the team for their hard work.

Sharon and I would also like to extend a very special thank you to CPC’s Leadership Team for their ongoing and outstanding support through the pandemic: GabrielleLeClair, Maureen McCann, Cathy Milton, Wayne Pagani, Jayne Barron, Dorothy Keenan, Daisy Wright, Michelle Precourt, Janet Barclay and Debbie Lapointe.

Thanks also to all of CPC’s ad hoc volunteers and silent partners who help make Career Professionals of Canada an outstanding organization.

CPC is now receiving submissions for the 2022 Awards of Excellence Program. Find out how you can be nominated in 2022.

Congratulations and thanks to everyone who participated. It’s been another great year!

Erika Mendonça-DeSilva is a multi-certified award-winning career strategist with 15+ years’ experience assisting individuals find their ideal career path and maximizing their potential. She is an Executive Career Strategist at The Talent Company. Passionate about helping people, she has earned a reputation for her kindness, compassion, integrity, and professionalism. Erika is fueled by an unwavering commitment to make a difference in the lives of the people she works with, the clients she serves, and the professional community she supports. An active member of Career Professionals of Canada, Erika also plays an important role as the organization’s Awards of Excellence Team Lead.