FREE INTERACTIVE SPEAKER SERIES
(PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED)
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2024 | 7-9pm EST
MARKHAM PAN AM CENTRE
16 Main St Unionville, Unionville, ON L3R 2E4
This is a unique opportunity offered to female student-athletes in high school and post-secondary education to learn from the experiences of accomplished women in their various fields. Our dynamic guest speakers – who are leaders and key contributors within their community – will have time to engage the audience with their story and share advice from their sport experience.
Our talks always have an interactive component and we invite athletes to ask questions at the end. Past presentation topics have included diversity and inclusion in sport, mental health, dealing with injury, defining your journey, habits for success, and much more.
Students will have an opportunity to network with guest speakers during the event.
Parents, guardians and community members are welcome to attend the event, but are asked to sit in a separate section. Front seats will be reserved for female student-athletes.
This will be our 9th In the Huddle and the talks will continue to be interactive. We will continue to foster a safe and inclusive space for all participants. If we can provide any accommodations for the presentations, please do not hesitate to reach out to leadthrusport@gmail.com.
SPEAKERS
Hannah Sunley-Paisley
HannaH Sunley-Paisley grew up right here in Toronto. After playing basketball for the University of Ottawa, HannaH played four years of professional basketball in Germany and France. While there, she published her first novel, Magic Required. HannaH has always loved stories and is grateful for the opportunity to bring the dedication and commitment she learned through playing basketball to writing and acting.
HannaH's fourth novel, Haven Required will be out in October and she will be performing with Theatre Gargantua in November.
Tiya Bainbridge
Tiya Bainbridge knows how to overcome obstacles and inspire others. She is a competitive hockey player and the Assistant Captain for Whitby Girls U18 Hockey Team, a grade 10 High School Hockey and Field La Crosse player, an Honour Roll student at Anderson Collegiate and a Cancer Survivor. Tiya has been a SickKids Patient Ambassador for four years supporting fundraising, philanthropy teaching and speaking engagements for SickKids Hospital and improving awareness around childhood illness. She is the recipient of the Hockey Canada Champion Award, starting her own campaign called “Tiya’s Purpose” and raising more than $50,000 for SickKids Foundation after her own battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Kindness, resilience, hard work, and determination have been the skills that have taught her and inspired others to overcome obstacles and to make the best out of any situation.
Laura Kinoshita
Laura Kinoshita is a high level Ultimate Frisbee player who made the U19 National Team at the 14. From then, she became a stable in the frisbee community and went on to win multiple World Championship with Team Canada. Her love for sports came from her Mother who was a Varsity Basketball player in University. Although busy with Ultimate, she still acquired her Bachelors of Commerce from the Smith School of Business. When she is not playing frisbee or working she spends her time cooking new recipes.
Melissa Bailey
Melissa is a passionate global educator and youth developer, as she believes youth can do great things. She works as a youth programming consultant intertwining education, leadership and sport, for organizations working with youth, while teaching part-time in Ontario.
Melissa was Head of Leadership Training for Nestle, Canada and the Chief Development Officer and an executive team member at a management training company. She and her teams have designed and delivered organizational wide, experiential leadership initiatives, for various blue chip companies. She holds her Master’s of Business Administration.
Melissa transitioned into education, completed her Master’s of Education and moved to Germany. There she taught at an international IB school for 12 years. Melissa is regarded as an innovative educator who connects well with youth. She focuses on the best ways to create learning and application, instill curiosity with hands on investigation and promote citizenship. Melissa is a member of the Ontario College of teachers. As a basketball coach, her teams medaled 11 times at international school tournaments. She was an assistant coach at Bill Crother’s Secondary School in Ontario.
As Program Lead for the Astou N’diaye Foundation in Senegal for African girls, she co-created and helped manage the program “Educate to Empower.” The program provides academic tutoring, health education and basketball to 50 girls in Senegal, so that the girls graduate from middle school and go to high school.
Right now she is working on Greatness Skills, a program for educators, coaches, parents that helps kids and teens be great in the areas of achieving goals, giving back, believing in yourself and work ethic.
Her volunteer work includes being a concept creator, writer and youth speaking coach for a virtual youth forum, celebrating Mandela Day on Anti-Racism, Youth Activism and mental health for 30,000 students across Ontario. She’s volunteered at SEED Project, Senegal (Sport for Economic and Education Development), NBA Africa Basketball without Borders and at a Spanish missionary school.