Anita’s fundraising career started when she was nine

Anita has two sisters, and because her mom felt blessed by her daughters’ good health, the Nowak girls spent most of their childhood Novembers after school collecting coins (and bills when they were lucky) for the Telethon of Stars, a 24-hour live TV broadcast that...

The film that changed Anita’s life

Until her early 20s, Anita dreamed of being a high-powered ad exec. But in her final year as an undergraduate, she attended a screening of The Vienna Tribunal, a documentary that exposed women’s human rights violations around the world. Sitting in the theatre, Anita...

The best advice Anita’s been given

Halfway through her doctoral degree, Anita requested a year sabbatical from her studies to focus on her professional career. Her thesis supervisor advised against it, citing the high rate of attrition after long breaks, but she insisted. Six months later, when they...

Anita’s moment of reckoning

In 2008, Anita spent part of the summer in East Africa, volunteering for Tubahumerize, an NGO that empowers survivors of the Rwandan genocide. In addition to offering training programs and micro-credit to hundreds of women, the organization hosts weekly healing...

Anita’s favourite day of the week

Anita and her husband Giorgi went to South America for the 2014 World Cup, and to pass time while travelling, they played a silly made-up-game of personal trivia. Anita asked Gio: “What’s my favourite day of the week?” to which he immediately replied, “Wednesday.”...

Anita believes in karma

It was a gorgeous mid-October afternoon – the kind of autumn day in Montreal where all the trees are showing off. I had just finished a meeting and was cycling back to work. I biked past a young woman panhandling just as the streetlight I was approaching turned green....