21. Denise Christopherson: CEO, YWCA Hamilton

By Erin Dunham, CEO, The Other Bird Restaurant Group

If you need a female role model in the city of Hamilton, then you should look to Denise Christopherson. She is an advocate of women and represents them with strength and diligence. If you would like to know the statistics on women in the work force or suffering with homelessness, she will tell you; she will tell you with conviction and passion because she is driven to change the statistics. She is the CEO at the YWCA in downtown Hamilton and she has slapped Hamilton in the face with awareness of women’s issues within our city. Within five minutes of meeting Denise she had both humbled me and inspired me to do more to support my own gender. She has an incredible history working in textiles, consulting and teaching, as well as facing her own personal struggles, but she would never highlight that as her promotion is not of herself but of her cause. I cannot even guess how many lives Denise has changed but I do know that she has changed mine, and if you meet her and listen to her, she will change yours.