The 15th Anniversary Northern Lights Awards Gala for Canadian women in aviation was held in Toronto on October 5, 2024. Hosted at the Pearson Convention Centre for the second year, the event drew more than 600 guests.
The Northern Lights ‘Elsie’ Awards are named after legendary aviation pioneer Elsie MacGill and showcase exceptional women in the Canadian aviation and aerospace community. The non-profit Northern Lights Foundation awards program recognizes and promotes past, present, and future generations of women in the industry in six different categories: Flight Operations, Government, Business, Education, Engineering, and Trailblazer. It also presents two Rising Star awards.
Almost every recipient is an overachiever, involved neck deep in numerous aviation, aerospace and community organizations. Many have other industry awards under their belt. Their motivation, knowledge and achievements are, without exception, inspiring.
The difficult task of judging this year’s applicants fell to Gord McNulty, an acclaimed journalist, Royal Canadian Air Force Major (formerly Chief Warrant Officer) Marlene Shillingford, a former Trailblazer Award honouree, and RCMP Staff Constable Kathy Stewart, a former Government Honouree.
Northern Lights Awards 2024 Honourees
Captain Erin Edwards received the Government Award. Edwards is an experienced RCAF CH-146 Griffon aircraft commander, with over 1,400 flying hours, including in combat operations. She now holds a position at NASA as the first Canadian Astronaut Coordination Officer, providing operational support to the Canadian Astronaut Corps.
She is the first non-astronaut to be assigned to the Astronaut Office as Deputy Branch Chief for Crew Operations, and has just been qualified as a Capsule Communicator or CAPCOM—the verbal link between operational astronauts and mission control.
“When you are used to working in the background, you don’t expect to be impacting other people, but the award has highlighted that when you have the opportunity to work with other people, every interaction gives me the opportunity to inspire them to be their best,” said Edwards.
Laura Sinclair won the Business Award. The co-founder of Elevate Aviation, and currently COO/CFO, Sinclair helped transform the company of 40 people into a multi-million-dollar enterprise in just six years. Elevate promotes women and underrepresented groups in aviation across Canada, and provides mentorship programs and bursaries. Sinclair is also a Nav Canada air traffic controller and was among Edify magazine’s top 40 under 40.
The Education Award went to Sherry Cooper, the director of student services, CFI, pilot examiner and president of Sky Wings Aviation. Cooper has accumulated over 19,000 flying hours, including more than 16,000 instructing, and is a Class 1 instructor. A multi-engine instrument rated pilot, her training has furthered the careers of several generations of new aviators. She was president of the Red Deer Air Show and one of the first female Air Bosses.
Terri Super won the Trailblazer Award. As owner of Super T Aviation, Super is a leader in the flight instructing and aviation business communities. She instructed at Mount Royal College and later flew Jetstreams for Alberta Citylink. She remains heavily involved in flying and managerial roles.
“The award has been a real roller coaster of emotions and an introspective of my career and all of the things I have done, which I don’t often reflect upon,” Super acknowledged.
Pat Greene received the Engineering Award. As Staff Systems Engineer and Technical Lead, Space Station Programme, Robotics and Space Operations, her decades of experience at MDA Space have been an integral part of the NASA Space program. Greene was instrumental in making the Canadarm II on the International Space Station to be remotely operated from the ground. She is also the privileged recipient of the NASA Silver Snoopy Award presented by astronauts.
The Flight Operations Award went to Elizabeth Mitches, a Dash-8 chief pilot at Porter Airlines who leads more than 300 pilots. Under her guidance, Porter has achieved gender parity in leadership roles on the Dash-8 team. She has also helped implement improved safety systems at several air operators.
“This event each year is very special and means a lot to me,” said Mitches. “I have been coming to it for years, and it’s an incredible privilege to hear the honourees and their amazing stories and be galvanized and inspired by them. It feels a little surreal to be included among them.”
The Rising Star awards were presented to Zoey Williams and Cassandra Hepp. Williams is a first officer at Air Canada who started flight training at 15. Her long-time dream was to fly as co-pilot to her father on a commercial flight, and she did so aboard an Air Canada Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Heathrow to Toronto. She recently became the first female pilot in residence at the University of Waterloo, has several aviation degrees, and is a board member on the Urban Pilot’s Network.
Hepp is the lead aircraft maintenance engineer for Heavy Aero in Edmonton, and has excelled at demonstrating her skills at trade competitions. She is also an ambassador with Elevate Aviation, and encourages women to consider maintenance as a career.
Scholarship Awards
Each year, the Northern Lights Foundation continues to expand its scholarship programs. The Captain Judy Cameron Scholarship, introduced in 2020 by Air Canada for commercial pilots or aircraft maintenance engineers, went to Harnoor and Harman Baghary, the first sibling recipients; Emily Contos; and Chanelle Wilson.
CAE co-sponsored an additional four scholarships for Canadian women in fixed-wing flight schools. These were awarded to Ashley Gellatly, Nyssa Hansen, Chloe Muhl, and Trisha Virdee.
Three more $5,000 Northern Lights Scholarships were awarded. The first by Skyservice for pilots went to Preksha Shah at the University of Waterloo, presented by Vanessa Engel and Captain Judy Cameron. Ruby Helen-Ann Hopkins, also at Waterloo, won the scholarship by Sovereign Wealth Management for pilots. Alea McLaren from BCIT won the Northern Lights AME Scholarship sponsored by De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, and Samantha Iron won the Jazz and Northern Lights Bursary for Indiginous Women, presented by Adeeb Haddadi.
The Air Canada Inspire Award for Indigenous students went to Isabela Ziegler, Jukipa Kotierk, Jazmyne Horbay-Verbonac, and Andrea Heron.
The strength and talent of the honourees is a testament to the Northern Lights board of directors. Many are former award honourees. And a Junior Board, made up of 11 younger members, includes many former Rising Star recipients or Northern Lights mentees. Once again, they found a cadre of stars to inspire women in all aspects of aviation and aerospace.
