Ask Me Anything: Inclusion and Belonging

May 5, 2021 – Defence Stories

• Featuring: Zaynah Khan, Abigail Theano-Pudwill and Faduno Ali
• Moderated by: Samantha Moonsammy & Natasha Lim
• Date and time: Wednesday, May 5, 2021 - 1pm - 2:30pm EST
• Location: Virtual on MS Teams
• Audience: Open to all Government of Canada employees
• To register: Registration form
• Presented by: Department of National Defence and Canadian Coast Guard Internal Communications, Events & Publications

More information and resources can be found on the Ask Me Anything: Inclusion and Belonging resource page.

Event description

Join us as we welcome our speakers Zaynah Khan, Abigail Theano-Pudwill and Faduno Ali to the Ask Me Anything stage. They will be sharing their courageous conversations on a variety of topics such as physical disabilities; invisible disabilities such as mental health injuries and PTSD; gender; race; religion and parenthood to name a few.

About The Ask Me Anything series

This is the fourth in our series of Ask Me Anything sessions (You are now leaving the Government of Canada website) that are giving us a platform to share stories, listen, ask respectful questions and continue on our journey to becoming a more inclusive organization. As a people, we are the intersectionality of race, ethnic origin and color, religion and creed, dis(abilities), sexual orientation, age, ability, sizes, and shapes, to name but a few. Every leader and employee has the power to co-create a culture of inclusion.

It is important that we find value in each other’s experiences, differences and unique characteristics. When we build our cultural competency we are able to work better together in our teams and respond to each other with relevance, empathy and compassion. By celebrating and sharing our authentic selves, we gain a greater appreciation of each other and the diversity that surrounds us.

We know, through diversity, workplaces and communities are stronger, more successful and resilient. And most important, it creates spaces of inclusion and fosters a workplace of belonging where people feel valued.

We encourage everyone to submit an anonymous question for our guest speakers via the registration form (You are now leaving the Government of Canada website). This is your chance to Ask Me Anything! You will also have a chance to ask questions during the event.

If you would like to be a speaker at an upcoming Ask Me Anything or if you need accommodations to participate, please contact the CCG Internal Communications Team (You are now leaving the Government of Canada website).

Meet our amazing guests: Zaynah Khan, Abigaïl Theano-Pudwil and Faduno Ali

Zaynah Khan, Program Officer, Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Zaynah Khan is a Program Officer with the Pacific Region's Species at Risk Program at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Born and raised in Vancouver by her immigrant parents from Fiji, Zaynah holds her Bachelor of Science in Biology with a Minor in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.

Having spent the past 1.5 years working with the public service, Zaynah is exploring what it means to be a hard-of-hearing Muslim woman of colour working in the federal government. Zaynah navigates issues like job security, workplace accommodations for religious beliefs and disabilities, diversity and inclusion, and personal growth on a daily basis. Zaynah aims to integrate her intersectional, millennial perspective with the existing ones to form a more inclusive narrative for all.

Outside of work, Zaynah enjoys swimming (waiting for public pools to safely reopen!), trying new foods, and growing vegetables in her garden patch at home.

Abigaïl Theano-Pudwil, Communications Advisor, Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Abigaïl Theano-Pudwill Theano-Pudwill is a communications advisor for the Ontario and Prairie region of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada with a double major arts degree in Criminal Justice and Rhetoric. Abigaïl is a Haitian-born Canadian who has been working in the public service since 2018. She identifies as a woman of colour who carries, manages, and is slowly accepting living with adult diagnosed ADHD and Bipolar Disorder. She navigates within, and continues to advocate for bettering the racial inequities in the healthcare system and public service.

Abigaïl has done advocacy work on a local, national and global scale, representing Canada in international spaces as Canada’s Commonwealth National Youth Delegate and various other titles. Since 2014, Abigaïl has focused on promoting youth engagement in governance through the National Student Commonwealth Forum and Youth Parliament of Manitoba (YPM). Abigaïl’s involvement on the board of directors of YPM ended this year as the first black Premier/Chairperson.

She hopes her story provides a different (and perhaps interesting) perspective and inspires you to advocate for change too.

Faduno Ali, Project Officer, Workplace Programs, Department of National Defence

Faduno Ali is a Project Officer with Workplace Programs at the Department of National Defence, working on anti-racism, diversity, inclusion and mental health initiatives and has over 13 years of experience working in the federal public service in roles ranging from Human Resources Staffing to Workplace Programs. A Somali native, Faduno came to Canada as a refugee with her family and grew up in Ottawa from a young age. Learning and overcoming some of the challenges that a new country has to offer wasn’t an easy one, but one that was embraced with open arms.

Being a Black, Muslim woman and a mother of 4 children, Faduno is not a stranger to the intersectional biases and discrimination that exist in the public service. Coping with racial trauma and PTSD from years of discrimination and having to deal with invisible disabilities led to her community work.

Outside of the government, Faduno is a social activist working with local non-profits and black communities. Faduno is the Executive director of Society of Young Achievers (SOYA), a black youth culture empowerment organization, an interior decorator, entrepreneur and a mother of 4 beautiful children. Faduno has a Business Administration background with a Diploma from Algonquin College.