Video Q&A: Women of the Year 2021 – Community Builder

Stephanie Hollingshead and Natasha Jung explain what community means to them and how organizations can help bring people together.

Credit: Right: Linsday Wu

Stephanie Hollingshead and Natasha Jung explain what community means to them and how organizations can help bring people together

To honour the contenders in our second Women of the Year competition, we’ve created video interviews with finalists in eight categories. 

For this instalment, we chatted with Community Builder winner Stephanie Hollingshead and runner-up Natasha Jung.

Hollingshead is CEO of Vancouver-based HR Tech Group, whose efforts include the Diversity and Inclusion Tech Project, focused on promoting recruitment, retention and career development of underrepresented groups into skilled occupations in the B.C. technology sector.

“Building community is about building strong, positive connections between groups of people,” she says. “It’s building a sense of belonging and purpose that really benefits everyone.”

As co-founder and executive director Cold Tea Collective Media, Jung leads the online publication, whose mandate is to tell stories for, by and about Asian millennials. Since Cold Tea Launched in 2016, it’s grown to some 20 content creators and other team members across North America.

“Community-building, to me, means making the world and the people around you better,” says Jung, who also sits on the board of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade’s Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Council. “For a community to grow and thrive, it needs to be a safe space where people can be their full selves and explore their full potential.”

For profiles of all the 2021 Women of the Year winners and finalists, click here. Congratulations to everyone.

Thank you to the judges—Laurel Douglas, Paris Gaudet, Trish Mandewo and Tina Strehlke—for their time and effort. We’re also grateful for the support of our generous sponsor, the Women’s Enterprise Centre.