Sussanne Skidmore was elected BCFED president in 2022 after being elected as the federation’s secretary-treasurer in 2018 and 2020. A well-known human rights, social justice and queer rights activist, she served as executive vice-president of BCGEU for 5 years. She has co-chaired the BCFED’s Human Rights Committee and is active in the federation’s Women and Gender Rights Committee.

Amandeep Beesla was born and raised in Vancouver BC, Canada into an immigrant trucking family. She is a third generation, heavy equipment operator by trade with over 25 years of onsite field experience in heavy industrial construction, civil road building, pipeline, winter drilling, open-pit mining, earth works, live process plants, SAGD sites, infrastructure, transportation and trucking, petrochemical, and oil and gas field industry in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Washington State and has been on international projects as part of global teams.

She is involved with various executive boards, committees, associations, and organizations such as Canadian Construction Women (CCW), Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA), Canadian Association for Black Health and Safety Professionals, and Safety Driven Technical Advisory Committee. It highlights her education and experience with women in the trades and construction, as well as being a visible minority.

Lana Love is a journey level millwright and is currently working on achieving her Fourth Class Power Engineering Certification. She works as a Field Operator with the newly formed company Arbios Biotech. Previously, she worked in sawmills for 11 years where she completed her millwright apprenticeship, worked as a journey level millwright and then was promoted to Maintenance Supervisor. She was the first woman to complete a millwright apprenticeship and the first to work in the role of maintenance supervisor with the Solid Wood Division of Canfor. Lana previously completed her ‘C’ Level welding and worked fabricating and welding Porsche Speedster replicas at Intermeccanica International Inc. in Vancouver.

When she worked for Canfor she was a member of Canfor’s Inclusion and Diversity Council, Women’s Engagement Group and Indigenous Engagement Group. She looks forward to helping to create the foundations of a diverse and inclusive workplace where all voices are represented and heard in her new role at Arbios Biotech.

In 2021, Lana completed the Leader in Trades Program (Formerly the Regional Representative Leadership training program) with the BC Centre for Women In The Trades. She was first elected as Director at Large for the BC Trades Equity Society for 2021. She was a tradeswoman coach for the first two cohorts of the Canadian Apprenticeship Forums National Leadership Development Program for Women in The Trades. Lana is driven to help change the culture of industrial and trades workplaces to be more inclusive to women and other equity priority groups so that anyone who wants to can enjoy the many advantages of a career in the trades.

Nicole Wiet resides in New Westminster, the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Qayqayt First Nation, as well as all Coast Salish peoples. She is a journey level IUEC elevator constructor, following her father and grandfather into the elevator trade.

She is a founding member and current President of the BC Trades Equity Society, a partner in obtaining government funding to improve the culture and retention for tradeswomen and other underrepresented people. She has sat on the governance board for the BCCWITT since its founding. For the inaugural Women Build BC Conference for tradeswomen in 2021 she was on the planning committee and attended as a speaker.  She is also an alumni of the Governor General Canadian Leadership Conference that she attended in 2022.

She spends her free time adventuring with her partner and attending Whitecaps FC matches where she aided the creation of an inclusive and safe supporters group named the Vancouver Sisters.

Sarina Hanschke is a third generation Roadbuilder and union member of the Labourer’s International Union of North America (LiUNA local 1611). She started her career in the trades immediately after graduating high school as a means to pay for her university degree to become a teacher. She quickly learned that the trades are a viable career option for a bright future and quickly excelled at the trade. Her passion for safety, teaching, and the trades met in the middle as she worked with instructors and industry from around the province to redesign the course curriculum for the Traffic Control Program. Sarina became an active advocate for women in trades in 2013, helped form Build Together on the National level in 2015, and currently serves as the secretary-treasurer on the executive board of Build Together BC. She is thrilled to contribute BCCWITT’s mission to moving the dial to increase the number of women entering trades, by working to improve workplace culture through the surge of inclusivity and diversity on the Province’s infrastructure projects. 

Sandra Brynjolfson is the assistant business manager for IBEW Local 213 and a past coordinator at the BC Centre for Women in the Trades (BCCWITT). A journey electrician for more than 20 years and a mentor to many tradeswomen, Sandra is passionate about breaking down cultural barriers, specifically the barriers that have prevented women and other underrepresented groups from entering, excelling at and ultimately enjoying rewarding careers in the trades. As an active volunteer, they have led groups of tradeswomen in renovation projects at women’s shelters. Sandra is also a past member of the board of directors for the IBEW Electrical Joint Training Committee and a trustee of the IBEW 213 Welfare and Pension Plans.

For years, women have been told there is no place in the construction trades for them. Those who ignore that message and enter the trades face discrimination, harassment and bullying from the time they start their apprenticeship. Many women leave while still apprentices and those who stay face barriers throughout their careers.

Brynjolfson provides leadership, mentorship, collaboration and action on countless initiatives, from speaking engagements to political advocacy.

“And all those barriers that we have faced and that we are still facing, I want to see those disappear,” says Brynjolfson. “I want to see respectful workplaces and equal opportunity in the workplace.”

Nicole Pasqualini is a passionate and skilled Red Seal-certified sheet metal journeywoman with SMART Local 280. Her journey as a young apprentice has shaped her into the dedicated and trusted professional she is today. Her heavy involvement in the union kicked off at the 2022 Trades Women Build Nations (TWBN) Conference. Since that event, Nicole has attended 5 conferences through her union in 2023. 

From meetings to larger conventions within the sheet metal world and the most recent TWBN, her passion to be heavily involved in advocating for women in the trades has skyrocketed. Aside from her day job in the shop at Ridge Sheet Metal, she has also embarked on a path with the College of BC Building Trades as a Trades Ambassador. This involves going into high schools within the Lower Mainland to promote the unionized building trades. 

Having started her career in Sheet Metal at the age of 14, she feels she has a perspective that closely relates to those of the school aged pupils that she is tasked with presenting to. This enables her to gain their trust and to draw  their attention to the trades in a relatable way.

A strategic professional and seasoned executive leader with more than 25 years of management experience at the highest levels, Ken has worked in government, consulting, agriculture and automotive sectors, representing associations similar in size and scope to CLR. Ken is using his skills and experience to assist the CLR in developing even greater value to its membership and partners. This will be accomplished through, among other things, greater focus on short and long term strategy development, organizational transformation and improvement, building operational efficiencies, evolving partnerships on labour relations and human resource development, raising the association’s profile and brand, and much more. Ken places a great deal of emphasis on inspiring people and teams, forming strong relationships and partnerships, and serving as a credible voice in decision making to advance the needs of CLR and its membership, and to effectively support the CLR Board of Directors.