INSPIRE Awards Board of Directors
Antoine Elhashem, President & Board Chair
Karie Johnston, Vice-President
Darren Stehle, Secretary
Lucy G’ala, Board Member
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President & Board Chair, Antoine Elhashem
Vice President, Karie Diane Johnston
Secretary, Darren Stehle
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Nominations & Procedures Committee
Events Planning Committee
Marketing & Communications Committee
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INSPIRE Awards Team Bios
Antoine Elhashem
Antoine Elhashem, founder and president of INSPIRE Awards, had a simple idea, or more of a question: "Why don’t we do more to celebrate those who are doing amazing and inspiring work in our LGBTQ community?" From that, INSPIRE Awards was born.
Antoine has spent the last 30 years in LGBTQ media working with all the major historical local LGBTQ publications, has volunteered with numerous organizations. He is currently the publisher of some of the leading LGBTQ media platforms and host of a popular local talk show. He is incredibly passionate about community, representation, inclusion and diversity, celebrating, and lifting up people.
Karie Johnston
Karie Johnston has lived and worked in Toronto since 1986. She is a retired nurse having worked in the burn unit at the Wellesley Hospital. She is currently an osteopath and a financial services professional with WFG Canada.
Karie has been actively involved in the LGBTQ community in many capacities. She is a member of Rainbow Toastmasters, a former executive member of the Toronto Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, an avid player in the community Pool Bar League, has hosted several dances at the 519, and is an ardent supporter of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Karie loves to sail, ski, ride motorcycles, camp, and enjoys live music.
Karie has been a Board Member of INSPIRE Awards since 2017.
Darren Stehle
Most of Darren Stehle’s adult life has been an exploration of the unique and vital role that LGBTQ people play in society.
After leaving his Master’s in German Language and Literature in 1994, in what would today be called “Queer Theory”, Darren spent 10 years working at Pink Triangle Press, a Canadian Gay & Lesbian print media non-profit, moving quickly into a top leadership position. He left the Press to work as a Fitness & Nutrition Coach for 15 years.
In 2018, he shifted his focus to Personal Coaching and LGBTQ advocacy; launching a publication on Medium, and a Podcast called Think Queerly. He also works as an LGBTQ Media Consultant with INspired Media. Darren is currently studying and contemplating the Tao Te Ching as the basis for a book he is writing on Human-Heartedness.
In 2019 he took a seat on the Board of Directors of INSPIRE Awards and became Secretary in June 2020.
Lucy G’ala
Lucy G’ala is a Dominican born of Taino origin, a New Yorker and Torontonian. She is a mother, immigrant-youth mentor, published Architect, global traveler, queer Latinx woman, feminist, and a trailblazer changing the Architecture industry’s landscape and its perceptions.
In 2000, she was the Youngest Woman Developer in New York. Lucy founded cleanearthdesign in 2007, an interdisciplinary, sustainable Architect Led-Design Built Studio. Her designs and collaborations can be found in NYC, Mexico, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Sedona, London ON, and Toronto.
She is passionate about her Latin heritage, LGBTQ Community, Human Rights Activism, Marriage Equality, Child Education, Woman Rights, the environment and being gentle with all living things. She is a firm believer in diversity, inclusion and kindness.
Lucy moved to Canada in 2005 following her heart. Toronto welcomed her and her love. Being able to get married to a woman and have her amazing daughter Luna is one of her greatest gifts. She feels honoured to be part of the outstanding INSPIRE Awards does to celebrate, acknowledge, and give back to our amazing resilient, passionate community that works so hard to make much progress.
Matt Ashcroft
Matt Ashcroft is an LGBTQ2+ and racial equity advocate and student at the University of Toronto majoring in Equity Studies under New College.
As a conversion therapy survivor, his advocacy includes confronting gaps in legislation that allow for systemic abuses such as sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts (SOGICE) to further marginalize LGBTQ2+ people in Canada, the United States, and abroad.
Matt holds key decision makers such as “ex-gay leaders” and government officials accountable for ensuring the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ2+ people are protected from pathologizing and discrimination. His advocacy has been featured in media including, but not limited to, CTV W5, CBC, NPR, and speaking engagements including being a key informant on conversion therapy on a speaking panel with the legal firms Norton Rose Fulbright, Thompson Reuters, as well as with the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC).
Along with other survivors with whom Matt has connected, he has been a key founder of Conversion Therapy Survivors (CT Survivors), a non-profit organization that amplifies the voices of those who have experienced conversion therapy and provides a peer-support group to increase the mental health of victims.
Matt’s goals include ensuring that meaningful and valid legislative protections from conversion therapy are written into law for LGBTQ2+ people of all ages, that racial equity is emphasized in the LGBTQ2+ liberation movement, and that voices of marginalized communities are amplified.
Anna Gutmanis
Anna Gutmanis is an award-winning OUT Canadian singer/songwriter. She is also a longtime community activist and social services worker.
Other proud accomplishments include winning The Bonham Scholarship for Studies in Sexual Diversity while taking her degree in Equity Studies at University of Toronto; co-founding the first Women‘s Centre at George Brown College while completing her Assaulted Women’s and Children‘s Counsellor/ Advocate Diploma; and co-founding The Web, an early women’s services newsletter.
Anna is actually a cat in human form (don’t tell her otherwise). She is happiest when her worlds cross-pollinate at places like Girls Rock Camp, PFLAG, and INSPIRE Awards.
Pauline Blackwood
Pauline has been an Audio Technician for over 20 years. During that time, she has been involved in community events such as Pride Toronto, International Women’s Day, Bricks and Glitter, Toronto Freedom School, The Music Gallery and Girls Rock Camp Toronto, providing Audio / Video support.
She has experience organizing and training crews to do AV for conferences and meetings in hotels and meeting rooms plus doing sound for local bands and special events. Pauline also enjoys playing bass in Toronto’s #1 Motown/R&B band, Backtrack.
She is always looking for opportunities to celebrate diversity and inclusion. Being a member of the Nomination Committee for INSPIRE Awards 2020 provides this.
Lorenzo Pagnotta
Lorenzo Pagnotta is a seasoned Toronto arts worker-actor turned fitness professional. His community-based queer and trans affirming private practice, ArtsFitness, was officially launched in 2018.
He uniquely combines his love of theatre, his passion for activism, and his knowledge about the body to create programs for all bodies which allow them to stand taller and more confidently. He uses his training as a Fascial Stretch Therapist layered by his physical intuition as an empath to help relieve pain, give freedom to joints and educate others on how to stretch better at home.
Currently, Lorenzo is helping to make the fitness industry more equitable by participating in Trainer Life United, and is a co-founder of The New Fitness Collective, a group of alternative style coaches offering virtual group training. You can usually find him training and coaching at Hone Fitness in the heart of Toronto’s gay village, or eating pizza and sipping coffee while walking.
Pagnotta is a past Secretary and Vice President of the INSPIRE Awards and happy to return for the 10th Anniversary celebrations.
INSPIRE Awards Mailing Address
INSPIRE Awards
1691 Pickering Pkwy, Unit 205
Pickering ON L1V 5L9 Canada
Office: 416.926.9588