Cassie Myers (BA ’18), an alumnus of the GreenHouse social impact incubator at St. Paul’s University College and Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo, has been recognized as one of 50 Changemakers in The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business magazine for 2021.
This new editorial award program is intended to showcase emerging leaders who are transforming business today. Myers is a graduate of the Peace and Conflict Studies program with an Economics minor at Waterloo. She was nominated for the award by Tania Del Matto, director of GreenHouse and Paul Heidebrecht director of the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement at Grebel.
“It is such an honour for me to be recognized in this way,” said Myers. “Using the resources I have available to make an impact has always been important to me and it will always be a big part of my life.”
As a student, Myers participated in GreenHouse’s Social Innovators in Training program, where she lived at St. Paul’s for a term in winter 2017. This program supports students in making actionable steps towards their ideas for social change and acquiring the skills required for entrepreneurship.
“GreenHouse has been a constant in my journey as an entrepreneur,” said Myers. “It’s one of those amazing communities where you’re not there for a moment, you’re not there for a term, you’re there for however long you are willing to give back to a community that does not stop giving back to you.
“It’s wonderful to have a place you can go back to and share your learnings and gain more learnings.”
For the past four years, Myers has been working on creating a more equitable world where people of all identities can thrive, as the CEO and founder of Lunaria Solutions. This technology startup uses specialized software to perform a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) audit and develops an actionable management plan for organizations to meet their DEI goals. Its mission is to help companies and brands flourish by providing DEI solutions that put people first and drive real returns.
“We are so privileged to be working with amazing clients that trust us with such an important aspect of their long-term vision,” said Myers. “DEI has come to the forefront now more than ever and it’s truly an amazing opportunity for organizations to make DEI commitments to create impactful cultural changes on what can be a really complicated road.”
Since September 2018, Lunaria has been part of the Peace Incubator at Grebel’s Center for Peace Advancement, where Cassie and her team have continued to grow their impact alongside other startups and established organizations seeking to create a more peaceful and just world.
“Cassie is a leader in the drive towards gender justice and diversity,” said Tania Del Matto, GreenHouse director. “Her visionary leadership has evolved her company Lunaria and we are thrilled she has been recognized as the impactful changemaker she is.”
Outside of Lunaria, Myers volunteers for Technovation, mentoring a group of women who are building a product to solve a social problem. She also supports sexual assault victims as a support line volunteer with the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region.
She’s also currently earning a Master of Cultural and Social Theory from Wilfrid Laurier University, where she is taking a critical look at anti-Black racism in the workplace and how it manifests or changes amid growing attention of the Black Lives Matter movement, which will undoubtedly support the work she does with Lunaria.
Myers looks forward to continuously growing her knowledge as a social entrepreneur and innovating to improve the work she does at Lunaria to better serve her clients.