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WOMEN LEADING AI: ANNOUNCING THE 2025 WAI AWARDS NORTH AMERICA WINNERS

Updated: Jun 13

By Frincy Clement, Susanna Raj and Alessandra Sala


On June 6th, 2025, the energy in Toronto was electric as hundreds gathered to celebrate the boldest, brightest, and most visionary minds in artificial intelligence. The Women in AI Summit & Awards North America 2025 celebrated excellence across academia, startups, enterprise, public policy, and beyond.


We are proud to introduce this year’s winners, exceptional leaders, builders, and changemakers who are not only breaking barriers but building pathways for what’s next.


This year's competition reached new heights with over 250 nominations spanning 12 diverse award categories, showcasing the extraordinary talent and innovation driving the AI field forward. The nominations went through rigorous review, thanks to the efforts of our phenomenal 55 expert jury panel from across Mexico, USA and Canada and the strategic guidance of 13 Boards of Advisors. From the 170 finalists who were selected, we announced winners and special jury recognition recipients on an extravagant celebration on June 6, 2025, held at Deloitte Toronto Office.


Here are the incredible Winners and Special Jury Recognition Recipients of 2025 Women in AI Awards North America whose work is shaping a future powered by responsible, inclusive, and transformative AI.


  1. Trailblazer Award - Woman in AI of the Year

    1. Winners:

      1. Briana Brownell, Founder and CEO, Pure Strategy Consulting Inc. (Canada)

      2. Maryam Emami, CEO, AI Materia (Canada)

      3. Claudia Del Pozo, Founder and Executive Director, Eon Institute (Mexico)

      4. Lourdes Martinez, PhD in Computer Science, Universidad Panamericana (Mexico)

      5. Gandhi Sivakumar, Distinguished Engineer and CTO, Finance sector, Americas, IBM USA (United States)

      6. Sasha Stiles, Poet, language artist, AI researcher, Sasha Stiles (United States)

    2. Special Jury Recognition:

      1. Helia Mohammadi, Chief AI & Precision Health Officer, Microsoft (Canada)

      2. Noelle Russell, Founder and Chief AI Officer, AI Leadership Institute (United States)

  2. Executive Leader Award - Woman Executive of the Year

    1. Winners:

      1. Laura Money , Executive Vice President & Chief Information and Technology Officer, Sun Life (Canada)

      2. Pam Snively, Chief Data & Trust Officer, TELUS (Canada)

      3. Shweta Shrivastava, Senior Director, Product Management, Waymo (United States)

  3. Rising Star in AI Award - Young Role Model of the Year

    1. Winners:

      1. Aditi Maheshwari, MASc Candidate in Computer Engineering University of Toronto, Program Manager and AI Lead, AI Launch Lab (Canada)

      2. Alisha Arora, AI Innovator, Systems Design Engineering Student University of Waterloo, UNICEF Youth Ambassador for AI, Research at MIT AI Lab (Canada)

      3. Angelina Chen, Mission San Jose High School (United States)

      4. Cecilia Shen, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Cybever, Inc. (United States)

      5. Delaney Thompson, Co-Founder & CPO, Bahia AI (Canada)

      6. Rosa (Zahra) Jahankhah, Student, UC Berkeley, AI Researcher, Stanford (United States)

    2. Special Jury Recognition:

      1. Zandi Eberstadt, Computational Linguist, Researcher of AI and Cognition, Johns Hopkins University; The Human Language Technology Center of Excellence (United States)

  4. Women in AI Champion Award - DEI Champion of the Year

    1. Winners:

      1. Laleh Behjat, Dr., Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary (Canada)

      2. Shilpi Agarwal, Founder and CEO, DataEthics4All Foundation (United States)

      3. Wanda Muñoz, M.A., Independent Consultant, Inclusion & Gender Equality Expert (Mexico)

    2. Special Jury Recognition:

      1. Anne Lee, CTO, AI Research Lab, Nokia Bell Labs (United States)

  5. Ally Award - Ally for AI of the Year

    1. Winners:

      1. John Havens, Global Director, IEEE Planet Positive and Founding E.D., IEEE AI Ethics Initiative (United States)

      2. Robert Brooks Borcherding, Chief Executive Officer, Pythian (Canada)

      3. Samir Saber, Dean, Digital & Information Technology Center of Excellence and Executive Director, Workforce Technology, Houston Community College (United States)

    2. Special jury Recognition:

      1. Himanshu Joshi , Senior Manager (Applied AI - Design and Delivery), Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Canada)

  6. WAI Volunteer Award - WAI Community Catalyst of the Year

    1. Winners:

      1. Chelsea Squires, Senior Manager, Data Science , ATB Financial (Canada)

      2. Irene Bratsis, Director Digital Product & Data, Women in AI (United States)

      3. Lahari Pakalapati, Data Scientist - Advanced , RBC, Canada Hackathon Lead, Women in AI (Canada)

      4. Nammi Sriharan, Senior Manager Digital Delivery, Metrolinx, Ontario Ambassador, Women in AI (Canada)

      5. Suparna Pawar, Georgia State Ambassador, Women in AI (United States)

  7. AI in Startup Award - AI Entrepreneur of the Year

    1. Winners:

      1. Angela Holmes, CEO, OmniScience, Inc. (United States)

      2. Iryna Andriushchenko, CEO, Handy.ai (Canada)

      3. Luciana Frazao, CEO, Fluence (United States)

      4. Miroslava Rodriguez, CTO, Erandi Aprende (Mexico)

      5. Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, CEO & Founder, Profound Impact Corporation (Canada)

  8. AI in Research Award - AI Researcher of the Year

    1. Winners:

      1. Alma Yadira Quiñonez Carrillo, PhD in Computer Engineering, Universidad Autonoma de Sinaloa (Mexico)

      2. Audrey Durand, Associate Professor, Université Laval (Canada)

      3. Sherry Yun Wang, Assistant Professor, Chapman University School of Pharmacy (United States)

  9. AI for Good Award - Responsible AI leader of the Year

    1. Winners:

      1. Akshata Moharir, Lead Data Scientist , Microsoft (United States)

      2. Daniela Camberos , Chief People & Innovation Officer, DD360, UNESCO Women for Ethical AI Leader, G100 (Mexico)

      3. Daniela Rojas Arroyo, Senior Program Officer, Eon Institute (Mexico)

      4. Diane Gutiw, Vice President - Global AI Research Lead, CGI (Canada)

      5. Jen Gennai, Partner & Head of Responsible AI, T3 (United States)

      6. Jesslyn Dymond, Director, AI Governance & Data Ethics, TELUS (Canada)

      7. Parul Gupta, Senior Production Engineer, Meta (United States)

      8. Shaina Raza, Machine Learning Scientist, Responsible AI, Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Canada)

      9. Sissi De La Peña, Directora Asuntos Internacionales y Gubernamentales, AMCID (Mexican Academy for Cybersecurity and Digital Law) (Mexico)

  10. AI for Good Award - AI for Social Impact Leader of the Year

    1. Winners:

      1. Amreen Poonawala, Senior AI Product Manager, Benetech (United States)

      2. Juliana Garaizar, Founding Partner, Energy Tech Nexus (United States)

      3. Rosalba Sotz Gomez Gutierrez, CEO Batsil, Batsil.org (Mexico)

      4. Sedef Akinli Kocak, Director of Professional Development, Vector Institute (Canada)

      5. Susan Gonzales, Founder & CEO, AIandYou (United States)

    2. Special Jury Recognitions:

      1. Sara Filipcic, CEO & Founder, Be Human(e) (United States)

      2. Sarah Baldeo, CEO, ID Quotient Advisory Group (United States)

  11. AI in Industry Award - AI Innovator of the Year Private Sector

    1. Winners:

      1. Aishwarya Jadhav, Machine Learning Engineer, Waymo (United States)

      2. Fabiola Velarde Galicia, PhD candidate in Information Technologies and Master in Data Science, EPAM Systems (Mexico)

      3. Greta Cutulenco, CEO, Acerta (Canada)

      4. Luz Angélica Caudillo Mata, Sr. Member of Technical Staff - Systems, MDA Space (Canada)

      5. Selin Kurnaz, CEO and Co-Founder, Massive Bio, Inc. (United States)

  12. AI in Industry Award - AI Innovator of the Year Public Sector

    1. Winners:

      1. Meaghan Ferrigno, SVP, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Destination Canada (Canada)

    2. Special Jury Recognition:

      1. Anuradha Ganesh, Deputy Chief – Enterprise Architecture, Data, ML and AI, MTA (United States)


Join us in congratulating these 54 Winners, 8 Special Jury recognition recipients and 108 finalists who are phenomenal women and allies who are revolutionizing the AI industry and shaping the future of technology.


A hearty shout out to the steering committee: Alessandra Sala (Senior Director of AI and Data Science, Shutterstock// Global President of Women in AI), Frincy Clement (Principal Data Scientist, ADP // Head of North America Region WAI ), Susanna Raj Founder & CEO of AI4Nomads & Co-founder of Global South in AI // USA Ambassador WAI) and executive organizing team led by Suparna Pawar (Georgia State Ambassador, WAI USA) and Nammi Sriharan (Canada Ambassador WAI, WAI Canada).


About Women in AI

Women in AI (WAI) is a global network of female experts and professionals in the field of Artificial Intelligence working towards inclusive AI that benefits a global society. Through empowerment, knowledge and active collaboration, WAI has grown into a recognized global platform of 18000+ members across 150+ countries with over 400 volunteers and led by prominent and influential women in Artificial Intelligence.

 
 
 

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