Two Sunshine Coast women have been nominated for YWCA’s 2025 Women of Distinction Awards.
Heather Lippold, ceramic artist and executive board member of the Potters Guild of BC, was nominated in the Arts, Culture & Design Category and Sandra Phillips, shared mobility architect and chair of movmi Shared Transportation Services Inc., was nominated in the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Category. They number among this year’s 105 nominees and the nearly 2,300 nominees honoured over the past 42 years.
Lippold, has acted as secretary for the Potters Guild since 2016. “In her role, Heather has increased member volunteer opportunities by creating an Exhibition Committee. She’s a former volunteer with Fraser Valley Potters Guild and a founding member of the Dusty Babes Collective, a community of like-minded artists supporting each other by sharing space, tools and knowledge. Heather mentors young artists through the United Way’s Schools Out Program, introducing and engaging students in self-expression using clay," said a YWCA press release. “She’s passionate about using unconventional materials, like food waste and ash, and encourages other artists to reduce their own waste. In 2024, she was awarded the Maureen Wright Bursary from the North West Ceramics Foundation.”
Phillips is CEO of Modo and founder of movmi, said the release. “She also led the launch of car2go, the first free-floating carshare service in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. Sandra worked with carshare companies and TransLink to launch the Shared Mobility Compass Card, which integrates transit, bikeshare and carshare services on one fare card. In 2024, she expanded on that project, launching the RideLink app for transit and transportation sharing users. Sandra has built a network of 60 women-led companies and launched the global Empowerism award to support women-led mobility ventures. In 2017, Sandra won the Next Visionaries competition and in 2021 she won BC Business Woman of the Year in the Changemaker category.”
The award recipients will be announced at a gala in Vancouver on April 28.
