2022

CANIE Awards Winner

Marcia Nozick | Seniorpreneur Award for Leadership & Innovation

Marcia Nozick

Business: Eastside Movement for Business and Economic Renewal Society (EMBERS)

ABOUT MARCIA

Passionate to make a difference in her city and community and frustrated with the lack of support provided to Vancouver’s housing-insecure population, Marcia set out to found and operate the charity EMBERS, the Eastside Movement for Business and Economic Renewal Society. 

An innovative leader, Marcia has been recognized nationally for her passion and contributions to the fields of community economic development and social enterprise. In 2015, she won the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award for Charitable Giving. The following year, she received the YWCA Women of Distinction Award for the Community Champion category. In 2020, Marcia received the prestigious Governor General’s Innovation Award followed by the BC Achievement Community Award in 2021. Most recently, Marcia has won the BC CEO Award for Lifetime Achievement in addition to the Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

Prior to founding EMBERS, Marcia was the coordinator of Healthy Communities in Winnipeg, the associate editor and publisher of City Magazine and an instructor of Community Economic Development at Simon Fraser University. She holds a master’s degree in City Planning, and wrote the influential Canadian book, No Place Like Home: Building Sustainable Communities (1992) that David Suzuki praised as “A must read.”

ABOUT EMBERS

EMBERS, the Eastside Movement for Business and Economic Renewal Society, is a social enterprise and registered community economic development charity located in Vancouver’s downtown Eastside, one of Canada’s poorest neighbourhoods. 

EMBERS works to combat poverty and assists in the revitalization of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside through social enterprise and community-based business development. Their mission is to empower people living on low incomes to be economically self-sufficient and develop productive futures.