UnLeadership

32Leadership Momentum

FAE JOHNSTONE IS A TRAILBLAZING trans woman, queer advocate, and small business owner. She is a sought-after speaker, trainer, and writer on 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion in Canada. She is a co-owner and executive director of Wisdom2Action—a national consulting firm specializing in community engagement, organizational development, and 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion, and president of the Society of Queer Momentum—a national 2SLGBTQIA+ advocacy organization. Wisdom to Action was founded in 2011 and spent its first seven years as a federally funded knowledge mobilization network, working with children and bringing knowledge from academia into the youth-serving sector. In 2018, the executive director reimagined the organization as a consulting firm with a social enterprise commitment, and Fae was one of the first to join the team at that stage. They worked together until she was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Nova Scotia, and Fae became the sole executive director. About a year ago, they brought in a co-owner, Dennis Stubing, as Fae's second-in-command, so to speak.

When Wisdom to Action started, they were a small team doing good work with little business infrastructure. As they grew, they put core capacities in place regarding contracts for their growing team and scaled the work they were doing in a big way. Speaking with Alison about leadership, Fae shared that “the values and deficits of nonprofit work are that the cause is centered above everything else; ...