Dismantling systemic barriers for victims of gender-based violence
Age: 39
Job Title: Chief Programs and Operations Officer of Win House
When Ashley Baxter took over programming of WIN House in 2021, she stepped into an environment where gender-based violence was rising at alarming rates. According to Statistics Canada, femicides had risen 14 per cent in the year before she became chief programs and operations officer for the crisis shelter. Seeing the urgency of the moment, Baxter expanded the focus from crisis response to building long-term safety and stability for women and families.
“Removing the stress of a time-limited stay gives individuals the space to breathe, reflect and make thoughtful decisions to truly break cycles of violence,” she says. Under Baxter, WIN has shifted from treating 30 days as a hard limit to offering flexible stays that can extend to ensure a person’s safety. “In our mind, that’s not another shelter, and it’s not a hotel. That’s not what we are going to do anymore,” Baxter explains. These values are reflected in WIN House’s new tagline: Until they are safe. No exceptions.
Her unwavering commitment to breaking down barriers and supporting women and families drives everything she does. You can see that in WIN’s focus on sustainable exits for families fleeing violence and going all the way back to the start of her social work career as an operator for the Alberta Health Link helpline. After earning her social work diploma in 2011, she joined the Bissell Centre. Over the next decade, she led the creation of the centre’s first supportive housing program for people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. “I fell in love with the humans that Bissell supports and serves, and kind of wrote the rest of my path of who I was really dedicated to supporting: women at risk and their children.”
This article appears in the November/December 2025 issue of Edify
