From hosting birthday parties for vulnerable kids to engineering critical infrastructure, she uses her talent for problem-solving to improve her community
Age: 29
Sheliza Kassam’s 12th birthday ended disastrously, with an allergic reaction that landed her in the emergency room. When she complained to her parents that her birthday had been ruined, they reminded her that some kids don’t get birthday celebrations.
The message stuck. After that, Kassam spent her birthdays volunteering at a Calgary emergency shelter, donating money her family would have used for a party. When her 16th birthday was nearing, she decided to do something bigger. “Everyone was planning a big ‘sweet 16’ celebration,” she says. “I wanted to make a bigger impact at the shelter.”
So Kassam drafted a business plan, put on a suit and made her winning pitch to the shelter staff: a regularly scheduled birthday party for the children there.
That first party featured a Costco cake, a magician, a face painter, cotton candy and a room full of kids having fun. It would become Children’s Birthday Miracles, a charity that has since brought birthday celebrations to more than 3,500 children and has received funding from McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.
A problem-solver, Kassam was drawn to engineering. She studied at the University of Calgary, and moved to Edmonton as a field engineer and project engineer for Pembina Pipeline Corporation, leading capital projects with budgets of more than $8 million. She’s earned numerous awards for her engineering work, advocacy for women in the profession and her philanthropy.
Last year, Kassam launched a rehabilitation initiative for children with cancer through Kids Cancer Care. She spent two years seeking funding, secured a grant and partnered with Google’s wearable health monitoring device team to develop a program that tracks children’s activity, heart rate and sleep throughout their recovery.
It’s an unusual combination — engineer, philanthropist and advocate — but Kassam says there’s a common thread: human connection. “Finding that soft spot is key.”
This article appears in the November-December 2026 issue of Edify
