Five o'clock in the afternoon on Sat. Nov. 6th, 2010 and I'm late. Krystal calls me on my cell, “Where are you?” I tell her I'm on my way. There are two hours left until the show starts, and yet, we still have to meet to practice the finale. I wonder if everyone practiced their own parts yet? Then there's the mic checks, the lighting check, the signs to post up, the easels to put together, the tables to place, the artwork to get up, coordinating the different volunteers”¦ do the performers know their order? Where's a program? Take a break for Maghrib prayer!

With a background in psychology and a PhD in neuroscience, management didn't initially figure among Nashwa Irfan's career goals.

“I would have never gone into management if it were not for my father's encouragement,” says Dr. Irfan.

Her father the late Dr. Muhammad Irfan, a professor in physics at St. John's University was certainly right about Dr. Irfan's talent as a manager. This year she received not one, but two prestigious awards for her work as Health Canada's Associate Director of its Marketed Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau.