About
HERizon Healing Society is an Edmonton based charitable organization dedicated to providing specialized, trauma-informed, culturally responsive mental health, healing, and justice navigation supports for individuals impacted by sexual exploitation, human trafficking, and gender-based violence. Our work is grounded in dignity, safety, empowerment, and long-term barrier-free healing.
Founded through extensive frontline and systems-level experience working alongside survivors, law enforcement agencies, service providers, and government partners, HERizon was created to address a critical gap in Alberta’s response to sex trafficking and exploitation: accessible, survivor-centered healing and specialized support services that recognize the complex realities survivors face.
Human trafficking and sexual exploitation continue to impact individuals and communities at alarming rates across Canada. Alberta remains a significant hub for trafficking activity due to major transportation corridors, economic factors, and increasing online exploitation among youth. Survivors experience severe and long-lasting impacts, including complex trauma, homelessness, addiction, mental health challenges, justice system involvement, and barriers to accessing safe and coordinated supports.
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HERizon Healing Society is dedicated to supporting the healing journey of women, girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ persons, who have experienced circumstances of intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation, and sex trafficking.
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All survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation, and sex trafficking have unlimited access to specialized healing and mental health services.
Recovery, Restoration & Revitalization is for everyone!
Our Values
HERizon’s values guide how we support survivors, build relationships and remain accountable to the people and communities we serve. HERizon recognizes that respectful and trusting relationships are essential to meaningful healing and long-term success.
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Survivors are the experts in their own lives. We honour their voices, choices and lived experiences while supporting self-determination, informed consent and meaningful participation throughout their healing and justice journey.
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Every person deserves to feel safe, respected and valued. We provide trauma-informed and compassionate support that protects privacy, respects boundaries and recognizes that healing is personal and non-linear.
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We welcome people of all identities, cultures and lived experiences. We honour Indigenous knowledge, ceremony and ways of healing while working to remove systemic barriers and create services grounded in cultural humility, inclusion and belonging.
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Trusted and respectful relationships are essential to healing and long-term success. We build connections through honesty, consistency, mutual respect and clear personal and professional boundaries, while working collaboratively with families, communities and trusted partners.
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We advocate for equitable access to justice and support survivors in understanding their rights and making informed decisions. We hold ourselves accountable through ethical leadership, transparency, responsible stewardship and a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
Board Members
Meet HERizon's Founding Board
Linea Xaysana
Founder & President
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Linea Xaysana is a public-sector executive, community leader, and advocate whose career has been shaped by a commitment to strengthening systems and creating meaningful change for people and communities.
With nearly two decades of experience in the Alberta Public Service, Linea has built a career spanning public safety, human trafficking, community engagement, strategic policy, and executive leadership. She currently serves as Executive Director, Enterprise Strategies & Initiatives with the Government of Alberta’s Executive Council, where she contributes to complex, cross-government priorities and strategic initiatives.
Linea is also the Founder and Board President of HERizon Healing Society, a charitable organization she established to improve access to specialized, trauma-informed healing and justice supports for survivors of gender-based violence, intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking. Under her leadership, HERizon achieved charitable status and developed programming centred on survivor voice, culturally informed healing, justice navigation, and reducing barriers to support.
A proud Métis woman and member of the Otipemisiwak Métis Government, Linea brings a strong commitment to Indigenous community, culture, reconciliation, and ensuring lived experience has a meaningful place in the systems and decisions that affect people’s lives.
In 2025, Linea was recognized as one of Edify Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40, celebrating her leadership and contributions to the Edmonton community.
Whether working inside government or alongside community, Linea is grounded in the belief that lasting change happens when strategy is paired with relationships, courage, and a willingness to challenge systems that are no longer serving people well.
Above all, Linea is passionate about building stronger communities, creating opportunities for others, and leaving systems better than she found them.
Angela Morris
Interim Executive Director
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Angela Morris is the Interim Executive Director of HERizon Healing Society, bringing a combination of lived expertise, community leadership, advocacy and organizational development to her role.
Her work has been shaped by both personal experience and years spent alongside women, survivors, community organizations and professionals addressing intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation, human trafficking and the complex systems surrounding them. Angela believes deeply that lived expertise belongs alongside professional expertise, particularly in the conversations and decisions that directly affect survivors.
Angela is also the Founder & CEO of The Embody Her Brand, where her work centres on women, self-leadership, prevention, education and creating practical pathways for people to reclaim ownership of their lives. She is a speaker, author, survivor advocate and project developer whose work has included community partnerships, research development, public education and initiatives focused on earlier recognition of vulnerability and more informed responses to exploitation and violence.
At HERizon, Angela provides leadership across organizational sustainability, funding development, community partnerships, program oversight and strategic growth. She works closely with HERizon’s Board, team and community partners to strengthen the organization while remaining grounded in the foundation and vision on which it was built.
Angela approaches leadership with curiosity, accountability and a willingness to ask difficult questions. Her focus is not simply on how systems respond after harm has occurred, but on how communities and systems can recognize vulnerability sooner, respond differently and create better pathways forward for women and survivors.
She is honoured to help carry HERizon into its next chapter while ensuring the voices and expertise of those most affected remain part of shaping the work.
Crystal Lameman
Chairperson
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Crystal Lameman is a mother of two and a proud member of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation #131, Treaty No. 6, where she has held the position of Government Relations and Treaty Advisor for over a decade. As part of these positions, Crystal manages her First Nation’ Comprehensive Treaty Claim. She is a researcher, policy analyst and passionate inherent and Treaty rights, and environment defender with graduate degrees in Indigenous Peoples Education and Counselling Psychology. Crystal is a co-author of The End of This World: Climate Justice in So-Called Canada and has made contributions to multiple op-eds, publications and lectures.
Crystal is centered on nêhiyaw worldview, practices, and ways of being. It is this way of knowing that is integral to her practice of diversity, inclusivity, and the building of antiracism within her chosen fields. Social, Environmental and Climate Justice principles and objectives frame her personal and professional views on dignity, equality, ethics, access to services, equity, human, inherent, Treaty and Indigenous rights. Her life’s work is centred on the advancement of nêhiyaw economic, energy, food sovereignty, and the realization of holistic wellness through her nêhiyaw ways of knowing and meaningful land-based practices.
Ashley Blais Mendez
Vice-Chairperson
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Ashley Blais Méndez is an associate at Dentons’ Edmonton office and a member of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution group.
Ashley advises on a wide range of litigation matters, including contractual claims, corporate litigation support for matrimonial property disputes, corporate fraud, asset recovery, breach of fiduciary duty, shareholder disputes, and general commercial litigation. Ashley has experience in Anton Piller Orders (evidence preservation), Norwich Orders (third party disclosure of records), and Mareva Injunctions (freezing assets).
Ashley has appeared before the Court of Appeal of Alberta and Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. She brings a unique multicultural perspective to her legal practice, being an internationally trained lawyer licensed to practice Federal and State Law in Mexico since 2018. Prior to Ashley’s move to Canada, she practiced law in Mexico, where she advised international clients on the acquisition, and development of mining projects and permits. She also provided guidance on Mexican mining operations (both surface and underground) and offered bilingual services in negotiating mining agreements. Ashley represented both local and national clients in state and federal courts in civil litigation and led efforts to secure freezing orders, protecting assets and mitigating legal risks.
Ashley earned her LL.M. in Canadian Common Law from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, in 2023, and her Bachelor of Laws from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico in May 2017. In her spare time, Ashley is an avid reader and a long-distance runner.
Kathleen Quinn
Treasurer
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Kate has experienced many enriching and challenging learning opportunities throughout her life, both in volunteer and staff positions. An Honours Linguistics degree from the University of Calgary led her into international development work from 1973 – 1992. This prepared her to better understand the complexity of commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking issues in Edmonton. She listened to those most impacted by harm and exploitation. Together they created comprehensive, practical long-term strategies for intervention, prevention and pathways for healing. She served as Executive Director of CEASE: Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation from 1996-2023. Kate lives in Edmonton.
Taresa Lee
Fund Development Director
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Taresa Lee, an immigrant of Chinese-Vietnamese and Laotian heritage, is dedicated to empowering her community through martial arts, talent development, and cultural preservation. She serves as President & Instructor of Jing Ying Martial Arts Association, a not-for-profit gym that promotes discipline, confidence, and community engagement. With over a decade in talent management, Taresa is also Office Manager and Director at Chan International Model & Talent Management, an inclusive agency representing diverse talent. In addition, she is the Founder & CEO of Canada Lion Dance & Martial Arts Supplier Inc., Director of Membership at Wushu Kung Fu Alberta Association, and a Director at HERizon Healing Society, where she supports survivors in reclaiming confidence and identity. Her interests include Kung Fu, Chito-Ryu Karate, Chinese Dance, various sports, social media content creation, and travel.
Quote: “The only way to truly empower others is by helping them discover their own strength.”