Following her graduation from the University of Waterloo, Tanya worked for two years as a Management Consultant with Ontario Power Generation and a year with Deloitte. At Deloitte, she travelled extensively, working in Mexico, Spain and all over the US.
Using her business and finance background that she acquired from the University of Waterloo and her work as a consultant, she co-founded two non-profit organizations in Toronto. One, Toronto Volunteer Bridge, sought to connect young professionals with flexible and easy volunteer opportunities. Another, the World Youth Centre, was a social entrepreneurship training programme for international students with ideas to change their communities. She realized that she wanted to work full time public service and saw herself as someone who could leverage her business background in the realm of social entrepreneurship.

Accordingly, she undertook a Masters in Public Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School in Princeton University. This experience has profoundly changed her. When she arrived at Princeton, she immediately founded the Woodrow Wilson Workers (WWW), aimed at engaging graduate students in flexible community service opportunities in New Jersey and New York. However, she was stunned at the very beginning of her first year at WWS with the tragedy left by Hurricane Katrina. The images of victims and survivors deeply troubled her and compelled her to initiate a trip with some fellow students to do relief work in New Orleans during the fall break. It was on this trip that she felt called to work in emergency relief and specifi cally in rebuilding of communities that have been shattered - by natural disaster, war or other catastrophes. That spring, she initiated a similar relief trip to Kashmir, in the area that was hardest hit by the earthquake. As a result, she received the Princeton International Student Award in 2006 in honour of her efforts.

Toni then undertook a summer internship, where she worked in peace building through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. After this internship, she spent six months in Senegal, working in Emergency Relief through the UN World Food Programme (WFP) at their regional office. There, she worked in the promotion of WFP’s main programs in the region, specifically advocating for initiatives aimed at improving nutrition levels in the 18 West African countries covered by the regional office. She then spent the next six months working in a UNHCR Field Office in Colombia, South America, where she worked directly with the displaced population in the area. She led a Needs Assessment that she later used to advocate for the rights of the displaced in the region and to convince the local government to fulfill its obligations to protect and support them.

While in Colombia, Toni realized that the rights of those that are displaced or flee as refugees are constrained and dictated by international law and domestic policies.She wanted to work in the field with those in need but also wanted to play a role in shaping and transforming policies and systems at higher level. She enrolled in dual law degree at McGill Law School, and became a lawyer in June 2012.