Miranda Kamal
Founder / Coach
Miranda Kamal is a Toronto-based boxing coach, charity executive, and community leader, and the co-founder and Head Coach of Mentoring Juniors Kids Organization (MJKO). In 2025, she was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal in recognition of her longstanding service and leadership in community development through sport.
Miranda is one of Canada’s most highly certified boxing coaches. She holds an Advanced Coaching Diploma through the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP), is an NCCP Level 5 coach, a Chartered Professional Coach (ChPC), an International Boxing Association (AIBA) 2-Star Boxing Coach, a Boxing Canada Learning Facilitator, and a Boxing Ontario Official. She has served as an Executive Director, Team Canada Coach, and Team Ontario Travel Coach, and remains deeply involved in national coach education and safe sport initiatives.
Her Story
Miranda has spent more than 15 years working at the intersection of elite sport, community development, and trauma-informed leadership. In 2022, she assisted the Canadian National Boxing Team at two major international competitions: the AMBC Men’s and Women’s Continental Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and the Women’s World Boxing Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. At a global event with more than 400 female athletes, Miranda was among only a handful of women serving in coaching roles—highlighting the persistent gender gap in high-performance sport.
Her leadership and advocacy have been recognized through numerous honours, including the Toronto Foundation Vital People Award, Ontario Coaches Association Excellence Award, Ontario’s Leading Women, Leading Girls, Building Communities Award, Fort York–Spadina and Parkdale–High Park Community Leadership Awards, a Prime Minister’s Volunteer Award nomination, and the King Charles III Coronation Medal (2025).
Miranda is a Coaches Canada Responsible Coaching Movement Ambassador and has contributed nationally to Safe Sport and Anti-Racism education initiatives, working alongside researchers from the University of Ottawa to help improve athlete experiences across Canada.
Health, Injury, and Rehabilitation
In March 2023, Miranda sustained a significant ACL tear, which ultimately required two left-knee surgeries. During her rehabilitation, she experienced escalating physical and neurological challenges that culminated in a massive spinal disc herniation in December 2024, requiring emergency spinal cord surgery—her second major spinal surgery following treatment for cauda equina syndrome in 2009.
Alongside these injuries, Miranda was navigating severe and debilitating perimenopausal symptoms, which went undiagnosed for an extended period and significantly compounded her physical recovery, nervous system regulation, and overall health. Since 2023, she has been engaged in a complex process of orthopedic rehabilitation, post-surgical recovery, and nervous system healing, while continuing to lead MJKO and support athletes, coaches, and
communities.
This lived experience has deepened her commitment to trauma-informed sport and has positioned her as a vocal advocate for greater awareness, research, and support for women in sport navigating midlife health transitions, an area that remains widely under-acknowledged in high-performance and community sport settings.
The past two years have been the most demanding fight of Miranda’s life. The discipline, patience, and mental resilience she developed through decades in boxing are the very tools now helping her relearn fundamental movement, rebuild trust in her body, and continue forward when progress is slow and uncertain. What boxing once taught her in the ring is now teaching her how to walk, adapt, and lead again.
Why Boxing
A survivor of sexual assault at age 16, Miranda found healing and agency through boxing in adulthood. Under the mentorship of Canadian Olympic silver medalist Egerton Marcus, she trained for her first competitive bout—a journey later captured in a 45-minute documentary chronicling her return to the ring. Her own competitive career was ultimately cut short after a few bouts due to a non-boxing-related spinal injury, but the sport became the foundation for her
life’s work.
In 2010, after regaining the ability to walk following emergency spinal surgery, Miranda founded Mentoring Juniors Kids Organization (MJKO) with a commitment to using sport as a tool for healing, leadership, and social change.
Community Impact
MJKO’s mission is to build Community Champions through trauma-informed, non-contact and competitive boxing programs that integrate physical training, mental skills, leadership development, and volunteerism. Over the past 15 years, MJKO has supported more than 15,000 youth aged 6–18 across Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods.
In 2020, Miranda and MJKO partnered with Boxing Jamaica to support the Gloves Over Guns initiative, a Canadian government–supported program focused on violence prevention and youth development. Through this collaboration, Miranda shared MJKO’s community-based boxing model—developed in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood—with grassroots leaders in Jamaica, highlighting the global potential of sport as a vehicle for social change.
Miranda has been featured in major Canadian media outlets, including CBC, CTV, CP24, Global News, Breakfast Television, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, SiriusXM, and others. She was selected for the Canadian Olympic Committee’s “Glory from Anywhere” Tokyo 2020 campaign, recognizing her advocacy and community leadership.
Civic Leadership
Miranda has been a member of the Toronto Police Service 14 Division Community Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) since 2014 and previously served as Civilian Co-Chair. She stepped back from that role due to injury-related health needs but remains an active member of the committee. In recognition of her service, she has received a 10-Year Volunteer Service Pin from Toronto Police Services. She regularly speaks to police recruits, coaches, and community leaders about trust-building, safe sport, and leadership in marginalized communities.
Current Work
As she continues her recovery, Miranda is currently writing a book exploring injury, identity, leadership, and survival in sport. She is particularly focused on championing better support for women in sport during midlife, including informed medical care, trauma-aware coaching environments, and honest conversations about perimenopause, hormones, and longevity in leadership.
Accuracy Note
This biography refers to Miranda Kamal of Toronto, Canada—boxing coach, charity founder, and community leader. References to recovery and rehabilitation relate to physical injury and medical recovery.