2008-2009 COMMUNITY SOCIAL PLANNING COUNCIL OF TORONTO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Yasmin Bhatia
Ekua Blair
Mario Calla
Angela Connors
Celia Denov
Tyler Downey
Tam Goossen
Mazher Jaffrey
Andrew Lalonde
Krishan Mehta
Mary Elspeth Milosh
Vera Ndaba
Rhonda Roffey
Linda Torney
Myra Wiener

About CSPC-T Board Members

Yasmin Bhatia

Yasmin has over 20 years professional experience in financial management, accounting, auditing, mediation and management. Her experience comes primarily from the government sector. Since 1985, Yasmin has been with the Government of Canada’s Revenue Agency and has held various auditing positions including a Team Leader position. Presently, she is a Large Files Case Tax Auditor where she conducts complex audits of multinational corporations. Prior to that, she worked as an Internal Auditor with the Ontario Ministry of Solicitor General and as a self-employed Accounting Consultant.

Yasmin also has over 25 years of volunteer experience both in her workplace and with the not-for-profit sector. Former board member of the Aga Khan Social Welfare Board for six years; Visible Minorities representative on the Canada Revenue Agency’s Women’s Committee and a member of the Continuous Improvement Committee, as well as an Affirmative Action Program Co-ordinator with the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General. She also worked as an ESL teacher in a village in Northern Pakistan.

Ekua Blair

Ekua has been the Executive Director of the Rexdale Community Health Centre for the past 5 years. Prior to joining the team at Rexdale CHC she was the Program Director at the Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood Centre for 5 years and Youth and Children’s Program Coordinator for 2 years. A graduate of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University) Ekua holds a Bachelors of Applied Arts Degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management. In her final year, she was awarded the Laventhol and Horwarth award for best published research paper. While at Davenport-Perth Ekua was instrumental in establishing the Nighana African-centred Program at the Toronto Board of Education. Ekua is also the 1999 award recipient of the Constance E. Hamilton Award from the City of Toronto Access and Equity Department for her work with low income women in the Rexdale Community. Ekua is also a member of the Inclusive Cities Canada: Toronto Civic Panel.

Mario Calla

Mario holds an M.S.W. from the University of Toronto. He has been the Executive Director of COSTI Immigrant Services since 1987. COSTI is a social service agency that has been providing a broad range of services to immigrants and refugees in the Toronto area for the past 50 years. Prior to his current position, Mario was a manager with the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto. Mario is involved in his community in a volunteer capacity. He has served as Chair of the City of York Community and Agency Social Planning Council, as Vice-President of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), and Vice-President of International Social Services of Canada, among other activities. He has chaired the CSPC-T Nominations Committee and he is currently the President of the Board of the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto.

Angela Connors

Angela is a member of the Saugeen First Nation and has 15 years of experience in community services assisting the unemployed, new immigrants and refugees. She has 10 years of experience serving on various executive boards, among them the Social Planning Council of Peel Region, and has participated in a variety of volunteer activities including United Way campaigns.

Angela is a soon-to-be graduate of the Maytree Foundation’s Leaders for Change program. She is an experienced and creative facilitator in anti-racism/anti-oppression work, and is experienced in life skills human resources, policy development and program management and coordination work. Angela was a steelworker for seven years.

Celia Denov

Celia received her M.S.W. in social policy and planning in 1977. In fact, her M.S.W. student placement was at the Toronto Social Planning Council. She has worked on social policy issues for twenty-five years in the Ministries of Community and Social Services, Health, and the Ontario Women’s Directorate, rising to the level of Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM). Since retiring from the Ontario public service in 2000, Celia has been active on many voluntary boards, including serving as President of St. Stephen’s Community House and as Co-Chair of the Sparrow Lake Alliance.

Tyler Downey

Tyler is the Co-founder/Executive Director of a grassroots organization named the Daystrom Foundation, which works with young people in the Greater Toronto area. It is dedicated to meeting the needs of children, youth and their families in at-risk neighbourhoods. The Daystrom Foundation’s mission is to empower children, youth and their families to realize life’s full potential by equipping them with the skills and resources necessary for personal growth, academic achievement, life management and leadership. Tyler has worked tirelessly to engage and mobilize marginalized community members in issues concerning residents of the City of Toronto. He is an active member of the labour movement and an organizer for the Service Employees International Union, Local 1 and sits on the Ontario Federation of Labour’s Community Building Committee.

Tam Goossen

Tam Goossen is a Research Associate at the Asian Institute of the Munk Centre (University of Toronto). Tam is Past President of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, and is currently a member of the Ontario Press Council, the Board of St. Stephen’s Community House, and is actively involved in a variety of other organizations. She has worked with many community organizations including the Chinese Canadian National Council and the Metro Toronto Chinese and South East Asian Legal Clinic. Tam served as a Trustee on the Toronto Board of Education from 1988 to 1997, where she played a key role in the Board’s initiatives around equity, language, and challenging racism.

Mazher Jaffery

Mazher attended South Thames College and studied Audio Visual Technology. He also studied Business at York University and attended business programs at Harvard Business School.

He started his career working for Rogers Cable, with the marketing department and helped launch the Pay TV program. After leaving Rogers in 1984, he started his own marketing company and successfully started a distribution business. He presently operates his own Career Colleges with branches in Toronto, the GTA, New York and London, England.

He was appointed as one of the founding members of the Local Boards and then recommended to the Toronto Training Board, where he served as Co-Chair for Planning and was a Business Director from 1996 – 2002. He was appointed to the Board of Trade as a member of the Advisory Group for Municipal Affairs committee between 2004-2007. Presently he is an active committee member of the Program Committee for the Toronto Rotary Club. In 2007 he was also a founding member of the United Nations Ambassadors Emeritus in New York City and has been holding meetings at the City University of New York. He’s been an active member for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and he’s also the President and CEO for the Canadian Business College.

Andrew Lalonde

Andrew is a Program Manager with BMO Financial Group responsible for overseeing Change Management across Personal and Commercial Product Operations. In his 10+ years with BMO he has held positions in Call Centre Management, Marketing, Communications and Change Management.

Andrew sits on the Board of ALDER – Adult Learning Disabilities Employment Resources and has been Chair of its Fundraising and Event Planning committee since September 2005. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from McMaster University and an MBA degree from York University.

Krishan Mehta

Krishan is the Director of Advancement at University of Toronto’s New College, home of many social justice and equity-oriented programs. Since he began in 2003, New College has received $2.4 million in major/planned gifts. Krishan is also a PhD student in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies at OISE, University of Toronto where he is conducting research on transnational immigrant philanthropy. Most recently, Krishan was the board chair for the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention.

Mary Elspeth Milosh

Mary El Milosh has worked as a teacher, consultant, and administrator with the Toronto Board of Education, before her retirement form her position as Vice-Principal of Ryerson Community School in the Kensington community in 2003. In her role as administrator at this inner-city school, she worked closely with CAS workers, psychologists, social workers, community policy officers, and range of social services and supports.

Mary El is the mother of two children, and lives in North York. She is currently on the Board of Directors of “Friends of Community Schools”, a charitable foundation supporting nutrition, technology, and arts programs in Toronto schools. Mary El also played an important role as an Advisory Committee member and volunteer with the “Kildbuilders” research on the academic success of homeless children living in Shelters, conducted by the CSPC-T in collaboration with Aisling Discoveries.

Vera Ndaba

Formerly President of the City of York Community and Agency Social Planning Council, a predecessor agency of the CSPC-T, Vera also served on the CSPC-T Board after amalgamation. Vera is Financial Manager of the Institute of Population and Public Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She previously worked with the Childcare Resources and Research Unit at the University of Toronto and the Centre for Urban and Community Studies. Her interests are primarily in accessible and quality childcare and other workplace supports for women. Vera is Treasurer of the Community Social Planning Council Board.

Rhonda Roffey

Rhonda is Executive Director of Women’s Habitat. Rhonda has dedicated many years to public advocacy based on a strong commitment to equality rights. Her policy interests center on ending violence against women, reproductive rights, Aboriginal issues and women’s equality. Rhonda’s formal education includes studies at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University’s Journalism Program. Rhonda also has extensive experience in community development with young people, women, and has engaged in international development in both Guatemala and El Salvador.

Linda Torney 

Linda is the immediate past president of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, a position she held for 13 years. During her term as president, she co-chaired the Metro Days of Action in 1996, the largest mass based demonstration event held in Canada. While president of the Labour Council, she also served as president of Labour Community Services and the Metro Labour Education Centre, two projects of the Labour Council. Linda is a member of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union. She has worked in the labour movement for over 25 years, her positions including negotiator for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and local representative for the Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild. Her activism began in community organizing, as president of the Greater Riverdale Organization in the early 1970's. She was a recipient of a civic award of merit from the City of Toronto in 1994, and is one of the YWCA’s women of distinction for the year 2002. Linda is a member of the CSPC-T Executive Committee and Chair of the Governance Committee.

Myra Wiener

Myra has been a member of the Board of the CSPC-T since 2005 and has served as chair of the Governance Committee (2005-06), chair of the Research Advisory Committee (2006-7) and as a member of the Strategic Planning Committee. She has very broad experience in human services and municipal planning. She was a founding member and first chair of the City of York Community and Agency Social Planning Council, has served on the Board of the Macaulay Child Development Centre and currently is a member of the Inclusion Committee of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. Myra was formerly Director, Developmental Services Policy, in the Ministry of Community and Social Services.