Karen joined the board in September 2016. She has her Masters of Business Administration (MBA), with a focus on board governance and corporate social responsibility, and is a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP). Karen is currently the Health, Safety and Organizational Development Manager for the Electrical Safety Authority where she enthusiastically works towards creating and sustaining a psychologically healthy and safe workplace. Over the last several years she has led the building and execution of the Leadership Development programs, and chairing the Centre of Excellence team tasked with embedding Change Management practices.
As an adoptee, she is passionate about ensuring every child and youth not only finds their “Forever Family”, but that families and adoptees have ongoing support systems. Karen’s supportive husband and two energetic children inspire her to be grateful for every day and live her life’s purpose.
Lisette is a marketing strategist with 25 years experience working with businesses ranging from small new businesses to global brands such as Kraft, IBM and Ford. She has extensive experience helping organizations develop long term customer relationships, new product launches, customer acquisition, retention and win back strategies. For the past 5 years, she has also been teaching an online marketing course for the Canadian Marketing Association.
Lisette is currently working on the development of an economic development model for how to leverage impact investing in small and rural communities to attract outside investment and help create an entrepreneurial environment that supports risk taking and encourages innovative business growth.
Lisette has been on the board of directors of the Open Arms Children’s Foundation for 10 years and is currently serving as chair. Open Arms works with volunteers, government, and institutions to help abandoned and orphaned Chinese babies and children to improve their prospects through education and health.
She is looking forward to contributing and helping the ACO with their important work in helping children find their forever family.
Lily is currently the treasurer of the board. She joined the board because she is a firm believer of the significant roles that families play and the impact that they have in a person’s life. She is committed to support Ontario families by her using her experience and skills to help ACO achieve its mission.
Lily Yang is a Vice-President in the consulting and deals practice in Toronto, focused on providing valuation advisory services. Lily joined PwC in 2007 and initially qualified as a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) working in the audit and assurance group at PwC, and continues to work in our valuation practice where she qualified as a Chartered Business Valuator (CBV). Lily provides business and asset valuation advice in a variety of contexts that include strategic business decision support, corporate reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, tax and estate planning, and shareholder transactions for public and private companies.
Lily received a Bachelor’s (Accounting and Financial Management) as well as a Master’s (Accounting) degree from the University of Waterloo.
Through her work and her life experiences in various countries, Lily has learned many valuable lessons and skills, which have supported her professional and personal development. Lily will bring this skill set as part of the ACO board of directors.
Nancy holds a Masters of Social Work and a Masters of Arts in Public Policy and Administration. She worked in the field of child welfare in Ontario for over 35 years retiring from the position of Director of Service of the Children's Aid Society of Toronto in 2016. Throughout her career, Nancy has been dedicated to the development and oversight of child welfare services designed to ensure the best interests, protection and well being of children and youth. Nancy is passionate about the need to achieve permanency through adoption for children and youth who become permanent wards of the state and throughout her career has been involved in many initiatives designed to support this goal.
Valerie joined the ACO board in June 2018. She has a Masters of Nursing degree with a focus on Health in the Community. She also holds Masters Certificates in Municipal Management and Solution Focused Coaching. Valerie is an experienced leader at York Region Public Health where she enthusiastically works with her team and community partners to provide evidence-based, quality programs and services to parents and their families. It is important to her that all children have the opportunity to reach their full growth and development potential. Valerie has led various projects and strategies including those focused on best practices for Perinatal Mental Health and Family Violence Prevention. Valerie recently received her Greenbelt in continuous quality improvement and she participates in a steering group that is working towards Excellence Canada Gold Accreditation.
Promoting good mental health for everyone is of particular importance to Valerie. Currently, she leads a Mental Health Strategy in York Region to decrease stigma associated with mental health, and to increase early identification and referral to programs and supports.
As an adoptive parent, Valerie has experienced the gift of a forever family and would like to share her knowledge, skills and experience on the ACO board to better serve children, youth and families.
Hilary is a registered social worker with a specialization in healthcare. Her experience includes adolescent drug abuse prevention research, clinical therapy for eating disorders and hospital operations and strategy. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Women’s Studies from Colgate University, a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Toronto. Hilary recognizes the social value of secure family environments and is eager to contribute to the work of the ACO.
Harry is a provincial civil servant with in-depth knowledge of government and 15+ years of strategy, policy and issues management experience. Currently, he is the Director of Corporate Affairs and Governance at the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, where he is responsible for government relations, Board governance and overseeing the agency’s Corporate Social Responsibility program, among other things. Harry is a lawyer by training, and prior to joining the Ontario government, he practiced corporate law with Torys LLP and within the legal aid department of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Harry is committed to giving back to his community and to supporting the mission and mandate of the ACO. He was first appointed to the Board in September 2020.
Jhonel has an extensive background in education and the not-for-profit sector. He has worked as a provincial mathematics leader, a passionate advocate of equity in STEAM education, and as a leader of international education projects in fragile contexts with broad experience in all aspects of strategic leadership and management, organizational development, and educational consulting.
Since 2009, Jhonel has been working at the Ontario Ministry of Education after multiple experiences at different school boards. He is currently a Curriculum Manager at the Ministry where he is providing strategic leadership to a team of about 20 people. He holds a Masters degree in Educational Administration and is a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. His research interest focuses on equity in mathematics, inclusion, mathematics achievement of racialized students, school leadership, and teachers’ expectations.
Jhonel joined the ACO board in June 2020. As a father of 4 wonderful black kids, he is passionate about the success and well-being of racialized children, youth, and families. He hopes to contribute his knowledge, skills and experience to the ACO as it endeavours to better serve all members of its constituencies.
Justin is a charitable services executive specializing in humanitarian aid, international development and education initiatives with a passion for program development, fund development, non-profit governance, business administration and everything that falls in between. He is presently engaged as the Global Community Director at Engineers Without Borders where he oversees programs that tackle root causes of poverty and inequality in Canada and Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this, he has held held various leadership roles to oversee humanitarian aid, mental health, education, empowerment and legal initiatives for refugees, survivors of systemic violence and human trafficking, as well as youth and LGBT+ communities in Canada, Africa, South and South-East Asia. Being a passionate advocate for the welfare, inclusion and integration of communities, Justin is thrilled to be serving on ACO's Board since July 2020.
Michelle joined the board in September, 2019. She holds a BA (hons), LL.B and B.C.L. from McGill University and an LL.M. in international human rights law from Central European University in Budapest. She works as a corporate/commercial lawyer with TSX Inc. Michelle is a proud adoptive parent, whose family has benefited from the programs of the ACO and she looks forward to working with the ACO to ensure these programs continue to be available to support children, youth and parents as they find and form their families.
Peter and his wife, Joanne, are parents to three adoptive children. Our lives have been touched and enriched through adoption and permanency and we are thankful for the opportunity to raise a family. Peter decided to serve on the board to give back to the adoption and permanency community. Peter holds a MBA from INSEAD, a B. Math (Honours) from the University of Waterloo and a Canadian Investment Manager (CIM) designation. Peter is currently enrolled in the Institute of Corporate Directors’ Directors Education Program (DEP). Professionally, Peter spent 25 years in investment management building expertise in global financial markets, public and private equities, investment research and decision making.
The ACO has board committees that support planning:
