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.
Breann joined the ACO board in 2016. Breann practices corporate and securities law in Toronto and currently is the Vice President, Legal & Compliance at BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited. She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Dalhousie University. Breann is a proud adoptee who was raised by loving parents and four older siblings, and is eager to work with the ACO to ensure that all adoptees and adoptive families across Ontario have positive experiences like her own.
Michael is the Director of Investment Finance for a Canadian pension plan and has a strong background in audit and accounting. He is a CPA, CA (Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant) and is currently pursuing the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Michael has extensive experience in finance, accounting, compliance, risk management and audit and will bring this experience to the ACO board.
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.
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.
The ACO has board committees that support planning:
