Our Leadership Cohort

We are pleased to introduce you to the incredible leaders who have joined us for our inaugural virtual leadership cohort -
Activating Change: A practical training for leaders who want to learn how to implement big change and keep equity on the table. 

Below you can learn more about who we are sharing the first part of 2022 with. Click on the image and then hover over the photo to read what these incredible folks are up too (or scroll below - your choice)! 

Alexandra McCann, Executive Director
Organization for Nova Scotia Innovation Driven Entrepreneurship (ONSIDE)

Alexandra “Alex” McCann is the Executive Director of ONSIDE, the Organization for Nova Scotia Innovation Driven Entrepreneurship, a not-for-profit organization leveraging collective impact to foster a prosperous Nova Scotia through inclusive innovation-driven entrepreneurship (IDE). ONSIDE aims to convene, connect and catalyze the IDE ecosystem in Nova Scotia. Alexandra holds an MA in Pacific Asian Studies from the University of London, School of Oriental African Studies (SOAS) and a double BA from the University of Virginia in Asian Studies and Anthropology. Alex is a Certified International Trade Professional (CITP) and a member of the Board of Governors at the University of Kings College.

Alwin Macalalad, Coordinator
Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

Alwin works as one of the Coordinators within the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in Vatican City. 

His efforts in participatory change leadership has been shaped by work in the Philippine setting – a developing country in Asia, rich in cultural diversity. He has worked to develop institutional capacities in networks, academe, as well as local and national government. His work revolved around the areas of leadership, learning & development and organizational development, framed internationally through the implementation of bilateral projects between Philippines and Australia. He has also worked as part of a World Bank team, accompanying a change process in a Philippine bureau.

Before working in the Dicastery, he was the Executive Secretary of the World Christian Life Community – a Catholic community of 23,000 members across 80 countries. He has collaborated with various national leadership communities in setting up and designing processes for encounters, and decision-making. He was part of the international team leading the preparation and design of the 2018 CLC Buenos Aires World Assembly: a mission-finding discernment process involving more than 200 leaders and clergy to determine the community’s calling in the today’s world.

He believes that within people and communities are passionate hopes. He believes that only genuine spaces of community can engage reality in a meaningful way. This is why he feels called to accompany groups, communities and organizations in hosting spaces of dialogue and life. Wherever he finds himself, he hopes to give support for fostering genuine dialogue, designing processes, and helping hold spaces of uncertainty and liminality towards collective initiatives. The values that are core to what he does are: Community and Collaboration; Depth and Authenticity; A Keen Sense of Reality; and a Vital Consideration for Process. 

Anat Kaplun, Organizational Psychologist
LEAD

Anat is an organizational psychologist passionate about chaos and complexity. She uses strategy, social technologies and conversations that matter (!) in the service of emergence. Anat has over a decade of proven experience in leadership developmental programming for young adults in Israel (LEAD) leading breakthrough change in complex eco-system. Facilitating, consulting, training, keynote speaking, participatory and systems change design… Anat is here to help make a difference in our communities, in our organizations and in our lives. 

Angelika Vassa, Head of Unit
European Parliament

Angelika Vaasa is responsible for quality management at the translation services of the European Parliament. Her previous jobs include translation, interpreting and teaching/training. She has degrees in linguistics, interpretation, teacher training and European Union law. In her free time she enjoys travelling and reading.

Dr. Audrey South Regan, Administrator of the Sexual Health Promotion Division
Columbus Public Health

Dr. Audrey South Regan is the Administrator of the Sexual Health Promotion Division at Columbus Public Health in Columbus, Ohio. She is responsible for leading the prevention of HIV and other STIs in Central Ohio. Specifically, she provides strategic direction for Ending the HIV Epidemic, addressing the syphilis outbreak, and guiding efforts to better understand gonorrhoea transmission. She has served in this role since 2012.

Briana Miller, Coordinator - Gender-Based Violence Prevention Project
YMCA Centre for Immigrant Programs

Briana is the Coordinator of the Gender-Based Violence Prevention Project a the YMCA Centre for Immigrant Programs. She engages newcomer youth and adults in GBV awareness, education as well as prevention work. She also builds capacity, knowledge and skills for service providers in working with newcomers around GBV prevention and intervention.

Briana is a trained facilitator with over 15 years in professional facilitation and training. Briana uses a combination of best practices and approaches of Art of Hosting and ASPIRE. She is focused on youth engagement, community development, social justice and adult capacity building.

Briana is a huge advocate for creating more inclusive spaces for all and in particular focuses her work on newcomers, youth and 2SLGBTQIA+ members. She uses a trauma informed approach based in cultural humility and anti oppression.

Carolyn Rohe, Senior Director of Coaching and Supervision NYC's Administration for Children's Services

Carolyn is a certified coaching professional with over 14 years’ nonprofit and government experience with expertise in developing and implementing adult learning programs that promote organizational transformation. She currently serves as the Senior Director of Coaching and Supervision at NYC's Administration for Children's Services.

The ACS Workforce Institute is a state-of-the-art professional development institute that strengthens skills and provides support to child welfare and juvenile justice professionals in NYC. As the Senior Director, Carolyn conceptualizes and directs the implementation of coaching throughout NYC’s child welfare workforce. Over the last five years, Carolyn has built and led a multi-tiered coaching program that supports an organizational shift towards a participatory, strengths-based culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Carolyn Townsend, Principal
Alongside Strategy & Innovation

Carolyn is strategist, coach and innovator, principal owner of Alongside Strategy & Innovation, and co-founder of the Future of Hockey Lab.

Prior to starting her own company, Carolyn served on the leadership team of Nova Scotia’s sport federation serving 55 provincial sport organizations, where she developed a series of award-winning campaigns designed to educate and shift behaviour, and created unprecedented engagement and collaboration across the sector. This paved the way for her leadership of a pan-provincial movement designed to explore more inclusive systems for sport & rec delivery.

Carolyn holds a Bachelor of Public Relations, is a community coach and active volunteer, and a member of the Federation of Foster Families of Nova Scotia. 

Charlene Armstrong, Program Director
ACS Workforce Institute | CUNY School of Professional Studies

As Program Director, Charlene oversees functions including: learning program project management, training delivery, classroom operations, Learning Management System administration, budgeting and procurement, quality assurance, and communications.
Charlene leads a complex, multi-functional team with the goal of supporting a full-service operation that develops and delivers training five days a week across all five New York City boroughs. This includes: leading program implementation of course deliverables, ensuring logistics, resources, and communication is in place to support successful execution; managing a very large budget, ensuring accurate and timely reporting and forecasting; promoting the use of effective strategies and technologies for enhancing adult learning and improving workplace performance; and contributing to building a diverse, participatory culture that is strength-based, sensitive to implicit bias, and committed to the principles of effective coaching.

Chris Mahar, Vatican Official, Health Sector
Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

Father Christopher Mahar, a priest of the Diocese of Providence in the United States, was ordained in 2004 and served as parochial vicar of Our Lady of Mercy Church in East Greenwich and St. Mary’s Church in Cranston.  He was instrumental in the development of end-of-life guidelines for the diocese, and a health care directive used throughout the State of Rhode Island. 

In December 2016, he earned his Ph.D., in combination with the canonical degree of S.T.D. in Theological Ethics from the Catholic University of Louvain, focusing on brain injury and artificial nutrition and hydration. He taught Moral Theology at Providence College and served on the “Ethics and Patients’ Rights Committee” for Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence, Rhode Island until 2017. 

From September through December 2017 he served at the Holy See’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, and in April 2018 was appointed to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Chris Rector, Deputy Director, Training & Applied Practice,
ACS Workforce Institute | CUNY School of Professional Studies

Chris works within CUNY SPS's Office of Professional Education and Workplace Learning (PEWL) which designs custom workplace learning programs to help organizations achieve their goals. We bring knowledge of research-based learning practices as well as experience in developing innovative programs to our partners and stakeholders.

CUNY SPS has partnered with New York City's Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to develop professional learning opportunities for child welfare and juvenile justice professionals. The collaboration between the two organizations has formed the ACS Workforce Institute (ACSWI) which was established in 2015.

Deanna James, President
St. Croix Foundation

Deanna is the President of St. Croix Foundation, a small 31 year old Place-based Community Philanthropy serving the U.S. Virgin Islands. Having held a number of executive level positions at the Foundation during her 18-year tenure, over the 6 years at the helm she has positioned he Organization as a trailblazer in high-impact community philanthropy. One of the unique aspects of the Foundation’s philanthropic format is as the preeminent Fiscal Sponsor in the USVI supporting between 30-50 small non-profits and grassroots initiatives at any given time. 

Deanna is a 7th Generation native of the Virgin Islands, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Lehigh University as well as a Master of Arts degree in Public Communications from American University in Washington D.C.  A certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR) she has also held several positions in Public Relations and Human Resources in the Virgin Islands and on the U.S. mainland- all competencies she employs at the Foundation to build some of the Territory’s most cohesive, collaborative and diverse social impact Teams and Partnerships.

Elisa Batazzi, Lead Analyst-Projects + Emergency Assistance
Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

For the past 24 years I have worked with great passion for the Holy See, at the service of the Holy Father. As an official of the Roman Curia, my mission is to assist him in translating for the men and women of our times the eternal message of God's love "for every person and for the whole person".

More specifically, since 2009, I have been the lead analyst for projects of promotion and integral human development, as well as emergency interventions in the face of environmental and/or humanitarian disasters, in collaboration with the institutions of the local churches and Catholic aid organizations (but not only), through which vulnerable people can receive help and support, as a concrete sign of the proximity, compassion and love of the Pope.

Emmanuella Perez-Cassius, Educational Strategist + Youth Motivator

Emmanuella Perez-Cassius spent the last twenty years working full-time in various positions that specialize in educational youth development. Her expertise ranges from the traditional public-school classroom to management and leadership for non-profit organizations. Along with her co-founder and partner, she created and implemented the Fueling Youth Reading (FYR) with Leaders in Training mentorship literacy program in 2016. FYR is LIT develops teen mentorship skills and 1st graders' literacy skills simultaneously. The program has given voice to a marginalized population that seldomly engages in the community. She considers herself an effective leader and team player who enjoys a good laugh. A proud Crucian mother of five, who holds a special place for her island home, St. Croix U.S. Virgin Islands, Emmanuella provides a systematic approach to developing youth & women that help include more voices and activate conversations within the community.

Erika Rolston, Project Lead
Turning The Tide

Nova Scotian by choice since 2014, Erika grew up on coastal British Columbia. Living, raising a child, and working in small, resource-based communities is an important part of who she has become. Erika’s formal education and work experience in natural resource management cemented a life-long suspicion that everything is connected to everything – a view that is reinforced every single day! Erika’s experiences range from natural resource sectors to non-profit to economic development – all of them supporting systems views. Intentionally working towards system change is a powerful motivator for Erika and she is energized to bring her strengths to the Inspiring Communities team. Here’s to Turning the Tide!

Gian Paul Ganzoni, Organizational Development Strategist
The Outside

Gian Paul (he/him) is an Organizational Development Strategist with The Outside. His passion to “enable organizations and individuals to succeed” is the driving force behind his initiatives with The Outside and its clients. Gian Paul brings extensive Human Resources management experience, including most recently serving as the Head of Organizational Change at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) until joining The Outside in 2021.

Gian Paul holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial Manufacturing and Production Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) as well as an Executive Master in Consulting and Coaching for Change from INSEAD. He is certified in the Change Management process in accordance with the Prosci methodologies and tools. His leadership spans the corporate, non-profit, and humanitarian sectors, and he is experienced in designing and delivering planning and controlling processes, from strategy to operational levels. Gian Paul speaks 6 languages, likes winter sports, and enjoys cooking.

Gordon Stevens, Chief Operating Officer + Vice President of Finance
Develop Nova Scotia

Gordon is the Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Finance of Develop Nova Scotia, a provincial crown corporation that invests in infrastructure, properties and programs that build on the compelling natural advantages of Nova Scotia. Develop Nova Scotia works with partners and communities to make Nova Scotia an incredible place to live, work, invest and visit. In 2017, Gordon was recognized for Excellence in Community Based Retailing by Saint Mary’s University at their inaugural Canadian Retailing Awards.

Jessica Mercerhill, Director, Academic Programs & Student Services
The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy

Administrator and educator with experience working in multiple state universities as well as a state agency. Extensive knowledge in university academic affairs, student transition programs, educator preparation, and k-12 education. Ph.D., focused in Philosophy and History of Education from The Ohio State University; M.Ed in Higher Education and Student Affairs; B.S.Ed in Middle School Education with concentrations in Social Studies and Language Arts.

Joshua Love, Portfolio Team Manager
CommonBond Communities

A leader in the nonprofit sector, Joshua love is a cultivator of people and performance. Visionary leader with experience setting strategy on interdisciplinary teams in affordable housing. Success forging partnerships and equity focused culture change. Organizational change agent, project manager and facilitator of large workplace and community groups.

Julian Chender, Founder
11A Collaborative

Julian creates healthy societies through the holistic design and development of human systems. He has consulted to governments, political offices, intergovernmental organizations, non-profit institutions, and companies large and small. He builds vibrant societies by addressing the beliefs, structures, systems, and processes that underpin human interaction. His work spans individual coaching, team development, civic engagement, strategic planning, organization design and development, and coalition building. In addition to his consulting career, Julian spent four years spearheading leadership development at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease during the most recent Ebola and Zika outbreaks.

Julian earned his Master’s in Organization Development from American University and his Bachelor’s in History and Peace & Conflict Studies from Swarthmore College. He lives in New York City where he enjoys its many cultural offerings.

Keren Abina-Sotomayor, Senior Director - Learning & Evaluation
ACS Workforce Institute

Keren is the Senior Director of Learning and Evaluation at NYC ACS Workforce Institute. In her role she builds the monitoring and evaluation strategy and function from the ground up to learn about the quality and efficacy of our programs. Keren also develops trainings and professional development opportunities for the child welfare workforce in NYC. She is experienced in strategic planning, evaluation and improvement in the fields of youth development, education, workforce development and child welfare. Her expertise includes planning and implementing strategic initiatives, developing systems to evaluate and improve processes and outcomes, and leading staff learning and development.

Kate Chartan, Senior Director
NYC Children - Office of Training and Workforce Development 

More to come… but trust us - she’s AWESOME!

Kristin O’Toole, Director of Planning
Develop Nova Scotia

Kristin is a professional planner who has been involved in a wide range of strategic planning, land-use planning, development and urban design projects, ranging in scope from plan development and project management to implementation within urban, rural and Indigenous contexts. Kristin’s professional career has spanned both the private and public fields of practice.

In her present role as Director of Planning with Develop Nova Scotia, Kristin leads the planning team in working closely with communities and stakeholders across Nova Scotia, as well as various levels of government and partner agencies, to develop plans and strategies that serve to leverage strategic lands and infrastructure as differentiators that drive inclusive economic growth. At this heart of this work is creating authentic, unique and inclusive places, through meaningful community engagement, in order to make Nova Scotia an irresistible place to live, work, visit and invest.

Lindsay Welsford, Social Emotional Learning Consultant
South Shore Regional Centre for Education

Lindsay Welsford (she/her) is a Social Emotional Learning Consultant for the South Shore Regional Centre for Education. She is passionate about collaborating to create conditions (spaces and processes) in which youth feel emotionally and physically safe when navigating their understanding of themselves and the world. With an ever deepening engagement in relational approaches, Lindsay has worked in education for 15 years; in Student Services as an Autism Specialist Teacher, Assistive Technology Specialist and Learning Centre Teacher and in the classroom, teaching Yoga 11.

Marvin Nesbitt Jr., Director of Resident Capacity Building & Wellness
Virgin Islands Housing Authority

Marvin Nesbitt, Jr. has committed his entire career to fighting for society’s economically fragile individuals and families. Today, he serves as Director of Resident Capacity Building & Wellness with the Virgin Islands Housing Authority (VIHA) where he is responsible for the development, implementation, and oversight of the organization’s strategic efforts to connect residents to opportunities and resources which facilitates long-term family success. 

He holds a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Master of Social Work from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.

Obbia Barni, Project Manager
Nova Scotia Department of Community Services

Obbia is a project manager at Department of Community Services responsible for Employment Services and Income Assistance portfolio. Obbia excels in Service Design, UX Design, Business Analysis, Change management and has led large diverse teams and successfully delivered complex projects. Obbia has a Master in Electronic Commerce and Master in Computer Science (Software Engineering).

 Previous to this she was Manager Design at Department of Community Services leading policy change initiatives for Child Welfare, Disability Support Program and Employment Services and Income Assistance. She has facilitated large stakeholder groups and was awarded Nova Scotia Minister’s and Premier’s Award in 2019 and Nova Scotia’s Premier’s Award in 2020.

 Obbia moved to Canada in 2008 from Pakistan and brought several years of experience with her in government and education where she led large technology projects as well as a trainer at well-known universities in Pakistan. Her architectural and design skills led to receiving the top prize in All Pakistan Software Competition in 2000 among professional category and for three consecutive years, her project teams won top three prizes among student category.

Rachel Bedingfield, Director of Parks and Recreation
Town of Kentville

Rachel Bedingfield is the Director of Parks and Recreation for the Town of Kentville, Nova Scotia. In 2015, she was named to the Canadian Association of the Advancement of Women in Sport and Physical Activity list of the top 25 most influential women in Canada in the field of Sport and Physical Activity.

In 2016 Rachel helped spearhead the efforts to form WomenActive-NS, an organization focused on ensuring all women and girls in Nova Scotia have access to the benefits of sport and recreation. Most recently in 2019 Rachel was awarded the Community Leadership Award from Acadia University.

Throughout her career, Rachel has advocated for the use of sport and recreation as tools for the development of both individuals and communities. A passionate believer that everyone has the right to play, Rachel’s work continues to focus on access through and lens of equity.

Sommer Sibilly-Brown, Founder + Executive Director (+Outsider!!)
Virgins Islands Good Food Coalition

Sommer is a Food System advocate working to increase equity, access, and sovereignty in the United States Virgin Islands and the Caribbean. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition Inc, a not-for-profit organization with the mission of advancing the common good through food. Sommer also works with The Outside in evaluation and facilitation. Sommer brings a unique lens to the equity conversation from her experience of living and working in the United States Virgin Islands.

Tanya Davis, Vice President, Planning & Development
Develop Nova Scotia

Tanya is a skilled leader and city builder who excels at bridging the gap between planning and engineering and bringing teams together to deliver complex, community-focused projects. She provides big picture clarity, well-organized action and is solutions focused. Tanya is a Professional Engineer and a certified Professional Transportation Operations Engineer with 20 years of transportation planning and transportation/ municipal engineering experience. She has worked in both consulting and government roles throughout her career and has contributed to the development of transportation standards in Canada through her involvement in national committees.

She was the Project Manager for the oversight and implementation of Halifax’s first Land Use and Transportation Master Plan - the Integrated Mobility Plan.