The Maytree Team
Board of Directors
Alan Broadbent
Judy Broadbent
Dan Burns
Jane Millan
Officers
Alan Broadbent, Chairman
Alan is Chairman of Maytree, the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, and the Tamarack Institute. He is also Chairman and CEO of Avana Capital Corporation. Alan is the author of Urban Nation: Why we Need to Give Power Back to the Cities to Make Canada Strong. In addition, Alan is Chairman and CEO of Jamscor Inc.; Chairman of the Tides Canada Foundation; Chairman of Diaspora Dialogues; advisor to the Literary Review of Canada; Co-chair of Happy Planet Foods; member of the Governors’ Council of the Toronto Public Library Foundation; Senior Fellow of Massey College and Member of the Order of Canada.
Judy Broadbent, Vice Chair
Judy is Vice Chair of Maytree. A professional social worker by training, Judy’s work at Maytree focuses on the scholarship program for protected persons.
Colin Robertson, Treasurer
Colin is the Chief Financial Officer of Avana Capital Corporation and Treasurer of Maytree. He is also the Treasurer and a Director of both Tamarack and Diaspora Dialogues Charitable Society. Previously, Colin held senior financial positions in both the high-tech and financial services sectors. After obtaining his Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Toronto, Colin trained with Coopers & Lybrand, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1983.
Vali Bennett, Secretary
Vali is the Director of Administration of the Avana Capital Corporation. Vali holds an Honours B.A. in English and literary studies from the University of Toronto, and is the Corporate Secretary for a number of other organizations, including Diaspora Dialogues, The Literary Review of Canada, the Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation, and Tamarack.
Staff
Ratna Omidvar, President
Ratna Omidvar is President of Maytree, a private foundation that promotes equity and prosperity through its policy insights, grants and programs. The foundation is known for its commitment to developing, testing, and implementing programs and policy solutions related to immigration, integration and diversity in the workplace, in the boardroom and in public office. Ratna is also the chair of the Board of Directors of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) and the co-chair of DiverseCity: The Greater Toronto Leadership Project, a joint project of Maytree and the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance. In 2006, Ratna was appointed to the Order of Ontario. In 2010, the Globe and Mail profiled Ratna as its Nation Builder of the Decade for Citizenship and in 2011 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. Follow Ratna on Twitter.
Alejandra Bravo, Manager, Leadership and Learning
Born in Chile, Alejandra’s volunteer commitments include director positions with the Toronto Board of Health, Art Starts Neighbourhood Cultural Centre and the Canadian Hispanic Congress. Alejandra has worked in the public and non-profit sectors in communications and research.
Marco Campana, Communications
Marco started his career as an Employment Counsellor at the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre. With an undergraduate degree in Political Science and a Career Development Practitioner Certificate, his work has spanned numerous non-profit sectors, including newcomer settlement, employment, information & referral and community-based internet projects. Before joining Maytree, Marco worked on the Settlement.Org and Settlement AtWork websites. Most recently his work focused on helping settlement agencies harness and implement social media and technology in their community service work.
Vivian Gallegos, Project Coordinator, Leadership Programs
Born in Guatemala, Vivian holds an Hons. Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Political Science from York University’s Glendon College. She has been a strong member in the volunteer sector, investing in her passion for social justice and activism.
Sarah Gledhill, Design Specialist
Sarah is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University. Sarah worked for Roots of Empathy and Ideas That Matter prior to taking on her current role at Maytree. Her private illustration work has been published in Spacing and Reader’s Digest Canada.
Sathya Gnaniah, Programs Manager, ALLIES
Sathya joined Maytree after working with Peel Newcomer Strategy Group. He earned his Ph. D in South Asian Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Sathya brings with him expertise in project management, community development, stakeholder engagement, capacity building and coaching.
Emily Knight, Program Assistant, DiverseCity onBoard and Policy in Focus
Emily has a background in early childhood education and is an aspiring kindergarten teacher. She loves children, and enjoys working with people of all ages which is fortunate given her role at Maytree. Emily came to Maytree by way of a referral from a client she dealt with at a pregnancy centre: the centre was closing down, and the client thought Emily and Maytree were a perfect fit. She was right.
Violeta Li, Executive Assistant
Violeta was born in Callao- Lima, Peru. Trained as an executive assistant at Escuela Superior de Educación Profesional Maria Rosario Araoz Pinto, she worked in her family business until immigrating to Canada in 1990. She took several ESL and computer courses at the Toronto District School Board, Seneca College and enrolled in the Career Start Program at Skills For Change. Violeta then volunteered and worked for different community organizations before joining Maytree in 1998.
Sandra Lopes, Manager, Policy and Research
Prior to joining Maytree in 2007, Sandra Lopes worked on a number of research and dialogue projects at the Public Policy Forum and Metropolis. She holds a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University.
Bonnie Mah, Policy and Communications Officer
Bonnie joined Maytree after working in settlement services for several years, where she combined her work with newcomers and international students with her research and communication skills. Bonnie earned an MA in immigration & settlement studies from Ryerson University.
Peter Paul, Project Leader, ALLIES
Peter was born in Ethiopia, and lived in India and the U.S. before moving to Canada. He earned a Ph.D. in public administration and urban affairs, while working in Ohio. Peter joined Maytree in 2008 bringing with him experience in public policy analysis, community development and grants administration.
Stephanie Saunders, Project Officer, ALLIES
Born and raised in Toronto, Stephanie began working at Maytree in 1999, right after completing her graduate degree in geography at the University of Toronto. She has worked on a number of Maytree initiatives over the years using her research and communications skills.
Evelyn Siu, Project Coordinator, Cities of Migration
Before joining Maytree, Evelyn’s most recent position was as a creative programmer for Harbourfront Centre’s celebrated summer festival season. She has been an active member on many community-engagement projects in Toronto’s non-profit cultural sector and continues to promote culturally-diverse programming in her work. Evelyn has an Honours BA in Arts Management from the University of Toronto.
Markus Stadelmann-Elder, Communications Manager
After graduating from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, Markus moved to Canada in 1992 and pursued his post-graduate studies in English Literature at the University of Toronto. Since finishing his studies, he has worked and volunteered in a number of communications roles, including managing a German community paper and leading an in-house design team at Lavalife, Toronto’s largest online dating company. For the last five years, Markus has worked in non-profit organizations and joined Maytree in January 2009.
Kim Turner, Project Leader, Cities of Migration
Prior to joining Maytree, Kim led the Nonprofit Library Commons project at Imagine Canada, developing information sharing networks and tools to support capacity building in Canada’s community sector. Kim’s background in academic, government and public libraries includes eight years working in Ontario’s adult literacy sector. Kim has a Master of Arts and a Master of Information Science from The University of Toronto.
Katarina Vukobratovic, Program Assistant
Katarina moved to Toronto from Belgrade, Serbia where she graduated from the University of Belgrade and worked as a translator/interpreter and a teacher. She has been working on various Maytree programs since 2003.
Cathy Winter, Manager, DiverseCity OnBoard, Maytree
Cathy is a recent retiree from the Ontario Public Service where she was a Senior Manager. Her last 14 years were at the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee where she was Director of Client Services and Deputy Public Guardian and Trustee. Cathy has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax, a Masters of Economics from York University and a Masters of Industrial Relations from University of Toronto. Cathy is a Member of the Allocations and Agency Services Committee of the United Way of Toronto Board of Trustees, Member of United Way of Toronto’s Agency Review Panel, and is on United Way of Toronto’s roster of pro bono consultants.
Maytree Senior Fellow
Naomi Alboim, Fellow and Adjunct Professor, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University
Naomi is a fellow, adjunct professor, and vice-chair of the Policy Forum at the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University. She is also an active public policy consultant, advising governments and NGO’s across Canada and abroad. As a Maytree Fellow, Naomi works on issues pertaining to the integration of skilled immigrants into the Canadian labour market including writing policy papers on the issue. Naomi is the course director for Maytree’s Public Policy Training Institute and Maytree’s Policy Principles series. She is on the board of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council and is the chair of its Intergovernmental Relations Committee. Naomi worked at senior levels in the federal and Ontario provincial governments for 25 years, including eight years as deputy minister in three different portfolios, including the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship. She is a member of the Order of Ontario and a recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Gold Medal for public service.