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 also serves as a director of the Toronto City Summit Alliance and is the chair of the Board of Directors of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC). 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.
Roberto Baca, Webmaster
Roberto came to Canada from Mexico in 2002, and in 2003 became one of the first Career Bridge interns–with a position at Maytree. Roberto has been Maytree’s web master since then. He has a degree in Business Management from the Universidad Tecnológica de México and before coming to Canada held positions in a number of interesting places, including a beach resort in the Mayan Riviera, the state-owned oil company and the British Embassy in Mexico City.
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.
Laura Burke, Learning Coordinator, ALLIES
Laura joined Maytree after completing a MA in Immigration and Settlement Studies while working in the financial sector. She holds an honours degree in International Studies and French from the University of Toronto. Her studies have taken her to France for a year and to India for two years, where she attended the Mahindra United World College.
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.
Tina Edan, Manager, Leadership and Learning
Tina has a background in public education, advocacy and creative writing. A graduate of the University of Toronto and Concordia University, she is currently on the board of directors of the Toronto Public Library.
Vivian Gallegos, Program Assistant, Leadership Programs
Born in Guatemala, Vivian holds a 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.
Sheila Mallahi Karai, Web Development Coordinator, ALLIES
Sheila was born in Tehran, Iran and immigrated to Canada in 2001 with her family. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 2009 with a Master of Information Studies in Information Systems. Sheila joined Maytree in March 2010 as ALLIES Web Development Coordinator bringing to the team her expertise in computer programming, database design, web development and project coordination.
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.
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 as Manager of ALLIES, bringing with him experience in public policy analysis, community development and grants administration.
Ann Peters, Senior Manager, Leadership Programs
A graduate of Queen’s University, Ann worked in municipal, provincial and non-profit sectors before joining Ideas that Matter in 2003. Ann moved to Maytree in 2006, bringing with her years of experience working on housing, planning and education issues.
Aisling Riordan, Program Assistant, Policy in Focus/Cities of Migration
Before joining Maytree, Aisling worked as a broadcast journalist for RTE – Ireland’s Public Service Broadcaster. She presented the news programme for young people called “news2day” on RTE Television and also compiled reports for the main tv and radio bulletins. In 2005, Aisling won a special Citizenship award at the Irish National Radio Awards for her “Day in the Life” reports and in 2009 she was shortlisted at the Irish National Media Awards for her television reports “Ability in Disability” about children with disabilities.
Stephanie Saunders, Project Coordinator ALLIES and Loan Program Manager
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.
Reva Seth, Communications Coordinator, Cities of Migration
Trained as a lawyer, Reva’s professional experience includes a mix of policy, research and strategic communications. Reva attended the University of British Columbia and holds an LLB from the University of Western Ontario and an LLM from Osgoode Hall. She is the author of a non-fiction book on arranged marriages published by Simon & Schuster.
Evelyn Siu, Program Assistant, 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.
Valeisha Sobhee, Coordinator of Programs, National Mentoring Initiative, ALLIES
Valeisha has worked in human resources and organizational development. She has set up mentoring programs for newcomers, and created communication campaigns and tools to foster program participation and stewardship. Valeisha is a graduate of the University of Cambridge in Social and Political Sciences. She is fully bilingual in English and French and is currently pursuing her Certified Human Resources Professional designation.
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.
