Ontario Association of Children’s Rehabilitation Services (OACRS) is governed by a Board of Directors composed of representatives from our members. The Director positions are recommended by their member Children’s Treatment Centre, subject to election at the Annual meeting of OACRS. The term shall be three (3) years. Directors are eligible to serve continuously for a maximum of nine (9) years. There are currently 21 Directors on the OACRS Board.
Each Children’s Treatment Centre may recommend one representative who fits one or more of the following categories:
- A CTC Board Member
- A CTC senior staff designate
- A CTC client family member
- A volunteer duly appointed by the CTC
The Board of OACRS strives to balance its composition of:
- 50% CTC Board Members/Volunteer
- 25% CEO or senior staff designate
- 25% family members
Current Board of Directors
Caroline Stone ChairOttawa Children's Treatment CentreIn November 2010 Caroline assumed the Chair of the Ontario Association of Children's Rehabilitation Services. Caroline has represented Ottawa Children's Treatment Centre on the OACRS Board since 2004, currently filling the role of the Vice Chair. A lawyer by profession, her experience in governance is extremely valuable, as is her perspective as the parent of a child who has made extensive use of CTC services. Caroline's extensive experience with health care endeavours locally and provincially provide the motivation for her ongoing involvement in OACRS work towards achieving the vision of a better provincial system of services to support the children and families served by CTCs.
Louise Paul
Vice-Chair
Children’s Treatment Network of Simcoe-York
Louise has over 35 years experience in the health and social services sectors, in both community and government settings. She has strong collaborative leadership skills and has demonstrated these as an Executive Director of a community agency, as a senior policy executive in government and in a volunteer capacity. Louise joined CTN as its CEO in October, 2008, from her former position as Director, Specialized Services and Supports Branch, Policy Development and Program Design Division, Ministry of Children and Youth Services., where she was responsible for policy and program design related to autism and complex special needs. Within government, Louise also worked in the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care as a manager responsible for program policy development in the area of mental health policy.
Louise’s decision to leave the government to become the CEO of the Children’s Treatment Network was based on her desire to “walk the talk” – to experience first -hand a new collaborative venture that to date has existed on paper - in policy documents and in theoretical models of collaborative service delivery.
Peter Chirico
Treasurer
One Kids Place/la place des enfants
Peter joined the Board of the Ontario Association of Children’s Rehabilitation Services in 2007 and assumed the role of Treasurer on the Executive Committee in 2008. Peter is in his third term as a Councillor for the City of North Bay and his second term serving as Deputy Mayor. Peter chairs the General Government Committee of Council and serves as Budget Chief for the City of North Bay. He is currently employed with Royal Bank of Canada. He is Chair of the North Bay Police Services Board and of One Kids Place/la Place des Enfants, Vice Chair of Cassellholme Home for the Aged, and sits on the Board of Directors of the St. Josephs/Scollard Hall Foundation, and the YMCA Board of Directors.
Louise Leonard
Secretary
Kidsabilty Centre for Child Development
Louise has spent most of her career in health care delivery and planning on an operational level. Her leadership as Executive Director of the Waterloo Region District Health Council resulted in service delivery improvements in the hospital sector as well as numerous other local health care improvements and expansions. She also served as the volunteer Board Chair of the Community Care Access Centre of Waterloo Region. Louise has received awards for her contribution to the community in health care.
Paula Grail
Past Chair
Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham- Kent
Fulfilling her two year commitment as Board Chair, in November 2010 Paula moved into the role of Past Chair with the Association. She is also a board member for the Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent. Paula has been the owner/operator of five Tim Horton’s stores in Chatham-Kent for the past fifteen years. As parent of a child who receives services from one of Ontario’s children’s treatment centres, she is passionate about working towards every child in Ontario having the opportunity to reach their potential.
Linda Kenny
Chief Executive Officer, ex-officio
OACRS
Linda Kenny is the Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Association of Children’s Rehabilitation Services. OACRS services as a membership organization for Ontario's Children’s Treatment Centres. Annually, OACRS’ members support 65,000 children and youth and their families in meeting physical, communication and developmental needs. OACRS provides a unified voice for children with special needs and the sector that supports them.
Prior to her appointment to OACRS in November 2007, Ms Kenny was the Director of Provincial Services and Government Relations with Canadian Paraplegic Association Ontario. Linda has held positions with the Simcoe County Association for the Physically Disabled (as Interim Executive Director) and Ontario March of Dimes (Regional Independent Living Manager). Over a long career in the disability field, Linda has consistently demonstrated her leadership skills in service delivery, client affairs, community development and sector knowledge.
Dedicated to the pursuit of an integrated and seamless system of supports and services for Ontario’s families, Ms Kenny brings extensive experience in strategic leadership, organizational development and stakeholder relations.
Bridget Fewtrell
Erinoakkids Centre for Treatment and Development
Bridget is keen to enhance community partnerships and other collaborative efforts in pursuit of an integrated continuum of services for children with disabilities and support for their families. Bridget has a long association with the ErinoakKids, beginning her career there as a Health Care Consultant in 1996. Over the next few years she steadily rose through management, assuming roles of increasing complexity until 2008 when she was named President and CEO.
Elaine Whitmore
John McGivney Children's Centre
Elaine Whitmore returned home to Windsor in 2002 to assume the position of Executive Director at the John McGivney Children’s Centre, a centre providing comprehensive rehabilitation, preschool, school and support services to children with special needs across Windsor and Essex County. Prior to assuming this role, Elaine held senior management positions at the CCAC of Halton overseeing various portfolios including pediatric services, the managed competition process for the purchase of health services and decision support. Elaine received her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the University of Windsor, a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Queen’s University and holds the Certified Health Executive designation with the Canadian College of Health Leaders. She is committed to supporting accessible, integrated service systems that ensure all children and families have the opportunity to reach their full potential. She welcomes this opportunity to assist the OACRS organization in achieving its goals for the benefit of children and families across the province.
Jackie Long
Grandview Children’s Centre
Jackie is keenly aware of the need for volunteer leaders throughout the community to support the critical work of organizations like OACRS. She sits on the board of two not for profit organizations dealing with rehabilitative services for children-Grandview Children’s Centre for Durham Region and the Ontario Association of Children’s Rehabilitative Centres, As well, she sits on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Mental Health Association – Durham Chapter, and Luke’s Place, serving the Durham Region, is the first resource centre in Canada with the unique focus of supporting women abuse survivors and their children as they deal with custody and access issues within the Ontario Family Court System.
Her work in the not for profit sector is focused on governance, board excellence, change management, and operational effectiveness.
In her professional life, Jackie’s key focus and passion is enhancing people’s daily lives through facilitative HR leadership and work collaboratively with stakeholders to improve processes, systems, and programs and explore ways to break down barriers to find solutions and realize improvements.
Jake Rempel
Cochrane Temiskaming Children's Treatement Centre
Linda Price
Quinte Children’s Treatment Centre
Jenny Greensmith
Pathways Health Centre for Children
Jenny has been the Executive Director of Pathways Health Centre for Children in Sarnia since 2004. Her health care background is in speech-language pathology. Jenny has served on the Board of Directors since 2008. She was involved in the planning of the OACRS Conference over a number of years and currently sits on the OACRS Board Governance Committee.
John Laporta
Thames Valley Children’s Centre
John LaPorta is presently the Chief Executive Officer of the Thames Valley Children’s Centre, the major rehabilitation facility in Southwestern Ontario for children and youth with physical, communication, autism spectrum disorders and developmental challenges. He also has an appointment as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario. He has had the opportunity to utilize his knowledge with boards of education, children’s aid societies, children’s mental health and treatment centres, and the private sector.
Marianna Kreppi
Niagara Peninsula Children's Centre
Marianna has been a member of the Board of Niagara Peninsula Children’s Centre for four years and assumed the role of Chair in June 2011. She has represented NPCC at OACRS since the fall of 2010.
Marianna worked with children with special needs for 30 years as a teacher, resource teacher at the school and school board level and as the Community Liaison Officer for The Peel District Board of Education. As Community Liaison she worked with a variety of board, municipal and provincial bodies to develop support systems and programmes to provide educational opportunities for students with special needs in a safe, supportive and caring environment. After leaving teaching, Marianna worked for five years as the Outreach and Community Programme Manager with Peel Halton Acquired Brain Injury Services, and for three years as the Intake Manager.
Marianna was a member of the Council for Exceptional Children for almost twenty years, serving in numerous positions at the local and provincial level, including President of the Ontario Federation. Currently she is a board member for Peel Halton ABI Services and Pelham Non-Profit Housing Corporation.
Now retired, Marianna welcomes the opportunity to be a part of NPCC and work towards every child attaining the highest quality of life possible.
Paul Wilson
Five Counties Children's Centre
Paul Wilson is a Canada Research Chair in DNA Profiling, Forensics and Functional Genomics at Trent University and studies the molecular genetics of species-at-risk such as caribou, polar bears and wolves as well as the development of protocols for wildlife forensic science. He is the father of four children and his oldest son Matthew (age 7) has Down Syndrome. In support of the services Matthew has received from Five Counties Children Treatment Centre (FCCC) in Peterborough, Ontario, Paul has served on the Board of Directors since Matthew was 3-months old. Paul is excited about the opportunity to provide a parents perspective and addressing the issues important for Matthew and other children with special needs at the provincial level by participating on the OACRS Board.
Paula Watson
Children’s Treatment Centre – Sudbury Regional Hospital
Paula is the mother of twin 10 year old boys who have received services from the Sudbury CTC since infancy – outpatient, preschool and school health services. In addition to her representation on the Board, Paula also chairs the OACRS Family Advisory Council and works locally with many initiatives, including parent support groups for families of newly diagnosed children.
Rita-Marie Hadley
Lansdowne Children’s Centre
Joining the Board in 2010, Rita-Marie is delighted to be part of the OACRS Board as it forges partnerships supporting young people with so much potential. Rita-Marie became Executive Director of Lansdowne Children Centre in October 2006, bringing background from a number of portfolio areas in health system planning. She is a Certified Health Executive with degrees in biomedicine and health administration.
Sara Melito
McMaster Children's Hospital - Developmental Pediatrics and Rehabilitation Services
Sarah Melito is married, mother of two beautiful girls. Her eldest daughter has Cerebral Palsy, and has been a patient at McMaster Children's Hospital - Developmental and Rehabilitation services for years. Seeing the amazing work being done at the CTC, it made her realize that she wanted to be involved to make certain that this amazing work continues, and improves. She has been the McMaster Children's hospital representative on the OACRS board of Directors since 2010, as well as a member of the Family Advisory Council since 2009. Recently Sarah went through a career shift, and has started Yogabilities - Yoga for children with Special Needs.
Shawna Wade
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab Hospital
With 30 years experience in academic health care, Shawna has held progressive leadership positions throughout her career.
Shawna is the Senior Director of the Child Development Program, one of the largest clinical programs at Holland Bloorview. This program provides services to children with a range of developmental disabilities including Cerebral Palsy, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Spina Bifida, Neuromuscular Disorders, and many other conditions that affect a child’s development. Shawna demonstrates a deep commitment to improve the continuum of care for clients and families. This is evidenced by the creative partnerships she champions across the children’s health care services system.
Prior to coming to Holland Bloorview in 2005, Shawna provided 18 years of leadership expertise at the Hospital for Sick Children as Academic Clinical Specialist in Occupational Therapy and later as Acting Director of the Department if Rehabilitation Services.
Shawna completed her baccalaureate of Medical Rehabilitation – Occupational Therapy at the University of Manitoba and in 2001 completed her Masters of Science Degree through the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto.
Shawna joined the OACRS Board of Directors in June 2011.
Stacy Greenwood
George Jeffery Children’s Centre
Stacy Greenwood holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Education degree from Lakehead University. She has returned to her hometown of Thunder Bay with her husband and two children after living and working on Southwestern Ontario for thirteen years.
Stacy has worked in various industries, including manufacturing, agriculture and education. Currently, she is enjoying her role working for one of Ontario’s not-for-profit children’s treatment centres – George Jeffrey Children’s Centre, serving the city and district of Thunder Bay. Stacy is passionate in her belief that all children deserve services and opportunities that will help them reach their fullest potential and greatest happiness in life.
She is honoured to serve on the Board of Directors for OACRS, an organization that supports the role of children’s treatment centers in Ontario and who reminds policy makers of the provinces obligation to ensure that all children, including those with special needs, are enabled to realize their fullest potential.
Susan Vanagas-Cote
Children’s Rehabilitation Centre – Algoma
Susan Vanagas-Cote is the Executive Director of Children's Rehabilitation Centre Algoma and has held that position since 1999. Previously, she worked at the centre as a speech-language pathologist and later clinical manager. Susan is also an instructor of speech-language pathologists for The Hanen Centre, Toronto, Ontario.
Vicki Johnston
Child Development Centre – Hotel Dieu Hospital