Advisors
Our work at Connect The Sector is enabled through the support of the amazing individuals and organizations that partner with us.
A huge thank you goes out to our advisors and supporters!
Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton joined the Learning Enrichment Foundation (LEF) in 1993 and has had a long history with LEF integrating enterprises, programs and initiatives that support the needs of the community and leverage the expertise of the organization.
As the Executive Director Peter is the CEO of LEF whose mandate is community economic development, employs 325 people, and has an annual budget of approximately $16 million.
Peter has been a member of the Board of Directors of The Canadian Community Economic Development Foundation (Chair of Membership Committee), and is currently on the Board of Telecommunities Canada. He has sat on various task forces including the Federal Social Economy Advisory Task Force, and The Mayor’s Child Care Task Force. Peter is a recipient of the Queens Golden Jubilee Award and currently sits on the Municipal Committee of the Toronto Board of Trade.
Violette Ilkiw
Violetta Ilkiw brings 20+ years of facilitation experience, with a particular interest and focus on participatory multi-stakeholder processes. Her work is grounded in adult education principles, Art of Hosting & process design, and she is driven by a desire to see fundamental systemic shifts and change, ultimately resulting in healthier communities. Violetta has also acted as senior consultant to the Laidlaw Foundation for the past 14 years, and has been integral to bringing strategic vision, design, innovation and increased collaboration into the Foundation’s work with young people. Violetta is currently in the final year of a 3-year Masters in conflict facilitation and organizational change at the Process Work Institute in Portland, Oregon.
Irwin Elman
Irwin Elman holds an extensive background as an educator, counsellor, youth worker, program manager, policy developer, and child and youth advocate. In working with young people in our ‘systems’, he has carried out these roles with respect – borrowing from the courage and hope of the young people he served to create innovative approaches for youth in Ontario, Jamaica, Hungary, and Japan. For over 20 years, Irwin was the Manager of the Pape Adolescent Resource Centre in Toronto: a program of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto and the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto. Later, he was the Director of Client Service at Central Toronto Youth Services: an innovative children’s mental health centre.
As Ontario’s first independent Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth Irwin works to partner with children and the youth in elevating their voices to create positive change. He is building an Office that is built upon a foundation rooted in the strength and wisdom of the children and youth it serves; an Office driven by the efforts of talented and passionate staff who, every day, strive to improve the lives of children and youth in Ontario.
Marilyn Struthers
Marilyn is the inaugural John C. Eaton Chair in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Faculty of Community Service. She has worked in and around the non-profit sector for more than forty years, engaged in social change in fields as varied as women’s safety, children’s mental health, community participation in the arts and with First Nations’ issues. Her work has spanned community organizing, organization building, and participatory approaches to learning, governance, program and leadership. For the last 14 years Marilyn has been a funder with the Ontario Trillium Foundation, making provincial investments in change-the-world organizations that have enabled new approaches, networks and collaborations – building the social sector’s capacity to innovate. Using the “landscape view” out over the sector that her position afforded, Marilyn has also become a researcher, writer and teacher. Watching the changes in how money flows, what is happening in the “hybrid space” between non-profit and commercial ventures and the sector’s growing role as “solution finder” to complex social problems, she has been tracking the lively conversations on what the non-profit sector is, how it works and how it creates lightning fast shifts through social innovation for public benefit.
Anthony Fernando
Since joining a City Councillor’s team ten years ago, Anthony Fernando has evolved into one of Toronto’s leading policy entrepreneurs. He has already worn many hats, contributing and learning as a political staffer, public servant at two levels of government, a political candidate and the youngest registered municipal lobbyist in Toronto’s history.
Anthony understands how government works because he has been at the table when key decisions are made. He understands how politicians think, because he has helped get them elected and assisted them in governing during difficult times. His friends and colleagues describe him as warm, articulate and curious. He sees the opportunities in challenges and his approach always involves bringing people together to develop pragmatic and creative solutions. Anthony most recently served as United Way Toronto’s (UWT) Senior Manager of Public Affairs. From apartment zoning reform to economic development, Anthony’s policy research, strategic communications products, stakeholder management and direct lobbying activities helped UWT succeed with government, resulting in millions for community initiatives during a difficult period of austerity.
Matt Ross
Matt is Executive Director of the London Youth Advisory Council (LAYC), a non-profit in London, Ontario seeking to reboot citizenship and youth representation in the London, Ontario. Outside of the LYAC, Matt sails, practices aikido, writes and is currently pursuing a second undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Western University following a degree in Philosophy from Huron University. Matt is heavily engaged in the non-profit and public sectors in London and Ontario, sitting on various committees, task groups and boards.
Fiona Burgess
Fiona moved from Toronto to the UK to do her undergraduate degree in Sociology at the University of Bath. She recently completed her Masters of Research in Corporate Governance and Business Ethics at the University of London. As part of this, she completed a large-scale research dissertation on ‘The Language of Corporate Governance: A Sociological Analysis’. She currently works for board evaluation specialists, Genius Methods, as a Project Manager. Fiona also organised the 1st International Young Governors’ Summit in 2013 and is currently co-ordinating the 2014 Summit.
Heather McGregor
As the Chief Executive Officer of YWCA Toronto, Heather oversees a budget of over $28,000,000, more than 400 staff members, and 40-plus programs and services. Since January of 1995, Heather has been the guiding force behind the city’s largest multi-service organization by, for and about women and girls.
Prior to her work at YWCA Toronto, Heather held a variety of leadership roles in the social service sector in Toronto, particularly in the Settlement House movement. At University Settlement House, St. Christopher House, and St. Stephen’s Community House her work was focused on community development activities with multicultural communities in the inner city.
As a volunteer Heather has also taken a leadership role in many community organizations. In the past she has served on the Board of Directors of the Social Planning Council, her daughter’s Day Care, and Homes First (an organization that develops housing for the homeless), She has served as a member of the United Way’s Campaign Cabinet and their Board Governance Committee and has been on the Nominating Committee of the Laidlaw Foundation. From 2000 to 2010 she served as a Board member of St. Michael’s Hospital. In this capacity she was the Chair and Vice Chair of the hospital’s Quality Committee and the Chair of the Community Advisory Committee.
Ilona Dougherty
A life long social entrepreneur, in 2004 Ilona co-founded Apathy is Boring, a national non-partisan charity that uses art and technology to educate Canadian youth about democracy. Ilona was named an Ashoka Fellow in 2009, and was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. She was featured in the book “Notes from Canada’s Young Activists”, and has written for The Montreal Gazette, The Huffington Post Canada, and The Philanthropist. She is a regular political commentator on CTV News Channel, CJAD Radio, and CTV Montreal News. Raised in Saskatchewan and the Yukon, she lives in Montreal, Quebec and continues to speak about innovative ways to reach unengaged youth and give them the tools to become active citizens.
Supporters
