February 2009 - Association Update

Rejuvenated Board of Directors

The Board of Directors met January 29 and 30 at the North York Civic Centre. We welcomed the following new Board members:

  • Nancy Lacasse, Member- at-Large from the Sudbury & District Health Unit
  • Tino Serapiglia, Member-at-Large from Toronto Public Health
  • Karen Quigley-Hobbs, ANDSOOHA Rep. from Region of Waterloo Public Health
  • Inge Roosendaal, Health Promotion Ontario Rep. from Region of Peel Health Department

Nancy Lacasse was appointed OPHA's representative to the Ontario Council on Community Health Accreditation.

One of first orders of business undertaken by the new Board was updating the Strategic Action Plan. This process will continue to occupy a significant portion of the agenda at the next Board meeting in March.

You can download the full contact information for the 2009 Board of Directors [PDF].

Distinguished Guests

As the featured guest of OPHA at the Board Meeting Dr. David Williams, Acting Chief Medical Officer of Health delivered a presentation based on his report to the Ontario Legislature about the progress of the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care towards the implementation of “Operation Health Protection” which ended in 2007.

Joining Dr. Williams was Dr. Francoise Bouchard, newly appointed Associate Medical Officer of Health for the Ministry of Health Promotion. Dr. Bouchard introduced herself and provided an overview of her role within the Ministry of Health Promotion.

Building OPHA’s Membership

Consistent with its mandate to actively engage the public health workforce in the activities of OPHA, the Membership Committee examined our present membership statistics and prepared the following report.

As of January OPHA has 624 currently registered members from the following regions of Ontario:

Central East 295
Central West 100
East 85
South West 77
North East 34
North West 17
Unknown 16

Approximately 44 % of our members (276) are conjoint with the Canadian Public Health Association and of these 80 are students and 28 belong to a Constituent Society. Of the 348 direct members only 13 are students and 56 are Constituent Society members. This information will assist the membership committee in targeting and focusing our ongoing membership campaign.

Familiar Faces, New Skills

In January, OPHA welcomed back Andrea Bodkin, former Heart Health Program Coordinator, who joined the Heart Health Resource Centre as the program's Manager after completing a Masters in Public Health from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. We thank Pam Kinzie for fulfilling the role of Acting Manager of the Heart Health Resource Centre in 2008. Pam will resume her duties as a Heart Health Program Coordinator.

Upcoming Events

Be sure to check out our online Events Calendar to see an extensive list of upcoming conferences, symposia, workshops, and teleconferences on a wide range of public health-related topics. If you have an event you feel would be of interest to your colleagues, please use the Add an Event form to bring it to our attention.