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Staff Update |
OCDPA
OPHA wishes Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance Manager Maria Grant the best of luck as she ventures into the world of parenthood. Though Maria's maternity leave officially began June 4, baby Maya had other plans and made her debut June 1. Congratulations!
While Maria is on maternity leave, OCDPA has been quite fortunate to hire Shawna Scale as Manager. Shawna comes to OPHA and the Alliance from East York East Toronto Family Resources where she was the Director of Family Supports. Shawna is currently in the final stages of completing her Masters Degree in Health Sciences with a focus on health promotion and has an undergraduate degree in the sciences.
Shawna has extensive experience with participating on and supporting coalitions, steering committees, and networks. Shawna will be supporting the agenda of the OCDPA and will work with the Alliance in continuing its mission to provide collaborative leadership to support a comprehensive chronic disease prevention system for Ontario.
Alcohol Projects
OPHA's Alcohol projects have hired a new permanent Program Coordinator, Jason LeMar. Jason’s main responsibilities include researching and producing research papers and resources, along with keeping key stakeholders abreast with current trends and issues around alcohol information. Jason looks forward to facilitating education and training events for youth and professionals. His previous experience is as a facilitator for the Halton region’s Youth Net program, a mental health promotion initiative to decrease the stigma surrounding mental health issues. Jason has a B.A. from Brock University in Community Health Science and a Post Graduate Diploma from Centennial College in Workplace Wellness and Health Promotion.
Core Staff
Jay Pitter has recently joined OPHA as Planning and Development Manager. She will be working half time for at least the next 4 months, leading in the development of OPHA’s role in the public health human resource strategy and assisting in project development.
Jay has a wide range of experiences working in the public and the not-for-profit sectors in diverse roles pertaining to funding, professional development and communications. She has led numerous public education, communications and professional development projects and programs for organizations such as the City of Toronto, the Toronto District School Board, the Ontario Young People's Alliance and the HRDC Tri-level Committee.
Most recently Jay worked as a provincial funder and led a professional development process at OISE U of T. She has been a contributor to CBC Radio for several years and founded a media literacy program for youth living in low-income, inner-city communities.
As the daughter of a nurse and sister of a dietitian Jay is very excited about contributing to the OPHA team.
Joe Rock, who was managing the Injury Prevention Initiative while coordinating the keepcontrol.ca/YAMM project, is now devoting himself full-time as Manager of keepcontrol.ca/YAMM.
Ben Rempel, Manager of OPHA's Alcohol Projects, is now Manager for the Injury Prevention Initiative as well.
Welcome to OPHA's Summer Students
Celina Degano, APN's summer student, completed her Undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in the Physical Education and Health program in June 2006 and began her Masters Degree in Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan in the Fall of 2006. Her most recent volunteer/work experience has been as an emergency room volunteer at Toronto’s Sick Children’s Hospital, a student placement position with the Heart and Stroke Foundation assisting with the Fit for Heart Program and a Recreation Coordinator assistant with Brain Injury Community Re-entry Niagara (Inc.).
Danica Rush, a second-year nursing student, will be working with HHRC and OCDPA on two projects over the summer. The first is to create a foundation of knowledge for OPHA about the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). She will also be working with Andrea Bodkin to create a newsletter about the social determinants of health. This will include information previously published by both OCDPA and OPHA on the topic, along with stories about programs addressing the social determinants from the Ontario Heart Health Program community partnerships across the province.
Leigh Underhill is a MHSc Community Nutrition student from the University of Toronto and is completing a 12 week community practicum placement at the NRC. Major projects include an environmental scan of point-of-purchase promotions in school, workplace, and restaurant settings in order to facilitate the development of such promotional materials for the Eat Smart! Program; and the adaptation and revision of a public health unit resource/nutrition manual for use by the Community Food Advisor Program (and that reflects the new Canada’s Food Guide).
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