Board of Directors 2011-2012
Christine Lasky, Chair
Christine Lasky is a marketing/business professional with over 25 years of experience. With a background in packaged goods marketing, which includes l5 years with such notable packaged good firms as Procter and Gamble, Nabisco and George Weston. Christine also worked for 12 years in financial services as Vice President of Marketing at National Trust and Spectrum Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun Life Financial.
She is now with The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, the fundraising arm of The Princess Margaret Hospital, one of the top 5 cancer research centres in the world, where she is the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. Her responsibilities include raising over $30 million in net revenue from mega fundraising programs which include the Lotteries, The Weekend To End Breast Cancer and The Ride to Conquer Cancer. She also oversees all communication, branding and public relations for the Foundation and is a member of the management team.
Christine has her BA from York University and an MBA from The Schulich School of Business. She has also been a part-time marketing professor at George Brown College and had her own consulting practise. Christine worked with Bev Foster to help launch the Room 217 program and therefore has an intimate and personal connection to Bev and her vision.
She is married with two grown children and loves the outdoors (skiing, hiking and biking and gardening) and has her Bakery Art Certificate from George Brown Culinary School.
Amy Clements-Cortés, Vice Chair
Amy Clements-Cortés began her career as a music therapist, performer, and vocal teacher. Dr. Clements-Cortés has worked both in hospitals and nursing homes, and spent 15 years at Baycrest Centre in Toronto, Ontario. Her music studio Notes By Amy was founded in 1995. Dr. Clements-Cortés became a sessional instructor at the University of Windsor in 2007. She is now an assistant professor in music therapy on a two year appointment.
Clements-Cortes obtained her Masters and Doctoral Degrees from the University of Toronto and has presented her work throughout the world at numerous conferences.
Dr. Clements-Cortés’ has been published in the Canadian Journal of Music Therapy, Canadian Music Educator’s Journal, and the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Clements-Cortés is now the President of CAMT, a two year appointment which began in May 2011 and also sits on the BOD for Room 217, and numerous other professional committees, such as the Clinical Practice Commission, for the World Federation of Music Therapy.
Dr. Clements-Cortés has produced several recordings. Recently she released the CD “Episodes of Relationship Completion”. www.notesbyamy.com Her collaboration with musician David Bradstreet saw the emergence of two therapeutic CDs. Theracalm and Therasleep. These CDs were specifically designed to target brain waves to induce states of calm and sleep for those experiencing anxiety, and sleep disorders. www.theramusic.com .
Currently, Dr. Clements-Cortés is working on two research studies: one looking at the health benefits for older adults singing in a choir led by two music therapists “Buddy’s Glee Club”; and the second which assess the production and development of a sing-a-long CD for cognitively impaired older adults. This project involves nursing homes across Canada.
Patricia Bowman Kingsley, Past Chair
Born in Edmonton, Alberta and raised in Ontario, Patty has worked extensively as a civic leader, serving as Chair of the Durham District School Board, and a small business owner. Recently she has launched a non-profit ministry under A.C.T. International (Artists in Christian Testimony) with the intention of sharing a contemporary spin on historic biblical images interpreted on canvas. Patty currently resides in Bowmanville with her two children.
Lee Willingham, Secretary-Treasurer
Dr. Willingham joined the WLU Faculty of Music in July, 2004 where he assumed responsibilities in coordinating the music education program and choral studies. Prior to his appointment at WLU, he served on the faculty of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of University of Toronto.
Recently, Dr. Willingham was appointed Director of the new Laurier Centre for Music in the Community. His research focuses on community and music. His writing and research are found in a variety of book chapters and journals. He is a past president of the O.M.E.A. and is the Editor of the Canadian Music Educator, a national journal for music educators.
He is the founder and director of the Bell’Arte Singers of Toronto, and last year re-established the Laurier Singers Chamber Choir.
Dr. Willingham devotes much time to teacher education and choral singing. He has adjudicated and provided workshops for students and choral conductors across Canada and in the U.S. This year he has worked with teachers, conductors, and ensembles in Guelph, London, Kingston, Lindsay, Sudbury, and in the Greater Toronto Area. He was Guest Conductor of the Waterloo Region H.S. Festival Honours Choirs for 2008 and will adjudicate or conduct in Manitoba, Newfoundland, and Peel Region, Ontario in the upcoming season.
Dr. Willingham is married to Eva Mezo, and is the father of four fabulous musicians, Geoffrey, a rock guitarist, Jessica, soprano and teacher, and Leah and Nora, 7 year old superstars.
Mary Ellen Eberlin
Mary Ellen Eberlin is the Territorial Social Services Secretary, Canada and Bermuda Territory. She provides leadership to the Social Services Department at Territorial Headquarters and participates as a member of the territorial leadership team.
Mary Ellen is charged with leading a consultant and staff team that supports social services ministries across the Territory through accreditation of social service operations, conference development, coaching of ministry leaders, operational reviews and facilitation of strategic and program planning. She is also responsible for Family Tracing and serves as the Board Chair of the Toronto Grace Health Center.
Mary Ellen holds a Master of Science degree in Nursing with a clinical specialty in community health nursing. She began her career as a public health nurse in northern Newfoundland and Labrador with the Grenfell Association. Since that time, she has held progressively senior leadership roles with Toronto Public Health, the Victorian Order of Nurse, Ottawa Branch and the Canadian Nurses Association.
Larry Librach
Dr. Librach's involvement in Palliative Care began in 1978. Dr. Librach now serves as the Director of The Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care at Mount Sinai Hospital. This Centre includes a Home Palliative Care Program, an Inpatient Palliative Care Consult Team, a Children’s Program and academic programs in education and research.
Dr. Librach is a full professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. He is the Head of the Division of Palliative Care in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Librach is also an associate in the Joint Centre for Bioethics and the Centre for Studies in Pain at the University of Toronto and the Buehler Centre for Aging at Northwestern University in Chicago. Dr Librach served as the W. Gifford-Jones Professor in Pain Control and Palliative Care at the University of Toronto for 10 years. He is an academic educator with the Centre for Professional Development at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He was the physician leader of the national Educating Future Physicians for Palliative and End of Life Care Project (EFPPEC) that introduced curriculum in palliative and end of life care to Canada’s 17 medical schools. He was an education consultant to the Education in Palliative & End of Life Care (EPEC) project in the USA for 5 years. He is a member of the Board and Past President of the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association. Dr. Librach serves as the Chair of the Toronto Central Palliative Care Network.
Dr. Librach is the recipient of a number of awards from a number of organizations including the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association, the Ontario Palliative Care Association, the Ontario Medical Association, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, and the University of Toronto.
Dr. Librach’s academic interests are wide-ranging but the development and implementation of education programs, quality of care and patient safety are areas of special interest. He has delivered over 500 lectures and workshops.
Dr. Librach has published extensively and is the author of the Pain Manual (over 150,000 copies distributed) and co-edited a textbook, Palliative Care: Core Skills and Clinical Competencies which is into its second edition.
Gord Simmonds
Mr. Simmonds assumed the leadership of Lenbrook Corp. in November 2000 after having led Lenbrook’s global distribution activities since May 1990. Lenbrook is a private, Pickering, Ontario based company with interests in distribution channel management and specialty brand development in the specialty consumer electronic segment. Throughout the years it has incubated, developed, and sold businesses in the wireless communications market.
Mr. Simmonds has been a Director of Lenbrook since 1987, and also holds Director and Officer positions on a number of other Lenbrook subsidiary companies within Canada, the United States and Singapore. He is the Managing Director of NAD Electronics and PSB Loudspeakers, specialty home entertainment brands with customers in over 70 countries.
Mr. Simmonds is a past director of PARA, the Professional Audio Video Retailers Association which at it peak had a membership of over 400 specialty retailers who sell and install home theater systems to consumers throughout North America.
From 2001 – 2005, Mr. Simmonds Chaired the Rouge Valley Vital Signs Capital Campaign for the Ajax-Pickering/Centenary Hospital Foundation. The campaign raised over $20M. In 2002 Mr. Simmonds was honoured with the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for his work serving the community and contribution to fellow Canadians.
Mr. Simmonds is the majority owner of the Belleville Bulls Hockey Club, one of twenty Ontario Hockey League Major Junior hockey teams. Mr. Simmonds serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the Ontario Hockey League.
In October 2008 Mr. Simmonds was inducted, along with his brothers and late father, into the Canadian telecom hall of Fame for their contributions to the development of the wireless industry in the “Icons of Business” category.
Mr. Simmonds is married. He and his wife Sharon have 4 children, who keep life interesting with their various involvements. As a family, they are active in their local church where Mr. Simmonds participates in leadership on the church’s worship and finance teams.