Board

Antonella Ceddia is currently a litigation lawyer with the City of Toronto where she practises human rights defence on behalf of the City, Chief of Police, the Toronto Police Service and the Toronto Police Services Board.  She also offers general policy advice on contentious human rights issues.  Antonella practiced commercial litigation and medical negligence defence at McCarthy Tetrault LLP for six years before joining the City. She articled at the Court of Appeal for Ontario where she clerked for Justices Abella, Feldman, Moldaver and Austin. Before becoming a lawyer, Antonella had senior professional roles in both the public and private sectors in policy analysis/advice to government and human rights. With roles including Policy/Issues Analyst at Cabinet Office-Ontario; Policy Advisor at the Office of the Mayor-Toronto; Principal of her own human rights management-side consulting firm; Human Rights Investigator at the Ontario Human Rights Commissioner; and the first full-time Human Rights Investigator at a Canadian university, she continues to make major contributions to shaping the human rights landscape in Canada. Antonella holds an LL.B. from Queen’s University, an M.A. from the University of Waterloo, an Hons. B.A. from the University of Toronto and a Certificate in Advanced Alternative Dispute Resolution. She is a long-standing member of the Practice Advisory Committee to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and has served on the Executive of the Ontario Bar Association, Constitutional Civil Liberties and Human Rights Section. Antonella regularly lectures  at conferences and universities across Ontario. For the past eight years, she has been a faculty member of the Intensive Course on Written Advocacy offered by Osgoode Professional Development. Antonella continues to play a leadership role in shaping Toronto civic life. Her life is one characterized by ‘involvement’.  She now sits as a Director of WoodGreen Community Services, and has a long history serving as a Member of the Board of Directors of United Way Toronto where she was Chair of its Allocations Committee and Member, Governance Committee. She has also been Chair/President of various Boards including Community Resource Consultants of Toronto, Nightwood Theatre; and, the Canadian Association Against Sexual Harassment in Higher Education. She was an Executive Member of the Women’s Law Association of Ontario.

Sean Mullin is an economist, public policy wonk, consultant and think tank leader. Currently, Sean is the Executive Director of the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship at Ryerson University, a new entity with a mandate to enhance the role of innovation and entrepreneurship within Canada.

Prior to joining the Brookfield Institute, Sean gained extensive experience in public policy, serving as Deputy Director of Policy in the Office of the Premier of Ontario and in senior advisory roles to Ontario’s Minister of Finance. Sean has also worked in the private equity industry and as an economic and business strategy consultant.

Sean has a degree in Economics and Computer Science from the University of Toronto, an M.A. in Economics from McGill and an MBA from the University of Oxford.

Derek Bailey is a Senior Manager Systems Engineering with Cisco Systems, and held a similar position prior to this at Alcatel-Lucent. An energetic and innovative professional with 25+ successful years of telecommunications experience gained through roles in business development, sales, sales engineering and management. Derek’s experience also includes international exposure in the Americas, Asia and Europe. In the past Derek also lectured at Centennial College and Ryerson University. Derek was educated in the United Kingdom where he gained a BSc Honors in Computer Science & Statistics from the University of Wolverhampton.  Derek’s volunteer work includes Each One Teach One (Tropicana), Jamaica Canadian Association Saturday Tutorial program, 100 Strong Inc, Junior Achievement, motivational speaking in alternative schools, and coaching soccer.

Michael Conradi is an employment and human rights lawyer with more than a decade of experience advising private sector employers and acting as in-house counsel in the healthcare and financial services industries. Michael holds both a bachelor’s (honours) and a master’s degree in Sociology from Dalhousie University in Halifax, and is actively involved in coaching youth soccer. Michael became interested in volunteering with WoodGreen after seeing the innovative advertising campaign and its mission to provide opportunities to children, youth, seniors, parents and immigrants. He has lived in Europe three times and, while Toronto is home, he has also lived in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, and Halifax.

Rasha El Sissi is the Head of Canadian and International Benefits, Human Resources at TD Bank. She is an experienced banking executive skilled in Corporate Governance, Stakeholder Relations, Finance & Audit, Risk Processes and Controls, Prudential Regulation and Legal Writing. She has a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University and a Master of Science in mass communications from the College of Communications, Boston University.

Lisa Purdy is a Partner at Deloitte and she leads the Canadian National Health Services Practice. For over 20 years, Lisa has worked with individual providers, regional systems, and provincial health organizations and agencies in addressing their strategic, governance, operations, and technology solution requirements. Through her work within the health sector, Lisa has developed an understanding of health system issues, hospital operations, stakeholder perspectives, and overarching system governance, business, and technology management considerations.

Throughout her career, Lisa has been involved in numerous system design projects. She has led complex stakeholder engagements with physicians, clinicians, other practitioners, and administrators, and has been instrumental guiding organizations through complicated operational changes. She has worked with clients to evaluate alternative models and move forward with a preferred direction to improve both the efficiency and quality of services provided, as well as developed effective business case for the future state. Lisa also brings extensive experience working with clients to identify opportunities for operational efficiencies through integrated models and shared services.

Lisa contributes her leadership to various advisory boards, including Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership and the Conference Board of Canada’s Canadian Alliance for Sustainable Health Care.

Akwatu Khenti is the Assistant Deputy Minister for Ontario’s Anti-Racism Directorate. He was formerly Director of the Office of Transformative Global Health at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). He is also an Assistant Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Akwatu led the development of several of CAMH’s innovations, including the Substance Abuse Program for African Canadian and Caribbean Youth (SAPACCY), its Eli Lilly Learning Centre, and most recently, Transformative Global Health. His professional life includes frontline community development and leadership of the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA), Ontario’s largest Black human services agency. Akwatu developed and managed a national joint initiative for the federal government and a coalition of Black community organizations, entitled Facilitating the Academic Success of Black Children in Canada. Akwatu has also been a researcher/writer for the North York Board of Education, developing curriculum infusion resources for grades 7 and 8; and a human rights co-ordinator with the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa, responsible for human rights reporting to United Nations mechanisms on several African countries. He is the recipient of several awards including the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal (2002), the Educational Excellence for Community Care Award (2007) from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and the Harry Jerome Award for the Professional Excellence from Canada’s Black Business and Professional Association (2010).

Judy Pfeifer is the Chief Public Affairs Officer with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario. Throughout her career, Judy has held senior leadership positions across multiple sectors including the private, not-for-profit, public and municipal sectors, most recently as the Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer at Metrolinx, and previously with the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and City of Toronto. She was also a Professor in the School of Media, Faculty of Communication, Art and Design at Seneca College.
A published author, Judy is a highly sought after speaker on public engagement, stakeholder relations and communications.
She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Carleton University and a graduate Certificate in Human Resources Management from Seneca College.

John Brodhead is Director of Policy and Strategy at Sidewalk Labs and is based in Toronto.
John comes to Sidewalk after a varied career in government and the not-for-profit sector, most recently serving as Chief of Staff to the Canadian Minister of Indigenous Services. He previously served as Chief of Staff to the Canadian Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, as Executive Director of Evergreen CityWorks, as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Premier of Ontario, and as a Vice President at Metrolinx.

Raphael Schapiro has worked as an executive at BMO Financial Group since 2010. His current role is as Head, North American Customer Contact Centre Transformation, where he is responsible for technology initiatives, voice of the customer, and change management, all in the service of building a leading customer experience.

Prior to this he held multiple roles in the Technology & Operations Group building his strategy, technology capital budgeting, project management, and risk management capabilities.

Prior to BMO, Raphael spent six years as a consultant with McKinsey & Company working with clients in multiple sectors on performance improvement and strategy. Raphael holds a D.Phil and M.Phil from the University of Oxford in Economic and Social History and a B.A. from McGill University.

Janice Winton recently retired from Ryerson University, where she held the position of Vice President, Administration and Finance from 2014 to 2018. She is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), a Ryerson Business graduate, and holds a Master of Education (Higher Education) from the University of Toronto. Prior to becoming Vice President, Janice served Ryerson as Executive Director, Financial Services and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for over 24 years. Before joining Ryerson, Janice held a number of finance and accounting positions including Vice President, Finance at York Finch General Hospital. Raised in the Bahamas, Janice’s first career was as a registered nurse.

Roanne Argyle is senior vice president for Argyle Public Relationships, one of Canada’s largest independent public relations firms. She is an award-winning communications strategist who offers significant experience managing large-scale public information and advocacy programs that include stakeholder and public engagement, thought leadership, issues management and crisis communications. She is a trained and experienced facilitator.
As a passionate purpose-driven leader, Roanne is deeply committed to supporting and building capacity in organizations that serve the public interest, such as WoodGreen Community Services.
She recently volunteered as a Founding Board Member and Chair of the Leaside Sports Hall of Fame, partnered with Social Venture Partners Toronto, and served as the branding and marketing team lead with Eva’s Phoenix Print Shop and as a member of the Public Profile Committee at Eva’s Initiatives. She also spent 10 years as a volunteer and board member of the Leaside Girls Hockey Association.
Roanne has a Bachelor of Arts in English, Film and Communications from McGill University, and a Masters Certificate in Marketing Communications Management from Schulich School of Business, York University.

Shabnum Durrani is the Director of Public Affairs and Stakeholder Relations at the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), representing Ontario’s publically funded hospitals.
She has an extensive background in advocacy and policy development with not-for-profits.
Prior to working at OHA Shabnum worked in a number of settings with a focus on community health, including: a poverty issues lawyer in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, focusing on tenants’ rights, and mental health and addictions issues; a senior policy advisor to the Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, as the lead in some key files including poverty reduction strategy, women and children’s health, aboriginal health and community health centres.
Shabnum has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Alberta, a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, a Masters in Public Policy, Administration and Law from York University, and Masters in Public Health from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.