Bob Jeffery – Chair
Bob comes to the ICA Canada Board with a wide range of work and volunteer experiences and has been engaged with ToP methods since reading a copy of Edges in the early 1990s. Currently lives in Sudbury and comes from Fort Frances in Northwestern Ontario. Some profile highlights:
Experienced and knowledgeable in researching, directing and leading the development and implementation of consultations with community partners including Indigenous peoples that satisfy consultation obligations on policy and land use matters within an approved accountability framework and a project team environment.
Extensive knowledge and experience with a broad range of child welfare, mental health, housing, public health and economic development policies, programs and services. Also, demonstrated capacity to understand the concepts, barriers and principles for engaging, consulting and building relationships with community partners including Indigenous communities and organization
Jennifer O’Leary – Secretary
Jennifer is a Medical Laboratory Technologist by trade. For nearly three decades, she has contributed to the Ontario health care system through her diagnostic laboratory work and by educating entry to practice laboratory technologists. Jenn is a passionate, life-long learner who completed a mid-career Interdisciplinary Masters with combined studies in Leadership and Learning & Technology. Jenn’s leadership philosophy embraces the concept that often, the greatest leaders have no formal title and one can never underestimate the capacity of informal leaders to influence change. She is thrilled to have had the opportunity to further develop her facilitation skills with ICA and support the Courage to Lead discussion series. In her downtime, Jenn enjoys her cottage in Bobcaygeon, listening to podcasts that tell compelling stories of diverse lives and experiences, and spoiling her two rambunctious nephews.
Jeanette Stanfield – Advisor
Jeanette Stanfield is an educator with a Master of Arts degree who first encountered the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) in a local community on the west side of Chicago. Since that time, Jeanette has worked with ICA in Australia, India, USA and Canada. Presently residing in Toronto, Ontario, Jeanette wrote a book, Just Checkin’ On Ya, on her experience of caring for her husband Brian during the last chapter of his life. She led a team to create a second edition of The Courage to Lead, the book Brian wrote to share the foundational elements of ICA’s approach to creating positive social change. Currently, she is facilitating a team creating an online study of The Courage to Lead.
Ekta Bromley
Ekta Bromley is an educator, facilitator, and consultant with over 10 years of experience in workplace learning, organizational development, and leadership development roles. Her work has primarily been within academic and healthcare organizations. She specializes in designing and facilitating educational and leadership development programs customized to meet various team and organizational needs. She is a certified Coach and is also certified and experienced in using several psychometric tools and leadership frameworks. She previously experienced a few transformational years as a ‘K-12’ teacher, exploring together with her inspiring students the rich life lessons in literature and history. Her encounter in 2014 with the ICA’s methods and principles profoundly shaped — and continues to shape — her belief in the power of participatory paradigms to yield meaningful and sustainable results for individuals and communities. This belief underpins her facilitative approach to her work in leadership development, strategic planning, action planning, change management, conflict resolution, and team building. She returned to ICA Canada’s Board of Directors in 2023, having previously served on the Board from 2015 to 2022 — including a term as Board Chair from 2018 to 2021. She is an alumna-turned-facilitator for ICA Canada’s signature ‘Courage to Lead’ program. She enjoys experimenting with different foods (cooking as well as eating!), painting, reading, writing, hiking, and having long conversations with loved ones over many cups of tea.
Bojan Fürst
Bojan is an experienced manager and knowledge mobilization and communications professional with over 20 years of experience in the Canadian academic and not-for profit sector. He has a wealth of highly transferable skills in concept development, project management, facilitation, research design, strategic development, learning modules development, communications, and editing. He has extensive international research networks in areas of rural development, islands and small island states development, knowledge mobilization, and research impact.
Bojan is also a passionate and accomplished storyteller and documentary photographer and radio producer focusing on long-term projects engaged with rural, small island, and development issues. Currently, he produces, hosts, and publishes the most popular English language podcast on rural issues in Canada.
Karen Persad
Karen Persad brings over 20 years of experience in healthcare as a Senior Medical Laboratory Technologist in Genetics at Kingston Health Sciences Centre. With keen interest in elevating quality, she has participated in many continuous improvement initiatives in the laboratory, education, and accreditation spaces.
With years of experience on a regulated health profession board, Karen has served in Board Chair, Vice Chair, and Committee Chair roles. She has been called upon over the years to mentor new Board Directors as part of their on-boarding process. While practicing servant leadership skills in a governance environment, Karen’s passion ignited for collaborative team dynamics, and its ability to set and monitor strategic directions.
On her never-ending journey of personal growth, Karen enjoys engaging her skills for positive impact. She was first drawn to the ICA Courage to Lead (CTL) program as a participant in 2020. With inner resonance of her own leadership style, she joined the Courage to Lead guide team to help build capacity in others to “lead from where you stand”. Karen continues to be involved in CTL offerings which has included the public program, CTL at the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto, and CTL in Nepal.
Karen’s rejuvenation rituals include staying active on nature hikes, quiet time in yoga and meditation, baking up a zen, and enlightening her inner foodie in local culinary scenes.
David Johnston-Weiser
David Johnston-Weiser is a member of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation as is experienced in Indigenous consultation and relations work in Ontario. He has experience facilitating and mediating a variety of Indigenous relations matters including in the commercial fisheries and the potential storage of nuclear waste. David currently works at the Ministry of Mines with the Ontario government where he supports the ministry’s consultation efforts on mining initiatives. David believes that everyone has unique talents, and through collaboration and synergizing everyone’s unique talents, the best outcomes are often achieved. David looks forward to offering his unique abilities to the ICA board and to further develop his skills as a
Dwayne Cline
Dwayne Cline is the founder and principal at Cline Consulting. He was the lead pastor of James North Baptist Church (JNBC), in Hamilton, for 28 years. He led the congregation in building a new church facility which included 45 apartments for those needing supportive and affordable housing. Under his leadership the church also established a Portuguese speaking congregation as well as a Karen congregation (refugees from Burma). He has a MDiv from Tyndale Seminary. He is currently working toward his certification as a ToP Facilitator. He sits on several boards and speaks in a variety of forums across the country.
He consults with organizations in the areas of governance, strategic planning, fundraising and teambuilding. In his spare time, he relaxes with his wife and their four children. They love to vacation together.