Ontario Cities Reducing Poverty Symposium Speaker Bios Paul Born Paul Born is the cofounder and President of Tamarack Institute, a global leader on issues of place, collective impact, and community innovation. The author of four books, Born is internationally recognized for his community-building activities that have won awards from the United Nations and as a senior fellow of Ashoka, the world s largest network of social innovators. Paul Born grew up in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia as the son of Mennonite refugees. This in part is what made him deeply curious about and engaged in ideas that cause people to work together for the common good, work that he describes as collective altruism. He holds a Master s degree in Leadership is considered a global leader in helping organizations and communities to develop innovative ideas that motivate people to collaborative action. Paul is a motivational speaker, facilitator and large scale community change consultant. Paul resides in Waterloo, Ontario. Karen Glass Karen Glass is the Assistant Deputy Minister for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Office (Ontario), who has over 20 years of experience in social policy. She is a strategic, results oriented leader with significant accomplishments in program delivery, and policy development. She was a key player in the development of Ontario s first poverty reduction strategy, and developed critical policies, such as the Ontario Child Benefit, that continue to have a material impact on reducing poverty. Rupert Gordon Rupert Gordon is currently the Director of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Office at the Treasury Board Secretariat. He has worked for the Ontario Government for almost 15 years with roles in the Cabinet Office and the Ministries of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Public Infrastructure Renewal, Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs. Prior to joining the poverty team, he was Director, Early Years Policy and Programs at the Ministry of Education working on the rollout of full day kindergarten and the modernization of child care and family support programs. He has an undergraduate degree in Political Science and Mass Communication from Carleton University and three graduate degrees in Political Science, including a Ph.D, from Yale University.
Mark Holmgren Mark joined Tamarack in January 2016 to lead its Vibrant Communities initiative and sit on Tamarack's team of Directors. Prior to joining the Tamarack team, Mark served as CEO of Bissell Centre (www.bissellcentre.org) where he led a team of 130 staff delivering Housing First services, assertive street outreach, family and children services, and programs in the areas of mental health, addictions, homelessness prevention, FASD interventions, and employment services. Known for his big picture view and his ability to work on the ground, Mark has a long history of leading and contributing to social innovations that benefit low income people. Since early 2014, Mark has sat - and still sits - as a member of Mayor Iveson's Task Force to End Poverty in Edmonton. He also chaired the Mayor's Working Group on Housing and Transportation and played a key role in engaging people with lived experience in his work for the task force. Mark is based in Edmonton, Alberta. André Lyn André Lyn is Senior Manager, Community Investment at United Way of Peel Region and lead for the Community Priorities Fund (CPF), which is UW's largest funding stream. He manages a team of volunteers responsible for reviewing and assessing funding applications from various social service agencies, and provides recommendations for the distribution of the United Way Community Fund. Andre is a social justice advocate committed to poverty reduction. He was the Project Coordinator for the video/documentary - Spaces and Places: Uncovering Homelessness in Peel. He is also a member of the Peel Poverty Reduction Strategy Committee and he collaborates with other anti-poverty groups locally, in the GTA and provincially. Andre was also published in: Women's Mental Health, where he contributed to a chapter entitled "Women Living in Homelessness: They Are (Almost) Invisible". Greg Orencsak Greg Orencsak became the Deputy Minister, Treasury Board, and Secretary of the Treasury Board and Management Board of Cabinet on June 25, 2014. As the Deputy Minister, Treasury Board, he leads a ministry tasked with delivering on the government s efforts on accountability, openness and modernization; supporting the implementation of the government s fiscal plan; leading the
government s Poverty Reduction Strategy; and ensuring sound stewardship of public funds. He first joined the Ontario Public Service (OPS) in 1999 as an economist for the Ministry of Finance. Since joining the OPS, Greg has held progressively senior positions mostly in the Ministry of Finance and Cabinet Office prior to his current role. In November 2010, he became Associate Deputy Minister of the Office of the Budget and Treasury Board in the Ministry of Finance where he was responsible for the delivery of the annual Ontario budget. He also served as Deputy Minister of Government Services between April and September of 2014. Greg received a Master of Arts in Economics and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Economics with minors in German and Spanish from the University of Toronto. He also completed the Ivey Executive Development Program through the Richard Ivey School of Business. Adaoma Patterson Adaoma Patterson is currently Advisor - Peel Poverty Reduction Strategy in the Human Services Department at the Region of Peel, responsible for leading the implementation of a community led strategy. Her work involves creating awareness among residents and local politicians about poverty in Peel, advocating to various levels of government for investments and working with the community & stakeholders to implement actions related to affordable transit, food & income security and economic opportunities. Adaoma is the President of the Jamaican Canadian Association, a 2010 DiverseCity Fellow and former member of the Greater Toronto Civic Action Alliance Steering Committee. Joe Pennachetti With a career spanning nearly 40 years in senior management positions in 5 municipalities within the GTA and Edmonton, Joe Pennachetti served for thirteen years as Chief Financial Officer and City Manager at the City of Toronto, Canada s largest city and sixth largest government. Working through several administrations, he is widely credited with ensuring that Toronto s service levels and cost efficiencies were enhanced through a progressive performance management program. Mr. Pennachetti has also been one of the driving forces behind the creation of ISO 37120, the first international standard for sustainable cities; presently being rolled out globally by the Toronto-
based World Council on City Data (WCCD). He currently serves as Executive Advisor Global City Strategy at the WCCD and as a Senior Fellow of the Global Cities Institute at the University of Toronto. Sarah Pennisi The Director of Social Assistance and Employment Opportunities for the Niagara Region where she performs a Senior Manager role on Community Services Management Team. Sarah is the Region s Ontario Works Administrator responsible as well for the Region s poverty reduction initiative. Community Services has an overall budget of approximately $350 million and 1,400 staff. SAEO represents about 70% of the budget and employs just over 200 staff. Sarah holds a PhD and MSW specializing in social policy from McMaster University. Sarah has varied front line and governance experience working with chronically homeless individuals, vulnerable seniors and people in poverty. Marc Todd Marc Todd is a manager with Niagara Region Community Services, Social Assistance and Employment Opportunities (SAEO). He has been with the Region since 2001, and has held positions as an Ontario Works Casemanager, SAEO cost analyst, trainer, and supervisor. Marc s portfolio includes managing two SAEO offices (Welland and Port Colborne) as well as the lead for Literacy, Mental Health, Addictions and Poverty Reduction through the Niagara Prosperity Initiative (NPI). Marc is also involved in the Coordinating Committee for the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network (NPRN). The NPRN is working collectively to wipe out poverty in Niagara through information sharing, changing attitudes, and compelling Niagara citizens to get involved and take action. Ricardo Tranjan Ricardo Tranjan is a Policy Development Officer at the City of Toronto's Social Policy, Analysis and Research Section, and the Policy Lead for the Poverty Reduction Strategy. His previous positions include lecturer at the Université du Québec à Montréal and educator with NGOs in Angola, Bolivia, and South Africa. Ricardo holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Waterloo, and his most recent publication is the book, Participatory
Democracy in Brazil: Socioeconomic and Political Origins, published by University of Notre Dame Press. Katharina Wolff Katharina Wolff, acting Manager for Evaluation and Business Planning, at the Poverty Reduction Strategy Office, joined the Office in December 2014. Mrs. Wolff was one of the key policy and program designers behind the Local Poverty Reduction Fund and has supported a variety of poverty initiatives since the inception of the office. Trained at the graduate level in policy and program evaluation at the University of Western Ontario, Katharina is well versed in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, statistics, and has a strong background in sociology, commerce and economics. She has consistently applied the tenants of evaluation in her work, whether when developing the National Framework on Settlement Outcomes, convened under the pan-canadian table of Ministers Representing Immigration in Canada, or in the evaluation of language training for immigrant programs in Ontario. Mrs. Wolff sits on a number of not-for-profit organizations to assist in policy and program design and in enhancing the use of evaluation to inform decision-making.