Charitable No 85521 5471 RR0001
Our People
The Ten Oaks Project is a community-based, not-for-profit organization led by a volunteer board of directors with representation from the National Capital Region (NCR) and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The organization hired its first full-time executive director in early 2009.
Our Board of Directors meets on the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30 pm. Meetings are held at our office in Ottawa and are open to the public.
People Profiles
Mark Schaan - Board President
Kate Burke - Treasurer
Chris Cowperthwaite - Director, CampCurl
Noreen Fagan - Director, Marketing & Communications
Jacqueline Kennelly - Director, Grants
Dawn Moore - Secretary
Pam Murphy - Director, Bowl-A-Thon
Lee Rose - Director, Donor Relations - NCR
Chris Persaud - Director, Donor Relations - GTA
Marnie Potter - Director, Volunteer Coordination
Elizabeth Tyler - Director. Community Development
Stephen Woods - Director. Donor Relations - GTA
Kate Moore, Executive Director
Mark Schaan (NCR)
Board President
Mark comes to the Ten Oaks Project with an extensive academic and practical understanding of policy, as well as a strong commitment to community-building. Mark holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (University of Waterloo, 2002), a Masters of Philosophy in Comparative Social Policy (University of Oxford, 2004) and is in the final stages of completing his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Mark's research has largely concentrated on policy development and implementation, with a particular focus on social assistance and welfare-to-work programs. Mark currently applies that knowledge as a Senior Policy Analyst within the Department of Human Resources and Social Development Canada.
Previously, Mark acted as the Assistant Dean of Somerville College, overseeing a residence community of undergraduate and graduate students. Mark has also been actively involved in the arts community and in educational initiatives, including time on the Board of Menno Singers, and continued work with the Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation.
Kate Burke (NCR)
Treasurer
Kate's background is in criminal law and legal theory, and she holds advanced degrees in law and policy from Dalhousie University, London School of Economics and Harvard Law School. She has long been fascinated by the gulf between law and popular representations of legal process. She currently works with the Department of Public Safety Canada as a Senior Policy Advisor on issues relating to national security and crime.
Outside of the office, she has been involved in community legal outreach, youth education and women's issues in a variety of cities. This work has included doing pro bono legal aid work on civil liberty, asylum and domestic abuse cases in New York City, developing policy proposals for women's rights organizations in Boston, and volunteering as a peer educator and mentor in London.
Chris Cowperthwaite (GTA)
Director, CampCurl
A volunteer with the Ten Oaks Project since 2005, Chris has served as both a Camp Ten Oaks counselor and member of the camp leadership team. Currently the Business & Outreach Officer at The Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation - a national not-for-profit organization that grants awards to university and college scholars based on character, community service and leadership potential - Chris works closely with senior management on fund development, donor and volunteer stewardship, and office management.
Chris holds a BSc (Hons.) and diploma in peace and conflict studies from the University of Waterloo. While in Kitchener-Waterloo, Chris worked with Tamarack Institute, conducting research for their national community engagement initiative and volunteered with Project Ploughshares. Chris served as a director of the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group until 2005 and was co-organizer of their Rainbow Reels Film Festival. In 2006, Chris spent the year living in the Middle East, working on community development projects.
A proud ambassador of the Ten Oaks Project, Chris continues to build our community of support in the Toronto area.
Noreen Fagan (NCR)
Director, Marketing & Communications
Noreen’s career has spanned over many years and across continents. She was born and raised in Zambia, Central Africa and has lived in South Africa, England and the United States before coming to Canada in 2008. In Zambia she was the Managing Director of Café D’Afrique, a cultural centre that specialised in traditional arts, contemporary and visual performing arts. Noreen also worked in a program that served commercial sex workers; providing social support and HIV prevention services as well as providing vocational training to women who wanted to transition out of sex work. In the rural areas Noreen worked with a women’s cooperative that used basket making as an alternative from of income in the non-agricultural season. She was also involved in co-ordinating and marketing for the Livingstone Arts festival and was a member of an editorial team for a local
arts magazine.
Noreen moved to the U.S. in 2000 and switched gears to focus on storytelling though multimedia. She believes that multimedia is an effective tool for discussing powerful complex issues. Noreen holds a Journalism degree and lives in Ottawa with her partner Tamara. They have two sons, Sebastian who is in his third year at Queens University and Addison who attends Lisgar Collegiate Institute.
Jacqueline Kennelly (NCR)
Director, Grants
Jacqueline (Jackie) Kennelly brings fifteen years of experience in the not-for-profit sector,
particularly in the realms of youth engagement, social and environmental justice, and global issues. She served for six years on the Board of Directors of Check Your Head: the Youth Global Education Network based in Vancouver, including two years as co-Chair of the Board. She has also been on the Boards of PEDAL (Pedal Energy Development Alternatives) and Sunrise Housing Co-op, and was the program director for Youth Net Vancouver, an organization dedicated to promoting youth mental health through peer-to-peer networks.
Jackie also brings extensive academic knowledge of youth issues, social exclusion, education, globalization, and citizenship. Currently completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge, Jackie will be starting a faculty position in the Department of Sociology at Carleton University in July, 2010. Last but certainly not least, she is the proud co-parent, with her wife, of a beautiful baby girl (almost a toddler), who has already taught her more than all of her university degrees combined.
Dawn Moore (NCR)
Secretary
Dawn Moore is a Ten Oaks Project parent and has a long history of involvement in Ottawa's queer community through the Dyke March and Rainbow families. She has also participated in Take Back the Night and spoken at a number of rallies in the violence against women community. Dawn has worked with marginalized communities through her current research with drug users in conflict with the law as well as past work doing outreach support for men in prison. Dawn has a PhD in Criminology and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Law at Carleton University. At Carleton she is a member of the sexuality studies program and has written on queer issues including gay bashing. Dawn also serves as the Secretary for her professional association.
Dawn, her son Kier and wife Carrie live the dream life nestled away in the Gatineau hills where they know the people who grow their food, volunteer at the local library and catch occasional glimpses of the neighbourhood bear.
Pam Murphy (NCR)
Director, Bowl-A-Thon
Originally from New Brunswick, Pam spent most of her childhood in the ocean or the woods, and possibly has maple syrup running through her veins. This passion for outdoor adventuring led her to pursue a Bachelor of Recreation Management (Acadia). She has worked as a recreation coordinator and camp counsellor in several environments, with particular experience working with children from low-income communities.
Pam's interest in social issues was suitably channeled into both a Bachelor's and Master's in Social Work (Carleton University). She has 10 years of experience working in the social work and community development fields, with a particular focus on mental health, poverty and homelessness. In 2007 she completed a Master's thesis on the experiences of sexual minority women accessing mental health services in Ottawa. Her interest in public policy has led her to the federal government where she is currently a policy analyst.
A volunteer her entire life, Pam believes in the power of community. She has recently been involved in her workplace Pride network as a founding member and with the City of Ottawa's Poverty Issues Advisory Committee.
Lee Rose (NCR)
Director, Donor Relations - NCR
Having grown up in a French Canadian military family that was often posted abroad or in English Canada, Lee came to appreciate and understand the importance of language, community and context early in life. Today, Lee applies that appreciation and understanding in his role as the director of communications for a national non-profit organization based in Ottawa. Lee holds an honours degree in English Literature (University of Ottawa, 2002).
In addition to his experience as a communications professional, Lee has extensive experience working with children and youth in a range of camp settings. In the summer of 2006 Lee took a leave of absence from his job in the city to return to camp as a section head at Camp Wabikon, a co-ed residential camp for children aged 6-17 in Temagami, Ontario. He has also worked with a number of community camps and was actively involved in developing programs and activities for children of military families.
When he's not busy writing or designing a layout, Lee enjoys spending time with his wife Karine and their three children, Jacob (6), Philippe-Alexandre (2), and Michaela (9 months); cycling; or wishing he was paddling a canoe on Lake Temagami.
Chris Persaud (GTA)
Director, Donor Relations - GTA
Chris's first community outreach began when he was a camp counsellor at a special needs day camp with the City of Toronto. Since then, Chris graduated as a Human Services Counsellor and has gained ten years experience in mental health, including the last seven years working in housing and support. Chris is currently a Program Manager in Toronto at Habitat Services, an agency which contributes to the quality of life of consumer/survivors of the mental health system by improving housing standards and providing supports. Most recently, he has been working on community-based research projects on topics such as employment barriers for low income tenants and currently is working on a study which will develop a peer support model for mental health community housing.
Chris is an advocate of diversity, GLBTQ rights, social justice and works from a grassroots
perspective. He looks forward to working with the Ten Oaks Project because he wants to make a difference by fostering communities that accept and support all individuals.
Marnie Potter (NCR)
Director, Volunteer Coordination
Marnie has over 15 years of children, youth and camp/recreation related experience, including 10 years volunteering at a camp for dialysis patients and their families. She also has 20 years experience working, volunteering and advocating within the not-for-profit sector, with agencies such as the Kidney Foundation of Canada, Kaleidoscope Kids, Lions Camp Dorset and within the greater health care system.
Marnie holds an undergrad in environmental geography and a Masters in Social Work from Carleton University. Her great passion is to meld the areas of recreation and leisure within the social work and social justice framework to create and deliver programs for high risk children and youth. She has spent the last year working as a Community Developer for the Around the Rainbow Project which seeks to create inclusive educational and public spaces for children 0-6 from GLBTTQ families. She also makes a mean batch of fudge, a skill she has refined over the past two years as one of the Kitchen Staff at Camp Ten Oaks.
Elizabeth Tyler (NCR)
Director, Community Development
Elizabeth is currently serving as president of Gender Mosaic, a social and support group for transgender people. Trained in youth suicide prevention, she has spent many hours volunteering on internet based crises lines. Elizabeth founded and runs the Freezer Project which can provide a months worth of free dinners to transsexual people in the Ottawa area who are recovering from surgery and feel the need extra support.
In her spare time Elizabeth works as a carpenter and bang heads on the roller derby track with the girls from Capital Carnage, Ottawa's newest roller derby team. Elizabeth is also one of the parents of a truly wonderful young man who is about to move into his first apartment.
Stephen Woods (GTA)
Director, Donor Relations - GTA
Since being first introduced to the Ten Oaks Project more than two years ago, Stephen has had a strong interest in its activities, goals, and growth. Stephen has years of experience supporting the activities of volunteers, primarily through orientation week and student life activities in the Faculty of Science at the University of Waterloo. Stephen didn't travel very far after completing his BSc degree, one month after graduating he started working for the
Faculty of Science as an undergraduate services co-ordinator - providing academic advice and programming for current science students.
Though he didn't travel far in the transition from school to work, he has taken advantage of nearly every other opportunity to travel. Over the past two years his travels have taken him from a Los Angeles studio, in the audience for Bob Barker's final episode as host of The Price is Right, to The Mall in Washington, D.C., for Barack Obama's Inauguration. Definitely one with a lifelong learning mindset, he is currently working towards a BA, part-time. Slowly, but surely, he is working towards a Certificate in French, also from the University of Waterloo, and hopes to eventually become proficient in both of Canada’s official languages.
Kate Moore, Executive Director
Kate comes to the Ten Oaks Project with a wealth of experience in camping and youth programming. She was the Director of Camp Allsaw for seven years, an active member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Camping Association and also a past Director of the Canadian Camping Association. Kate has also held senior leadership roles outside of camping in a number of non-profit organizations, post-secondary institutions and most recently in the federal and provincial governments.
Throughout her career, Kate has remained closely connected to the camping world. She is a regular speaker at camping conferences and is a member of the Society of Camp Directors.
In addition, Kate brings a wealth of experience in the area of program development, having successfully designed and implemented multiple pilot and leadership programs both in Canada and abroad. Kate is fluent in English and French, holds a Masters' Degree from Laval University in Geography as well as undergraduate degrees in Environmental Studies and Education. Kate has also been recently certified as a transformational leader through the Hendriks Institute.