Profiles of Consultants

Kim Bergeron

Kim Bergeron is a creative, energetic and innovative professional with a solid background in strategic planning, evaluation, research, and community, health and policy development. She possesses a distinct blend of strong community development skills, effective group facilitation and excellent communication skills; with over fifteen years of experience working with organizations to improve their service delivery and increase their knowledge base.

Kim has been invited to participate in think tanks, and has provided numerous hours of consultation to community organizations. She has also been involved in working groups with the Provincial Government for policy change, program development and improving standards of practice.

Kim has presented on topics such as: Building Leadership Capacity, Community Partnerships, Building Evaluation Capacity with Community Stakeholders, Work/Life Balance and Policy Development. Developing resources, workshops, writing proposals, publishing articles and engaging in research studies are strong skills that have been established by Kim Bergeron.

Andrea Bodkin

Andrea Bodkin is a Program Coordinator with the Heart Health Resource Centre. Andrea has an extensive background in physical activity and health promotion, including a year-long contract as the Heart Health Coordinator in Haldimand-Norfolk.

Andrea’s areas of expertise include strategic planning, program development, health promotion theory, the determinants of health and coaching topics such as organizational skills, developing and monitoring program plans, meeting planning and facilitation.

Andrea is currently pursuing a Masters in Health Promotion from Deakin University in Australia. Andrea loves cooking, active icebreakers, rubber chickens, and chocolate!

Sylvie Boulet

Sylvie Boulet has a Masters in Health Sciences - Community Nutrition, two Bachelor degrees in food science and social work and a background in adult education. Sylvie started her career 25 years ago first as a program coordinator, social worker, adult educator, researcher and facilitator and then in the nutrition field as a dietitian and professor of nutrition at 2 post secondary organizations. Her experience encompasses the fields of non-profit organizations as well as clinical institutions and community health centres. Strengths include strong skills in the area of group facilitation, and activity/group coordination. Sylvie is presently working with Health Nexus as a bilingual Health Promotion Consultant and EatRight Ontario as a dietitian.

In her spare time, Sylvie enjoys the textile arts of spinning and weaving. Sylvie spins pure raw wool into skeins of wool and does her part for the environment by weaving old cotton items such as shirts and dresses into new items thus reusing and recycling!

Rishia Burke

Rishia Burke has ten years of front line and management experience as a health promoter and community developer, working within a family resource centre, neighbourhood association and Community Health Centre in at-risk neighbourhoods. Work with the Association of Ontario Health Centres (representing Community Health Centres and Aboriginal Health Access Centres) provided opportunities such as facilitating community based training for volunteer board members, consulting with community groups in the process of developing community health centre proposals and leading projects related to health promotion and interdisciplinary team best practices.

For the past six years Rishia has had her own consulting practice focusing on community research, planning processes and program evaluation. Rishia's focus areas for the past several years have included positive youth development, early years research and programming, community capacity building and poverty issues. Rishia has experience using a mix of research methodologies, including surveys, focus groups and key informant interviews. In addition Rishia has experience with staff and volunteer development, group facilitation and community partnership building.

Rishia enjoys spending as much time as possible with her three boys ages 3-9. When both her and the boys' schedules permit Rishia enjoys gardening, "there is nothing like yanking out weeds", swimming, running and reading.

Glenda Clarke

Glenda Clarke is a professional planner and established her consulting business, Glenda Clarke and Associates, in 2005. Her skills have been developed over 20 years of experience in the health care and social services planning field. Her consulting work includes strategic planning, program planning, project management, and the facilitation of partnerships. Active or recent clients include the Grey Bruce Children's Alliance, The Huron Perth Community Planning Table, Play Bruce Grey (a physical activity promotion initiative), Family Health Teams in Brockton and Sauble Beach, Safe n' Sound (an organization dedicated to addressing issues of homelessness), the VON of Grey Bruce, and the Alzheimer Society of Grey Bruce. Prior to establishing her consulting practice, Glenda worked in Ontario's District Health Council system, most recently as a Senior Planner with the Grey Bruce Huron Perth DHC. She has also worked with the Ontario Ministry of Health and the Canadian Public Health Association. Glenda holds a Master's degree from the University of Waterloo in Regional Planning. Prior to pursuing a career in planning, Glenda worked as a Registered Nurse and a Social Service Worker.

Glenda enjoys gardening and working on her 50 year old house which she describes as a "work in progress". One of her biggest challenges in her garden has been coming to terms with the dandelions. Recently, Glenda participated in a leadership coaching process and found it to be one of her most helpful professional development experiences.

Dianne Coppola

Dianne is a Manager in the Chronic Disease Prevention Division at Niagara Region Public Health Department providing strategic leadership for TREKZONE~Niagara’s obesity prevention initiatives.

She was Niagara’s acting Heart Health Coordinator during the transitional planning year between Phase 1 & Phase 2 programming (2003) and has been an HHRC consultant since 2004. Prior to joining the Health Department, she worked as a freelance consultant serving the not-for-profit sector.

Dianne’s areas of interest and expertise include: strategic planning, program design and evaluation, community mobilization and volunteer development, community-based social marketing, effective communication and creative problem-solving.  She has written numerous successful grant proposals and has consulted on organizational policy development for several non-profit organizations.

She has a Masters Degree in Recreation from the University of Waterloo.

Dianne is fond of inspirational quotes, Earl Grey Tea and all things chocolate!

Nancy Dubois

Current Work: Since 1998 , Principal with DU B FIT Consulting

• Consultant to the National Collaborating Centre on Methods and Tools on the development of a paper on Knowledge Management for Public Health in Canada
• For six years, lead consultant with the Canadian Best Practices Initiative (Public Health Agency of Canada)
• Consultant with The Health Communication Unit at the Centre for Health Promotion at U of T
• International Trainer in Finland, Chile, Bosnia, Serbia, Turkey
• Volunteer- Chair of Canada's Coalition for Active Living, Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute board member, the newly reincarnated ParticipACTION, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario's Mission Committee

Before moving to this:

• 8 years leading a community-based cardiovascular prevention project in tobacco country
• Heart Health Resource Centre Manager for two stints while others had babies
• 15 years as a facilitator of various learning sessions
• Managed a community YWCA (faked my way through teaching kids gymnastics and taught thousands of fitness classes on land and water - even won a few awards for this)
• Academic background in physical education (before the world had heard of kinesiology!)

Favourite parts of my work:
Thinking about the big picture and connecting the dots - be they people, programs, ideas - in communities across Ontario, Canada and increasingly internationally. When not traveling, being able to work from home.

Personally:
Born in London, Ontario. Now in Scotland for the last 15 years (just down the road from Paris!) * LOVE to be near water or ski hills and always sunshine * Together with husband (Dave) for 26 years, have 2 great kids - Dana in Niagara Falls working in the hospitality industry (and finally mom and dad can benefit from the perks!), and Robyn at Western in London (waiting to accompany her to Australia for teacher's college!)

Family Motto: Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Kim Hodgson

Kim Hodgson is a consultant with 20 years of experience in the public and community health sectors, and most recently served as a Senior Consultant with the Planning, Integration and Community Engagement team at the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network. In addition to her overseeing and integration role with Health Service Providers in the hospital, CHC, long term care and mental health and addictions sectors, she was the project lead on the Aging at Home Strategy. A strong team player and adept facilitator, Kim brings strong project management, community engagement and strategic planning skills to her work.

Having worked in the areas of community development and mobilization, program planning and evaluation, as well as strategy and policy development at the regional, LHIN, and province level, she has a solid understanding of the complex interplay of how social economic determinants of health and individual health behaviours are shaped and influences by public policy and local community decision-making. Kim also brings many years of experience as an employee with two regional health departments, and as a consultant with Ontario Prevention Clearinginghouse, now Nexus Sante, with their Prevent Stroke initiative. Kim is also under contract with the Ontario Heart Health Resource Centre providing consultation, strategic planning, and skill development training to various coalitions throughout the province.

Kim is a graduate of the University of Waterloo (BSc. Honours Health Studies) and the University of Toronto (MHSc. in Community Health).

Kim enjoys gardening and cycling. She is married to a man named Woody and has a 5 year old son, both of whom bring a sparkle to her eye. Kim volunteers in her community driving many of her Mennonite neighbours to their appointments.

Laura King-Hahn

Laura King Hahn, RN. is currently the Manager of Education Programs at the Canadian MedicAlert Foundation. Laura is a Registered Nurse and has over the past 13 years specialized in Chronic Disease Prevention, Health Promotion and Education, and local and Provincial Partnership Development. Laura has extensive experience in community development, partnerships building, strategic planning, government relations, advocacy and adult education.

In Laura's role with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, as Senior Specialist Health Partnerships, she was Vice-Chair of the Ontario Collaborative Group for Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (OCGHEPA) and acted as Chair of the OCGHEPA Advocacy Subcommittee. Laura was an active member on the OHHN Executive, 2008 and Beyond Working Group, and the Continuation Working Group. She was the staff support to the Ontario Stroke System Health Promotion Subcommittee, and was an active member on various working groups for the Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention. During her tenure at Toronto Public Health, Laura was a Heart Health Coordinator for the Toronto Heart Health Partnership for over 3 years.

In her spare time Laura enjoys the challenge of gardening in her sandy soil. Laura has a keen passion for pets and has recently launched her own company, pawgenics, which makes organic pet treats - a new twist on the obesity prevention strategy.

Pam Kinzie

Pam is the Program Coordinator – Training and Development with the Heart Health Resource Centre.  She is the principal consultant for Firstbrook Strategies, specializing in quality improvement, facilitation and organizational assessment. She was recently elected to the Board of Trustees of the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital. Pam has also been a consultant with PTCC, a former instructor at Ryerson University in the B.ScN. program and the Chair of the Georgian College Board of Governors.

Pam has extensive experience in developing and delivering workshops, conducting research, and promoting quality management in community-based health organizations. 

She has a Bachelor of Nursing degree from McGill University and a Master of Education from the University of Toronto.