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 the Manager of 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 and coaching topics such as organizational skills, developing and monitoring program plans, meeting planning and facilitation.
Andrea recently completed a master degree in Public Health from Deakin University in Australia. Andrea loves planning, cooking, active icebreakers, rubber chickens and chocolate!
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.
Rebecca Byers
Rebecca joined HHRC in 2008 and is currently Program Coordinator of Coaching and Consultation. She has more than 10 years of experience in the field of health promotion, working as consultant or staff member of national and provincial NGOs, regional public health departments, community coalitions and academic institutions.
A University of Waterloo graduate of Health Studies, Rebecca's strengths lie in project management, planning, evaluation and the development of written communications. She is skilled in planning and implementing provincial and community-based initiatives targeting a variety of risk factors. Her proficiency in writing includes: program resources; articles; research and evaluation findings; promotional materials; project proposals, workplans and reports. Additionally, Rebecca has considerable experience conducting quantitative and qualitative evaluation activities, both provincially as well as at the local level. She considers logic models, workplans, charts and tables among her closest professional allies.
With roots in rural southwestern Ontario and a few years of life experience in Toronto, Rebecca currently calls Waterloo Region home and lives in a sleepy town with her husband and son. When the work-life balance allows, she enjoys running, yoga, reading, cooking and learning the tricks of being mom to a busy toddler.
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!
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.
Pam Kinzie
Pam joined the the Heart Health Resource Centre staff in 2006 as Program Coordinator, Training and Development. She has extensive consulting experience as Principal Consultant, Firstbrook Strategies - a company she founded in 1994. Pam's clients include health units, community service providers to the LHIN's, community colleges and Boards of Directors in the public and private sectors. She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees for the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital and has served on, and chaired, the Georgian College Board of Governers.
Pam began her long and convoluted career in coronary care and has worked as a national manager in the Canadian blood service, conducted accreditations of community health service providers and worded in the front lines of three public health units. She has been a marketing manager in the private sector and a part-time faculty member in Ryerson University's nursing program.
Pam's expertise and experience lie in strategic planning, proposal writing, qualitative research, instructional design and group facilitation. She has a Bachelor of Nursing from McGill and a Master of Education from the University of Toronto. On the weekends you can find her skiing, snowshoeing, horseback riding or hiking in the woods. She lives with her husband George, a black lab and a barn cat in the suburbs of Rob Roy Ontario.