Board of Governors

COTF BOARD OF GOVERNORS

COTF is managed by a volunteer Board of Governors composed of occupational therapists and representatives of related organizations, educational institutions and industry. These individuals provide fiscal and legal oversight of the Foundation's resources and ensure the Foundation's programs are consistent with its mandate.

2011-2012 COTF Board of Governors

Huguette Picard, President

Huguette joined the COTF Board in April 2006. She is currently at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. Huguette is a Past President of ACOTUP and CAOT. She is an occupational therapist Huguette became President of COTF on 1 October 2009.

Sue Baptiste, CAOT President

Sue is President of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists. She became a member of the COTF Board on October 1, 2010. She serves as a liaison between the two organizations. She is an occupational therapist.

Juliette E. Cooper, Vice President

Juliette is an Occupational Therapist who is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Manitoba.

Juliette strongly believes that research is essential to the future of the profession of occupational therapy and that COTF is essential to advancing occupational therapy research in Canada. She believes that COTF not only funds occupational therapy research, but builds occupational therapy research capacity through scholarships. Occupational therapy research will grow as research capacity grow.

Juliette has experience fundraising at a number of levels at the University of Manitoba. She served for six years on the Advisory Board of the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthrtiis of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and also served as a grant reviewer for national, provincial and local research funding agencies. Her goal is" to raise the awareness of COTF among occupational therapists in Canada, and by doing so, to increase the number of donors to COTF."

Juliette joined the board on 1 October 2009 and became Vice President on 1 October 2010.

Bas Vanlankvelt, Treasurer

Bas Vanlankvelt is the Chief Operating Officer of MediChair. He has had a lengthy involvement in the home medical equipment and assistive technology industry. He has a good understanding of the challenges facing healthcare professional partners, mainly comprised of OTs. His knowledge includes a broad base of the fundraising environment across Canada, as well as the unique challenges found therein. His understanding of the entire process of delivering OT services and home medical equipment products to the clients, including the needs of the client, authorizer and provider are all assets.

Bas joined the board in November 2010. Bas is the Treasurer as of 1 October 2011.

Corrinne Carrière

Corrinne Carrière's previous background is in Nursing and Cardiology before entering the Business Section in Sales, Marketing and Education. She is currently employed with Future Mobility Healthcare Inc.

In Canada 80-85% of Rehab Technology Products are the result of the work of occupational therapists. Corrinne served previously on the COTF Board because she felt there should be a strong communication link between occupational therapists and the industry to better serve the OT client. This is the reason why Corrinne has returned to the COTF Board - to help increase that communication and promote funding for education and product development for and by the people who work with it every day.

Corrinne's experience both clinically and with manufacturing and product development in cardiology equipment, hospital computerization software and hardware and wheelchair seating positioning, wheelchairs and wheelchair accessories help her understand the needs and challenges manufacturers and clinicians face.

Her objective is to help raise funds for projects that benefit occupational therapy and industry and keep in mind the client centered approach. Corrinne joined the board on 1 October 2010.

Marjorie Hackett

Marjorie Hackette is an occupational therapist. She recognizes the value of research to further her clinical practice. She is very committed to her profession, and realizes that it is through research that strong evidence can be given to practice and that the role of OT in the health care system can be enhanced.

Marjorie is experienced in fundraising, and takes it on with a great passion. She is interested in soliciting funds from other sources, such as local suppliers.

Marjorie joined the board on 1 October 2010.

Donna Klaiman

Donna Klaiman is an occupational therapist. Currently she is a business executive with her own business called Donna Klaiman Designs. This is a web-based business promoting the products of women entrepreneur fibre artists and designers seeking access to global markets.

Having practiced as an occupational therapist in many environments and volunteered as a community fundraiser, Donna recognizes that COTF fundraising has to start with CAOT members. Contributions from members will give credibility when canvassing other granting agencies or the private sector.  A contribution from members communicates a strong commitment from the members to support new knowledge and innovation for the profession.

Donna jointed the board in October 2010.

Anne Peters

Anne Peters is a consumer of OT services. She has a profound understanding of what occupational therapy provides to consumers. She has had the privelege of speaking with other consumers to share her experiences of the positive role that occupational therapy has been able to contribute to the lives of consumers.

While on the board, Anne would like to facilitate public education about OT services and the contributions that OTs make in healthy living for consumers. It is her hope that based on her experience as a consumer, coupled with her knowledge of OT, that she can help to expand the base of general public donors.

Anne joined the board in October 2010.

Jan MIller Polgar

Jan is an Occupational Therapist. She is a Professor at the University of Western Ontario.

Jan is interested in COTF because COTF is the sole Canadian organization that is focused on supporting research to advance the profession of occupational therapy. Jan wants "to participate in its expanded growth." She believes in COTF because in recent years, COTF has made strong progress in establishing itself as a source of funding for quality research in occupational therapy. Links have been made with industry and with other funding bodies, such as CIHR, that allow it to maximize the direct contributions and provide greater support to occupational therapy researchers. It is the only national organization that focuses on occupational therapy research and provides a means of funding for clinicians who do not always have a university link and provides funding for clinically based projects that are much less likely to attract funding from other sources.

Man brings many years of experience with review of grant and scholarship applications at all levels, including national and international. She also has many years of writing successful grant applications at a variety of levels. Supervision of graduate students at both masters' and doctoral levels, including mentoring them in submission of scholarship applications. She was the Chair of Interdisciplinary Graduate Program and Research Based OT Master's Program. She is currently the Associate Dean of Scholarship, responsible for research and graduate programs in the Faculty of Health Science at the University of Western Ontario.

Jan's main objective during her tenure on the board is to be able to assist with the development of partnering applications to expand the capacity of COTF to support occupational therapy research.

Jan the board in October 2009.

Nancy Reynolds

Nancy Reynolds is the President and CEO, Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research. Her expertise is in building and maintaining successful partnerships, both public and public/private. She has served as a board member in other organizations, where fundraising has been an important element.

Nancy joined the board on 1 October 2010.

Jacqueline Rousseau

Jacqueline joined the board on 1 October 2010. She is a faculty member at the Université de Montréal.

Pam Wener

Pamela (Pam) Wener is an Occupational Therapist who is a faculty member at the University of Manitoba.

Volunteering is an important part of Pam's life. She has a desire to offer volunteer time to her profession. Previous experience on boards similar to COTF has  taught her a great deal, which has provided her with the skills to offer to COTF. Pam believes that "in order for the profession to move forward, research is critical and building research capacity is essential, and to this end, I believe that financial support from the profession for research and graduate studies is a must for occupational therapy's survival."

Pam has served on a number of professional board of directors such as the Manitoba Society of Occupational Therapists (Co-Chair of Professional Development) and Association of Occupational Therapists (the former name for the current College of Occupational Therapists of Manitoba) as well as many boards that are not related to occupational therapy such as: Jewish Federation of Winnipeg, Jewish Child and Family Services, and the Steering Committee for Persons with Disabilities, just to name a few. Most, if not all of the boards, have fundraising and public relations as part of the duties of the board of directors. In Pam's over 20 years of volunteer experience on these various boards, she has gained skills in grant writing, fundraising activities and public relations, and it is these skills that she brings with her to COTF.

According to Pam, "the growth in occupational therapy research over the past 25 years has been exceptional and COTF has played a vital role in supporting this evolution. I believe that with continued growth, the Foundation can become the major supporter of OT research in Canada. By helping to make COTF relevant to all Canadian occupational therapists, I believe that we can reach  our goal of significantly increasing our revenues during the next five years. "

Pam joined the board in January 2009.