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 Deb Matthews - Deb Matthews was elected to the Ontario Legislature in 2003 and served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Community and Social Services. Deb was re-elected in 2007, and in addition to serving as the MPP for London North Centre, Deb is the Minister of Children and Youth Services and the Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues. She is also the Chair of the Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction.
Deb has been actively involved in local community organizations such as Orchestra London and the Thames Valley Children's Centre, and served on the advisory boards for the Salvation Army and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. She was a board member and president of the Big Sisters of London. Deb served as the 1995-96 fundraising co-coordinator for the Boys’ and Girls’ Club of London.
Deb’s work on social assistance reform, including her report, Review of Employment Assistance Programs in Ontario Works & Ontario Disability Support Program, received vast support from a wide range of community leaders. In the 2007 Ontario Budget speech, Deb was recognized as the driving force behind the new Ontario Child Benefit. In recognition of her accomplishments, the Social Work Doctors’ Colloquium awarded Deb with the Political Award of Merit in 2007. This prestigious award is given to an individual who in their political, professional and social life, practices and exemplifies the values of the social work profession including the fight for social justice.
Her diverse work background includes business experience in the construction industry, fundraising in the non-profit sector and teaching at The University of Western Ontario. In January 2009, Deb was elected as an Honorary Member of the Kiwanis Club of Forest City-London, she served as the 1995-96 fundraising co-coordinator for the Boys and Girls Club of London and has been twice honoured with a place on The University Students' Council Teaching Honour Roll at The University of Western Ontario.
Deb was born in London North Centre and studied at the University of Western Ontario, where she completed her Ph.D. in social demography. She has three children and a grandson.
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 Sherri Torjman - Sherri Torjman is Vice-President of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy. She has written in the areas of welfare reform, customized training, disability income and supports, the social dimension of sustainable development and community-based poverty reduction. Sherri is the author of the book Shared Space: The Communities Agenda. She has also written many Caledon reports including Reclaiming our Humanity; Strategies for a Caring Society; Poverty Policy; Community Roles in Policy; Proposal for National Personal Supports Fund; and Reintegrating the Unemployed through Customized Training.
Sherri wrote the vision paper In Unison: A Canadian Approach to Disability Issues for the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services. She has authored four books on disability policy: Income Insecurity, Poor Places, Nothing Personal and Direct Dollars. Sherri wrote the welfare series of reports for the National Council of Welfare, including Welfare in Canada: The Tangled Safety Net; Welfare Reform; and Welfare Incomes 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994.
Sherri was co-Chair of the Technical Advisory Committee on Tax Measures for Persons with Disabilities that reported to the Minister of Finance and the Minister of National Revenue in December 2004. She has worked for the House of Commons Committee on the Disabled and the Handicapped, the House of Commons Special Committee on Child Care and the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies.
Sherri taught a course in social policy at McGill University and is a former Board Member of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
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 L. Robin Cardozo - Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Trillium Foundation since 1999, Robin Cardozo leads one of Canada’s largest granting foundations in its mission to help build healthy and vibrant communities in Ontario.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Cardozo served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of United Way Toronto. During those years, Mr. Cardozo’s leadership earned him the United Way movement’s highest national honour, the Andre Mailhot Award.
Mr. Cardozo was born in Pakistan, and was educated in Pakistan and in Britain. He was trained as a Chartered Accountant, and was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (FCA) in 2000. He is also a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D).
Mr. Cardozo currently serves on the Boards of Bridgepoint Health and Diaspora Dialogues Charitable Society.He also serves on the advisory board of The Centre for Effective Philanthropy, based in Boston.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation is an agency of the Government of Ontario. Since 1999, the Ontario Trillium Foundation has distributed more than $900 million to deserving organizations in the Arts and Culture, Environment, Human and Social Services and Sports and Recreation sectors. The Foundation’s support of these organizations contributes to the building of healthy and vibrant communities across Ontario.
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 Tim Brodhead - Tim Brodhead is President and Chief Executive Officer of The J. W. McConnell Family Foundation, a private foundation based in Montreal.
Prior to joining the Foundation he was Executive Director of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC), a national organization representing over 120 non-profit Canadian international development agencies.
Tim attended McGill University and subsequently spent five years in Africa with the Canadian organization CUSO. He went on to do international development work in Africa and South Asia and co-founded Inter Pares, an Ottawa-based non-government organization.
In a voluntary capacity he has served on a number of Boards, including currently Vartana, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the ETC Group (formerly Rural Advancement Foundation International) and the Calmeadow Foundation. He is past Chair of Philanthropic Foundations Canada, the national association of Canadian independent foundations.
In 2001 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and in June, 2002 received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Carleton University in Ottawa.
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 Frances Lankin - The Honourable Frances Lankin, P.C., is the President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way Toronto. Under her leadership, the organization has transformed into a leading community builder with a number of strategic initiatives to improve the lives of individuals, families and communities, including: a five-year Neighbourhood Strategy, which is currently developing social infrastructure and engaging residents in priority neighbourhoods; and, creating partnerships with Government, Business and Labour that have focused attention and resources on United Way Toronto’s key priority areas: neighbourhoods, youth and newcomers.
Frances has dedicated much of her professional life to community work and is a recognized leader in the non-profit sector. In 2006, she chaired a federal government commissioned Blue Ribbon Panel, which made recommendations for improving how Ottawa distributes grants and contributions to charities and other organizations. In 2007, she received the Toronto Star Laurel Award for Losing Ground, United Way’s report on family poverty in Toronto. She has served on the Boards of several other not-for-profit and charitable organizations and is a member of the Toronto City Summit Alliance Steering Committee and the University of Toronto's School of Public Policy Advisory Committee.
Frances was an MPP for 11 years. In 1990, she was elected MPP for Toronto’s Beaches-East York riding and served in the Rae government as Minister of Government Services and Chair of the Management Board. She was Minister of Health from 1991 to 1993 and was Minister of Economic Development and Trade until 1995.
In 2009, Frances was sworn in to the Queen’s Privy Council of Canada and appointed by the Prime Minister as a member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, which provides an external review of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
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Liz Weaver - Liz Weaver is the Director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction. In June 2006, the Roundtable launched its strategic focus of “Making Hamilton the Best Place to Raise a Child”. Over the next four years, Liz provided leadership to this cross-sectoral community collaborative initiative focusing on children and youth living in poverty in our community.
Prior to this appointment, Liz was the Chief Executive Officer of YWCA Hamilton. YWCA Hamilton is an innovative organization providing high quality programs and services responding to community needs, working actively for the development and improved status of all women and their families.
In her career, Liz has provided leadership to Volunteer Hamilton, Bay Area Leadership and Volunteer Canada and was instrumental in writing and designing a number of resources including the Canadian Code for Volunteer Involvement and the Volunteer Management Audit. Liz volunteers on a variety of community-based boards and committees. Liz teaches volunteer management at Mohawk College. She is a Senior Facilitator with Bay Area Leadership and was the community catalyst for the initiative in its formative years bringing together leaders from business, government and the community sectors.
Liz completed a Masters of Management for National Voluntary Sector Leaders through McGill University. Liz was awarded a Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2002 for her involvement and leadership with Volunteer Canada and the voluntary sector, was an Athena Award finalist which recognizes community leaders who support and mentor women and in 2004 was awarded the Women in the Workplace award from the City of Hamilton.
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Mark Chamberlain - Mark Chamberlain is the recipient of the Distinguished Citizen of the Year award for 2007 for his work in reducing poverty in Hamilton, Ontario, and was recently featured in an article in the Hamilton Spectator detailing his contributions. Mark started his career in 1985, after joining a small technology company named Wescam. Under his management, Wescam distinguished itself with many awards and titles, including an Academy Award for Technical Achievement, and was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers in both 2000 and 2001.He is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Trivaris, a commercialization firm that helps technology companies set up.
In addition to pursuing a successful professional career, Mark has been actively involved in the community. He chaired the Hamilton Community Foundation, and he was a member of the Hamilton Tackling Poverty Roundtable. He was also the chair of other socially oriented organizations including the Metrolinx Advisory Committee and the Golden Horseshoe Innovation Alliance. Mark is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Centers of Excellence.
He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science and a Master of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering, both from the University of Waterloo.
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 Paul Born - Paul Born is a master storyteller who infuses his work, relationships, community, and life with the magic of conversation. He is internationally recognized for his innovativeapproaches to community building.
Paul is President and Co-founder of Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement. He is also the founding chair of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network, Vibrant Communities Canada, and Opportunities 2000.
A motivational, inspiring and informative speaker, Paul has extensive experience in helping organizations and communities to develop new and sustainable ideas that motivate people to collaborative action and change.
Paul also founded and was the Executive Director of the Community Opportunities Development Association (CODA) - now called Lutherwood - one of Canada’s most successful community economic development organizations. As the Founder of Opportunities 2000, Paul led a Millennium campaign to reduce poverty in Waterloo Region to the lowest in Canada, which was recognized as one of the United Nations' "Best Practices" worldwide, in 1998.
Paul holds a Masters degree in Leadership, and is often invited to contribute to learning events as a keynote speaker, trainer, and facilitator on issues including community collaboration and engagement, innovation, and social change.
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 John Milloy - The Hon. John Milloy was first elected Member of Provincial Parliament for Kitchener Centre in 2003. He was re-elected in 2007 and appointed Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities on October 30, 2007.
John’s political interest began at age 13 when he worked as a Queen's Park page and continued as he worked in political offices at both the provincial and federal level. From 1997 to 2002, John served as Legislative Assistant to Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
In his first term as MPP, John held the position of Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities. He also served as Chair of the Federal Interprovincial Municipal Relations Cabinet Committee. In November, 2007, he was appointed to the provincial government’s anti-poverty committee.
John holds a BA (Honours) in History from Carleton University, a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a doctorate in Modern History from the University of Oxford where he was a Commonwealth Scholar.
John is past Director of Public Affairs for the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Kitchener-Waterloo. He has written on both international history and governance in the information age, recently publishing The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1948-1957: Community or Alliance.
John and his wife, physician Dr. Sara Pendergast, live in Kitchener’s Stanley Park neighbourhood with their son, John Patrick.
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