InnerChange Charitable Foundation Board
Dr. Don Rix, Honorary and Founding Board member
Dr. Rix received his medical education at the University of Western Ontario and interned at Vancouver General Hospital. He did five years of general practice and another five in pathology. In 1960, Rix was one of the founders of Metro Laboratories, and of Cantest Laboratories five years later, now the largest medical laboratory in B.C. with 1,000 employees (Metro), and the largest industrial laboratory in B.C. with 350 employees (Cantest). He was a Director for the Vancouver Board of Trade.
Dr. Rix passed away November 5, 2009, and is greatly missed by many in the health community for his warmth and generous support.
Richard Mulcaster
Richard Mulcaster joined as a Director of InnerChange in July, 2007. Previously Richard was with Vancouver Foundation from 1979 to 2004, serving as President and CEO for 14 years. Prior to that, he was a Project Officer at the Employment Development Branch of the Federal Government and Country Director with Canada World Youth. Richard is involved with many community organizations including the Telus Vancouver Community Board member, Arts Umbrella, Science World and Vancouver's Coalition for Crime Prevention and Drug Treatment. Richard is now the Director of External Relations & Development at the Justice Institute of BC.
Hon. John Reynolds, P.C.
Mr. Reynolds started his political career in 1972, when he was elected a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for the British Columbia riding of Burnaby-Richmond-Delta. He was also elected to the BC Provincial Legislature, and served as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and as Minister of Environment. He returned to the House of Commons as a Reform Party Member and served as Opposition House Leader and Leader of the Official Opposition. He co-chaired the national Conservative Party campaign in the 2006 federal election. He is currently a Senior Strategic Advisor to Lang Michener, a law firm in Vancouver.
Donald MacPherson
Donald MacPherson is the former Drug Policy Coordinator for the City of Vancouver where he has worked for the past 22 years including 10 years at the Carnegie Community Centre in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Donald is the author of Vancouver's Four Pillars Drug Strategy that the City of Vancouver adopted in 2001. The Four Pillars Strategy calls for a new approach to drug problems in Vancouver based on public health principles, effective evidence informed policing strategies and the appropriate regulation of all psychoactive substances. Donald has worked with four successive City administrations to further the development of a comprehensive and evidence based approach to drug problems in Vancouver. In 2007 Donald was awarded a Kaiser Foundation National Award of Excellence in Public Policy for Vancouver's Four Pillars Drug Strategy. In June of 2009 the City of Vancouver was awarded Canadian Urban Institutes Secure City Award for the Four Pillars Drug Strategy and the City's continuing advocacy for services that create a more secure city for all residents. Most recently he was awarded the Richard Dennis Drugpeace Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Drug Policy Reform by the Drug Policy Alliance in the United States.
Gord Kehler
Currently Gord is a partner in the Vancouver law firm of MacKenzie Fujisawa LLP where he has practiced since 2005. He has practised law since 1992 and was previously a partner in the Maple Ridge law firm of McEachern, Harris, Brown and Kehler. Gord studied at the University of Victoria where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1987 and a law degree in 1990.
Gord is a consistent advocate for the community and brings a great deal of knowledge and support along with him. Gord has contributed his skills to a wide array of programs and organizations such as a contributor and presenter for the Continuing Legal Education Society of BC, president of the New Westminster Bar Association from 2000 to 2001, Vice-President of the Ridge Meadows Youth and Justice Advocacy Association from 1998 to the present, Advisor for the B.C. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Resource Society and the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Society for British Columbia, a Director of the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation from 1997 to 1999 (Secretary - Treasurer 1998 and 1999), and a member of the Ridge Meadows Parks and Leisure Services Citizens Advisory Committee from 1995 to 1998 (Chairman 1998). Gord also contributed his time and legal advice to the book published in 2000 "Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the Criminal Justice System" by Dr. Julianne Conry and Dr. Diane K. Fast.
Elizabeth Gordon
Since moving back to Vancouver in 2004, Liz has been a volunteer in the Downtown Eastside with the Franciscan Sisters of Atonement on East Cordova. Prior to that she was a volunteer and Co-coordinator for four years of an 'Out of the Cold' program at her Parish church in Toronto. Her duties included fundraising and the recruitment and organization of volunteers to run a soup kitchen.
Liz is a native of British Columbia and a graduate of UBC (B.A.) and the University of Ottawa (B.Ed.). She began her career as a teacher with the Carleton Separate School Board in Ottawa.
Valerie Coles
Valerie brings over two decades of marketing and administrative experience to the Board of InnerChange. She retired from a position as Senior Account Manager, Corporate Sales with Telus Mobility after 15 years in various capacities including dealer training, major event planning and direct sales. Previous to that she was General Manager, Direct Marketing for McCann Erickson Advertising, and spent over 5 years as a Major Account Executive with Canada Post Corporation where she also developed training seminars and guides to enhance customer sales using Canada Post admail services. Valerie Coles was chosen of one of the "2008's Most Inspirational Women" by Atira Women's Resource Society.
Marco A. Romero
Mr. Romero is an entrepreneur with over 30 years of diversified experience in the mining and construction materials industries. He is the President and CEO of Delta Minerals Corporation. Over the course of his career, Mr. Romero has held senior roles in exploration, environmental permitting, mine development and operations, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and business management. Mr. Romero was the founder of Polaris Minerals Corporation and served as its President and CEO from 1999 to 2008. He remains one of its directors. Prior to his position with Polaris, Mr. Romero was Senior VP, Corporate Development, of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. from 1998 to 2000. Mr. Romero was a also a co-founder and Executive Director of Eldorado Gold Corporation from 1991 to 1998.
Mr. Romero was born in Chile, grew up in Montreal and now resides in Vancouver. He is married and has four children. He is an avid traveler, speaks several languages fluently and has worked in over forty countries.
Mr. Romero's community interests and activities are a significant part of his life. He is an advisory board member of the Living Rivers Georgia Basin and Vancouver Island Program, a major British Columbia river conservation project. From 1996 to 2006, he was also a founder and managing Director of The Tiger Foundation, an Asian wildlife and wilderness conservation group. Since 2001, he has worked with and developed close ties with several Vancouver Island First Nation communities. In 2006 he was adopted into the Ucluelet First Nation and given the name Tsiixwatu-ah. In 2008, he was adopted into the 'Namgis First Nation and given the name Wawipigesu.
Medical Advisory Committee
Dr. John Blatherwick
Dr. John Blatherwick is currently retiring as the Chief Medical Health Officer of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. He has been the Medical Health Officer in Vancouver since 1984. Prior to this he was the Medical Health Officer in the Simon Fraser Health Unit for nine years.
Dr. Blatherwick was awarded the Order of Canada in 1994 for his work in public health and received an award as a Canadian Health Hero from the Pan American Health Organization in 2002. He was also the recipient of the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002.
Dr. Perry Kendall
Dr. Kendall is the Provincial Health Officer for British Columbia. He has pioneered programs for Harm Reduction, AIDS/HIV and drug abuse prevention in British Columbia and Ontario. He helped to form the Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, and the Addiction and Mental Health Services Corporation.
In 1991 he was recognized for leadership in substance abuse prevention in Ontario and received an Addiction Research Foundation Community Achievement Award. He was awarded the Order of British Columbia for his contributions to Public Health practice and to harm reduction policy and practice in British Columbia.
Research Advisory Committee
Dr Michael Krausz, MD, PhD, FRCPC
- UBC/Providence Health Care Leadership Chair in Addiction Research Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHEOS) St.Paul's Hospital
- Founding Fellow of the Institute of Mental Health at UBC
- Member of the Brain Research Centre at UBC
- Member of the Research Advisory Council of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
- Member of the Canadian Centre of Substance Abuse (CCSA) of the Vancouver Foundation
- Fellow of the World Innovation Foundation (WIF)
Dr. Krausz started his professional carrier as a nurse in adolescent psychiatry working especially with young psychotic clients. After Medical School in Hamburg the H. Böckler Foundation awarded him a doctoral grant. He wrote his thesis on long-term course of schizophrenia starting in adolescence. In 1985 he started his residency in Adult Psychiatry until 1991. Parallel he wrote his PhD on "Psychosis and Addiction" evaluating the entanglement of severe mental illness and harmful use of psychotropic substances, which then became the major research focus of his further work. He became then responsible for big studies about mental illness among intravenous drug users with over 1000 individuals and especially the German Heroin trial as biggest randomized clinical trial in Addiction Research in Europe in this field. He could show, that it is possible to improve the most difficult to treat clients with the appropriate intervention and contributed to an important paradigm shift through clinical research. He founded and edited two scientific journals, which until now have a mayor impact in this area: European Addiction Research and Suchttherapie. 240 publications and even more invited presentations standing for his scientific contributions until now. After over 20 years in different positions in Germany he was selected as the first Providence BC Leadership Chair for Addiction Research in 2005.
Dr. David Marsh
Dr. Marsh currently serves as Physician Leader of Addiction Medicine with Vancouver Coastal Health. In this role he is also Medical Director for Addiction Services, HIV/AIDS Services and Aboriginal Health for the Vancouver Community. He has collaborated on several innovative projects that impact addiction services throughout Canada. He was the clinical lead investigator for the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI) and was the Clinical Director, Addiction Medicine, at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
Dr. Marsh graduated in Medicine from Memorial University of Newfoundland following prior training in neuroscience and pharmacology. He is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.
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