OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chair, Tedd Konya

Tedd is a father to two boys (biological brothers), whom he adopted from the Children’s Aid Society, with his husband Garry. The couple worked with a private adoption practitioner to become adopt-ready. He found Adopt4Life while on adoption probation and struggling to find post-adoption supports. He serves on the Board because he wants to ensure all new adoptive parents have a place to reach out to in times of need. Tedd currently works in research project management at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

Vice-Chair, Melissa Pierre-Sossoyan

Melissa graduated from Concordia University in Political Science and Public Administration and has held roles in government, politics, banking and insurance. Melissa and her husband adopted their two sons, when the boys were infants, through the Children’s Aid Society. As the mother of a multicultural and multilingual family, Melissa is passionate about supporting interracial families, francophone families and parents adopting children from a cultural minority.

Treasurer, Lisa Cameron

Lisa grew up with a brother who was adopted and is now the proud mother of two energetic boys, one of whom was adopted internationally. She is passionate about ensuring all adoptive families have access to the supports they need, since peer support was so important to her on her adoption journey. A Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA,CA), Lisa has more than 20 years experience, notably in the education and healthcare industries.

Mental Health Committee

Represents families living with mental health challenges at Board meetings and creates resources and supports around mental wellness for our community.

Chair: Mary-Jo Land

Mary-Jo is a Registered Psychotherapist specializing in attachment, trauma, and parenting. She facilitates secondary attachment and the resolution of developmental trauma through family and parent psychotherapy. Mary-Jo is the author of “Caring Together:  A Guide for parents, foster parents, and adoptive parents of children who are in care”.  In addition she is a past president, and current Advisory Board member for The Association for Training in Trauma and Attachment in Children (ATTACh), has been an active Board member and advisor with Adopt4Life for many years, facilitates workshops for the Adoption Council of Ontario, and is on the Attachment Committee for the Psychology Foundation of Canada. Mary-Jo also consults in Peace-Building and Mental Health in fragile contexts. 
Mary-Jo and her husband live in Southern Ontario, where she manages their forest. They have five children, are adoptive parents, were long-term therapeutic foster parents for 20 years, and now also have 5 grandchildren.

Openness Committee

Represents families touched by open adoption and care arrangements at board meetings and creates resources and supports to strengthen families with varying levels of openness.

Chair: Martha Chamberlain

The mother of one adoptive child and two biological children, Martha has worked as a lawyer in the area of child protection law for 18 years. She worked for the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto for 16 years, and then was seconded to the Motherisk Commission for two years. She has since opened her own legal practice to represent children, adoptive parents and biological parents, primarily in child protection proceedings. Martha has worked with many families to facilitate and strengthen open adoptions.

Marketing and Communications Committee

Participates in marketing and communications planning and provides guidance to the Board and Adopt4Life team in these areas, to raise our profile and presence in the adoption and kin and customary care communities.

Chair: Nancy Bent

Nancy's early experience as a Case-Aide for the Children's Aid Society of Toronto informed her career as a Communications and Marketing Manager in both the public and non-profit sectors. It also changed her life for the best! She met her beautiful son through adoption and he has enriched the lives of everyone in their growing family. Nancy works to ensure that the best interests of children and families are at the forefront of every high impact plan, campaign, and strategic partnership.

First Nations Inuit Métis (FNIM) Committee
Represents the interests of the FNIM community at Board meetings and engages in outreach to Ontario’s FNIM community to help families forge strong cultural connections.
Chair: Vacant

Contact: Jobs(at)adopt4life(dot)com

African-Canadian Committee
Represents the interests of the African-Canadian community at Board meetings and creates resources and events celebrating Black culture and educating African-Canadian and interracial families.

Contact: Jobs(at)adopt4life(dot)com

Advocacy and Strategic Policy Committee
Advises the Board on policy and legal issues to ensure Adopt4Life is informed and confident in taking action to advance legislation that supports our community.

Contact: Jobs(at)adopt4life(dot)com

Aggression toward Family/Caregivers in Childhood & Adolescence (AFCCA)

Develops and executes strategic programs and awareness initiatives that help families experiencing child to parent violence and aggression. This working group operates under the umbrella of the Advocacy and Strategic Policy Committee. To learn more about Adopt4Life’s work on AFCCA, visit our AFCCA Resource page.

Chair: Lauri Cabral

Lauri Cabral brings 25+ years of experience in policy, human resources, strategic administration, and conflict resolution. She has led management committees in the collective bargaining process, developed policies, managed teams in the delivery of equitable services to workers in the public and broader public sectors and was recognized for her ability to develop mutually beneficial solutions in high conflict situations. She has worked as a Negotiator, a Manager of Operations, Director of Human Resources and as an Executive Advisor. She is certified in dispute resolution with the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation.

Lauri uses her acquired skills to help increase capacity and outcomes for children who suffer with mental health and/or who have experienced early trauma. With an M.Ed. in Counselling Psychology, she has worked in both a strategic capacity and as a Regional Parent Liaison with Adopt4Life, running a peer support network in the Ottawa area, which permitted her to walk alongside parents who struggle with the complex needs of their children. She has been instrumental in introducing Connect, an evidence based attachment training program for parents of children with mental health issues to the Ottawa area. Lauri enjoys helping to build a sense of community, strengthening relationships and connecting families with much needed resources and support.

Carolyn Mcleod Former Chair of the Board

Carolyn and her partner, Andrew, adopted two boys internationally, aged three and five at the time. A professor of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, Carolyn focuses on the ethics of assisted reproduction and adoption in her research. She co-edited the book Family-Making: Contemporary Ethical Challenges (Oxford University Press, 2014) and was an invited participant at the International Forum on Inter-country Adoption and Global Surrogacy, in The Hague, Netherlands.