Our Board of Directors

Marianne Park

Marianne is an experienced facilitator/instructor. She has worked in the violence against women field for over nineteen years. She is experienced in the issue of disability awareness and advocacy having the distinction of being a woman with a disability.

Marianne has presented workshops and seminars throughout the province to a number of diverse groups. These groups include: police officers, shelter workers, health care professionals, developmental service workers and social justice advocates. The sessions have special emphasis on the issues of domestic violence, violence against women with disabilities, disability sensitivity and workplace harassment.

She is a member of the Board of Directors for DAWN Ontario - Disabled Women's Network. She is chair of the Oxford County Accessibility Advisory Committee. Marianne is a public member on the Board of Directors Drugless Therapy-Naturopathy for Ontario.

She has received a number of awards for her community work including being named to the Mayor's Honour List 2004 for her advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities, the Ontario Volunteer Service award from the Ministry of Citizenship Culture and Recreation 2001, volunteer of the year for Oxford Children's Aid Society 1996 and most inspiring woman by the Woodstock Daily Sentinel Review 1988.

Marianne holds a BA Hon. in cultural anthropology from the University of Windsor and an MA in cultural/medical anthropology from the University of Tennessee.

Barbara Anello

Barbara Anello is a social justice activist who uses technology as a tool to promote change. Barbara currently serves as Chair of DAWN Ontario, a director on the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO) board, and vice chair of ISAC, working with and on behalf of low income communities in Ontario to address issues of income security and poverty. Barbara has been recognized for her work in the voluntary sector with the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship (1995) and the Outstanding Achievement Award for Volunteerism in Ontario (2004) for her vigilance and defence of the rights of marginalized communities

Kate Stephenson

M. Kate Stephenson is a lawyer at the law firm WeirFoulds LLP in Toronto. She has litigation practice that focuses on human rights, constitutional and administrative law. She has been counsel in several cases involving low income people, often on a pro bono basis, and she was seconded for two years (2002-2004) to the Clinic Resource Office, where she was the Clinic Barrister doing court-based litigation for clinics all across the province. Some of her cases include Falkiner (in which the Court of Appeal unanimously struck down Ontario's "spouse in the house" welfare rule), Iness (a case at the human rights Tribunal involving discrimination against social assistance recipients), Graham (a constitutional challenge to the "living with parent" welfare rule), Jeevaratnam (a constitutional challenge to the reduction of welfare amounts given to sponsored immigrants) and others. She is currently co-counsel with ISAC on the case challenging the NCBS clawback. She has acted for intervenor groups such as the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues, the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), and the National Anti-Poverty Organization. She was a member of the National Legal Committee of LEAF from 1999 to 2004, and she chaired that committee for three years. As a law student she was the Director of the Centre for Spanish Speaking People's Student Legal Clinic, and after law school she sat on the Board of Kensington Bellwoods Community Legal Clinic. In 2004 she received the first ever Advocate's Society Arleen Goss Young Advocates' Award, an award created to acknowledge a lawyer who has been called to the bar for less than 10 years, and who has demonstrated "innovative and passionate advocacy, contribution to social justice, and commitment to the community."

Graham Mayeda

Graham is currently an assistant professor of law at the University of Ottawa, where he teaches courses on criminal law and law and developing countries. Recently, his research has focused primarily on the impact of various international legal regimes on developing countries. However, he is also interested in the impact of the criminal law on particular marginalized groups, including those with income security issues. As well, he has conducted research on the history of the Canadian welfare state.

Graham is coordinator (with Prof. Rakhi Ruparelia) of the Social Justice Group at the Faculty of Law. The group aims at promoting and disseminating the faculty's research in the area of social justice generally, but many faculty members are interested in the intersecting forms of marginalization in our legal system, including income insecurity. As well, the Social Justice Group co-ordinates the faculty's courses in the area of social justice, and encourages and counsels law students interested in careers in this area.

As a law student, Graham spent two years as a volunteer defending clients with income security issues who had been ticketed under various provincial statutes. He obtained disclosure for them, and represented them as their agent in provincial court. He also volunteered for three years at Downtown Legal Services, the University of Toronto legal clinic, where he represented clients with both criminal and housing issues.

Graham will bring to the Income Security Advocacy Centre his familiarity with Canadian scholars conducting research in the area of social justice, and he will help to build a relationship between these scholars and the centre. In addition to his interest in Canadian criminal law and Canadian social policy, his interest in international development law will create links between domestic income insecurity issues and issues of global poverty resulting from our increasingly globalized world.

Melanie Brown

Melanie has her M.A. in Sociology and has been a social activist for many years. As a sole support parent of 3 children, she has many years first-hand experience with low income issues. She has worked as an Advocate for LIFE*SPIN, a London based non-profit organization dedicated to providing information and support to low income families, and has served on the steering committee of the THAW Program. She is currently a member of the London Women's Events Committee, and continues to network with various activist organizations seeking to promote social change.

Libby Bobiwash-Waikquakmic

Libby Bobiwash-Waikquakmic is a citizen of the Anishnawbe Nation and is currently studying community economic and social development at the Algoma University College in Sault Ste. Marie. Libby has a strong commitment to social justice and believes that inequality should be addressed through the legal system to ensure inclusion of all members of the community, not just a privileged few.

Lisa Jamieson

Lisa has been working as a community developer in Ottawa for the past 15 years. Her past community work focused on tenant rights and homelessness. Currently, Lisa works part-time with the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa Branch, where she coordinates the Financial Accessibility Committee. Through her work in bringing together community partners, Lisa has been part of a number of exciting initiatives including establishing a discounted city bus pass for recipients of ODSP, developing a community-based ODSP Application Support Worker project and working on banking issues experienced by people with serious mental illnesses.  Lisa is a member of the ODSP Action Coalition and works locally in Ottawa on many ODSP issues.

Lisa and her husband have 2 boys and too many pets.

Roberta Oshkawbewisens-Martin

Roberta is an Aboriginal woman who has been involved with First Nations Communities and Urban Communities since 1984. As an educator, supporter, and coordinator of programs and as Board of Director member to various groups promoting wellness, she believes in community strength, whether it be Aboriginal Culture and Tradition or working with community grass roots women.

Roberta is a Life Skills Coach. She brings to the board skills gained in the areas of Addiction, Family Violence, COmmunity developments and group facilitation.

Roberta is interested in promoting and educating people about  their rights, advocating for people that the law considers less fortunate; helping to build solid foundations for people at risk. Roberta speaks Odawa/Ojibawe.

Gerda Kaegi

Gerda is a community activist concerned about the many issues facing the legal aid system in Ontario and this has raised her concern about the survival of clinic poverty law. She is currently an active board member of the Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario and A-WAY, a consumer survivor courier service.

Her background is political science. She is a retired professor from Ryerson University, School of Public Administration and Department of Politics. Her academic and teaching work was in the area of public policy and government. She has been a long-standing member of Canadian Pensioners Concerned. CPC is an organization that has concerned itself with the well-being of people of all ages. She has helped write many of the CPC briefs to governments covering such topics as poverty, minimum wage, housing and supportive housing, pension issues, education and training for immigrants and low-income people. She has appeared before federal and provincial committees of parliament, where the issue of poverty has been a central focus.

Gerda believes we must fight very hard for the preservation and enhancement of poverty law services in this province. Her vision for poverty law is that it is accessible to all that need it.

Lina Anani

Lina is currently a lawyer in private practice focusing in immigration/refugee law and criminal law.  She has a BA and MA from York University.  She has carried out extensive work in the human rights and women’s rights.  She has been on a number of boards, including DAWN Ontario, Amnesty International Canada, Community Legal Aid Service Programme at Osgoode Hall Law School and currently the Canadian Centre for International Justice. 

Norma MacKenzie

Norma Mackenzie is a staff lawyer with the Nipissing Community Legal Clinic in North Bay, Ontario. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Studies from the University of Prince Edward Island and a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. She is currently a Board member of the West Ferris Day Care.

Mindy Lopes

Mindy Lopes is a community legal worker at the Kensington-Bellwoods Community Legal Services in Toronto. In her 14 years with the clinic, Mindy has worked primarily on issues related to income security programs. She is also the co-chair of the legal clinic CPP working group.

Craig Foye

Craig Foye is a lawyer with McQuesten Legal & Community Services, a community legal clinic in the east end of Hamilton. He is a member of the Income Security Working Group ("ISWG") in Hamilton, is currently the chair of the Human Rights Committee of the ISWG, and is also a member of the Food, Shelter and Housing Advisory Committee to Hamilton City Council. He is a volunteer Board member in Hamilton with the Community Centre for Media Arts, and just recently resigned after five years on the Board of the Housing Help Centre. Prior to coming to work with the clinics, Craig was the Homelessness Project Coordinator with the Social Planning & Research Council of Hamilton.

Sayonara Mairena

Sayonara Mairena has been working at South Etobicoke Community Legal Clinic as a community legal worker since 1991. She does community organizing and law reform in the areas of Income Maintenance, CPP, Employment Standards and Employment Insurance. She has organized orientation sessions for newcomers, does summary advice, and referrals for clinic clients. Between 1980 and 1984 she was a Junior Law Professor at the National University Law School in Nicaragua.

Deidre McDade

Deidre is a staff lawyer at the Community Advocacy and Legal Centre in Belleville. She obtained her honours degree in Political science and her law degree from Queens University. Called to the bar in 1995, Deirdre was in private practice doing litigation until she joined the clinic in September 1999. She has been a poverty law lawyer for 8 years practicing in the areas of social assistance law and human rights.   She does all the appellant work at the clinic in Belleville and she is actively involved in the community development work of the clinic. She is active in the movement to end violence against women.  She is a past Board member of the Sexual Assault Crisis Centre in Kingston, Three Oaks Shelter for Abused Women, and a former member of the Quinte Coordinating Committee against Violence and the Dedicated Domestic Violence Court. She is currently a member of the Eastern Region Income Maintenance Study Group and the Clinic Human Rights Working Group.  She has been involved with local community groups working to end poverty as well as local violence against women service providers.  She is excited about working at a provincial level with other anti-poverty advocates to address systemic issues.