Board of Directors
We are governed by a volunteer Board of Directors who represent the interests of the Association and work to help us carry out our mission and vision while adhering to our values. Our Executive Director oversees the daily operations of all our programs and services.
A message from the Board Chair
The Board of Directors is a group of volunteers with a variety of knowledge and experience. Many of us have friends or family members who have developmental and/or other disabilities, and one of us is a self-advocate. Our board members come from diverse backgrounds including business and financial advisors, former educators, members in law, policing, healthcare and advocacy. While we come from decidedly different experiences, we all have one important thing in common: we care deeply about the well-being of those in our community who have developmental and/or other disabilities, and their families. We passionately support the mission and vision statements plus all the core values of Community Living Sarnia-Lambton (CLSL), and work to advocate for both the organization of CLSL and its people.
It is our Board of Director’s legal responsibility to support and protect the corporation of CLSL from undue risk; to oversee the operations within the organization and to support the Executive Director in his role. With the help of the people we support and their families, our staff, management, and community partners, we collectively create CLSL’s strategic plan. This is based on people’s knowledge and experiences, their creative visions, wishes and hopes for our organization’s future, and is a comprehensive list of goals along with measurable steps toward achieving them. The strategic plan is used as a guide to decision-making in CLSL and provides benchmarks for evaluating progress.
We recognize the excellent work of our organization’s staff members and their high level of professionalism and commitment to the people they serve. I’d like to take this opportunity to send a thank you to all of CLSL staff for of their hard work and dedication.
Personally, I was appreciative to be given the opportunity to join the CLSL Board of directors in January 2023. I am a registered nurse who has worked in the field of mental health and addictions for the past 7 years. Prior to becoming a nurse, I worked as a developmental services worker and am actually a former employee of CLSL where I worked from 2015-2017. I have always had a strong passion to assist all people with having the best possible quality of life and I am grateful to be able to support CLSL operations and apply their mission, vision and values in the work that we conduct through the Board. Being new to the role of Board President, I have felt great support from our Past President, Lorna Cooper, other board members, as well as CLSL leadership and executive staff. I am proud to volunteer with this outstanding organization.
