Ian is a retired litigation lawyer, practising in the East End of Vancouver for over 45 years, and has been involved with a variety of community organizations. These include Chair of the BC Pavilion Corporation (which owns and operates the Vancouver Convention Centre and BC Place), President of the Pacific National Exhibition, Chair of the Britannia Community Centre, Executive Member of REACH Health Clinic, Executive Member of the Trial Lawyers Association of BC, and previous President of the BCNDP. He has been involved as a volunteer with the Lawyers Assistant Program of BC for over 25 years, including being the Chair of that Board. He is committed to working with others in 12-Step Recovery and continues to do so on a daily basis. He lives in Burnaby with his spouse, Cathy Aikenhead, and has two grown children.

Bio Coming Soon.

Mary is a retired 41 year veteran of the financial industry. Her career started with the Greater Vancouver Community Credit Union. Mary loves to travel and see her family in the Netherland and England. She enjoys the outdoors and her garden.

As a cancer survivor, Mary feels that we have four jobs that we need to do. Manage relationships, manage health & fitness, manage money, and create purpose and meaning.

After seeing all the hard work that TWC has done over the years, she joined the Board as the Treasurer seven years ago.

Dr Mead has been practicing addiction medicine for over 20 years with expertise in women’s health, concurrent psychiatric disorders and pain management. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Addiction Medicine and Clinical Assistant Professor, UBC. She holds the positions of Senior Medical Director for Mental Health and Substance Use programs at BC Women’s Hospital, and Medical Director for BC Correctional Health Services. Dr Mead provides clinical care to women in recovery at New Dawn Recovery House and consults on the Addiction Medicine Consult Services at St Paul’s Hospital and BC Women’ and Children’s hospitals. As past Program Director of the BCCSU Addiction Medicine Fellowship training program, she continues to teach and mentor students, trainees and practicing physicians in the field of Substance Use care.

Peter grew up in Europe where he was educated in England and the Netherlands and learned to speak four languages. He came to Canada to study Economics at UBC and then embarked on a career in banking, finance and subsequently financial planning and accounting, that has spanned over three decades. In addition to his master’s degree in business administration, he is both a Certified Financial Planner and a Chartered Professional Accountant. He has some experience with non-profit organisations and has acted as treasurer for a micro-board. He was drawn to get involved with Together We Can after seeing the difference that the organisation made in the life of a close friend.

Dana Sirsiris is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of experience in Human Resources. She is a dedicated wife and mother of three, though her eldest son, Johnny, tragically passed away in 2020 at the age of 25 due to a fentanyl overdose. In memory of Johnny, Dana is a co-founder and serves as a partner in the Johnny's Heart of Gold Invitational initiative, alongside her nephew and family friend. Established in 2021, their mission is to create a lasting legacy for Johnny by raising funds to support organizations that focus on mental health and substance use disorders.

With a diverse background in public sector HR, Dana has served in various roles since 1993. Presently, she holds the position of Director, HR for School District 42 (Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows), a role she has held since 2011. In her capacity as a senior leader and member of the Senior Management team, Dana actively participates in strategic and operational planning. She plays a role in shaping the culture of the school district, budget planning, and providing HR-related recommendations and presentations to the Board of Education. Dana leads a team of 11 HR professionals responsible for supporting the entire employee experience, from recruitment to retirement. Her scope of responsibilities includes overseeing attraction, recruitment and retention, staffing, dispatch, health, safety and wellness, disability management, staff development, job design, analysis and compensation, and employee and labor relations.

Prior to her current role, Dana worked for 10+ years with the City of Vancouver's HR department as the Manager of Employee Relations and HR Consultant. She initiated her HR career as an HR generalist with Providence Health Care (St. Paul's Hospital), where she was primarily responsible for recruitment and staffing as well as the coordination and facilitation of staff development and training initiatives.

Dana's commitment to her profession, combined with her personal experiences, deeply motivates her to dedicate her efforts towards raising awareness and support for mental health and substance use disorders.

Cheryl Palazoff has been the Indigenous Health (IH) Office Manager and Admin Supervisor for Vancouver Coastal Health Authority for the past two years. She is an experienced administrative professional working at an Executive level in a health care setting and Human Resources with over 30 years of experience assisting with and fulfilling organizational staff needs and requirements.

Prior to her role in IH, her health care career focused on supporting the Board of the Provincial Health Services Authority and, more recently, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCH). VCH is the largest health authority in the province of BC and employs over 25,000 people with an operating budget of over $4B. Cheryl coordinated and organized all aspects of Board activities, including providing governance support, coordinating annual board evaluations, coordinating CEO performance evaluation processes, updating board skills matrix reports and reviewing all board governance policies. She worked in alignment with the CEO and Board Chair of the Health Authority. Cheryl brings her extensive experience working with Health Authority Boards to the non-profit community.

Cheryl has a personal desire to support and give back to the staff and clients of Together We Ca.