REACH GOVERNANCE

REACH Community Health Centre is led by a volunteer Board of Directors elected by our membership each year at our Annual General Meeting. Their role is to govern the organization on behalf of the community, in a timely, transparent, and accountable manner by overseeing the performance of the organization and ensuring fiscal integrity and regulatory compliance.

Board of Directors

Our directors live or work in East Vancouver or are clients of REACH programs. They serve two-year terms up to a maximum of four terms. A director should be committed to and knowledgeable about REACH, have the time available to attend regular meetings, and have the appropriate skill set to provide leadership and governance direction to the organization. Board members are expected to support and sign our board job description, statement of confidentiality and conflict of interest policy. Each year a nominating committee is struck to recruit new members based on board needs and our strategic plan. If you are interested in joining the team, please visit join the REACH Board page.

Marta Filipski - President

Marta Filipski (she/her) has been a neighbor of REACH for over a decade raising her young family on the ancestral and unceded homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. She is strongly connected to the community and has a deep interest in its well-being. With a career focused on public service and a personal interest in healthy aging, Marta brings a diverse professional background spanning public health, healthcare operations, and municipal government. She is excited about the opportunity to support the incredible work and future of REACH.

Liam Slade - Vice President

Liam Slade has been an East Vancouver resident since 2018. Liam's career has focused on developing public health initiatives for British Columbians. Notably, he supported COVID-19 community testing in Burnaby BC, created health programs to support individuals who use drugs or are experiencing homelessness, and has recently worked on the Fraser Health rollout of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios. Liam is passionate about improving health care access for all community members.

Tessa MacDougall - Treasurer

Tessa was born and raised in the Lower Mainland and currently works in East Vancouver. She is excited to give back to her community and support REACH. Professionally, Tessa works as a consultant in health care in BC supporting physicians, clinics, and organizations to deliver programs and services efficiently and effectively. She is grateful to be able to apply her years of experience, passion for working in teams, and big-picture approach, to support REACH in its important role in the community.

JEAN KAVANAGH - Secretary

Jean Kavanagh has lived in the Renfrew Collingwood neighbourhood for almost 20 years and for nine years was on the Board of the Collingwood Neighbourhood House. Shortly after the RISE Community Health Centre opened, Jean was a Board representative to the RISE advisory committee. Now retired, Jean learned about the importance of community health centres and the social determinants of health through her work at the BC Society for Policy Solutions.

Jean worked in communications, particularly media relations, for many years for non-profit and government organizations. She started her career as a reporter in BC, Ontario and Central America.

Patty Yoon - Board MemBER

Patty Yoon has proudly called East Vancouver home for more than 30 years. With over 33 years of experience in healthcare, she has built a career spanning a wide range of roles, including hospital switchboard operator, patient information clerk, direct care nurse, and healthcare leader.

Patty is a passionate advocate for patient- and family-centred care. She believes meaningful healthcare improvements and change are achieved by working in partnership with people with lived experience. She established a patient and family advisory committee whose model has since been replicated across British Columbia.

Patty has served on the Board of Directors of REACH Community Health Centre since 2023.

KIMBERLEY LAING - BOARD MEMBER

Kimberley grew up in Northern BC, with her working years in Yukon Territory, Vancouver, and the Lower Mainland. In her previous work as a dental hygienist with master’s education in population and public health, she worked collaboratively with the community-as-a-partner to address the social determinants of health. As a community governed organization, REACH is a critical partner.

With 26 years in diverse areas of general and specialty practice; having mentored a professional study club; worked with rehab teams in providing homebound care; educated health care teams and supported managers in the implementation of practice standards in the long-term care facilities; worked as a grant writer and coordinator for BC Cancer on funded community-based participatory research and health promotion programs in First Nation communities; BC representative when design of the Canada Dental Care Plan was in process, and most recently in her previous role as community health coordinator and dental hygiene instructor in post-secondary education with many local partnering agencies in Vancouver (daycares, schools, after school programs, long term care, health care assistant and nursing programs, and First Nation partners).

Kim has many years of governance experience on non-profit boards at the federal and provincial level. She is experiencing disability and on leave from her work in Downtown Eastside Vancouver and lives in Surrey. This brings a new perspective to her dialogue and contributions around accomodation and accessibility barriers. She most enjoys listening and engaging in dialogue with community members to drive the vision and action. The values of decolonization, inclusivity, diversity, equity, and social justice are brought to the table.

Olivia cheng - BOARD MEMBER

Olivia Cheng (she/her) was born in East Vancouver and raised in the Lower Mainland, now calling the Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood home for almost 20 years. Having witnessed the impact REACH has had on loved ones, she brings a personal passion for community health and engagement and an appreciation for the organization's work. With extensive experience in communications and marketing within non-profit health care supporting rural physicians, along with health authority experience supporting public health teams, she has successfully disseminated programs and services across diverse health care systems. Driven by her passion for connecting with and empowering community members, she is grateful for the opportunity to apply her years of experience working in cross-collaborative teams and her commitment to providing accessible and equitable care.

Amelia Keenan - board member

Amelia moved to Vancouver 4 years ago to be closer to her community of people. She works to improve community care through frontline homeless outreach downtown eastside and by managing healthcare non-profit projects, including initiatives to improve access to opioid agonist therapies in police custody. Amelia seeks to understand the complexity of issues, foster connections, and contribute to community wellbeing. This has led her to REACH and a deep interest in supporting the organization and its community.

Wendy Masinde - Board Member

Wendy brings over 15 years of nursing experience blending frontline care and clinical leadership with a Master’s in Nursing focused on advancing Health Equity in delivering patient care. Wendy has guided interdisciplinary teams in adopting new technology, implementing innovative practices and finding creative team driven solutions to strengthen operations and improve system efficiency, always with patients and families at the center.

Based in East Vancouver for the last decade, she is committed to fostering collaborative, supportive environments where teams can thrive together, knowing that strong relationships, empowered people and resilient systems are the foundation to ensuring people receive the care they deserve.

Katie gray - Board Member

My name is Katie Gray and I was born and raised on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people, otherwise known as Vancouver. On my mother’s side, I come from the Tsimshian Nation and on my Father’s side, I come from the Dene Nation.

I have been on an unexpected, challenging, and fruitful journey of physical healing in the past years which has drawn me to delve deeper into learning about the interconnection between physical health, emotional and mental trauma and various systems of knowledge concerning health care. I look forward to learning, growing and contributing my perspective as an Indigenous woman within my home community of East Van.

Noal Amir - Board Member

Noal has resided in East Van since 2018. She has spent over a decade building strategic communications campaigns to drive social change across West Africa, Central Asia and North America. Her experience working in British Columbia's non-profit sector spans the environmental movement, arts education and public health care. Noal is excited to collaborate as a REACH Board member to sustain and strengthen the delivery of innovative community-based health care in her community.

Seth Long - Board Member

Seth is a public health practitioner and certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with 7 years of experience across research and community-focused roles, and is a resident of the Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood. Earlier in his career, he coordinated a provincial harm reduction program and managed a multi-centre clinical trial initiating low-barrier opioid agonist therapy for patients with opioid use disorder in emergency departments. He now works as a Research Program Manager at the University of British Columbia, where he manages an equity-centred, community-based research program in youth mental health, substance use, and 2SLGBTQIA+ health.

Seth’s personal and professional journey has been shaped by his lived experience. When his family first moved to Canada 15 years ago, they found connection and support through a multicultural centre in a small New Brunswick town. Through that experience, Seth came to see community as central to health, and to understand health as extending beyond physical and mental well-being to include social connection and a sense of belonging.

Drawn to REACH’s community-governed model and holistic approach to health, Seth hopes to bring both his professional experience in public health and his lived experience to the Board, while supporting REACH’s continued service to the diverse communities of East Vancouver.

Samara mayer - Board Member

Samara grew up in Calgary and has lived in East Vancouver since 2016. For the last 10 years she has led and coordinated a variety of community-engaged health research projects in Vancouver focused on improving health service delivery for people who use drugs, people who experience homelessness and people who experience poverty. This has included evaluations of drug treatment programs and overdose prevention sites, community-lead research on wound care for people who use drugs and research on equitable palliative pain management.

She is grateful to contribute her knowledge, learn from others, and collaborate to support REACH in delivering compassionate, equitable and patient-centered healthcare in the community.

Governance Documents

REACH CONSTITUTION

Our Constitution and By-Laws (PDF): As a community governed, non-profit organization, REACH adheres to all aspects of our constitution and by-laws.