Staff

Joanne has been a compassionate and enthusiastic educator for 38 years. She has been an advocate for “student voice” for the past 25 years: coordinating and organizing student summits, and leadership and peer assistance camps. Student engagement and empowerment through “student voice” initiatives have been at the centre of her recent work, especially since retiring from her full time position with the Ottawa Catholic School Board in 2013, as the Coordinator of Student Success for Intermediate and Secondary Schools.

She has been Ottawa Coordinator for the Keep the Promise National and Ottawa Student Summits related to ending child poverty. She was the Program Manager for Global Solutions with The Learning Partnership and initiated this program with local school boards and coordinated the Global Solutions Student Summit in Ottawa. Joanne has also been a Navigation Learning Partner, assisting our most vulnerable students with exploring college and university programs. In addition, she also worked with elementary students as a Special Education Assistive  Technology Coach. She continues to work in Guidance as a counsellor in schools where extra assistance is needed.

Joanne was a finalist in the Women of Distinction Awards in Ottawa in the area of Education and was a recipient of the Director of Commendation Award in the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Joanne received the Pathways Star recognition from the Ottawa Catholic School Board for her contributions establishing specialized pathways, transition programs and providing student voice opportunities.

She has been volunteering with Children First Canada for the past three years, coordinating retired educators to assist participants – both children and adults – at their Ottawa events.

Joanne has two energetic and adventurous adult sons who live in Toronto. She lives in Ottawa with her supportive partner Michael.  She is also a competitive dragon boat paddler (whose club qualified for the 2020 world championships).  When not on the water, she is on the courts playing pickleball or tennis.

With more than 25 years as a human rights advocate (LGBTQ2+, women, children) with experience in advocacy, communications, and government relations for the non-profit sector. As a Partner with Patricia Erb & Associates, Cicely is now focused on helping organizations achieve social impact through development and community engagement.

Working for Save the Children Canada (SCC) for almost a decade, as Director of Policy and Government Relations, she designed and implemented advocacy campaigns and government relations strategies and led and participated in policy development for the global organization.

Non-profits must do more than address immediate needs to achieve an equitable and sustainable world. They must work to address the root causes and fix the broken systems that create or sustain injustice. They must advocate for change and amplify and support the voices of the most marginalized.

Successful social movements and political campaigns require community engagement and mobilization. Cicely is an expert with more than 25 years of volunteer and professional campaign experience. She has coordinated hundreds of community advocates in the struggle for equal marriage and civil rights for 2LGBTQ+ Canadians. She has trained and marshalled volunteers to campaign for political candidates. Training volunteer and professional advocates on campaign strategy and implementation has allowed her to share her experience and support movements for children’s rights around the world.

Wraychel has twenty-four years’ experience advocating for and with children and youth through executive, non-for-profit, government, and consulting roles. She has dedicated her career to leading and supporting diverse organizations serving children and youth to advance human rights.

Wraychel has piloted programming for both the Ministry of Children and Youth Services and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities in Ontario. She has overseen services for more than 6000 youth in simultaneous community programming. Wraychel has founded a private Montessori school and within the public education system, she created the first paid co-op program outside of the Armed Services in Canada. Wraychel has worked in-person with colleagues from Jamacia to the Czech Republic to uphold youth participatory rights.

During the early months of pandemic isolation in 2020, Wraychel was asked to establish the ‘PEI Children & Youth Table’ for the Executive Council of government in Prince Edward Island with the goal of facilitating youth input into government policy decisions at a challenging global time. She subsequently provided advocacy services as part of the inaugural staff for the legislated Child and Youth Advocate Office of PEI.

Throughout her career, Wraychel has worked to ensure children and youth have the opportunity to speak directly for themselves to roles spanning High Commissioners, Ambassadors, Senators, Premiers, Deputy Premiers, Ministers, directors and policy writers.

Wraychel is pursuing her PhD with the University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, within the Adult Education and Community Development program. She is exploring how adults learn from youth for the purpose of policy work, social justice, and advancing human rights.

At home in PEI, Wraychel enjoys planning travel adventures with her daughter and basking in the beauty of Island life.