The Board of Directors is essential in making decisions that guide Charlford House in the right direction.
Sara Li
President
Sara is a lawyer in the public sector in Vancouver. She is passionate about helping women from all walks of life achieve their goals and strongly believes in the values and vision at the core of Charlford House. Sara has been an active volunteer for many years, and is delighted to have joined Charlford House’s Board in 2018.
Nester Chen
Vice President
Nester has five years of event marketing, fundraising, and community relations experience engaging and building strong communities across British Columbia. Nester is currently working as a Sr. Marketing Communications Manager at TELUS where she overlooks digital community engagement strategies. Prior to that, she spent some time in the non-profit sector, working with the Canadian Cancer Society as a Development Coordinator for their various fundraising programs.
She’s a strong believer that one person can make a difference in the world, and she lives by it every day; whether it’s volunteering as a Big Sisters Mentor or starting her own non-profit club at her university dedicated towards reducing the stigma around homelessness, she’s always in the community. If she’s not volunteering or working, you’ll likely find her at a cake shop.
Jill Hendrickson
Treasurer
Jill is a senior manager at a mid-size public accounting firm in Vancouver. She has extensive experience in Canadian and United States personal and corporate taxation, financial statement preparation and audits of not-for-profit organizations. Jill is excited about the opportunity to volunteer with Charlford House on the Board of Directors.
Kelly Lin
Secretary
Kelly is an Executive Manager in real estate development, focusing on private and public partnerships and social impact real estate. With over 20 years experience, she has worked on such projects as: affordable housing for seniors, students, employees and others; mixed use development for women and children with transitional, 2nd stage and affordable housing and childcare; congregational space and affordable housing focused on reconciliation with the indigenous community by a local religious organization, government and private sector.
Tiffany Ho
Board Member
Tiffany is an Associate Lawyer at a boutique law firm in Downtown Vancouver. She was called to the bar of British Columbia in December 2022. Tiffany’s legal training is concentrated in the areas of real estate, commercial and corporate law. A large part of her training involves not-for-profit societies, particularly those engaged in affordable and subsidized housing. In the past, Tiffany has volunteered with many local not-for-profit organizations such as Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, S.U.C.C.E.S.S., and YMCA Greater Vancouver. She has also served on the SFU Alumni Association Board of Directors.
She believes in contributing and giving back to the local community. As a woman, she is interested in assisting Charlford House Society for Women in achieving its mission to provide women with a safe, healthy and caring environment to experience recovery from drug and/or alcohol addiction. She would like to take part in cultivating a supportive community for women from all walks of life.
Cynthia Bouchard
Board Member
Cynthia Bouchard is the Senior Manager of the National Housing Council Secretariat at the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. She has twenty years experience working in the public sector in roles of increasing responsibility including the BC Federal Council, the Courts Administration Services, the National Energy Board, and Public Services and Procurement Canada. She is known as an inspiring leader who helps teams achieve objectives while empowering others to do their best work. She sponsors and mentors a number of women of diverse background, and received several Deputy Minister awards, including for diversity and inclusion and team work. She has a long history of volunteering in her community in causes close to her heart. Cynthia had the opportunity to live in Mexico and Australia as well as in many Canadian cities. She is currently based in Vancouver where she lives with her husband and two teenage sons. She is a fitness enthusiast, a creative cook, and a soon to be published author.
Sonny Somani
Board Member
Sonny brings 20+ years of operations leadership spanning retail, financial, hospitality, manufacturing, social services and health care operations. Sonny has proven experience in providing strategic leadership and operational direction in both a union/non-union environment and has managed contracts with Vancouver Coastal Health and the Fraser Health Authority.
Sonny is adept at streaming workflow, creating efficiencies, continuous improvement including gathering productivity metrics, redesigning site layout and implementing equipment changes to effect more efficient operations. Sonny also has experience in providing oversight of I.T. (CRM management, security, compliance with PIPA and PIPEDA) including implementation of new technologies for operational improvements. Sonny’s experience with negotiations with vendors, service contracts, new acquisitions and property developments will serve the organization well and enable growth with attention to risk factors and efficiencies.
Sonny has been an advocate for those who may not be able to voice their needs or concerns including seniors and the vulnerable population which may be overlooked. From personal family challenges he has gone through, he has taken those experiences to make it his purpose to ensure others are not taken advantage of but rather educated and supported for solutions for the future.
Melissa Jang
Board Member
Melissa is a Senior Product Manager at TELUS Health with over 10 years of experience in strategic planning, product development, healthcare operations and marketing. She has a passion for advancing women and gender equity which are big reasons she’s drawn to the work Charlford House does. As an avid community volunteer, Melissa also volunteers as the Director, Logistics for the CIBC Run for the Cure (Canadian Cancer Society) and on the Alumni Committee for Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland.
Bryn-Erin Ward
Board Member
As Charlford House’s Fundraising & Events Assistant between February 2020 - December 2022, Bryn successfully raised over $275,000.00 in grant funds, donations and Sponsorships. She established relationships with potential grantors and donors and secured our status as a charity partner with the Vancouver Sun Run.
Bryn spent the last decade as a Top 1% ranked realtor. In that time she was also President of the Hyack Festival Association 2018, a candidate for City Council, and owner and instructor of an acting school. A graduate of Beverly Hills High School (public speaking champion), she was an actress for 30 years in Los Angeles and locally. She is best known as “Libby” on “Party of Five”.
Bryn is also an advocate for mental health and addiction treatment and recovery, as well as arts and culture. She has received many awards, including an honourary knighting, for her volunteer and philanthropy work. Bryn feels honoured to be a part of Charlford House Society for Woman and believes she can make a difference by giving back to the community that saved her life.
Emilie Lahaie
Board Member
Emilie Lahaie (she/her/hers) is a partner in the Aboriginal Law Group at Cassels. Emilie works on Aboriginal legal matters related to Indigenous rights and self-governance, policy development, and constitutional issues. In particular, Emilie has developed an expertise in Canadian Metis section 35 rights and governance. She offers extensive experience in section 35 rights advocacy, specific claims, negotiations, human rights advocacy and law reform.
Emilie has represented a wide breadth of clients in the Aboriginal law space, including Indigenous groups and individuals, provincial governments and project proponents. Thus, she brings a nuanced understanding of the needs of all parties in the Canadian Indigenous legal space to her practice. Emilie has represented clients at various administrative tribunals, including the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, Ontario Coroner’s Court and in the Residential Schools Independent Process. She has also appeared on matters before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Ontario Court of Appeal, Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2017, Emilie appeared before the Senate Committee for Aboriginal Peoples to testify in regard to the potential impact of Bill S-3.
Prior to joining Cassels, Emilie was a casework at Aboriginal Legal Services where she worked directly with clients from the urban Indigenous community of Toronto.
Sandra Siller
Board Member
Sandra was privileged to participate in Charlford House's program of recovery in 2004. The lessons and tools learned in the house have been instrumental in her recovery and spiritual path. She has a strong desire to give back to the house that taught her how to live and become a productive member of society.
Sandra has over 30 years of accounting experience and has been at her current position for 17 years; she believes she would not be where she is today without Charlford House. She wants to offer her skills in accounting and finance to a wonderful program that helps women find recovery and rejoin society.
Stephanie Lee
Board Member
Stephanie Lee (she/her/hers) is an associate in the Business Law Group at Cassels, Brock & Blackwell LLP. Steph’s practice focuses on private and public mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, and general corporate and securities law matters with particular expertise in the mining sector.