Our Board

Scroll down for bios of our current board members. Are you interested in joining our board to provide leadership in equitable systems transformation? Apply here.

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Madeleine Edwards

Maddy (they/them) has a lifelong fascination with communication: they believe authentic, empathetic understanding is vital to making the world a better place. Maddy holds a Master of Arts (MA) and Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English: throughout those programs they sought out opportunities to learn about how social, cultural, and language systems impact how we communicate. Now working in community engagement, Maddy collaborates with infrastructure and energy sector clients to help them follow best practices and legislation in their development projects. They also work on projects which are community-led or highly collaborative between the developer and community: Maddy enjoys helping people who may have very different lived experiences to communicate their needs and goals and find a common path forward. Maddy has lived in Kjipuktuk/ Halifax since 2020 and has been connecting with the community through art courses, library events, and now with Inspiring Communities.

Maddy is a versatile and passionate lifelong learner who loves trying new things. They spend their time hiking, at the beach, gardening, and taking their cat, Andy, out on walks. Maddy also likes trying out new art projects: collage, bookbinding, and making miniatures out of found objects. Maddy believes almost any activity can be a way to communicate unique experiences and looks forward to growing their knowledge of how best to communicate with others on their level.

Kenisha Gordon

Kenisha Gordon (she/her) is a high-performing professional with a passion for helping organizations foster inclusive work culture and deliver high-quality services through development, operationalization, monitoring and evaluation of equitable human resource policies, diversity and inclusion action plans; and inclusive communication frameworks. Kenisha’s areas of expertise include: diversity, inclusion, human equity, corporate governance and gender equality policy development, action plans, monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
Kenisha brings over 10 years professional experience in government, and social justice frameworks at the national, regional and international levels. She is the current Chair for Kingston/Greenwood Community Health Board (NS), Vice Chair of the Commonwealth Women in Local Government Network (UK), and was responsible for the development of the Municipality of the County of Kings Diversity Implementation Plan. She has recently joined the Worker’s Compensation Board of Nova Scotia in the role of Diversity and Inclusion Advisor.
Her values are trust, collaboration, high-performance, integrity, empathy, kindness, transparency,
accountability, high-quality service delivery and adaptability.

John Gunn

John Gunn has been a dedicated professional accountant for more than 40 years. His most recent professional roles included National HR Partner with Grant Thornton and CEO with CA School of Business in Western Canada, following which he served more than three years helping oversee and guide the rationalization of the accounting profession. In addition to his dedicated work leading the professional education program for accountants, John has served on not-for-profit boards throughout the last 20 plus years, for organizations including Saint Andrew’s United Church, environmental charity Clean Foundation, MPA Society, a non-profit service agency that supports people living with mental illness and ACCORD, the Association for Creative Change in Organization Renewal and Development.

Desmond Miller

I have 14 years of experience in the financial services industry, currently serving in a senior leadership role at my firm. I bring an extensive understanding of financial reporting, project management and change management.

I enjoy working with my team to solve immediate problems and implement strategic solutions. I look forward to bringing the same strategic and collaborative mindset to the Inspiring Communities board and contribute to its governance the best I can.

If I could instantly become an expert at something, it would be renewable energy. It’s a timely, heavily debated topic with a variety of widely held beliefs. I believe it’s essential to our well-being and earth’s future as the population and life expectancy continues to grow. I am a person who enjoys the process of things so I wouldn’t want to instantly become an expert at any of my hobbies – this would take away some of the enjoyment for me.

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Dianne Oickle

Dianne Oickle (she/her) is a registered dietitian who has been working in the public health field for over 27 years, and strives to live in a way that is anti-oppressive. Her biggest passion is for meaningful engagement of people with lived expertise of inequities to inform public and community health priorities. As a white, cis-gendered, heterosexual woman, Dianne actively continues her learning about the privileges that come with these identities and how they intersect with her own lived experience of struggle in other areas. Her professional work is with the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health (NCCDH) and as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Human Nutrition at St. FX University. Her work  focuses on community engagement, mental health promotion, inter-sectoral practice, and action on the social and structural determinants of health equity. Dianne earned a BSc at St. Francis Xavier University and an MSc at the University of Saskatchewan and has been with the NCCDH since 2014. She lives with her husband, son, 3 dogs, 3 cats, and some chickens in Monastery, NS.

Habiba Onuorah

Habiba Onuorah is a communication professional with over ten years of experience spanning three continents. She finds great joy in communications because it enables her to demonstrate her proactive personality and unleashes her creative genius.

Having moved to Nova Scotia with her family four years ago from Nigeria, Habiba has fallen in love with the province. She is now committed to influencing other newcomers to make Nova Scotia their new home.

She serves as a volunteer mentor for the EduNova Study and Stay program, where she guides and supports international students (mentees) in crafting impressive resumes and improving their interview skills, preparing them for success in the job market.

Fadi Al Qassar 

Fadi has come a long way from his native Jordan. And he’s made a lot of stops along the way.

He leads Venture 2 Impact, a charity organization focused on creating innovative digital experiences to advance social impact and the SDGs around the world. The organization virtually connects nonprofits and skilled-volunteers from across the world to partner on solving social issues. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fadi’s work helped 29,000 children in Uganda receive better care through a data management and digital design hackathon in collaboration with Salesforce and Microsoft Employees. He also supported emergency digital training and up-skillment of organizations in 9 different countries benefiting 1.5 million indirect beneficiaries, and provided digital entrepreneurship training and e-commerce training to women victims of human trafficking to reduce their risk of revictimization.

Prior to the pandemic, Venture 2 Impact facilitated physical skilled-based volunteer programs around the world.  Fadi has experience facilitating digital innovation projects globally, including in: Uganda, Rwanda, Romania, India, Ecuador, Indonesia, among other countries.

Fadi’s work on digital innovation and social impact has been featured in many media outlets including: NASDAQ, Google, Salesforce, CBC and Entrevestor.

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Perry Sankarsingh

Perry is a self-directed Operations Management professional with broad acumen, informed by diverse experiences in Health Care, private sector OEM, and non-government organizations. 

Perry holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Bachelor of Engineering Technology (BTech). Starting as an industrial engineer working in the manufacturing sector, Perry developed an expertise in LEAN quality improvement and change management working for companies ComDev Honeywell, John Crane and Ford Canada.

For the last decade, Perry has applied that expertise to improve the design of human services. His experiences range from social services to health care research with senior roles in occupational health and safety, community-based care, emergency health services and public drug plans.

An experienced leader and change agent, Perry is driven by a fundamental belief in the values of public service, community activism and socially responsible enterprise through continuous quality improvement.

Perry and his wife are aspiring homesteaders, and along with their two children enjoy gardening and tending to a motley cast of chickens, pets and other random forest creatures.

Peggy Tibbo-Cameron

Peggy is the consummate problem solver and strategist.  Her facility for development and implementation of truly actionable plans – strategic, business and tactical – has benefitted both government and public-private partnerships.  Successfully leading programs and projects that require collaboration between industry groups and government stakeholders at all levels has earned her national recognition.

Peggy’s background and diversified experience has taken her from public policy through to research, strategy and analysis. Notably, she spearheaded and managed a unique national information resource for arts, culture, heritage and sports. Working with people, her teamwork, communication, creativity, enthusiasm and infectious laugh are a win/win for clients and boards alike. 

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