Interior Health
Allan Louis: Allan Louis serves as a councillor of the Okanagan Indian Band, maintaining a focus on ideas and initiatives meant to benefit the membership. He is co-chair of the Aboriginal Education Committee for School District 22, recognizing First Nations interests and challenges with the current education model. In addition, he is an active member of the First Nations Health Council, working together with local, provincial and federal governments to achieve innovative ways of delivering health services to First Nations. Louis is the owner of Maximum One Venture. Previously, he worked as a manager for Vernon Travel Lodge. He has also worked as the security manager for Casino of the Rockies and as a service advisor for Cranbrook Dodge. Louis attended Okanagan College.
Karen Hamling: Karen Hamling served four terms as mayor of Nakusp. Hamling retired after many years at the Arrow Lakes Hospital, most of which were spent as the health records supervisor. She previously owned two businesses and now helps with a forestry contracting business. As an active member in the community, Hamling is currently the treasurer and one of the original directors and founders of the Nakusp and Area Community Foundation, co-ordinator for Music in the Park and a past director with Community Futures of Central Kootenay. She is also involved in community health, the steering committee for the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) Community Initiatives and Affected Areas funding program and has attended all CBT symposiums. She is also the vice-chair of the Columbia River Treaty Local Governments Committee and was vice-chair of the Southern Interior Development Initiative Trust. Hamling received her licensed practical nursing certification and is an accredited health record technician.
Island Health
Alana Nast: Alana Nast is a chartered professional accountant from Victoria. After graduating from the University of Victoria in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in economics, she entered articles with the Office of the Auditor General of B.C. and received her designation in 1988. She worked for national accounting firms in Victoria for 13 years. She is currently a principal with Green Horwood & Co LLP chartered professional accountants, where she continues to operate her accounting practice.
Fred Pattje: Fred Pattje is a retired councillor of the City of Nanaimo. As a councillor, he chaired committees on public safety, city planning, arts and culture, and parks and recreation. He was also an alternate director of the Regional District of Nanaimo. Pattje previously worked for Canadian airlines in various positions including marketing and sales. Active in his community, Pattje is a member of the board of the Nanaimo Conservatory of Music. He is also a founding member of the Departure Bay Neighbourhood Association. Pattje studied arts and sciences at McMaster University.
Northern Health
Wilfred (Wilf) Adam: Wilf Adam was born in Burns Lake, grew up in a small community called Pendleton Bay, and later returned to live in Burns Lake. Adam represented the Lake Babine Nation for over 27 years in different capacities, including serving as Chief for 17 years. He has also been elected six times as Commissioner of the B.C. Treaty Commission. Adam is a co-founder of the Burns Lake Law Centre.
John Kurjata: John Kurjata is a partner at SKK, an accounting firm based in Dawson Creek. Before studying to become a chartered professional accountant, Kurjata owned and managed businesses in the trucking industry. He is currently a director on the Lake View Credit Union board of directors since 2015, and was elected chair in April 2018. He was also a board member of Community Futures Peace Liard for 15 years, including being part of the self-employment and loans committees, and was a past chair. Kurjata was appointed to the Northern Lights College board of governors in 2011, elected vice-chair in 2012 and was elected board chair in 2015.
Patricia Sterritt: Patricia Sterritt is of Tsimshian ancestry, belonging to the Gitga'at Tribe of Hartley Bay. Sterritt served on the Hartley Bay Band council from 1996 to 2005. She was the director of social services for the North Coast Tribal Council for 10 years. Sterritt worked with multicultural organizations committed to serving people, building relationships, establishing communication strategies and creating outreach programs. She was the primary point of contact for the bands with all provincial and federal government agencies and worked with federal department heads, staff and university faculty to develop curriculum for band social workers that resulted in the UVic social work degree program in the North.
Vancouver Coastal Health
Dr. Penny Ballem: Dr. Ballem is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She has had a 35-year career as a health leader and academic clinician in British Columbia. She served as the B.C. deputy minister of health from 2001-06. She also served as the city manager for the City of Vancouver from 2008-15. She has extensive board experience, having served on public sector, non-profit and private sector boards. She has received significant public recognition for her work in medicine and public service, including the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal for Public Service, the 2012 Wallace Wilson Award for leadership, the Marion Powell Award from Women’s College Hospital for leadership in Women’s Health, the Cannell Award from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada for her contributions to leadership in reproductive health and others. She advises governments across Canada on health policy, health systems and health human resources.
Marilyn Slett: Kawazi+ (Marilyn Slett) is a citizen of the Heiltsuk Nation and the elected chief councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council. She is currently serving her third consecutive term as chief councillor, beginning in 2008 and following previous positions as tribal councillor and executive director of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council. She is also currently the president of Coastal First Nations, on the board of directors of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, the co-chair of the Wild Salmon Advisory Council to British Columbia, and she has served as the B.C. women's representative on the Assembly of First Nations Women's Council.
Provincial Health Services Authority
Donisa Bernardo: Donisa Bernardo recently retired as the financial secretary for the Hospital Employees Union and served on its provincial executive for 20 years. Bernardo sits on a number of committees, including the Municipal Employees’ Pension Committee, which appointed her to the Municipal Pension Board of Trustees in 2014 as primary trustee. Bernardo started her health-care career as a pharmacy technician in 1984.
Sandra Harris: Sandra Harris is a program developer and advisor for social development at the Gitksan Government Commission. Harris is strongly committed to community development and lifelong learning. Born and raised in the Bulkley Valley (Smithers), she belongs to the Wet’suwet’en Nation of the Laksilyu, Little Frog Clan and carries the hereditary name, Wii Esdes. Harris has lived in the Skeena Watershed, in Gitxsan territory for almost 20 years. Harris is also an Indigenous Focusing Complex Trauma practitioner working with health, social and justice frontline workers. This work helps her to share teachings about intergenerational trauma and grief and loss, supporting first responders, suicide prevention and debriefing supports, connecting to Indigenous strengths and resilience.
Dr. Kerry Jang: Dr. Kerry Jang is a professor of psychiatry at UBC, where he teaches in the medical school and conducts research on the causes of mental illness and urban health. He has authored or co-authored over 125 peer review papers, several chapters and three books. In 2008, he was elected to Vancouver City Council and served for a decade before retiring from political life. During his time on council he initiated programs to assist the homeless and mentally ill, including establishing lower-barrier shelters, the Healthy City Strategy, modular housing and local responses to the opioid and overdose crisis.
Fraser Health
Joanne Mills: Joanne Mills is the executive director of the Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre in Surrey, the vice-president of the BC Association of Friendship, a sitting member of the Metro Vancouver Homelessness Partnering Strategy Community Advisory Board and co-founder/owner of First Health Solutions. She has been a leader in health and social serving agencies for 19 years, having served as a director in Interior Health supporting Indigenous health. She also led in the development of the Provincial Health Services Authority Indigenous cultural competency training program.
Manpreet Grewal: Manpreet Grewal has been with Abbotsford Community Services since 1989. Her role as director oversees 23 programs that help the community address the needs of individuals with language and cultural barriers and assist thousands of immigrants and refugees integrate into community life each year. She has also worked as a freelance journalist with a master’s degree in political science from the University of Delhi and a diploma in print journalism from the London School of Journalism. Grewal is the vice-president of the Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of BC board, director for the Social Planning and Research Council of BC board, trustee for the Fraser Valley Health Care Foundation and board director for Prospera Credit Union.
Office of the Premier
