Community Partner Advisory Committee – Centre for Community Partnerships

Being responsive to community priorities is a defining characteristic of Community-engaged Learning (CEL). It is also core to how the Centre for Community Partnerships (CCP) works. Through the Community Partner Advisory Committee, the CCP works with community partners to ensure that community partners’ priorities, concerns and ideas about CEL partnerships at the university are understood, integrated into the CCP’s processes and planning wherever possible, and disseminated amongst its network of staff, faculty and students across the University of Toronto tri-campus to support and influence their work.

The purpose of the Community Partner Advisory Committee is to advise the CCP in their mission to advance inclusive and reciprocal Community-engaged Learning initiatives with community partners, staff, students, and faculty across the university’s three campuses. Members serve a two-year term with possibility of renewal.

2024- 2026 Community Partner Advisory Committee

Jasmine Ferreira (She/Her) is a Registered Social Worker and Credentialed Evaluator (CE). She has worked in a variety of non-profit settings over the past 10+ years in policy, crisis intervention, residential programs, health care, and youth unemployment. At Humane Canada, she led a multi-year national project to reduce systemic barriers experienced by women with animals who are experiencing gender-based violence before joining The Stop Community Food Centre as Director of Programs and Evaluation with a focus on Food Justice and Urban Agriculture. Jasmine is also a Ph.D. candidate at York University, where her research focuses on nature, animals, and mental health in social work practice.

Monica Forrester (she/her) is a 2Spirit Trans Women of Color. Monica has spent 27 years working in community services, from frontline to management roles in Harm Reduction services. She has worked for 10 years at Street Health as a Coordinator in the Harm Reduction programs and drop-in services.

Kasandra James: As Director of Programs, Kasandra James provides strategic leadership of Volunteer Toronto’s programs and services, including oversight of the organization’s learning initiatives for community members and nonprofits, public activation and events, and partnerships with nonprofits, networks and funders. Her work prioritizes systems change in non-profit organizations that promote decent volunteerism – inclusive, equitable and anti-oppressive volunteer engagement, grounded in belonging. Kasandra has a B.A. in Psychology, a graduate certificate in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Management, is a 2025 Master of Education candidate at the University of Toronto. Her dedication to volunteerism and civic engagement has included twenty years as a youth mentor in faith, academic and community organizations; she also currently sits on the board of the Ontario Nonprofit Network.

Barbara Michalik is a graduate of the Social Service Worker-Gerontology program at Seneca College, with a Bachelor of Arts-Sociology Degree specializing in Gerontology from York University. Barbara is Executive Director of Community, Academic Partnerships and Programming at the Rekai Centres, and has been with the organization since 2008. She oversees initiatives at two locations, Sherbourne Place and Wellesley Central Place LTC, in downtown Toronto. She is also involved in the development of the new Rekai Centres at Cherry Place which will support a dialysis centre, resident assessment centre and an educational centre to support disciplines related to the healthcare field. She is a part-time Faculty Advisor in the Social Service Worker Gerontology Program at George Brown College and lectures at various academic and community affiliates and has been responsible for significant innovations at the Rekai Centres Long Term Care Homes, which have been recognized across Canada and worldwide.

Mark J. Richardson is the Founder and Technical-Lead of the HousingNowTO.com affordable-housing tracking and transparency project since 2019. Using common tools such as Google maps, photographs, videos and data-visualization, HousingNowTO.com removes industry jargon, thereby minimizing misinformation and enhancing transparency and opportunities for genuine civic engagement. The HousingNowTO.com project was given an Innovation Spotlight by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in 2021, and was the only Canadian finalist for the World Smart Cities Awards in 2024. Mark is an active Urban Land Institute (ULI) volunteer with the Terwilliger Center for Housing in Washington, DC – and a regular collaborator on urban affordable housing innovation projects with University of Toronto’s School of Cities, and Toronto Metropolitan Universities’ School of Urban and Regional Planning. Mark is also the Chief Technology Officer at Rich Analytics and has 25+ Years of consulting-experience with public-sector clients at all-levels of Government in Canada, and was part of the City of Toronto’s Open Data Advisory Group which helped define the City’s first official Open Data Master Plan in 2018, and was a citizen-member of the City of Toronto’s Planning Review Panel (2015-2017).

Elder Margaret Sault retired as of April 28, 2023 from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN). Positions within the organization were; the Governance Director, Acting Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, reassigned from Director of Lands, Membership and Research. She was an elected Councillor for the MCFN from 2015-2017. In total she has served the MCFN for 46 years. Margaret has assisted with the planning of the Historical Gathering since 2010, when it began. Margaret has worked on developing the Governance Unit, developing laws, and foundational work. She played a critical role in the creation of an MCFN Department of Consultation and Accommodation (DOCA) in 2015. Margaret has been public speaking on the history of the MCFN for years. Margaret has successfully participated in the settlement of four land claims and developed several booklets and a video as public educational tools on MCFN history. Margaret has lived on the MCFN First Nation for her entire adult life. She sits on various committees; she is currently chair of the Community Trust, Elder/Knowledge keeper on the Mississaugas of the Credit Business Corporation, FN member on the Centennial College Board, the Indigenous Advisory Group of University of Toronto and the Moccasin Identifier. In her spare time, she is a Personal Support Worker and enjoys reading, baking and time with her three grown sons and six grandchildren. 

Sahar Vermezyari is the Director of the East Scarborough Storefront. The Storefront facilitates collaboration, builds community, and supports people in East Scarborough to learn and create together, to live healthy lives, to find meaningful work, to play and thrive. Sahar has over 20 years of experience in leadership positions in the non-profit sector in Toronto, specifically in community development and equity & anti-racism initiatives. She identifies as a cis-gender racialized woman and mother and has lived experience of poverty and being a refugee. Sahar is grateful to have the opportunity to live and work on various Indigenous lands on Turtle Island.

Sarah Watson: Director of Community Engagement, North York Harvest Food Bank. Sarah has spent the last 17 years working in non-profit organizations focused on poverty and food security with a commitment to both immediate emergency support and long-term solutions. Sarah previously held leadership roles in fundraising and communications, but for the last ten years has focused on front line program support, community engagement and partnership. She and her team are now also leading North York Harvest’s efforts in advocacy and education in support of long-term solutions to hunger and poverty.