Clinical Team
Board Members
Co-Founder, Registered Nurse, and Program and Development Director
Lisa Wright is a Registered Nurse and co-founder of the Living Wish Foundation.
Lisa was born and raised in Mississauga growing up with a family cottage in Blue Mountain. Some of her happiest memories originate from spending time with family at the cottage...
Wish Program Coordinator
Kelley Cookson is a trained and experienced professional in event management, program coordination, and graphic design. With 15 years of customer service and managerial experience and 20 years of experience in design, she has a wide variety of skills to excel at any role she takes on.
With an intrinsic desire to always do her best work and a quiet confidence and natural magnetism with people, she has quickly become an indispensable member of our team...
Wish Coordinator
Melissa Nyhof graduated from Georgian College as a Personal Support Worker and has continued her education with courses in palliative care, leadership and communication.
Melissa holds the position of Team lead and worked with us granting....
Wish Coordinator and Registered Nurse
Samantha Stark is a Registered Nurse and her career has aligned with Long Term Care, Palliative and End of Life care, and legacy projects. Her passion in nursing is ignited by our work and her patients.
Samantha is grateful for the honour to work on wishes and to contribute...
Wish Coordinator
Garrett Lambert is both an experienced Properties Coordinator and a PSW in multiple caregiving settings supporting vulnerable populations, His personal strengths align with our mission and vision.
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Garrett brings a comprehensive set of skills that include project ...
Wish Coordinator
Heather Brown, BASc, DKATI, RP (qualifying) is a professional Art Therapist and a Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying) who has been working alongside individuals with a palliative diagnosis and their families for the last 7 years. Heather feels privileged to work alongside her clients as they share the undying...
Wish Coordinator
April Lawson has volunteered for The Living Wish Foundation since the beginning, and she believes it is a privilege to ensure that one's last moments of life are the most lived!
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April brings with her 14 years of recreation management and volunteer coordination within long-term care and retirement homes. Currently working in an administrative role within...
Co-Founder and Board Chair
Alyssa Boyd graduated from McMaster medical school in 2003 and traveled North to Thunder Bay to complete a two year residency program in rural family medicine with a special focus in palliative care. She returned to Southern Ontario in 2006 for a brief 3-month locum in Collingwood in the hopes of traveling...
Co-Founder and Director
Being in love with people, who they are, and what makes them a person, Nancy Good-Kennedy R.N., R.Ac , Co-founder of The Living Wish Foundation, joined the field of nursing more than 20years ago. She knows firsthand, that when human-beings are diagnosed with a life-limiting illness it is not uncommon...
Director & Treasurer
Ingrid McLeod-Dick is a Chartered Professional Accountant and holds a BSc. from Queens University and an MBA from Schulich School of Business. Ingrid worked 16 years in public practice and also taught at the Schulich School of Business for the past 25 years in its MBA and EMBA program in the areas of finance and accounting...
Director
Tanya Mazza’s career history includes more than twenty-five years dedicated to the arts in both public and not-for-profit settings. As a member of the marketing & development staff at Canada’s National Ballet School, Tanya gained extensive fundraising experience that included special events, major gifts, ...
Director
Linda MacLeod has a background in clinical nursing in mental health, critical care and stepdown units in several provinces. Her work in hospital administration has been primarily in Ottawa and Collingwood, but also Cape Breton and Owen Sound.
Her interest in palliative care began when she was a critical care nurse, and since then, she has been involved in hospital committees aimed at improving palliative care resources in hospitals and our community.
Director
Michael Lewin has been a family physician for 27 years. After his studies at the University of Toronto, and residency at Queen’s, he worked in Maine, Bolivia, Ecuador and the Marshall Islands before starting a family and deciding to move closer to home, serving the Collingwood community for the last 17 years...
Director
Carrie Plater grew up in Wasaga Beach and she has always felt giving back to her small town community in different ways was an important aspect of what living here is all about.
Carrie graduated from Georgian College's Advertising program, and she has had a successful career in...
Director
Scott Houston is a semi-retired family physician and anaesthetist who has worked in Creemore and Collingwood alongside his wife, family physician Anne Engell, for the last forty-two years.
He was born in Winnipeg and raised in Montreal and Toronto. He graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine in 1979. He did residency training in family medicine and family practice anaesthesia in Winnipeg and practiced in rural Manitoba for three years. He and his family moved to the Collingwood area in 1985. His family practice was in both Creemore and Collingwood...
Established in 2018, With our thanks...
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Marie LaRose, 2018-20
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Lisa Wright, 2018-20
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Dr. Michael Lisi, 2018-21
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Cal Patterson 2018-21
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Mike LaCroix 2018-22
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Will Thomson 2018-22
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Linda McaLeod 2020-23
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Tina Jansen Van Vuuren 2021-23