Governance

The New Canadians Centre is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Board vacancies are filled through an open recruitment call.

Board members are elected at the Annual General Meeting in May where the NCC shares its Annual Report.

Any inquiries regarding the board recruitment process can be emailed to [email protected].

2026 Board Recruitment Package

2026 Board Recruitment Application Form (applications accepted until Feb 22, 2026)

Board of Directors

Kim Blackwell (Chair)

Kim Blackwell is 4th Line Theatre’s Managing Artistic Director and is a veteran 4th Line director/producer – 2025 marks her 31st season with 4th Line Theatre where she has directed 27 productions including 15 world premieres. Selected credits include: Managing Artistic Director (2014 - Present), Artistic Producer (2009 – 2014), Artistic Associate (2001-2009). She directed plays across Canada and the US. Her play A Daughter had its world premiere in 2020 as a part of the Open Spaces Theatre Festival and was selected to be a part of the International Rural Women’s Studies Conference hosted by University of Guelph in 2021. Kim was inducted into Peterborough’s Pathway of Fame in September. In 2020, she received Toronto theatre critic Lynn Slotkin’s Jon Kaplan Mensch Award. Kim has twice been nominated for the John Hirsch Award for Outstanding Directing. Kim recently joined the Playwright’s Guild of Canada. Kim is working on her first solo, full-length play for 4th Line, The Lost Souls.

Kim Blackwell has been coaching and facilitating business leaders and future leaders since 2009. She has trained and coached business leaders, from business school students all the way up to the C-suite level, creating transformative learning experiences. She has produced professional theatre, both, commercial and non-profit, for 30 years. She is a theatre director, dramaturge, marketing expert and publicist.

Ghada Hussein (Vice-Chair)

Ghada Hussein, M.Sc., PMP, is a new Canadian who moved here in 2012 from Cairo, Egypt with over 20 years of industry experience managing software and content development projects and programs. During her career, Ghada worked with many international organizations – such as Proctor and Gamble – and nonprofit enterprises, including Association for Women’s Total Advancement and Development, Center for International Private Enterprise, and Save the Children.

Ghada is currently a full-time professor at Fleming College in the School of Business and Information Technology. She has over 8 years of experience as an educator at post-secondary institutions, including some time spent at Durham College. Ghada speaks fluent English and Egyptian Arabic and some French.

Feeling grateful for the support she received from the New Canadian Centre when she arrived, Ghada is passionate about supporting immigrants as they build new lives for themselves and their families. As such, Ghada has often volunteered with the NCC to give back in the hopes that her experiences can benefit other newcomers. Realizing the many challenges that Peterborough faces, she is looking forward to adding value through community involvement and engagement.

Ghada lives in Peterborough with her husband of 31 years, Wael Nawara. With a deep fondness for and strong connection with their new community, Ghada and Wael both love nature, cooking, and gardening. Ghada and Wael have two children; their eldest son, Omar, is a practising environmental engineer living in Saskatoon and their daughter, Yousra, is a graduate of Trent University. You may also see Ghada and Wael on the local trails as they walk their dog.

Ponvily Ravindranathan (Treasurer)

Ponvily Ravindranathan started with NCC as a Finance Committee member helping enhance the financial statements. She incorporated metrics into the financial statement file to add more meaningful data. Ponvily is passionate about the services NCC provides and, serving on the board, wants to continue being part of this wonderful group.

Ponvily worked at Peterborough Regional Health Centre and currently works as the Finance Manager for Quinte Public Health. Ponvily holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a major in Accounting and a minor in Finance. She also holds a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designation.

Elizabeth Rahman (Secretary)

Elizabeth Rahman is a Certified Translator by profession, with a degree in Business Administration & Languages, who immigrated to Canada from England at the age of 20. She & her late husband (who was from India) left England because of the racism there. They were two of the founding members of the Kawartha Muslim Association 40 years ago.

Elizabeth was co-founder of the Abraham Festival in Peterborough 21 years ago, and a founding member of the Multifaith Network formed after 9/11. Her passion is encouraging people of different faiths and cultures to get to know one another, and work together for the common good.

Ghazi Jarrar (Director)

Ghazi Jarrar was born in Amman, Jordan. Ghazi immigrated to Canada as a teenager. He has had the good fortune of living across Canada: in Halifax NS, Victoria BC, Toronto ON, Goose Bay NL, and, most recently, Peterborough ON. Ghazi has a BA and MA in history from Dalhousie University, and a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School.

Ghazi is a practicing lawyer, currently working as an Assistant Crown Attorney. Ghazi enjoys the outdoors around Peterborough, watching football (the European kind), and bothering his cat.

Isabel Botha (Diector)

Isabel Botha is a communications and fundraising specialist with over 20 years of experience across the non-profit, corporate, and government sectors. Originally from South Africa, Isabel holds a BA in Journalism and an Honours degree in Applied Language Studies from the University of Pretoria.

In 2022, she founded Dot the I Content Creation, through which she supports organizations like Trent University, Ontario Tech University, the Canadian Canoe Museum, and Ve’ahavta in telling their stories and growing their impact. Her work includes multi-million-dollar capital campaigns, donor communications, and grant writing, with a strong focus on community-centred storytelling that drives engagement and philanthropic support. Since immigrating to Canada in 2018, she has become deeply involved in the local non-profit and fundraising community. She currently serves as Chair of the Peterborough and Area
Fundraisers Network and is a member of the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce Events
Committee. As an avid animal lover, Isabel also volunteers her time for the Lakefield Animal
Welfare Society. Isabel is committed to building capacity in the non-profit sector and brings a
wealth of experience in relationship-based fundraising, public relations, and strategic
communications to her role on the NCC Board.

Simon Liston (Director)

Simon Liston and his family emigrated from Ireland and Jersey, in the Channel Islands, to Ottawa where he grew up and later moved to Toronto for University. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and holds a Master of Education (M.Ed) in Adult Education.

He has worked in Canada and overseas in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Ecuador with Canada World Youth. He worked as a Management Consultant with the housing co-operative sector developing non-profit housing co-operatives in Toronto.

Simon had a long career in the Toronto Public Service as a manager developing affordable housing and establishing programs to alleviate homelessness. He founded and co-chaired the Refugee Housing Task Group which developed strategies that helped refugee claimants find stable housing and the services they needed to help them adjust to the many challenges of a new life in Canada.

Simon lives in Peterborough and enjoys the easy access to the outdoors for dog walking, hiking, cross-country skiing, canoeing and gardening. He currently also volunteers with the Community Foundation and is an umpire with the Peterborough Baseball Association.

Lucy Caldwell (Director)

Lucy Caldwell is the Manager of Shelter Services at Cornerstone Family Violence Prevention Centre in Cobourg, Ontario. She has a Masters of Counselling Psychology from McGill University and applied her learned skills as she progressed from Relief Residential Counsellor position to a Residential Counsellor, Transitional Support Counsellor, Child and Youth Community Counsellor, Family Court Support Worker, and Residential Team Lead before accepting the Manager of Shelter Services position in September 2020.

As the Manager of Shelter Services, Lucy manages the day-to-day operations of the shelter program, providing oversight and support to shelter counsellors and
program support staff. When she isn’t managing the shelter, or liaising with community partners,
you can find Lucy on stage under the spotlights. A member of both the Safe Harbour Choir and
Northumberland Players, Lucy loves singing, dancing and bringing local productions to life.
Further to her work with Community Theater, Lucy resides in Northumberland County and
volunteers her time with Sounds of the Next Generation and Ten Thousand Villages. In 2024,
Lucy was part of the Cornerstone team that received NCC’s Community Partner of the Year
award.

Jennifer Lamantia (Director)

Jennifer Lamantia is the CEO of Workforce Development Board (WDB) leading local labour market research and the delivery of responsive workforce development solutions through a range of services resources and partnerships. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. Prior to working in Peterborough, Jennifer worked for a national not-for-profit that represents Canadian writers, visual artists and publishers based in Toronto and also worked for many years for multinational educational publishers.

Since joining WDB in 2017, Jennifer has been actively involved in strengthening and expanding partnerships with organizations in Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton and Northumberland. A key partnership with NCC continued in 2019, when Jennifer joined the Peterborough Immigration Partnership Coordinating Committee. She also spent three years on NCC’s Finance Committee and participated in and chaired the Peterborough Nogojiwanong Workplace Inclusion Charter Steering Committee. Jennifer is very motivated to serve on NCC’s Board of Directors as the Peterborough Immigration Partnership appointed member.

Cindy Mytruk (Director)

Cindy Mytruk. Born and raised in Vancouver, BC, Cindy is a proud
graduate of the University of British Columbia. She relocated to
Peterborough in 2012, where she quickly found community through the Spanish conversation group at the New Canadians Centre, a connection that sparked a deep and lasting appreciation for the NCC’s mission and impact.

Cindy currently serves as the Manager of Partnerships and Inclusion at the YMCA, where she works to foster meaningful connections. Her previous roles include Fundraising Coordinator at the YMCA and Fundraising Associate for the Canadian Canoe Museum’s Capital Campaign, contributing to major initiatives that support community growth and engagement. Fluent in both English and Spanish, Cindy is passionate about life-long learning, inclusion and bringing people together.