OSAID Board of Directors ( alphabetical listing)

 Traci Boland: Traci is currently a Board of Directors member for the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) and is a former President of the Young Brokers Council in Ontario, Canada. Traci Boland received the Young Broker of the Year award in 2009 at the IBAO Awards of Excellence Ceremony. Traci Boland is an insurance broker, based for the past 9 years in London, Ontario and is the owner of Ontario West Insurance Brokers. Before becoming a broker Traci was a competitive Figure Skating Coach with Skate Canada, United Skates Figure Skating Association and the Finnish Figure Skating Association. Traci is currently a Canskate Coach in London, Ontario where she received Coach of the Year award in 2005 and 2011.
 Tom Burmaster, Chair: Tom Burmaster is a retired police officer, having served 30 years with the Sault Ste Marie Police Service. He has been involved in raising awareness about the dangers of impaired driving for over 20 years, having worked with the Drinking and Driving Awarenss Committee in Sault Ste Marie and served as its Chairperson for six years. Tom  was elected Chair of the OSAID Sault Ste Marie area in 1997 and elected to the OSAID Board of Directors in 1998. He became OSAID's Chairperson in 1999.  Tom's active volunteerism has also included his work as a member of the Board of Directors of  St John Ambulance, Sault Ste Marie, the Kinsmen Club and Neighbourhood Watch. Tom Burmaster was awarded the CAA's Traffic Officer of the year Award for Northern Ontario in 1998, the Ontario Volunteer Service Award in 1999 and the Ministry of Transportation's Road Safety Achievement Award in the category of individual Achievement, Volunteer in 2005.

Paul Fletcher, Treasurer: Paul is currently Senior Vice President, Strategy at Aviva Canada Inc, a subsidiary of Aviva Plc. He holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management from the UK. His previous role at Aviva , SVP Marketing, included leading the team that developed and launched the Aviva Community Fund. This competition is recognised as a highly successful model in the cause marketing and sustainability sphere, winning a prestigous HALO award from the global Cause Marketing Forum in 2011. The Aviva Community Fund leverages social media platforms to enable grass roots causes and charities to generate awareness and potentially gain funding for specific initiatives. In the past 2 years the competition has directly provided $1.5m in funding and helped bring 20 ideas to reality all across Canada.Paul has been a Board member of OSAID since 2004 and its Treasurer since 2008. His goal in the role is to ensure responsible stewardship of the funds OSAID generates - ensuring efficient operation of current programs, the financial ability to develop and deliver new and relevant programs...and to maintain continuity of services as the economy evolves.

 Peter King, Secretary: Peter King retired from teaching in 2010. Peter's teaching and  high school chaplaincy career spanned 34 years.  Peter  holds degrees in  Education and Religious Education, has training in chaplaincy  and grief support and  is a  Religious Studies specialist.   He has  wood badge qualifications in Scouting  and has  been recognized for long service.  He holds  awards for dedicated service in OSAID including 10 years of service on the Board of Directors and the Chairperson's Award.  He has  played and sung in bands and worked with liturgical music for over 30 years. Peter King was the recipient of an Ontario  Volunteer Service Award in 2011. 
  Irena Kropman: A graduate of McMaster University, Irena Kropman's OSAID work began when, as a Grade 10 student, she started the OSAID group at her school. By the time she graduated, the OSAID chapter had over 50 members. The OSAID leadership program influenced Irena's volunteer work in other areas. She was heavily involved with student’s council, Development & Peace, the chaplaincy club, Amnesty International and many more clubs in her high school. In the community, she volunteered at youth groups for individuals with mental and/or physical disabilities, with the elderly at community centres and retirement homes and tutored children with learning disabilities. She credits these activities, or 'opportunities' , as well as her involvement with OSAID, for her nomination for the YWCA’s Young Women of Distinction Award. She won the Catholic District School Board’s Trustee Award of Excellence, the Principal’s Award from her school and the Wendy’s Classic Achiever Award of Recognition & Scholarship. At universtiy she filled her spare time with groups focussed on youth in the community, individuals with mental and physical disabilities, social justice, student’s mental health, the Cancer Society and others. Irena graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences (Biology & Psychology) and a minor in Linguistics. Irena, now a wife and mother of one, works as a Bilingual Triage Consultant at Ceridian – a Human Resources company - in the LifeWorks department. It is an Employee Assistance Program that is intended to help employees deal with personal problems that might adversely affect their work performance, health and well-being. Irena joined the OSAID Board of Directors in 2010.

  Nicole LaCroix:   Nicole “Nicki” LaCroix has been actively involved in road safety for the past 15 years; while her interest began in high school, she has continued to support this cause throughout her adult life. The youngest member to be elected to OSAID’s Board of Directors, she has been engaged in the organization since 2003. At the age of 25, she was a Canadian representative at the World Health Organization’s World Youth Assembly for Road Safety at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. She was elected as the French Working Group Chair and was involved in the development of the Youth Declaration for Road Safety. From 2007 – 2010 Nicole worked with 9 other Canadian delegates from the assembly  and helped in the creation and sat on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Road Safety Youth Committee. CRSYC successfully launched the 1^st National Day of Remembrance in connection with OSAID and the 1^st Canadian Road Safety Youth Forum. Invited to speak as a Plenary Speaker at the Canadian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference in 2007, she was a panel member and presenter for the ‘How to Make a Message Stick: Lessons Learned from Tobacco and Impaired Driving’. Currently, Nicole works at Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario as a Student Employment Advisor in the Student Employment and Co-op Placement office.

  Robin MacDonald:    Robin  MacDonald is the Field Marketing Manager at the Ontario Teachers  Insurance Plan (OTIP). OTIP has been a supporter of OSAID for over 20 years. Robin  MacDonald is responsible for marketing the individual insurance products to education employees throughout Ontario. He is also the President of the Ontario Chapter of the Retirement Planning Association of Canada (RPAC). RPAC endeavours to highlight the importance of lifestyle planning to those involved in counseling individuals on retirement planning. He is also active with Special Olympic swimming in Brantford and has also volunteered for many years for the Canadian Cancer Society. 

  Cindy Steele: A graduate of Université d’Ottawa, Cindy Steele holds a  Bachelor of Education degree  Intermediate/Senior, Cum Laude  with French as a Second Language  and Business: Accounting. Additionally, she holds a  Bachelor of Arts -- Lettres Françaises .  She has additional qualifications in  French :   Honour Specialist and Cooperative Education Specialist . Cindy worked with the Road Safety Education Advisory Committee—Curriculum development 2005-2006, reviewing material for the Cooperative Education E-learning and, in 2009 and with OPHEA (Ontario Physical and Health Education Association) on the Road Safety Education Advisory Committee—Curriculum development. She was also a Program Teacher 2005-2006 ( pilot year) with International Languages Cooperative Education Program Panama/France.  A long serving member of staff at an eastern Ontario high school and professisonally esteemed, Cindy was nominated for the  Premier’s Awards for Teaching Excellence:  Teacher of the Year 2008-2009 and the  Premier’s Awards for Teaching Excellence:  Excellence in Leadership  2007-2008. She received the OSAID Teacher/ Mentor Award in 2007. She received an Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Volunteer Service Award in 2011 in recognition of her work for the charity.

Cindy’s involvement with OSAID forms part of her lifetime of  service to her community. A former 4H member and leader,  Cindy has been a serving OSAID Staff Advisor since 1994 and joined the OSAID Board of Directors in 2007.  Under her guidance, her school’s OSAID chapter has  earned 3 national awards from the  Student Life Education Company  for their work in raising awareness of the dangers of impaired driving) 1999-2000, 2004-2005 and 2006-2007 and the group was awarded the  CAA North & East Ontario:  MJ Quilty Award for Traffic Safety Excellence in  2005.

Cindy has been a  Badminton Coach for 19 years,  she  helped organize OSAID Regional conferences and  a Global Education Conference for the International Languages Cooperative Education program.  She has also completed the Masters Swimming Program at CarletonUniversity.  She combines all of her professional and personal commitments with caring for her family. 

 Patricia Beck:

  Brenda McEwin, Vice Chair: