Who We Are

COTA Health (Cota) is an accredited, not-for-profit, community-based organization that has been supporting adults with mental health and cognitive challenges to live well within their communities for over 45 years. We provide person-centred supports that assist individuals to find inspiration and hope in their inherent strengths and support them to pursue meaningful change in their lives, as they define it.

Cota works collaboratively with our funders, our partners and other stakeholders, across the provincial health and social service systems, to inspire positive change in the way that services are delivered to individuals living with mental health and cognitive challenges.

We offer a wide range of services to adults living with serious mental illness, geriatric mental health conditions, acquired brain injuries, developmental disabilities and dual diagnoses. Our services include case management, supportive housing,  day programs, court and justice related services, two Assertive Housing First Teams (AHFT) and services for individuals who are experiencing homelessness.

Community BBQ at the Beaches with Cota staff and individuals receiving services

Our Mission

To support individuals with mental health and cognitive challenges to live well within their communities.

Our Vision

A supportive and inclusive society in which all people have equal opportunity to live, thrive and enjoy the full benefits of belonging within their communities.

Our Values

Hope

We support people to find hope and inspiration in their inherent strengths and in pursuing goals that they identify as being important to them.

Respect

We are respectful of each individual’s dignity, unique experience, potential and rights.

Collaboration

We approach our work believing that the best solutions stem from collaborative approaches.

Innovation

We are committed to innovation as a means to achieving positive outcomes.

Dedication

We are dedicated to providing the highest quality service possible.

Accountability

We are accountable for providing our services with professionalism and integrity.

Equity

We believe in the inherent worth of every person and will work vigorously to foster greater equity, fairness, dignity, accessibility and inclusion for all members of society.

Accredited with Exemplary standing seal from Accreditation Canada

Cota is Accredited with Exemplary Standing through Accreditation Canada. This means that our organization was assessed by our peers and exceeded national standards of excellence, and we continue to strive for high quality care.

The accreditation process evaluates Cota’s performance against national standards of excellence. We are surveyed every three to four years. Accreditation Canada is a not-for-profit independent organization accredited by the International Society for Quality in Health Care.

Executive Leadership

Chief Executive Officer

Paul Bruce

Chief Executive Officer

Paul began working in the health and social services sector in 1989 and brings over 30 years of experience to his role as Chief Executive Director at Cota. Paul started his career in the developmental services sector and worked within that sector for ten years in various leadership capacities and briefly as an independent consultant. 

He has spent over 20 years at Cota providing leadership to our programs, forging new partnerships, implementing new services and creating a client-centred and recovery-oriented culture at Cota. During this time he also has emerged as a recognized leader within the mental health, acquired brain injury, and developmental services sectors in Toronto and actively participates in and/or co-chairs numerous committees, networks and task groups across these sectors.

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Lynne Geris, CPA, CA

Senior Director, Finance & Administration

Lynne is an accomplished senior leader with over 20 years of experience in Finance, HR, IT, Operations, and Administration. As a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA), she consistently demonstrates a strong commitment to excellence. She is a trusted financial steward, overseeing budgets and financial reporting, and has led various agencies through organizational changes to enhance efficiency and structure. Some of Lynne’s accomplishments include leading strategic transitions, developing and implementing policies and procedures, and streamlining operations.

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Rachel Stanford

Senior Director, People + Culture

Rachel joins the Cota Executive Team with over 20 years of extensive human resources experience within the Federal government and healthcare field. She has worked as a Senior HR Advisor, a Regional Employee Services Manager, and in her last position prior to joining Cota, as the Director of People, Culture and Learning at St. Josephs’ Lifecare Centre. 

Rachel takes great pride in the building relationships with colleagues, staff and stakeholders. She believes in making leaders feel empowered to take on day to day human resource challenges.

Our Board of Directors

Director
Leah Dunbar

Leah Dunbar has over 15 years of experience in health care and education project management in Canada and internationally. Whether creating space for people to come together or translating information across partners, Leah strives to ensure high quality outcomes, bridging of philosophical differences, and never compromising on doing what is right. Leah is currently the Team Lead/Senior Advisor with the Mental Health Secretariat, Ministry of the Solicitor General where she is working to support first responder mental health initiatives. Previously, Leah managed a mental health partnership between six Toronto hospitals and Toronto Police Service, worked in various community health projects across Ontario, and gained experience as a teacher in Ontario and Qatar. Leah holds a Bachelor of Arts from Queen’s University and Master of Education from Niagara University. In her free time, you can find Leah backpacking through different countries, volunteering, and baking cookies.

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Martin Chicilo

Martin Chicilo has worked in the public, private and non-profit sectors and been a Board Member with affordable housing, community investment funds and arts and entertainment groups in different provinces. He has worked in the federal government in the areas of Indigenous Health Services, Economic Development and Corporate Services and in the provincial governments of Ontario and Saskatchewan in the areas of forensic pathology and economic development.

He has eight years of community investment banking experience leading micro loan, affordable housing, venture capital and non-traditional commercial financing programs in partnership with Affinity Credit Union and federal and provincial governments. Martin has worked with 5 Tribal Councils and 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan to deliver health services and capital construction of health facilities. He is a university graduate of Concordia University, University of Saskatchewan and certificate graduate from the London School of Economics, Six Sigma and Institute of Canadian Bankers.

Vice President
Lily Yang

Lily Yang is the Senior Director of Quality and Patient Experience at Sinai Health System in Toronto. She has worked through the continuum of acute care and rehabilitation serving both the paediatric and adult populations. She is a Respiratory Therapist and has held a variety of administrative roles supporting patients with acquired brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke and respite services at various academic health centres in Toronto. She is also a Surveyor for Accreditation Canada. Lily holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Applied Science. She has previously served on the Board of the Sherbourne Health Centre and was the co-chair of its Board Quality Committee.

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Melanie Towell, CPA, CA

Melanie Towell is the Director Finance, Association of Ontario Midwives Benefit Trust, a Trust which manages the benefits administration of the Association of Ontario Midwives. She has served in several senior financial roles in the not for profit sector, including The Arthritis Society, Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and Muscular Dystrophy Canada. Ms. Towell, completed her LLB at the University of Exeter, U.K. and her C.A. at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, and her CPA in Ontario.

Director
Aaron Campbell

Aaron has held a range of senior roles with the federal government, including with the Prime Minister of Canada and the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Currently Chief of Staff at LCBO, he provides strategic counsel to the CEO and broader executive team on strategic business objectives and overall stakeholder engagement in addition to leading the Corporate Affairs team. Aaron spent 6 years at the Toronto International Film Festival where he aligned operational planning and production with the artistic vision and business goals of the organization. Aaron’s has over 16 years experience in navigating and leading the strategic intersections of stakeholder engagement, communication and policy.

In addition to his professional experience, Aaron is Chair of Ontario Creates and a member of the Board of Directors of Danceworks Toronto.

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Ruby Tatla

Ruby Tatla is senior legal counsel at Echelon Insurance where she leads the litigation department. Prior to joining Echelon Insurance Ruby worked as legal counsel at Desjardins General Insurance Group where she worked in civil litigation. She holds Bachelor degrees in microbiology and psychology, from University of Calgary, a Master’s degree in epidemiology, from University of Toronto, and a Juris Doctor degree in law and Master’s degree in health law, from Osgoode Hall Law School.

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Wayne Seifried, CPA

Wayne is a CPA and a fractional CFO with a number of growing companies. With over 30 years’ experience across both Fortune 500 companies and startups Wayne brings a wealth of experience to Cota ´s Board. Wayne has also been supportive of the Red Door Shelter and inner city faith groups in assisting food and clothing drives for those in need for a number of years.  Wayne is a father of four children and lives in the Beach district of Toronto with his wife Amy and their family. 

Director
Marko Trivun

Marko Trivun is a senior associate at Torys LLP. His practice focuses on corporate law, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, technology outsourcing and venture capital transaction. Marko is a former director of Mainstay Housing, a member of its Housing Planning and Development Committee and former chair of its Governance Committee. Mainstay Housing is a non-profit agency which provides housing for mental health consumer-survivors, offering 867 units in a variety of housing options with varying degrees of support. Mainstay is the largest non-profit provider of supportive housing in Ontario with 41 residential locations across Toronto. Marko is also a former director on the board of the Institute of Competitiveness and Prosperity, an independent, not-for-profit organization that deepens public understanding of macro and microeconomic factors behind Ontario’s economic progress. It is funded by the Government of Ontario and its mandate is to share its research findings directly with the public. He is fluent in French and Serbo-Croatian.

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Arielle Di Iulio

Arielle Di Iulio is an associate at Mills & Mills LLP practicing wills, estates, trusts, and capacity litigation. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s combined JD/MSW program. Arielle has previously worked with low-income litigants as a caseworker at Downtown Legal Services. She has also helped protect the rights of mentally incapable adults as a summer law student at the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee, and the rights of children as an articling student at the Office of the Children’s Lawyer.


In her Masters of Social Work program, Arielle specialized in the “Human Services Management and Leadership” field of study, which focuses on management of social service agencies. She helped coordinate domestic violence programs as a practicum student in the PAR Referral Program at the John Howard Society of Toronto. Arielle also has experience in human rights research and advocacy as a practicum student at the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

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Sophie Bart

Sophie has worked for nearly 20 years in public and community health. She is passionate about health equity and social justice and is committed to improving access to healthcare for all. Sophie’s experience has largely been in the areas of fostering community engagement, supporting community governance in healthcare, and in the delivery of primary and allied health care for people experiencing marginalization such as newcomers without health insurance and people who are unhoused.

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Christine Conrad

Christine Conrad is a lawyer with over ten years of experience in government and non-profit policy development. Currently with the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board, she previously led the justice portfolio at the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario and provided policy advice to the Provincial Human Services and Justice Coordinating Committee. Christine has worked for the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration and Legal Aid Ontario. She earned her law degree at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, her home province.

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Bill Noble

Bill is a graduate of the University of Toronto, with an honours Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages and Literatures (French and German), with his third year of studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, and undertook graduate studies at l’Université de Montréal. In addition to English, he is fluent in German and French and functional in Portuguese, with basic Spanish and Ukrainian. He is a seasoned Ontario public servant with over 20 years’ experience across a variety of Ministries and Agencies, including nine years with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. He has held senior positions in the areas of public policy, operations, project management, stakeholder and agency board relations and public appointments.

In addition to other volunteer activities, for nine years, Bill served on the Board of Directors of PACE Independent Living in Toronto and is the former Board Chair.  

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Frank Massara

Frank has played a critical role in the restructuring, growth, and long-term sustainability of various entities. He has worked in senior financial and strategic positions for emerging enterprises in both Canada and the US. For several clients, Frank has functioned as CFO, and Director of Corporate/Business Development, and has held observer status on the Board of Directors of various companies.

He has completed several case studies, simulations, and research papers at INSEAD (a Paris-based, world leading business school) in the area of powering sustained quality growth in corporations, fair process leadership, value creation for owners and directors, and corporate governance, to which he also incorporates in classroom/online university and executive courses he teaches at select universities, and corporate academies in Europe and Canada .

Frank has an MBA degree from the Schulich School of Business and a PLC from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Frank played professional hockey in France and Germany and continues to coach at the varsity level. He has black-belts in Goju-Ryu Karate and in Yoshin-Ryu Jiu Jitsu. He is also an active board member for a not-for-profit, Ecologos, focused on water sustainability.

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Wes Iqbal

Currently managing the CEO’s Office and the Strategic Policy function at the City of Toronto’s land development agency, CreateTO, Wes’ career has spanned diverse government roles in digital transformation, correctional services, consumer protection, privacy, indigenous reconciliation, and now real estate.

Before embarking on a civil service career in 2016, Wes articled under the General Counsel of Alberta Health Services, and with the former Chief Negotiator for the Assembly of First Nations, focusing on helping survivors obtain redress under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

His calling is to help strengthen the public institutions, programs, and policies that ameliorate the lottery effects of where, to whom, and with how much people are born in society. Raised in Toronto’s Jane & Finch community, Wes a first-generation university graduate, and holds a BA, MA, JD, and was called to the Bar in Alberta in 2015.

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Gloria Er-Chua

Gloria Er-Chua is a risk management executive at Mackenzie Investments, a leading Canadian asset management firm. Previously, Gloria held senior roles in the Ontario government, including Director of Policy and Chief of Staff for various portfolios. She began her career in media at Torstar Corp. and Postmedia Network. In addition to her professional experience, Gloria is a long-time volunteer with several food access agencies and a Board Member with a nonprofit serving new immigrant families. She holds an MBA from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, a Master of Arts in social policy from the Toronto Metropolitan University and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Queen’s University, and is completing her CFA.

Gloria Er-Chua is a risk management executive at Mackenzie Investments, a leading Canadian asset management firm. Previously, Gloria held senior roles in the Ontario government, including Director of Policy and Chief of Staff for various portfolios. She began her career in media at Torstar Corp. and Postmedia Network. In addition to her professional experience, Gloria is a long-time volunteer with several food access agencies and a Board Member with a nonprofit serving new immigrant families.

She holds an MBA from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, a Master of Arts in social policy from the Toronto Metropolitan University and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Queen’s University, and is completing her CFA.

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