Management Team
Jim McLaughlin, Executive Director
Jim is a graduate of the human services program at Western Washington University. He has been employed by The Children’s Foundation for 39 years in a variety of service supervisory and management roles, culminating in his appointment as Executive Director in 2002. Jim has wide experience in residential care, family treatment, program development and administration, and human resource management. Jim has consulted widely in the human services arena, including membership in a variety of provincial ministerial committees and initiatives.
He has a passion to involve communities in service development and governance. He has also provided leadership in building collaborative services in the communities that The Children’s Foundation serves.
Lana Cho, Director of Finance and Administration
Lana manages the finance, information technology, and administration departments of The Children’s Foundation. She works with the Executive Director, the Director of Operations, and the Program Directors to develop and maintain the contracting, budgeting, and financial reporting processes for all programs. She also ensures compliance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requirements.
Lana has over 15 years of management experience in industries ranging from oil and gas to cinema management. She has been with The Children’s Foundation since 2004, and has worked with organizations in the social service and child development sectors for five years.
Stephen Hockey, Clinical Director
Stephen is a family man with a wife and two teenaged daughters. Building on years of experience working in child care and child protection, Stephen earned a clinical master’s degree at UC Berkeley in 1988, which gave him additional skills to help children and families pursuing healing and growth. As a clinician, Stephen has worked extensively in progressive psychiatry, community-based family development, and private practice. In recent years, he has particularly enjoyed providing clinical supervision, training staff, and getting involved in program development. He is most passionate about the emerging possibilities in our field as we increasingly embrace appreciative, culturally competent, and evidence-based practices.
Lisa Lowe, Program Director
Lisa is an expressive art therapist who has worked at The Children’s Foundation for over 10 years. Currently, she is the Program Director at Alderwood Family Development Centre. She is passionate about team building and dynamic leadership. She is also committed to building relational, imaginative, and stronger social justice practices.
Zdeno Rusnak, Program Director
Zdeno began his career in the social service sector in 1991 as a child and youth care counsellor. He joined The Children's Foundation in 1994 in the Surrey Family Preservation Program as a family counsellor. In 1997, Zdeno earned a master's degree at UBC in counselling psychology . Since that time, he went on to do family counselling at the Esther Irwin Home, supervise the Surrey Family Preservation Program, and supervise the Cedarwood Family Program. In 2008, he joined the management team. Zdeno is passionate about building teams, providing leadership opportunities for his colleagues, developing programs, implementing evidence-based practices, and mentoring interns.
Wayne Sydorchuk, Program Director
Wayne started his career in the social services sector in February 1972, soon after his university graduation. Since that time, he has worked as a manager in a variety of roles that have focused on working directly with children and families. In 1984, Wayne joined The Children’s Foundation to operate a large residential assessment centre. He joined TCF’s management team in 1990. Wayne has been the director of three programs in the Fraser South region since 2002. He has a real commitment to providing team-based leadership, and is passionate about making the workplace a proactive, enjoyable, and productive environment.
Board of Governors
Elizabeth Demner, President
Elizabeth is a community volunteer of long standing. She has served on the boards of St. George’s and Crofton House schools, and was President of the Junior League of Greater Vancouver. She has been President of The Children’s Foundation for two years, and she is very proud of her association with this outstanding social-profit agency.
Earl Phillips, Secretary
Earl is a lawyer and the practice group leader for McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s labour and employment group. He resides in Vancouver with his wife, Barbara, where they have raised four children. He has been on the board of The Children’s Foundation since 2004.
David Eppert
David has an entrepreneurial spirit and has been in the information technology field for over 10 years. His latest venture, an internet security solution, was recently acquired by a UK-based competitor. He now serves a select clientele, offering technical and information security and privacy consulting services. Having experienced family and children’s services as a client during his childhood, David is ambitious to participate with The Children's Foundation.
Blair Harvey
Blair is the father of two children, and the grandfather-to-be of a baby from China. Blair is a Metis and was raised in northern Manitoba. He is a canoeing professional and a 30-year specialist in Aboriginal community development. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree and is a registered social worker (RSW). He is also a documentary film producer and a substance abuse counsellor.
Simon Chen
Simon Chen is a senior manager in KPMG's tax department and has been with KPMG since 1999. Simon helps his clients to accomplish their objectives in a tax-efficient manner.
Helen Shim
Helen has been a director on The Children’s Foundation board since 2003. She presently sits on the finance and fund development committees. Helen has significant volunteer experience that has mainly focused on project and financial management. She is a passionate supporter of the work done by The Children’s Foundation, and is committed to helping the organization meet its present targets and reach its future goals.
Marjan Malekyazdi Navabi
As the mother of two college students, Marjan has always been highly involved in her children’s schools. She was a director of Collingwood School’s Board of governors and chaired the school’s Fundraising and Scholarship committees. She has also served on the various Boards of her family’s real estate development companies. Marjan and her family have always been involved in charitable and philanthropic endeavours and she is proud to have joined TCF’s Board in September 2008.
Rupinder Dhaliwal
Rupinder is a dual trained nurse and is managing a specialized rehabilitation program in Surrey for the last ten years. She is also very much involved in the Indo-Canadian community to support lots of family issues, provides counseling to children, families and marriage. Besides that she is a member of Soroptimist International of the tricities, a nonprofit organization for women. As a devoted wife and mother of a daughter and a son she has dedicated herself to help parents in more peaceful, democratic and none punitive ways to raise their children through radio programs, TV shows and counseling. She is also the author of the book "How to raise children" in Punjabi.
Jan Radford
Jan is the Director of Maternal Child Services at Surrey Memorial Hospital. She has a Master's Degree in Nursing and brings 35 years experience as a pediatric nurse and health care administrator to the board. Her area of clinical expertise is children who have been prenatally exposed to alcohol and other drugs. She and her partner are adoptive parents of 4 children ranging in age from 2 - 18 years and have been foster parents for the last 8 years. Jan joined the Children's Foundation Board in 2007 .
Avtar S. Sundher
Avtar graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor degree in Science and is employed by the Ministry of Environment as an Emergency Response Officer managing hazardous material spills. He has over 12 years business experience and is a partner in a number of private corporations including ARS Cosmetic Ltd, a retail store located in Surrey, Sunco Industries Inc, a custom lumber drying and remanufacuturing operation in Chilliwack and 635068 BC Ltd, a commercial real estate investment company. He and his partners have had the opportunity to help establish and donate to an organization helping families in an Indian village.
He has been married for the past 16 years to Rava and ha s two children, Sajin and Priya , ages 14 and 5 respectively , and live s in Surrey. Avtar enjoy s playing volleyball and tr ies to exercise regularly.