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Mother with her Baby

Our Team

Parents of premature babies, together with neonatal health care professionals from across Canada, make up our dynamic CPBF Team!

Board of Directors

Bacchini

Fabiana Bacchini

Executive Director

Fabiana is the Executive Director of the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation. She is a journalist and the published author of From Surviving to Thriving, a Mother’s Journey Through Infertility, Loss and Miracles.

While in the NICU with her surviving twin, born extremely preterm, she participated in the study of Family Integrated Care (FiCare). This led her to extensive volunteering in the NICU at Mount Sinai Hospital and to become an ambassador for FiCare, travelling across Canada and internationally to share her experience with this model of care. Her son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, which continued to empower her to be a strong voice and advocate for premature babies and their families.

She is dedicated to form connections with researchers to ensure that the viewpoints of parents are integrated into their studies. To this end, she has engaged in collaborations with numerous researchers, both in Canada and around the world, in various capacities.

Currently, Fabiana serves as an advisor on the National Steering Committee for FiCare, the Critical Care Services Ontario (Ontario Neonatal Intensive Care group), the Child-Bright Network, the European Foundation for the Care of the Newborn Infant (EFCNI), and the Canadian Preterm Birth Network (CPTBN). She is a member of the founding committee of Global Alliance for Newborn Care (GLANCE).

Past committees: Cultivating Change Committee at Sinai Health System, The Change Foundation Caregiver Project, Life With a Preterm Baby.

Marin

Jan Marin

Chair

Jan Marin is a lawyer specializing in Health Law and Medical Malpractice Litigation. She is a Senior Associate at Gluckstein Personal Injury Lawyers. Jan has a passion for serving individuals and families affected by disability, including families of injured pre-term and term infants. She has been inspired by these experiences and is a passionate advocate.

Currently, Jan serves on the Ontario Trial Lawyers Board of Directors. She is also a regular volunteer with Pro-Bono Ontario.

Jan lives in Toronto with husband and two children.

Lasby

Karen Lasby

Director

Karen Lasby is a neonatal nurse with clinical, teaching, and research experience. She designed and managed a specialized nursing team in Calgary to follow extremely premature infants and their families after discharge from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She has presented locally, nationally, and internationally on the topics of premature babies, oral feeding, and NICU-to-home transition. She has been the co-investigator in several research studies examining outcomes for very low birth weight infants and has published articles on maternal work in the NICU, neonatal transition, gastroesophageal reflux, neonatal virtual care, and short-term outcomes after NICU. An educator for thirty years, Karen has taught, written instructional material, and produced online neonatal nursing courses. Formerly the president of the Canadian Association of Neonatal Nurses, she served on this national board for twelve years, and on the board of the Council for International Neonatal Nurses for three years. Karen’s work has been recognized by the Canadian Institute of Child Health and College and the Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta. Karen is also the first author of a parenting book, Preemie Care: A Guide to navigating the first year with your premature baby.

Hunter

Robin Hunter

Director

Robin Hunter has close to 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry and is currently the General Manager of Tolmar pharmaceuticals Canada. In this role, he established the company in Canada and built all major functions of the business including; supply chain, financial infrastructure, market access, sales and marketing departments. Prior to assuming the leadership role at Tolmar, Robin was GM of Ikaria Canada where he partnered with Children’s hospitals, Neonatologist’s, Respiratory Therapists and the CPBF to advance care for newborns with life threatening respiratory disease in level 3 NICU’s. He is a graduate of the University of Waterloo and the Queen’s School of Business, executive development program.

Robin is an inductee into the Canadian Healthcare Marketing Hall of Fame, has served as a board member on several not for profit organizations and as an advisor to multiple start up Life Science firms and individuals.

Beattie

Karen Beattie

Director

In 2013, Karen’s son was born at McMaster Children’s Hospital at 29 weeks weighing 830 grams. Three years later, she joined the McMaster NICU’s Quality Improvement steering committee as the Parent Advisor. She has been an active parent volunteer in the NICU ever since, providing peer support in the unit, helping with special projects, developing and improving educational materials for parents and families and serving as co-chair of the Family Integrated Care Working Group. In addition, Karen is the Chair of the McMaster Children’s Hospital Family Advisory Council and is working to improve and expand the engagement of patients and families in education, research and clinical care at the hospital. Karen is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Neonatal Network.

Professionally, Karen is a researcher in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster University in the areas of pediatric rheumatology and pediatric gastroenterology. She is also the department lead for patient and family engagement in research. She is passionate about her research, the trainees who she mentors and supervises and partnering with youth and parents in research.

Netzel

Karen Netzel

Director

Karen’s relationship with CPBF began in 2012 when she participated in the first two parent consultative meetings our organization hosted.

Karen spent 10 years working at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg as a Family Support Coordinator where she worked hard to develop a sustainable Family Support Program for Manitoba families. She developed a volunteer recruiting and training program, she participated in research, and was a member of various hospital committees including FICare and Patient Care. She also developed a FICare training program and delivered training to new NICU nurses.

Karen’s son Matthew was born at 25 weeks and spent 7 months in NICU at a time when there was no family support. Since then, Karen has been passionate about family support programs in NICU. She retired from the hospital at the end of 2023 and is very excited to take on her next role as Chair of the Family Support Committee. She is most excited to work with families and hospitals across Canada to provide the best possible support to NICU families and to ensure every NICU has the support program families deserve.

Diambomba

Yenge Diambomba

Director

Dr. Yenge Diambomba completed her medical school at Laval University in Quebec, where she continued with a Paediatrics residency. She then moved to Toronto in 1999 for a neonatology fellowship at the University of Toronto. She started as a staff neonatologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in 2002 and became Clinical Director of Nurseries in 2009. She is passionate about improving the quality of care for babies and their families and maximizing the clinical team’s operational efficiency with patient care through quality improvement initiatives.

Scientific Advisory Committee

Campbell-Yeo

Dr. Marsha Campbell-Yeo

Chair

​Dr. Marsha Campbell-Yeo, a neonatal nurse practitioner and clinician scientist, is a Full Professor at the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health, Dalhousie University and holds cross appointments in the Department of Pediatrics, and Psychology and Neuroscience. Her Canada Foundation of Innovation funded research lab, MOM-LINC (Mechanisms, Outcome and Mobilization of Maternally-Led Interventions to Improve Newborn Care) is located at the IWK Health Centre. She primarily holds grants examining maternally-led interventions to improve outcomes of medically at-risk newborns specifically related to pain, stress and neurodevelopment as well as novel knowledge synthesis and dissemination methods, and digital e-heath interventions aimed at enhancing parental engagement.

She has been recognized for her contributions to the field via numerous training, leadership, and research awards. Most notably, she was invited as a member of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, the recipient of the Inaugural Dalhousie University President’s Award for research excellence, was named one of 150 Nurses championing innovation in health for Canada by the Canadian Nurses Association to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation, a Canadian Institute of Health Research New Investigator Awardee, the Canadian Pain Society 2015 Early Career Awardee, and a Career Development Awardee of the Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program. She is the current Treasurer and a Council Member of the Pain in Childhood Special Interest Group of the International Society for the Study of Pain, the past Secretary of the Canadian Pain Society Board of Directors and is an Executive member of the Council of International Neonatal Nurses.

Lacaze

Dr. Thierry Lacaze

Member

Dr. Thierry Lacaze-Masmonteil assumed leadership of the Maternal Infant Child Youth Research Network (MICYRN) in May 2018. He received his medical degree from the University Paris 5 - René Descartes in 1993 and a PhD in biological sciences at the University Paris 7 - Pierre et Marie Curie in 1995. He completed a fellowship in Neonatology in 1997 and a Master in Epidemiology in 2000. He was appointed professor of Pediatrics at the University Paris 11 in 1997. Thierry moved to Edmonton, Alberta, in 2003 to become the inaugural director of the Women and Children Health Research Institute (WCHRI) in 2006. In 2010, He was recruited as a senior scientist at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute and was the scientific director of the Clinical Research Unit at CHEO from 2011 to 2015. Since 2016, Thierry has been the section head of Neonatology at the Cumming School of Medicine, and the regional program director of Neonatology at Alberta Health Services. His areas of study include clinical trials with an emphasis on medications.

O’Brien

Dr. Karel O’Brien

Member

Dr. Karel O’Brien is a staff neonatologist at Mount Sinai Hospital and Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. She is a clinical teacher and neonatologist at a very busy perinatal center that specializes in fetal diagnosis and therapy and also works in the follow up clinic. She has trained in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research. Her current research has focused on the development of Family Integrated Care, a model that changes how we deliver care to families and their infants in the NICU, and she has recently completed an international trial of this model of care. Going forward Karel is passionate about the importance of including families in the care of their infants, and investigating how best to support the entire team, nurses, physicians and parents to provide this care in a way that improves staff, family and infant outcomes. Her motto is “Be the change you wish to see”.

Narvey

Dr. Michael Narvey

Member

Michael Narvey, MD, FRCPC, FAAP

Section Head, Neonatology; Medical Director of the Child Health Transport Team; Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Dr. Narvey began his training in Pediatrics at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg where he completed a year of further training in Neonatology. This was followed by two years of Neonatal fellowship at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Afterwards he began his career as a Neonatologist in the same city and over the 6 years he spent there, his career included both clinical and administrative duties including 4 years as the Fellowship Program Director and two years as the Medical Director for a level II unit. In late 2010 he accepted a position in Winnipeg to become the Section Head of Neonatology and continues to hold this post. In 2016 he took on the additional role of Medical Director of the Child Health Transport Team. In 2015 he became a member of the Canadian Pediatric Society’s Fetus and Newborn Committee and in 2019 took over as Chair of the same.

His interests predominantly lie in the use of non-invasive technology to minimize painful procedures during an infants stay in the NICU. He is active on social media and has a passion for fundraising and is an active board member of the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba.

Miller

Dr. Steven Miller

Member

Dr. Steven Miller is Head of the Division of Neurology and the Centre for Brain & Mental Health at the Hospital for Sick Children, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto, and Senior Scientist in the Neuroscience & Mental Health Program at the Research Institute of SickKids. He holds the Bloorview Children’s Hospital Foundation Chair in Pediatric Neuroscience.

Dr. Miller and his team focus on improving the clinical care of newborns requiring intensive care such as those born preterm or with congenital heart disease or born preterm. Findings from his research program inform new strategies to promote optimal brain development and neurodevelopmental outcome. Most recently, he co-directs Child-Bright (https://child-bright.ca/), an innovative pan-Canadian network that aims to improve outcomes for children with brain-based developmental disabilities and their families through Canada's Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR).

Feeley

Dr. Nancy Feeley

Member

Nancy Feeley RN PhD FCAN is a Professor at the Ingram School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. She also holds appointments as a Senior Researcher at the Lady Davis Institute and the Centre for Nursing Research of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal Quebec. For the last twenty years her program of research has focused on the psychological adjustment and parenting of mothers and fathers of newborns requiring neonatal intensive care. This work is relevant to the current preoccupations of neonatology: the central role of parents in their infant’s care during hospitalization and promoting parental mental health to optimize the development of children requiring neonatal intensive care.

Family Advisory Committee

Pearce

Rebecca Pearce

Chair

Rebecca Pearce is the mother of Maren, who was born at 25 weeks gestational age in 2009.

She is a long-time member of the équipe Partenariat Famille (PAF) Sainte-Justine, a team comprised of a group of veteran parents at CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal, Québec, who act as a resource for families new to the NICU and who contribute to improving clinical care, research, and teaching by offering a critical parental viewpoint.

Rebecca has published several opinion pieces about how existing outcome research fails to meet the needs of parents or preterm children.

Rebecca is a secondary science teacher in Montreal and is a third-year Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University, where she is studying preterm children as mathematical learners and doers

Richards

Tiffany Richards

Member

I’m a 29 year old single mom by choice to a very busy little boy named Knight who is 18 months and 15 corrected. I’m a phlebotomist at Canadian blood services. Knight and I have a little dog and bunny. My life revolves around Knight, having him being born so early has ignited a passion for helping and guiding other parents who find themselves on an unexpected NICU journey. I’m excited to bring my knowledge and passion to the committee.

Mensah

Kojo Mensah

Member

Kojo is father of twin boys who were born in 2017 at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital weighing 950 grams and 940 grams. The boys spent four months and five months respectively in the NICU. During that time, they endured a variety of challenges related to neonatal respiratory conditions.

One of Kojo’s proudest achievements is his participation in family integrated care and helping nurture his children to full health. The quality care provided by NICU staff inspired him to volunteer his time in support of the neonatal community.

Morton

Jenna Morton

Member

Jenna Morton & her twin boys survived Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome thanks to a surgery performed at 20 weeks at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. The boys were born at 32 weeks and spent 35 days in the NNICU at The Moncton Hospital in New Brunswick. Jenna, her husband, the twins and their older sister have all taken part in various advocacy and awareness projects and programs since then. Professionally, Jenna is a parenting journalist & podcaster; she hosts & produces the CPBF's podcast, With You in the NICU, as well as NeoChats, produced for the Canadian Association of Neonatal Nurses.

Peltier

Michelle Peltier

Member

Michelle is the mother of Olive, a 29+0 weeker born in 2011 due to unexplained preterm labour.

Olive is big sister to Finn, born full term in 2013.
She spent the first two months of motherhood and Olive’s life in level 3 and level 2 NICU’s in Vancouver, BC. Having experienced two different hospitals, with differing supports available for families, Michelle learned to advocate for consistent, involved, family centred care.
Soon after arriving home from NICU, Michelle learned there was very little support for parents once discharged. Out of this need to build community and connect with other parents of premature infants, she founded an online forum, the Vancouver Parents of Preemies which also hosts monthly in person meet ups. The group grew quickly from a few friends made in hospital to now over 330 members from across Greater Vancouver. Now, with with the support from the Vancouver Infant Development Program, the group hosts a monthly connection opportunity with guest speakers such as a dietician, librarian, physical therapist, occupational therapist, sleep educator and more to discuss developmental considerations for babies born premature.
Michelle had spent 16 years working closely with families as an Early Childhood Educator before starting her own birth and postpartum doula company in 2016. Currently, she is balancing her part time doula work with a part time position at BC Women’s Hospital as a Patient & Family Engagement Advisor. Working as a family advisor has allowed her to continue to develop her passions in advocacy, family centred policy change and improvement work.

Michelle began her time with Canadian Premature Babies Foundation at the Second National Family Consultative Meeting in Toronto in 2013 and looks forward to continuing the incredible work of CPBF through the Family Advisor Committee.

Boodram

Aruna Boodram

Member

Aruna Boodram is a queer, cis-gendered community organizer and legal worker from the Caribbean diaspora based in Tkaronto (Dish with One Spoon Wampum Covenant). She has been a community DJ and facilitator that specializes in anti-oppression, decolonization, consensus, facilitation training and strategic planning sessions for organizations over the past 12 years. She is the autonomous-single parent of Surya Amaris, a thriving and resilient 24-weeker. Surya spent 3 months in two NICUs in Toronto. Aruna is also the advice columnist for Shameless Magazine and council member for the Children's Peace Theatre in Toronto.

Ducey

Steven Ducey

Member

Steven is a married father to 2 boys, and lives in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. He is a self-employed engineer who strives to provide the best life possible for his family.

Our youngest son, Oskar, was born in October 2021 at 26+1 weeks weighing 737g. We had an eventful 109 day NICU stay where we incurred many ups and downs, including a very serious infection during the early weeks of Oskar’s life. Upon Oskar’s birth, the difficult decision was made to temporarily suspend the business operations in order to spend everyday at the NICU with Oskar and to help ensure he had the best possible care and outcome. It was a decision that greatly set our family back financially, but we have never regretted making it.

Oskar is now thriving at home and reaching new milestones every day. He has the love and support of a large extended family and especially his older brother, Markus, whom he absolutely adores.

I joined the family advisory board to help spread the word of the NICU dad’s role and responsibilities, which are often times overlooked and misunderstood. I wish to provide a voice for the dads, who often times sit in the background and don’t have access to the same levels of support and help that the mothers receive.

Galifi

Cristina Galifi

Member

Cristina is a Toronto based mom of 3. Her youngest son was born at 29 weeks after having spent 5 weeks on bed rest in hospital from PPROM in 2018. Her son spent a total of 9 weeks in the NICU and was able to come home just before his due date.

Research Committee

Nickel

Emma Nickel

Chair

As a Registered Nurse in Calgary, Alberta, Emma Nickel is currently in the specialized field of neonatal and pediatric care. Emma’s professional journey is distinguished by significant roles at two of the city's foremost medical institutions: Foothills Medical Centre and Alberta Children’s Hospital. Emma obtained a Bachelor of Nursing from the University of Calgary. She currently holds active memberships with the Canadian Association of Neonatal Nurses and the Canadian Association of Pediatric Nurses.

She is actively engaged in providing essential and critical care and takes pride in her roles beyond the bedside, including being a frontline provider representative for the Calgary NICU Parent Advisory Council Team. She is also a committee member on the NICU expansion team, where she strategizes on the expansion of a new level III NICU.

Beyond her clinical responsibilities, Emma’s passion for nursing inspires her to explore research that promotes family-centered care as well as how to bridge the gap between technology and patient care. She is currently examining the intricate dynamics of trust between pediatric patients and nurses and is also exploring the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in nursing practices. Emma is committed to her profession and is fueled by a desire to enhance patient care and support her colleagues in the constantly evolving landscape of healthcare.

Jakobs

Lucía Jakobs

FiCare

Coming soon

Jones

Melissa Jones

Parent Voices

Coming soon

Family Support Committee

Netzel

Karen Netzel

Chair

Karen’s relationship with CPBF began in 2012 when she participated in the first two parent consultative meetings our organization hosted.
Karen spent 10 years working at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg as a Family Support Coordinator where she worked hard to develop a sustainable Family Support Program for Manitoba families. She developed a volunteer recruiting and training program, she participated in research, and was a member of various hospital committees including FICare and Patient Care. She also developed a FICare training program and delivered training to new NICU nurses.



Karen’s son Matthew was born at 25 weeks and spent 7 months in NICU at a time when there was no family support. Since then, Karen has been passionate about family support programs in NICU. She retired from the hospital at the end of 2023 and is very excited to take on her next role as Chair of the Family Support Committee. She is most excited to work with families and hospitals across Canada to provide the best possible support to NICU families and to ensure every NICU has the support program families deserve

Kai

Pam Kai

Member

Coming soon

Wiebe

Andrea Wiebe

Milestone Cards

Coming soon

Powers

Kieran Powers

Peer Support Group

Kieran is a certified Grief & Trauma Coach and the proud mom of three sons, including two preemies. Beckett was born at 23 weeks in 2017 and tragically passed away in his parent’s arms after a short but fierce fight. Lincoln was born in 2018 at just 22 weeks and spent four and a half months on the NICU rollercoaster. He is now in Grade 1! Little brother Remy was born full term via surrogacy in 2022.
The heartache she has endured and the love she holds for her sons led Kieran to establish Becoln, an initiative named for her beloved Beckett and Lincoln. Through Becoln, she is dedicated to helping families find their light amidst the darkness of their struggles. As a certified grief and trauma coach, she specializes in providing support to those who have experienced pregnancy and infant loss, premature birth and the NICU, and medical parenting. Drawing from her own journey, she offers a unique perspective and understanding to families who have been touched by grief, loss, trauma, and heartache.

Education Committee

Bracht

Marianne Bracht

Chair

Marianne has 43 years of nursing experience in neonatology, as a bedside nurse, in the neonatal follow-up clinic, subsequently the NICU parent resource nurse as well as the RSV nurse coordinator in the NICU, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto. Throughout her nursing career she advocated for parents, provided education and support created and co-led parent education programs and participated in international research on Family Integrated Care. Her experience has given her insight into the struggles parents encounter in the NICU as well as following discharge.



Since her retirement, she is the project coordinator for an ongoing research pilot, looking at improving the transition of families and infants to home and the community. She is an active member on the national family integrated care committee. As a member of the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation, she is currently working on the Family Ambassador program, a program to continue to increase the support for NICU families.

Harris  

Lindsay Harris  

Content Writer

Coming soon

Cresswell

Heather Cresswell

Content Writer

Coming soon

Todurkar

Dr. Namrata Todurkar

Content Writer

Coming soon

Martel

Andrea Martel

Educational Projects

Coming soon

Almeida

Patricia Almeida

Preemie Chats

Coming soon

Parent-Partner Network

Bong

Karen Bong

Director

In 2013, Karen's daughter Lucy was born at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre at 25 weeks gestational age. The family-integrated care and peer support Karen's whole family received at Sunnybrook made it possible for them to survive the 109 day NICU journey and to thrive after going home. Post-NICU, their family's healing and happiness included welcoming Jesse, born full-term in 2016.

Karen returned to the NICU in 2015 to give back in a variety of volunteer roles. She hosted a weekly peer support drop-in program, became a family partner in Sunnybrook's quality improvement work with the Vermont Oxford Network, joined the NICU Family Advisory Committee (FAC), and spoke about the family experience at staff orientation and at conferences.

From 2018-2024 Karen was part of Sunnybrook's NICU staff, in the role of Family Support Specialist. She helped the NICU team deliver a program of peer and mental health support, education, and practical assistance to NICU families. Karen is the chair of the FAC and also assists in designing and implementing quality improvement initiatives.

Mentorship and peer support helped Karen get involved as a parent partner and she is committed to helping NICU parent partners across Canada share their knowledge and experience with one another, to help current and future NICU families in their journey. Karen is the director of CPBF's Parent Partner Network, which connects graduate parents across Canada who are involved in NICU work.

Communications

Whitehead

Leah Whitehead

Communications

Coming soon

Kunzmann

Barbara Kunzmann

Digital Marketing Specialist

Coming soon

Operations

Rowe

Cate Rowe

Admin

Coming soon

Vallance

Kira Vallance

Director

Coming soon

Rinzler

Rosaleen Rinzler

Fundraising

Coming soon

Fowobi

Abiola Fowobi

HR

Coming soon

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