Ontario Nurses' Association

Linda Haslam-Stroud, a long-time political activist and nursing advocate, began her third term as President of the Ontario Nurses' Association in 2008. Haslam-Stroud has been active in ONA since 1980 having served as President and Local Coordinator of Local 75 for much of that time. She was elected to the hospital sector provincial bargaining team in 1988 and has been elected chair for three rounds. She has been involved in negotiating five provincial collective agreements. She has served on a variety of internal and external ONA committees. As well, she has been a voting delegate at both the Canadian Federation of Nurses' Unions and at the Canadian Labour Congress. As ONA President, Haslam-Stroud’s priorities are to improve the quality of working life for nurses - ensuring that work environments are healthy and safe - and to negotiate collective agreements in all sectors that reflect the value of services ONA members provide to the health care system. Haslam-Stroud has considerable experience liaising with municipal, provincial and federal governments. Since graduating from Mohawk College in 1977 Haslam-Stroud has been a renal transplant nurse at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton. She has been actively involved with her hospital and her community. She has served on the fiscal advisory committee and on the planning and marketing committees of St. Joseph's Healthcare. As president of Grand River Gymmies, she was instrumental in building a new gymnastic facility with programming for 900 youth. She has served as team manager and 'chef de mission' of the Gymnastics Ontario national trampoline and tumbling team for many years.

Vicki McKenna is serving her first term as ONA's First Vice-President. McKenna has been an ONA member for 25 years, and an ONA activist for some 17 years. A Registered Nurse since 1979, she has served on various positions on the Local 100 Executive Committee, and as Local Coordinator. She has also served on many ONA provincial committees and teams, most recently as Chair of the Hospital Central Negotiating Team. She also recently participated on the Local 100 Independent Assessment Committee. As First Vice-President, McKenna will be responsible for the political action and professional issues portfolios. McKenna believes ONA's success at lobbying government to improve conditions for nurses – and thus, quality patient care – lies in using our collective voice through meetings with MPPs and media relations. She feels strongly that ONA's 54,000 members have power, and by working with our allied associations and unions, we can leverage that power. McKenna says nurses are on the front line, and are the experts on health care issues and health care delivery. She has the passion to fight to improve the social, economic and general welfare of registered and graduate nurses and allied health professionals, and to ensure that ONA members have workplaces and employers that respect their staff, that work they do, and provide a workplace environment that allows members to practice as they were trained to. McKenna practices as a Registered Nurse in the Day Surgery Unit of London Health Sciences Centre, working with both adult and pediatric patients and their families.

Diane Parker, RN, has been a nurse in the hospital, long-term care and community sectors since 1970. During this time, Parker has been active in the union, serving as Bargaining Unit President for Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre Cancer Clinic, Local Coordinator for Local 073 and ONA Region 1 Provincial Vice-President from 2001 to 2006. Parker rejoins the Board of Directors with a wealth of knowledge and experience, especially in the area of occupational health and safety. She has been a member of the Canadian Labour Congress Health and Safety Committee and a member of and instructor at the Workers Health and Safety Centre. She was also a Board of Directors member of the Ontario Safety Association for Community Health for six years, two of which she spent as Vice-Chair. Parker strives to create a safe work environment for ONA members, free from workplace injury and violence, where members feel respected, strong and committed in their day to day patient care.

Anne Clark, RN, joined the ONA Board of Directors in January 2005, representing Eastern Ontario (ONA Region 2). Since graduating from Algonquin College in 1980, Clark has been employed at Queensway Carleton Hospital in Ottawa as a full-time Registered Nurse on a combined urology/orthopedics and general surgery unit. She has been actively involved in ONA at the Local level for 23 years, having held the offices of Local Coordinator, Bargaining Unit President, Grievance Officer and Treasurer for her Local. She was twice elected to be the Region 2 representative on the Hospital Central Negotiating Team. Clark is responsible for the Labour Relations Portfolio. She strongly believes that in this time of stress to the health care system and its individual workers, it is critical that ONA continue to provide quality service that will uphold our collective agreements with the ultimate goal to improve our quality of work life. Furthermore, Ontario faces a challenge in recruiting and retaining nurses. One of the ways to meet that challenge is for our members to have the salary and working conditions that reflect our worth as the backbone of the health care system. Clark is married with two children and six grandchildren.

Andy Summers is serving his second term as Vice-President, Region 3. Summers came to Canada in 1991 and has been an active ONA member since that time. Over the space of 10 years he has been a Floor Representative, served on a Grievance Committee and Hospital Advisory Committee member, Grievance Chair, Vice Coordinator, Bargaining Unit President and Local Coordinator of Local 82. He works at Mt. Sinai Hospital in the emergency department. Summers is responsible for ONA’s human rights and equity portfolio. He is committed to improving the working conditions of the health care workers ONA represents. He believes that ONA has a role to play in improving the health care and living standards of Canadians, and that it is important to build bridges and coalitions with citizens and the broader labour movement to achieve these goals. He keeps himself up to date with relevant workplace conditions and is more than willing to speak to nurses about their working conditions and how to improve them.

Dianne Leclair, RN, Vice-President Region 4 and responsible for the Finance portfolio, has been a Registered Nurse for 22 years – time almost evenly divided between Port Colborne Hospital and Niagara Community Care Access Centre, where she currently is a CCAC case manager. A long-time ONA activist, Dianne began participating in the union as a grievance officer in 1989. From there she became a Bargaining Unit President and then took on the task of Local Coordinator for the merged Local 9, a position she held for four years before being elected to the Board. She has sat on the CCAC Central Negotiating Team and participated in numerous focus groups. Dianne's experience in two hospitals in Niagara Health Services, along with her exposure to Long Term Care and community issues, have given her a global perspective on health care in Ontario – as well as a keen sense of the pressure under which today's nurses work. Her background has also taught her that an ability to communicate is essential to helping lead a union organization. Dianne's career as a caregiver spills over into her non-working life. Community work, the Run for Cancer, Relay for Life, and Christmas Adopt-A-Family programs, plus two university-age children and a passion for cats and camping, complete her busy schedule.

Karen Bertrand, RN, began her first term as ONA Region 5 Vice-President in January 2009. A graduate of St. Clair College in Windsor, Bertrand has worked as a registered nurse in the long-term care sector for 33 years. She became an ONA member in 1988 and has been active in the union since 1989, serving as Treasurer, Bargaining Unit President and Local 8 Vice-Coordinator and Local Coordinator. During her tenure as an ONA Local executive member, Bertrand has participated in a number of ONA workshops and has been a member of many provincial teams and focus groups, including the Educational Focus Group, where leaders and staff revamped ONA’s education program by developing new workshops and delivery methods. Bertrand believes that providing nurses with education opportunities will inspire future ONA leaders. She endeavours to keep members engaged by making education accessible to everyone.

Lesley Bell, RN, is in her 15th year as Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Nurses' Association, having assumed that position in August 1993. Hailing from the Ottawa area, Bell is a former ONA Provincial President (1990). An articulate spokesperson on behalf of ONA's 54,000 registered nurses and allied health professionals, Bell also was ONA's Associate Director of Government Relations. Bell's nursing experience includes a 1977-1989 term as a staff nurse with Ottawa's Salvation Army Grace General. While working at Grace, Bell obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, in 1982 from the University of Ottawa. As an advocate for Ontario health care, Bell has also served on a number of provincial Ministry of Health advisory committees, including the Health Exports Advisory Committee, the Ministry of Colleges and Universities' Steering Committee on Provincial Nursing programs, the Hospital Operating Plan Guidelines Committee and the Task Force on Mental Competency. In 1992, Bell was a member of the Canadian delegation to the Duke of Edinburgh's Commonwealth Study Conference held in Oxford, England. In 2002, Bell received a MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. Bell currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Registered Nurses Foundation of Ontario and Institute for Work & Health, and is a representative for ONA on the Ontario Ministry of Health's Joint Provincial Nursing Committee. Bell is also a trustee and sits on the Investment Committee of the Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan.