Meet the Board

Cheryl is head of school at St. John’s-Kilmarnock School in Waterloo. Prior to that she served as the head of Elmwood School in Ottawa for 11 years, deputy head at Bedford Preparatory School in Bedfordshire, U.K. and three all-girls’ independent schools in the U.K. She began her career teaching English and history in the public school system in Hamilton.

In addition to her roles as a CIS Ontario board member and chair of the programs and services committee, Cheryl participates in her educational community as a member of the CAIS Accreditation Council. She has also been a board member for the Elearning Consortium Canada and the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools.

Cheryl graduated from Queen’s University’s Concurrent Education program with both a BA and a BEd. Recently she completed her Professional Master of Education degree from Queen’s University. Much of her graduate work was focused on creativity, collaboration, technology and innovation. Queen’s University’s Faculty of Education recently named Cheryl a “50 Influential in 50” for her leadership in independent education, celebrating the leadership and accomplishment of Queen’s Faculty of Education alumni across the globe.

Alan is the past board chair, and currently an independent board member, for CIS Ontario. He was formerly a board member and board chair at Albert College in Belleville. He’s a partner in the labour and employment group of Cunningham Swan LLP in Kingston where he practises labour and employment law for management.

David has served on CIS Ontario since November 2017 and is currently chair of the CIS finance committee. David is an alumnus of St. John's-Kilmarnock School (SJK) in Waterloo, where he also served on the board of governors for eight years, from 2008-2016. While on the SJK board, he chaired the development and facilities committee that oversaw the development of the campus master plan and multiple build campaigns for a learning commons, dining hall and boat-house facilities.

David has previously worked as a management consultant with Deloitte Inc, as a high-growth technology executive, and as a portfolio private-equity partner. He currently leads a boutique consulting company focused on customer experience design. David has an honours bachelor degree from Huron University College at Western University, a master’s of management from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia and has served on eight non-profit boards.

Chris is a partner at Aird & Berlis LLP where he practises commercial litigation and arbitration, primarily in securities, products liability and contractual matters. In addition, Chris advises non-profit organizations, including independent schools, on governance, discipline and risk management. Chris has been involved in numerous precedent-setting cases, most recently in the natural resources and education fields. He handles a broad range of disputes, including securities, product liability, forestry regulation, auditing and accounting, information technology, and matters involving issues of confidentiality and fiduciary duty.

Chris is a past-president of the Toronto Lawyers Association and a director of the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario. Chris was a member of the board of trustees of Trinity College, the University of Toronto, and chair of the finance committee for four years. He is a former governor of Havergal College and was chair of the governance committee for five years. He was also a member of the Trinity College School board of governors and chair of the philanthropy and alumni committee, and a current trustee.

Rosemary was named principal of University of Toronto Schools (UTS) in 2011. During her tenure she has re-established UTS as a school-based partner for the Master of Teaching Program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) and solidified the affiliation relationship with the University of Toronto.

Rosemary received her BA in history from Western University and her MA, B.Ed. and MBA from the University of Toronto. She served as a teacher, department head and subject co-ordinator for the Peel Board of Education, and later as a vice-principal in the former East York Board of Education. During her time as an instructor in the initial teacher education program at OISE, Rosemary was the recipient of a teaching excellence award.

As academic head at Branksome Hall, she oversaw the implementation of the International Baccalaureate programs from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12. Rosemary is the author of several history textbooks and has presented on such topics as global education, critical thinking, assessment and equity.

As a vice-president at StrategyCorp, Andrew provides counsel on management consulting projects, communications challenges and government relations at the federal, provincial and municipal level. Over a 20-year career, he has earned the trust of CEOs, premiers and non-profit leaders with honest advice and data-driven strategy.

Andrew previously served as senior adviser to the Premier of Ontario, as well as chief-of-staff in several ministries. He held senior campaign roles for the Liberal Party of Canada and the Ontario Liberal Party.

Andrew was the founding CEO of the Pecaut Centre, a non-profit management consulting firm housed at the Boston Consulting Group. More recently, Andrew was essential to implementing the strategic transformation of public broadcaster TVO into the province’s partner for digital learning inside the classroom.

Andrew graduated with distinction from the MBA program at Ivey Business School. His opinions on politics and public policy are featured regularly with the Globe and Mail and CP24.

Dan Hill is the director of strategy and business intelligence at TVOntario and an alumnus of Trinity College School. With expertise in data and digital media, he’s responsible for all aspects of data design and measurement in the digital education and media space.

He has founded two digital start-ups and consulted on many more. He was formerly the senior director of digital programming for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a consulting manager for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and a business manager at BBDO Interactive.

Ed is the 10th headmaster of Ridley College in St. Catharines. He is proud to have led this 129-year-old Canadian institution whose vision is to “inspire flourishing lives to transform our globe” since 2012. Prior to repatriating to Canada, he enjoyed a 16-year career in international education, serving most recently as the high school principal at Shanghai American School.

As a former IB English teacher, coach and adviser, Ed is committed to the virtues of a liberal arts education, the values of a boarding school experience and the emerging field of positive education.

As such, Ed challenged the Ridley community with a new strategic plan and vision to “inspire flourishing lives.” In this regard, Ridley has adopted a whole-school approach to cultural change through the lens of positive psychology; from teaching and learning in the classroom, to athletic coaching to administration and leadership, all learners in the Ridley community are striving to lead flourishing lives and inspire it in others. 

Erin is the director of strategic program development and accreditation in the Office of the Dean, Smith School of Business at Queen's University. She’s responsible for the strategic growth of academic programs and ongoing accreditation and compliance with numerous agencies, government departments and international organizations.

She was formerly the director of the Master of Management Programs, overseeing the operation of three graduate programs and working with administrative teams around the world to deliver academic content. Erin has consulted on leadership development in both the profit and not-for-profit sectors including non-governmental organizations, and federal/provincial departments. She’s a certified executive coach and has worked with hundreds of executives in both the public and private sector. She teaches international trade law in graduate programs at Smith.

She has a BA from Queen's in economics and psychology, a MA in higher education policy from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of Queen's Master of Law Program specializing in international trade law.

Derek has been head of school at Kingsway College School in Etobicoke since 2007. He was formerly an educator and administrator there, since 1999. He began his teaching career at Turnbull School in Ottawa.

Derek is a leader in mental health advocacy. While he sees building new facilities, raising money for his school and high enrollment as terrific accomplishments, helping children and their families stare down the stigma of a mental health diagnosis is most truly rewarding.

He has a BA in political science and history from McMaster University, MA in war studies from the University of London and a BEd. from the University of Toronto. He’s a graduate of the Canadian Accredited Independent Schools Leadership Institute.

Derek has been happily married to Heather for 26 years and has a daughter, Alyssa, and son, Brandon.

Dr. Rulan Parekh is a clinician scientist, nephrologist and an international leader in clinical epidemiology and translational research in kidney disease. She is also the Associate Chief, Clinical Research at SickKids Research Institute and also the Division Director of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto. Her body of work has revealed novel genetic risk factors leading to kidney disease, and increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality for children and adults with kidney disease. Since 2000, Dr. Parekh has maintained a record of sustained NIH and CIHR funding. She has significant productivity with more than 160 published manuscripts over 9074 citations and a stellar track record of training and mentoring 80 students and post-doctoral trainees. She has received several awards including the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland Award, Advising, Mentoring and Teaching Research Award, Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Daneman Mentorship Awards, Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto and was elected into academic honor societies such as the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Pediatric Academic Society and the American Pediatric Society. Dr. Parekh has recently been named Canada Research Chair in Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Stephanie is a senior associate in the Toronto office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, practising labour and employment, human rights and education law. She has appeared as employer and/or defence counsel before the Superior Court of Justice, the Divisional Court, the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, the Ontario Labour Relations Board and at labour arbitrations.