Board of directors
Stories, insights, and updates from our programs, partnerships, and community initiatives.
Linda Hickey
Founding Director
Linda Hickey is the President and a founding member of Collective Interchange Cooperative. Linda has been “awakening the potential” of communities for over 15 years. She has also taken a leadership role on several volunteer boards on Social Engagement, Organizational Capacity Building, Fund Development, Leadership Building, Social Innovation, and other issues of importance to the nonprofit sector. Her expertise includes Finance / Budgeting & Fiscal Record-Keeping, Grassroots Organizing, Event Planning, Proposal Development/Project Management, Administrative Management, Governance Compliance, Facilitation, and Partnership Brokering. Linda’s main priority is to see the growth of cooperative members and to see the cooperative evolve in projects with newcomers. Business ideas can be ideal, but they need to be realistic and achievable. Understanding the cooperative model and how the model benefits your business is key to being part of the cooperative.
Fern Mitchelmore
Founding Director
Fern is a CPA/CGA and takes a leadership role in the development, maintenance, and monitoring of internal controls and financial systems seriously. She ensures that the projects are undertaken and any services provided are in compliance with the co-op’s policies and procedures as well as government legislation. As a co-founder of Collective Interchange, Fern has been a solid and grounded leader and contributor helping forge a new kind of organization in an ever-changing province with significant challenges yet many opportunities to explore.
Valerie Carruthers
Director
Valerie has extensive experience designing and delivering national, provincial, and regional projects, specializing in equipping diverse populations through capacity-building activities so they can make informed choices and reach their social and economic goals. Valerie has 20+ years experience working as an Executive Director and 8 years experience serving as a board director.
Elayne Greeley
Founding Director
Elayne is a classic example of the slash career pathway. A community educator and developer at her core. Her foundation career (15 years) was in the arts and culture sector as a visual artist and art educator. She brings creative thinking and social justice principles to her mid-career (15 years now) in building collaborative community structures and is energized by ideas and actions that will transform systems to serve individuals better. She has been brokering partnerships in the career and employment sector for a dozen years and is keen on community-based research. She is a career development enthusiast who can not help adding career development thoughts and theories to any conversation – career development is lifelong and life-wide.
Amparo Montoya
Director
Amparo Montoya Montoya trained as a Bacteriologist in Bogota Colombia. In 2002 she created Dinámica Corporativa, a training and consulting company on quality control and food safety. She has developed training workshops for workers in the food industry on topics such as Food Handling, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Food Safety, and Hazard Analysis Systems among others. In 2013 she began her life in St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, where she worked as a volunteer in an organization to help immigrants. Then she became an administrative manager where she renewed her passion to help people and the community. In 2020 Amparo started to think about creating a new company in Canada and created Corporate Dynamics, which offers Culture Connections service. Amparo began entrepreneurship training with the Board of Trade and NLOWE and was part of the Her Own Boss Project (HOB). After participating in the HOB project and understanding the incredible work done, she met the group of women who are part of the Collective Interchange, she was accepted as Director of the Collective Interchange in December 2020.
Roxana Fazli
Director
Roxana Fazli is a Sociology PhD student at Memorial University and CEO of Expertise Hub Cooperative. She brings experience in community-based research, program management, capacity building, and equity-centred program design, with a focus on immigrant inclusion, women’s economic security, and labour market access. As a board member of Collective Interchange Cooperative, Roxana contributes her expertise in cooperative governance, community collaboration, and systems change to support more inclusive and sustainable communities.
Maryam Masaeli
Director
Maryam Masaeli holds a master’s degree in Human Resources and has completed a Master of Employment Relations Degree at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She has experience in human resources and customer service. Maryam is committed to social justice, gender equality, and women’s empowerment. At Collective Interchange, she works to help immigrant women educate themselves about different services in the community, and find their path to better career success