Introducing the HCPRA Executive
Pat Stephens, HCPRA President
Pat is the Manager, Public Relations at the North Bay General Hospital and the Director, Public Relations at the Northeast Mental Health Centre, also located in North Bay.
Pat started her career as a Recreation Therapist in the mental health field and after 8 years moved into the role of Public Relations Officer and later Director of PR at the Queen Street Mental Health Centre in Toronto. Following 18 years with QSMHC Pat then moved to the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital (HPH) as Director of Public Relations and Planning and upon divestment of HPH to St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, spent three years in the Public Relations Department in this dynamic, teaching hospital. In 2002 Pat moved to North Bay to assume her role as the North Bay General Hospital’s first Public Relations Coordinator and assisted the new North Bay General Hospital Foundation in its capital fundraising plans to raise money for a brand new health centre being built on a greenfield site.
Today Pat manages Public Relations for both the partner organizations involved in the development of the new North Bay Regional Health Centre, namely: North Bay General Hospital and the Northeast Mental Health Centre. While trying to provide extensive PR services to the hospitals, Pat has spent the past year building the case for support for more resources to ensure these two facilities are adequately served by the public relations function. Pat now manages four staff at the Northeast Mental Health Centre and one staff at the North Bay General Hospital.
Pat has served on the Board of the Greater Toronto Chapter of HCPRA and more recently as a member of the National Board and co-chair of the Greater Ontario chapter.
E-mail: stephp@nbgh.on.ca
Telephone: (705) 495-8127
Helen Carkner, APR, HCPRA Past President
Helen recently retired from Fraser Health, whose 22,000 employees and 2,000 physicians provide a wide range of public health, home and community care, acute care and mental health and addictions services to 1.5 million residents of some of Canada’s fastest-growing communities. Helen was the Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs. Through all the growth and changes, Helen remains convinced that health care public relations is the most important and exciting branch of the PR field. She was honoured to lead a strong, professional team of communicators who do their best every day to help Fraser Health’s programs, services and most importantly, its people be better understood by Fraser Health’s many stakeholders.
E-mail: info@hcpara.org
Telephone: (613) 721-2102
Rennie Brown, Vice President, Communications
Rennie is the Director of Communications at BC Mental Health & Addiction Services. Prior to this he worked at David Thompson Health Region (DTHR) in Red Deer, Alberta. He is an accredited member of the Canadian Public Relations Society, Edmonton chapter.
E-mail: rbrown7@bcmhs.bc.ca
Telephone: (604) 524-7260
Judy Brown, Vice President, Membership Judy is Director of Communications at Queensway Carleton Hospital in Ottawa. Prior to this position, Judy worked as a Communications Consultant at the Canadian Institute for Health Information. She was Public Affairs Officer at The Ottawa Civic Hospital for 11 years before becoming Director of Public Affairs and Media Relations when the hospital merged with two others to become The Ottawa Hospital. Judy is actively involved in several professional associations and has served as President of HCPRA and Provincial Chair of the Ontario Hospital Association Community Affairs & Communications Network.
E-mail: jbrown@qch.on.ca
Telephone: (613) 721-4700 ext. 5601
Katie Cronin-Wood, Vice President, Professional Development
Katie is the Communications Lead for the Central East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) in Ontario. Prior to this position, Katie was Director of Community Relations at Rouge Valley Health System.
E-mail: katie.croninwood@lhins.on.ca
Telephone: (905) 427-5497 ext. 218
Jan MacKinnon, Vice President, Recognition
Jan has served as the Director of Public Affairs at Annapolis Valley Health since 2001. She holds a degree in Modern European History and Physical Anthropology from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario in addition to studying Museuology, Radio/ Television Production and a number of courses in Law. Jan’s career path before joining AVH had a strong political bent. She worked in Ottawa as Associate Director of Communications for the PC Party of Canada in the mid 80s. From there Jan moved to the Prime Minister’s office as Film Editor; Assistant to Special Appointments and was part of the Prime Minister’s advance Team. Jan was the first woman to be named Press Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs. Over the intervening years, she has had a number of contracts and volunteer positions dealing with public affairs and communications. In Nova Scotia, Jan served as the Chief of Staff to John Hamm before and during the 1998 election campaign and worked on a number of contracts for the Western Regional Health Board.
E-mail: jmackinnon@avdha.nshealth.ca
Telephone: (902) 538-7592
Heidi Klaschka, APR, Member-at-Large
Heidi is Director of Communications and Public Relations at Misericordia Health Centre in Winnipeg.
E-mail: hklaschka@miseri.winnipeg.mb.ca
Telephone: (204) 788-8302
Lisa Dutton, Member-at-Large
Lisa is Assistant Director, Communications at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal.
E-mail: lisa.dutton@muhc.mcgill.ca
Telephone: (514) 412-4343
Jas Cheema, Member-at-Large
For over a decade, Jas has been instrumental in building bridges and fostering a cross-cultural understanding between the ethnic communities in the Lower Mainland of BC. She has been a leader in the field of inter-cultural communication, diversity, community engagement and racism-free communities and organizations. She is presently the Diversity Manager for Surrey Memorial Hospital, Past President of Surrey Hospice Society, Board Member with Surrey Public Library and Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation. In her role as a consultant, she has helped private, public and non-profit organizations address their diversity and community engagement issues. She has published many articles about cultural and racial issues. She has a Masters in Professional Communication with a Specialization in International and Intercultural Communications. Her work has been recognized: she is the recipient of the Queens Golden Jubilee Medal, Surrey Leader of the Year, Flare Volunteer of the Year and Woman of Distinction awards for her services to the multicultural community, and the Griffin Award for her contributions to the Canadian Society through the art of writing.
E-mail: jas.cheema@fraserhealth.ca
Telephone: (604) 587-3792
Jane Petricic, National Coordinator
Jane is the President of Brainstorm Communications + Creations. Brainstorm offers communications counsel, from writing to media relations, from special events to publications. Working with local graphics company, Brainstorm can provide support from initial concept to final design. Prior to creating Brainstorm, Jane was the Director of Public Relations and Fundraising at The Salvation Army Grace Hospital in Ottawa for seven years, and in Winnipeg for four years before that. She has also held communications positions in Regina and in two Toronto hospitals. Jane received her accredited status with the Canadian Public Relations Society in 1998.
E-mail Address: info@hcpra.org
National Office:
Box 36029, 1106 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1Y 4V3
Telephone: (613) 729-2102
Fax: (613) 729-7708
Web Site (this one!): www.hcpra.org
