Board of Directors
Board of Directors
CANADEM HQ Staff
Executive Director
Paul LaRose-Edwards founded CANADEM in 1996, and has been working in the international community for over 30 years. In a 1995-1996 study of UN field operations for Canadian Foreign Affairs, he recommended the creation of CANADEM. The Canadian government asked him to action that direct recruitment support for the UN by setting up CANADEM as an independent NGO. Apart from a leave of absence to be the UN OHCHR Representative in Jakarta, he has headed CANADEM ever since.
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Prior to CANADEM he had worked in the international community for several decades. Most of his international service was in international human rights, dealing with the politics of advancing rights. With an LL.B. and LL.M. in international human rights law, Paul worked in a variety of missions and countries including Rwanda, Kosovo, Croatia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Afghanistan. He has been staff with NGOs such as Amnesty International, as well as on staff with the Canadian Government, the UN and the Commonwealth Secretariat. He was a consultant for an even larger grouping including the OSCE, EU and NATO. Paul’s last diplomatic post was as Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Indonesia, and for four years he was the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Head of Human Rights in London UK.
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A former Canadian Armoured Corps officer and Royal Military College graduate, he has and continues to do civ-mil work with various militaries including the Canadian Forces (Staff College, Peace Support Training Center); NATO civil-military training, doctrine and concept development; UK Staff College; and the US Naval War College. He and his wife Marilyn have one son, Mike.
Managing Director
Pantiwa Naksomboon holds an M.A. in Public and International Affairs from University of Ottawa and a B.A. from Thammasat University. She joins CANADEM in 2014. She started off in the roster department where she recruited hundreds of experts and has extensive experience in managing CANADEM's growing roster. These posts span the globe from Asia, Europe and across Africa
Deputy Director
Zoe Dugal holds a Master degree in Political Science from McGill University. She started her career in Sierra Leone for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2002 to 2004, an independent organization investigating violations of human rights committed during the conflict in that country.
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She has then worked on community disarmament for UNDP in Sierra Leone from 2004 to 2006. Zoe then worked as a Project Manager for the Pearson Peacekeeping Center from 2007 to 2011. In this position, she managed a capacity development project for police services in ten African countries to support them in their participation in UN and African Union peacekeeping operations, in collaboration with African multilateral organizations. From 2007 to 2011, Zoe was an Advisor for GIZ, the German development agency, in Kenya where she worked with several government institutions, including the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. Zoe managed a project to build the capacity of the Afghan National Police in the area of children’s rights for the International Bureau for Children’s Rights in collaboration with UNICEF in 2015-2016.
Deputy Director
Janice Fu joined CANADEM in 2016. She holds a Master of Arts in Public and International Affairs Specialization in Humanitarian Assistance from Carleton University and an Honours Bachelor of Social Science in International Development and Globalization from the University of Ottawa. While completing her Bachelor’s degree, Janice was a leader in spearheading the largest student run international development conference in Canada. Prior to joining CANADEM, she worked at numerous departments within the Government of Canada. She has also previously conducted field research on occupational health and safety of the garment industry in Bangladesh.
Senior Programme Officer
Roster and Communications
Ben James joined the CANADEM roster team in 2016. He holds a PhD (ABD) and MA in political science from Carleton University and an Honours Bachelors in political science and philosophy from Nipissing University. Ben works to enhance the CANADEM roster by administering training opportunities and performing maintenance on the database. Along with his work on the roster team, Ben hosted a political talk radio show, The Filibuster, on CKCU FM for a decade starting in 2013.
Finance Coordinator
As CANADEM’s Senior Finance Officer, Fiona Kaminski is responsible for the financial/administrative side of a project deployment— from budgeting, invoicing and reconciliations, to maintaining the organizational integrity of the Finance Department as part of CANADEM’s dedication to transparency and accountability. Prior to coming to CANADEM, she assisted with the 2010 and 2012 Ukraine Election Observation Missions in a surge personnel capacity. She holds an Honours Bachelor Degree of Social Science with a Major in Anthropology and a Minor in Religious Studies. She has benefited from the cultural insight gleaned from her academic work and uses its lens to approach each of CANADEM’s unique Roster deployments. Due to extensive travel abroad she has gained a wide experience with foreign currencies and an understanding of the specific financial challenges facing CANADEM’s experts overseas.
Senior Finance Officer
Adrienne Buller started working as a Finance Officer with CANADEM in December of 2018. She is responsible for the day-to-day finance activities: invoicing, purchase orders, and general office administration. Her Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in Accounting from the University of Ottawa provides her with the financial foundation to assist the organization following appropriate accounting principles and standards.
Prior to joining CANADEM, she worked for an international BPO and helped launch programs in their Mumbai, India and Makati, Philippines sites, as well as working with clients and employees across Canada and the United States. Her experiences emphasize the importance of organization at all levels, and the benefits having a full multicultural and global viewpoint when conducting business.
Finance Officer
Oksana Zubriy moved to Ottawa and joined CANADEM’s headquarter staff in 2022. Previously, starting in 2010, Oksana was repeatedly CANADEM’s Locally Engaged Personnel and Logistics Manager for seven Canadian Election Observation Missions in Ukraine. Missions ranged from 150 to 500 observers. Oksana had overall responsibility for recruiting and managing up to 400 local staff country-wide, and managing mission finances, logistics, local procurement, and all administrative issues. She has over 20 years of experience in project management, logistics coordination, administration and cash management.
In partnership with international and national organizations in Ukraine she implemented various humanitarian country-wide projects: “Canadian Ambulances for Ukraine”, “COVID-19 Children`s Relief”, “Dental Missions for Children in Orphanages”, “Health of Rural Women”, “Ukrainian Trauma Life Support”, and more. She worked for the Ukrainian World Congress and UkraineInvest, the Ukraine government investment promotion agency in the Office of the Prime-Minister. Prior to moving to Ottawa, she was the National Consultant of the Lumos Foundation (UK) supporting the Ukrainian government deinstitutionalization reform of the child-care (orphanages) system. She was involved in planning and implementation at the national and regional levels and collaborated with the President’s Office, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Policy, Ministry of Health, Regional Administrations, and national and international NGOs. Oksana holds a Masters in Economics and Marketing and has further credentials in Project Management and Commerce.
Senior Programme Officer
Duty of Care Manager
Andrea Banks-Demuth joined CANADEM in 2021 as an Operations Officer. She holds a Honours Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and English from Carleton University. Prior to joining CANADEM Andrea worked closely with the operations team to coordinate travel for deployments.
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Programme Officer
Frank Lee is an Operations Officer who joined CANADEM in 2021. With an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Canadian Studies from McGill University, Frank's work consists of deploying CANADEM experts to field missions spanning the globe with the United Nations and other international organizations. Originally from South Korea, Frank's work is informed by cultural insights gained from a lengthy experience of also living across Russia, the United States, and Canada. Frank has a deep interest in strengthening Canada’s reputation in the world and augmenting its presence on the global stage.
Duty of Care Advisor and Counselor
Randy Weekes has been working in the fields of international development, conflict management and capacity building for more than 40 years. He has worked in education and rural development in Asia, multi-sector program management in Africa and in conflict areas including Kosovo, Bosnia and most recently Afghanistan. He has designed and delivered training programs for hundreds of groups in Canada and around the world. His clients have included military, police, diplomats, universities, businesses and NGOs.
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Having experienced many of the challenges that come with international work in higher stress international environments himself, Randy supports CANADEM in ensuring that it and other agencies fulfill their Duty of Care to personnel sent abroad. Randy has a Masters of Science in International Psychosocial Consultation (U.E.L.) as well as Certificates in Adult Education (St.F.X.U.) and Financial Planning (C.I.F.P.) and a BA in Political Science (Queen’s U.).
Duty of Care Counselor
Juliet Donald is clinical psychologist from Sydney, Australia. She completed her Bachelor, Masters and Doctoral degrees at the University of Sydney. Juliet joined the humanitarian sector as a field based psychological coordinator with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders. Juliet has worked for MSF in a number of different capacities over the past 10 years both domestically in Canada and internationally. She has a special interest in the mental health and well-being of aid workers, and incorporates this focus in her private psychology practice and as the manager for the Psychosocial care unit with MSF Canada. Juliet is delighted to have joined the CANADEM team as Duty of Care specialist
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Duty of Care Counselor
Mira Dodig is a Clinical Social Worker, Psychotherapist with over 25 years of experience providing comprehensive mental health care including crisis and critical incident management, individual psychotherapy as well as creative group and community programming. She has widespread experience in the humanitarian sector, working internationally with Médecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and other organizations, delivering culturally appropriate mental health and psychosocial services for refugee populations, survivors of conflict, and gender-based violence. In Canada, Mira has worked extensively in the community mental health sector. She is passionate about social justice and health equity and has continued to work locally with refugee/newcomer populations and survivors of violence and trauma. Over the years, Mira has also been committed to providing supportive services to strengthen the mental health and resilience of frontline healthcare staff and aid workers. Mira currently works as a Duty of Care Specialist and maintains a private practice in Toronto.
Duty of Care Counselor
Rima Makki joined CANADEM as a duty of care specialist in February 2021. She holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from the Lebanese University. Rima started her journey with the International Humanitarian Organizations in 2011 when she joined Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders as a Clinical Psychologist to work in the field. She also has a broad experience in the management of mental health programs with MSF and in staff care with the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Furthermore, Rima worked for more than 10 years in her private clinic as a Clinical Psychologist before she moved to Canada. She has particular interest in EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) and in health Psychology.
IT Specialist
Serhiy Perepiatenko joined CANADEM in 2007 as an IT Specialist. He now provides remote IT consultation to CANADEM. Serhiy holds a Radio equipment builder College diploma from city of Dnipro, Ukraine.