Bereaved Families of Ontario board includes:

Bill Allan: Chairperson

L. James Cardinal: Past Chair

Mary Hearn Hendela: Vice Chair / Secretary

Jeff Thorsteinson: Treasurer

Maureen Ford

Deborah Davidson

Andrew Alexander

Betty-Lou Kristy

Cheryl Cullis

L. JAMES CARDINAL, Past Chair
L. James Cardinal (better known as Jim) is a third generation funeral director. Licensed as a funeral director in Ontario in 1982, Jim became president/owner of Cardinal Funeral Homes Ltd in 1984 after the death of his father. He is proud to carry on the family tradition of caring for his community since 1925.
Jim has served on many volunteer boards:

• Past president of Guaranteed Funeral Deposits 1994
• Board member of the Ontario Funeral Service Association 1995 to 1998
• Founding member of Open Dialogue
• Board member of the Toronto and District Funeral Directors Association 1996 to 1998
• President of the Funeral Service Association of Canada 2005 -2006
• Board member of Bereaved Families of Ontario - Toronto 2002 - 2007

He has also volunteered as a T-Ball and Little League baseball coach in High Park as well as coaching minor hockey at Humber Valley.
In his younger years Jim travelled Ontario as a professional musician before joining the family business. He still enjoys playing the odd gig now and then whenever he can. Jim is an avid scuba diver and loves to travel the world in search of the perfect dive.
Jim is married and has two sons, both currently away at university.

JEFF THORSTEINSON
Jeff and his wife Janet live in Whitby Ontario and they have 4 children: Matthew, Joseph (9yrs), Daniel (6yrs) and Eva (4yrs). Jeff and Janet became involved with the BFO affiliate in London Ontario shortly after Matthew died very suddenly from meningitis on Feb. 24th, 2000. BFO London played a very significant role in helping Janet and Jeff through the grieving process and when they felt the time was right they became involved as volunteers: Jeff by sitting on the BFO London Board of Directors and volunteering as a grief counsellor and Janet by teaching yoga for grieving mothers and volunteering as a grief counsellor. After moving to Whitby in 2006, Jeff joined the board of the provincial BFO organization to continue contributing to the work of BFO. Jeff works in downtown Toronto for the Bank of Montreal group of companies developing and executing their business strategies, Janet is raising the children and teaching a multitude of fitness class in the Whitby area and Joe, Dan and Evie are very busy with school, music and sports activities.

BETTY-LOU KRISTY
Betty-Lou is a recipient of the 2009 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Transforming Lives Award and accepted this award earlier this year on behalf of herself and her late son Peter (Kristy) Beattie. On December 23, 2001-at age 25-Pete died from a mixed drug overdose.

Having lost her only child to the same illnesses she fought for much of her life, Betty-Lou is an outspoken advocate determined to prevent others from suffering the same fate. In addition to her commitment to educate, raise awareness, reduce stigma and fight for sustainable funding for EFFECTIVE mental health and addictions services, Betty-Lou recognizes the need for these campaigns to be extended to include grief/bereavement.
Betty-Lou has past training and experience volunteering with VON Halton in hospice/grief/bereavement support program and has designed and facilitated grief/ bereavement trainings for youth to youth outreach workers.

Betty-Lou devotes her time to many important causes, such as, the Peer Outreach Support Services & Education program (POSSE)and sits on the editorial committee of Undercroft Magazine in Halton (both are youth based harm reduction peer outreach programs), Halton Youth Restorative Justice Committee, Halton Region Methadone Community Work Group and North Halton Mental Health Clinic Consumer Advisory Committee. She volunteers with several CAMH programs, including the OpiATE Project, the Methadone Saves Lives initiative, and Under One Roof. Betty-Lou also participates in one of the theme groups (Consumer Partnerships) for the Minister's Advisory Group on Mental Health and Addictions. Betty-Lou is also on the board of directors for Bereaved Families of Ontario (Halton/Peel affiliate).

CHERYL CULLIS, B.A.
Cheryl has a B.A. in history from the University of Toronto, and has been on the Board of Directors for BFO Durham Region since 2002. She has past experience as a Director of the Board for the Anaphylaxis Network of Canada (life-threatening food allergies) where she was also Chair of Support Services and responsible for managing support groups across Canada. Cheryl was also a volunteer with the Durham Region Victims Crisis Assistance and Referral Service and the Allergy Asthma Information Association.

Cheryl is married to Ron Speare and has 3 children, Shauna (25), Rachel (22) and Leah. She came to Bereaved Families of Ontario when her 11 year old daughter Leah died suddenly of unexplained causes on February 19th, 2000. In 2002, Cheryl took facilitator training in Durham Region and since then, has been a Director of the Board, facilitated groups, performed one-on-ones, drop-ins, assisted in the co-ordination of Family Support Nights and was honoured to be the Volunteer of the Year in 2005. Currently self-employed, she treasures her volunteer work as a tribute to her daughter Leah.

DEBORAH DAVIDSON, PH.D.
Deborah is a bereaved mom whose first and second babies were born prematurely and died shortly after birth. Both births occurred prior to the profound changes to hospital protocols that understood the possibility of 'good grief', and that facilitated, rather than denied, maternal grief in perinatal death. Finding her way to BFO after many years of grieving alone and in silence, she eventually trained as a peer support volunteer for both Toronto and Halton/Peel affiliates. As well, as an Officer of the Board of Directors for Halton/Peel, she chairs the Professional Advisory Subcommittee of the Board. Deborah is an academic who teaches sociology at the university level and who researches in the areas of bereavement, health, gender, and diversity. Her Ph.D. dissertation was in the area of perinatal bereavement.