Who We Are

Who We Are

Board

Patricia Liu

Jay Sen

Maria Cristina Serje

Founding Member, President of the Board of Directors. Maria Cristina holds a BA in Anthropology and an MA in Latin American History. She has been actively engaged with community based initiatives in Ottawa since 2003: she has worked in the fields of community development, diversity, social inclusion, and immigration, settlement and integration of new comers. For the past six years she was a member of the UNESCO-Canada Sectoral Commission on Culture, Communication and Information. In her native Colombia she worked with aboriginals, afro-descendant communities, peasants and people displaced by the war implementing community-driven projects, facilitating inter-cultural dialogues, and promoting inclusive development. Maria Cristina worked also in the arts and culture sector, concentrating her efforts in the fields of inter-cultural dialogues, popular culture, cultural policies and cultural administration. The main cross cutting themes in Maria Cristina's work over the years have been: cultural diversity, intercultural dialogues, gender equality, and social inclusion. Currently she works for the City of Ottawa.

Renaud Arnaud

Originally from the South of France, Renaud Arnaud holds an engineering degree from France and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Canada. He has worked as a commercial attaché for the French Embassy in the USA, and immigrated to Canada in 2001, where he taught French to government employees before joining the Technology Transfer and Business Enterprise of the Ottawa University. His interest in the problems related to the development of the collective intelligence, and his concerns about the integration of immigrants into the innovation and the value added services sector, Renaud started the . Groupe de Réflexion et d'Initiative des Immigrants Diplômés à l'Étranger (GRIIDE) [think-tank and action group for immigrants with foreign degrees and credentials] in 2003. Renaud has also been a volunteer teacher at Smart Site Ottawa, an initiative that tries to bridge the "digital gap" that exists in the National Capital.

Alejandro Gomez

Alejandro's experience is related to the design and implementation of communication strategies at the local, national and international levels. He has strong interest and experience integrating new media and ICTs to the organizational practice, particularly with non profit organizations involved in social change. He has graduate studies in Educational Technologies, International Project Management and Environmental Studies for Sustainable Development. He has ongoing experience managing small and large scale online projects.

Previous Board Members

Julie Hodgson

Julie Hodgson has worked in the cultural sector for many years with several cultural organizations in Ottawa including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canada Council for the Arts, the National Capital Commission, and the Inuit Art Section of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Julie also worked for the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal and had her own company, Crystal Productions, managing musicians. Julie has sat on a number of Boards including the Council for the Arts in Ottawa, the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization and now, the Coalition of New Canadians for Arts and Culture. Julie has a strong interest in the arts and in artists and enjoys using her experience and skills to make a meaningful contribution to the cultural life of Canada.

Devora Cascante

Previous Staff

Silvia Alfaro
Krystina Mierins
Roman Savka
Sabrina Mathews

Previous Volunteers

Leslie B. Wiskin
Miguel Sanchez Navarro
Jose L Badillo
Jacob McBane
Jackson Couse
Joanna Forbes
Xavier Gillet