Renato Zane
(Chair)
Renato is a leadership consultant and podcast host. He works with clients interested in performance coaching and communications. Previously, he was a newsroom director and general manager at Rogers Sports and Media. His career at OMNI Television and Citytv spanned 32 years in three provinces.
He was drawn to the BC Schizophrenia Society Foundation by its goal of helping families through fundraising for BCSS programs and stewardship of designated research donations.
Joanne Leung
(Treasurer)
Prior to becoming a family caregiver, Joanne was a Certified Public Accountant and worked as Director of Finance at an international high-tech product design and manufacturing company in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2015, she moved to BC to provide full-time care and support for her aging parents and her sister with schizophrenia. As an inexperienced caregiver, Joanne received much-needed support from community mental health organizations, including BC Schizophrenia Society.
Joanne is passionate about increasing awareness about serious mental illnesses and improving the mental health literacy of the general public.
Guelda Redman
(Director)
Guelda is a wife and mother of three children. She has worked as an administrative assistant for 15 years and now runs two home-based businesses, as well as a networking group for women in business.
She serves on the BCSS Foundation board to help support families like hers who have a loved one who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Her son was diagnosed in 2013, and she has been fundraising for BCSS since 2015.
Margareta Dovgal
(Director)
Margareta is a strategic communicator and public policy advocate. She is the Director of Research at Resource Works, a Vancouver-based non-profit in the natural resources space. Through her professional and volunteer work, she is passionate about creating meaningful change in the areas of poverty reduction, gender equality, and innovation policy.
As a child of a person with schizophrenia, Margareta is familiar with the experiences of families served by the BC Schizophrenia Society — and she knows well the difference in the lives of people with schizophrenia and their loved ones that is made by compassionate, accessible services.
Sylvia LeRoy
(Secretary)
Sylvia oversees the education portfolio and grant management practices of the Lotte & John Hecht Memorial Foundation. She began her career in public policy at the Fraser Institute before joining the National Research Council in various communication and leadership roles. As a consultant and volunteer, she enjoys helping organizations define strategy and navigate change.
Sylvia’s experience with schizophrenia began when her sister was diagnosed shortly after graduating high school. She appreciates the BC Schizophrenia Society’s family-centered approach to ending fear and isolation associated with the illness, and the hope offered by its policy, research, and education work.