OUR TEAM
Tekera Management Team
Gorreth Namukasa
Clinic Head Nurse
Gorreth hails from Kalisizo and studied Comprehensive Nursing at Rakai School of Comprehensive Nursing and Midwifery. She later acquired her degree in Midwifery, and has been practicing Nursing and midwifery for over fives years. As TRC's head nurse, she offers family planning, pre- and post-natal education, and will be organizing the new Midwifery section of the clinic.
Mama Ida
Head of Women's Craft Club
Mama Ida, as everyone fondly calls her, comes from Lwega - Tekera Village and is a grandmother to 8 wonderful grandchildren! She has been working with the Women’s Craft Club as their treasurer and secretary for over 10 years. She is also on the PTA and is active in various aspects of her grandchildren's education and upbringing. She loves her job in the Craft group and is delighted to be part of a process helping other women achieve self-sufficiency and financial support through creating and selling their handmade crafts.
Kevin Onyango
Human Resource Manager
Kevin hails from Bugiri District in the eastern region of Uganda. He graduated from Makerere University with a Bachelor's Degree in Social Sciences, and was a high school teacher for 2 years before joining TRC in 2014 as the HR Manager. Kevin speaks 5 languages and likes to work at TRC because "It's an organization with a local touch." This grass roots connection to the community is important to him because his major role is interacting with community members, teaching skills, and learning from them about local culture and ideas.
Tekera Foundation Executives
Sonya Sangster
CEO
Sonya Sangster is the Tekera Foundations CEO. Sonya brings to the Foundation almost 10 years of development experience, previously working closely with Ugandan communities in healthcare, education, gender equity, poverty reduction, economic development, socio-cultural empowerment, agriculture and climate change adaptation.
Brenda Casey
President
Brenda's life in Africa began in the 1970s when she spent over 2 years working and travelling in a dozen countries there. She continued to reside, work and travel abroad on all 5 continents for 10 years before returning to Canada. Her fervent interest in other cultures, communication and interpersonal dynamics has fed her career as a counselor / educator / consultant in private practice in Vancouver since 1983.
Jessica Pursell
Financial Officer
Jessica, formerly a Senior Director of Financial & Strategic Planning @ Electronic Arts, spent the last 15 years helping EA’s leaders achieve success by providing insightful financial analysis, modeling, decision support and rigorous financial controls. Jessica currently works at LinkedIn as a Senior Director of FP & A.
Bridget Congo
Vice President
Bridget has 15 years of experience in International Development and human rights work. Her undergraduate degree is in Health Sciences, focusing on global health. She has lived and/or traveled to over 30 countries, including a civilian deployment to Kandahar where she was awarded a service medal from the Canadian Government for her contributions toward the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Afghanistan. Bridget is currently studying law, with an interest in the intersections of international human rights law and the law of armed conflict. She is currently the Street Law Coordinator at Law Advocates, connecting local low-income community members with lawyers at the public library.
Jodi Bronson
Secretary
Jodi brings to TF a joint degree in History of Developing Countries and International Relations in Political Science. After university, Jodi worked as Western Canada’s Information Officer for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.This position entailed not only research and national dissemination on source countries of refugees but also claim specific information based on the United Nations Refugee Convention.
Board Directors
Support Team
Jess Musoke
Director, Community Development
I have had the pleasure of being involved with The Tekera Foundation since day 1, in 2009! It was around that time when I was hired to be the first ever Field Director. I lived and worked in Uganda at the Tekera Resources Centre for almost 5 years. It was a life changing experience working with our incredible Ugandan Team on the ground . . .
Andrew Barnes
Director, Business Development
Andrew first visited the Tekera Project in Uganda in 2012 and became passionate about the project and its sustainability objectives. Formerly a Senior Director at Electronic Arts, and currently a co-founder of three companies, he spends the majority of his time helping entrepreneurs achieve their business goals. This skillset translates well in helping to support Tekera to build, review, and ameliorate our sustainability business goals.
Shannon Birch Ogborn
Director, Creative Content
Shannon Ogborn was born and raised in Tsawwassen, BC, but has also lived in London England, and traveled extensively through Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Central America. While in Central America she volunteered and lived at Casa Guatemala Orphanage, one of her most significant and life-changing volunteer experiences.
Joanne Calder
Education Advisor
Joanne has been an Elementary school teacher for over 20 years currently teaches Grade 6 and 7 at Beach Grove Elementary School in Tsawwassen.. She has traveled extensively and taught in Japan. She became involved with Tekera Foundation through her work as WE Group Teacher Sponsor at her school. She is passionate about teaching Social Studies in an engaging and innovative way and in helping her students become informed global citizens. She is also an enthusiastic volunteer with many local organizations such as the Boundary Bay Bluebacks Swim Club and the Tsawwassen Baseball Association.
Aimee Calder
Internships
Aimee is the President of Teens for Tekera, a group of 35 teens based in Delta who present about Tekera Foundation's work in different elementary schools as well as fundraise for the Tekera Primary School. Aimee is a junior board member of Tekera Foundation. Aimee was first introduced to Tekera in elementary school and has been involved with Tekera ever since. Her future goals are to study applied or health sciences at university with a long term goal of attending medical school. She hopes to one day visit the Tekera Resource Center and intern in the medical clinic.
Rick Lewall
Service Partnerships
Rick has been on the board of Tekera Foundation for over 3 years and has been extremely involved in the Tsawwassen community in the past 30+ years. He has served as President of the Rotary Club of Tsawwassen, Treasurer of the Sports Hall of Fame, President of the Boundary Bay Bluebacks Swim Club and an active participant in fundraising for the Delta Gymnastics’ new facility. Rick has traveled to the Tekera Resource Centre and helped the community to construct several bridges. In 2016, Rick was awarded Citizen of the Year by the Delta Chamber of Commerce.
Amar Nijhawan
Gender Advisor
Amar Nijhawan is a Project Specialist at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, a public policy research organization focused on enhancing Canada’s relationship with Asia through trade, education and innovation. Specifically, Amar supports the "APEC-Canada Growing Business Partnership", a Global Affairs Canada and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) initiative that focuses on poverty reduction and sustainable economic growth through micro, small, and medium enterprise development. Amar currently works as a Senior Gender Policy Officer with Oxfam Canada.
Daniel Ahimbisibwe
Operations Manager
Prior to being hired in 2013, Dan was a long time friend and Board Member of Tekera - and was instrumental in researching and locating the site for the Centre. In 2013 he was hired as Program Coordinator, taking over the daily operations of the Centre from its founders. He brings to this position a Masters in Development Studies from Uganda Martyrs University Nkoze. Having been involved with TRC from its inception and having served on its Board, he brings with him a deep understanding of the mission and goals implicit with the organization. Dan has an extensive background in community libraries and is keen to integrate community needs even more closely with the resources offered at Tekera.
Maureen Nakalinzi
Field Director
Maureen is a graduate of Makerere University, with a degree in Social Science and Social Work. She joined the Tekera team as the Field Director in 2016. Prior to this, she was a Program Manager at the Uganda Village Project in the Reproductive Health Division, and a Project Director at Uganda Rural Fund in Masaka. There, she coordinated numerous projects geared towards improving rural livelihoods, including women’s empowerment, HIV/AIDS, child sponsorship and a rural savings and credit scheme. She says that she prefers working in rural empowerment organizations because they develop communities holistically and create self reliance.
Alice Nabacwa
Headmistress at Tekera Primary School
Alice joined TRC in 2012 where she quickly assumed the role of Headmistress of the Tekera Primary School. Alice is the first born in a big family and enjoyed the opportunity to attend prominent schools such as Nalinnya Lwantale Girl’s School, Mukono Bishop’s Senior and Bugema Adventist’s for her A Levels. Following that, she received her teaching diploma from Nkozi National Teacher’s College. Alice has been teaching since 2000, and has 10+ years experience as a headmistress. She headed an orphanage school as well as a large renowned primary school in Nairobi, Kenya. She has an exceptional love for children and works hard for those less privileged, feeling blessed to work at Tekera Primary as it is a rural community school.
Sherrie Jamieson
Director, Community Development
Sherrie Jamieson has been on The Tekera Foundation Board since November 2018. Her current position is as The Tekera Foundation Gala Coordinator. A majority of her career has been at a non-profit agency with a focus on management of programs and services for children and youth with support needs. Her passion is in building relationships that provide more coordinated and effective services.
Michelle Dawson
Board member
Employed for 35 years in the Energy Industry as a Regulatory, Land and Stakeholder Relations specialist. Has a diploma in Public Administration from the University of Victoria. Michelle recently retired and lives in Calgary with her husband and enjoys spending time with her two grandchildren, travelling, and fly fishing