Dyan Dunsmoor-Farley
Dyan is GHCF President, and chair of the Board Development Committee. A member of the Foundation Board since 2021, Dyan is also actively involved in the Gabriola Health and Wellness Collaborative, Sustainable Gabriola, and sits on two working committees of the Rural and Remote Division of Family Practice.
A 25-year career in the BC Public Service culminated with senior management positions in the Ministries of Health, Child and Family Development, and Women’s Equality. Dyan’s PhD research (political science, human geography, and sociology) examines how citizens are activated to find solutions to critical issues in their communities. She focuses her volunteer work on harnessing the potential of community to build capacity and resilience to improve health outcomes for all and sees the Foundation as a critical partner in that work.
Dyan is an avid gardener, reasonably good singer, mediocre golfer, and proud grandmother of six.
Lu Lazzarotto
Lu Lazzarotto joined the Board in 2022 after answering a call for volunteers to help recruit doctors. She has a background in journalism and was a Community Coroner in northern BC. Living in the north and moving many times in her life has given Lu an understanding of the difficulty in living without a family doctor, and of recruiting to small and remote communities. Lu and her husband retired to Gabriola in 2019.
Jeff Malmgren
Jeff Malmgren works as a consultant with a focus on collaborative process, engagement strategy, and health system transformation. His greatest interest is the integration of services and supports for health and wellbeing at a local level. His further background includes journalism, communications, and sports administration. He has worked extensively with for-profit and not-for-profit boards, elected councils, and collaborative tables, both as a consultant providing strategic and governance support and as a member, most often in a chairing role. On Gabriola he currently chairs the Islands Trust Advisory Planning Commission. He is a past president of the Gabriola Arts Council and has provided strategic support to several other organizations on the Island.
Jeff comes to your Health Care Foundation with an understanding of the current intersection of need and opportunity. He sees that, on Gabriola as in most BC communities, significant risk currently surrounds our health system, in terms of both the provision of adequate services and the increase in health and wellbeing issues to be addressed. But he also understands that Gabriola has huge assets that can be mobilized to address these risks. He views our social agencies as strong and resilient. He considers the Health Centre that the community built and the Foundation stewards, to be an incredible cornerstone providing great care. He believes that, perhaps most valuable of all, as a community we have not just a willingness but a desire to work together, to take collective responsibility, and continue to build a resilient, well community.
Christina Rajsic
Christina Rajsic moved to Gabriola Island in summer 2023 and is excited to learn and grow with the community. Prior to relocating to BC from Ontario in 2019, she was the member of the Board of Directors for The Grand River Community Health Center for 2 years and was part of the Brant County Health Unit since 2009. In her role as Director for Health Promotion and Program Standards, she developed the Healthy Brantford Coalition and was leading the Brantford Drug Strategy implementation before her departure. Developing community and health equity are the key principles and frameworks she has been focused on for the majority of her career.
As a nurse by training, Christina brings a wide range of experiences from community and acute hospital care to government and policy directives. Since coming to BC, she has fulfilled the role of Director for Clinical Preventative Services at BCCDC and is currently Director of Risk Management for the BCCDC, BC Cancer and BC Children's and Women's hospital. Christina is well versed in the local and provincial government structures of BC.
Christina's passion lies in population health promotion and prevention with a focus on upstream initiatives and programs to support equity and inclusion for the health of the entire community.