Our Team
Danielle Rocheleau
CEO
As CEO, Danielle leads the Laridae team, driving the future growth of the company, ensuring we have a strong, values-based workplace culture, and that we continue to prioritize our clients' experiences. The foundation of Danielle’s professional experience, career, and passion has been rooted in community development. An entrepreneurial, strategic thinker, Danielle deploys collaborative approaches to problem-solving. She leads some of Laridae’s highest profile strategic planning, governance, communications, and branding projects.
Prior to consulting, she held executive roles with the Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster (GPIC) and Peterborough & Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED). Spending much of her career in and around board governance, Danielle also has a range of board experience through roles with the Learning Disabilities Board of Peterborough, Rockhaven Recovery Home for Men, Kawartha Gymnastics Club, and currently Inspire: A Women’s Portrait Project. Danielle has her Chartered Director (C.Dir) designation through McMaster University and has actively engaged in governance throughout her career as a volunteer Board member of non-profits. Bilingual, Danielle is originally from Timmins.
Alnis Dickson
Director of Operations
An insatiable problem-solver, Alnis has over ten years of experience rolling up his sleeves to craft and execute solutions for organizations in the healthcare, education, tourism, municipal, and social services sectors. Drawing on the skills he honed while earning his M.A. from McGill University, he provides guidance and support in the areas of process improvement, digital communication and business development. Always community-minded, Alnis has volunteered in a variety of leadership roles – sitting on the board of Peterborough's Community Opportunity and Innovation Network (COIN), participating in Loyalist College's working group to prepare students for work in the technology sector, and helping skiers as a certified member of the Canadian Ski Patrol at Kawartha Nordic.
Rachel Carrigan
Director of Consulting Services
Rachel Pott facilitates Boards and leadership teams, coaches middle-managers, engages community stakeholders, and leads non-profit organizations through the development of strategies and plans to bring about lasting, meaningful change. With expertise in strategic and operational planning and reviews, communications strategies, and re-branding, Rachel leads many of Laridae’s most complex projects with a calm intelligence that clients deeply admire. Throughout her career, she has been committed to working for and supporting non-profits—helping to strengthen the sector that gives so much to our communities. A first-rate communicator, she supports Laridae clients in designing, implementing, and sharing impactful shifts in how and why they approach their work.
With a degree in Politics and Global Studies from Wilfrid Laurier University and a commitment to ongoing professional development, Rachel has held leadership, fundraising, marketing and communications roles in local and international organizations in the education, health care, social services and human rights sectors. Dedicated to growing her own non-profit governance career, Rachel most recently was the Vice-President of the YWCA Peterborough Haliburton Board of Directors.
Valentina Kibedi
Director of Learning Services
Community development and partnership building have been at the heart of Valentina’s career. For over ten years, Valentina has been building a range of experience in the non-profit and for-profit sectors.
Valentina has a passion for supporting mission-driven organizations to develop customized, actionable strategies, and transform their cultures. At Laridae, Valentina leads a range of strategy, facilitation, and planning projects, and provides training and coaching to non-profit professionals across Canada.
Through strategic facilitation, stakeholder engagement, management and leadership training, and coaching, Valentina helps leaders implement change that lasts, and supports them to develop resilient teams and organizations.
Valentina holds a degree in Criminology from York University and has volunteered for a variety of non-profits across the Greater Toronto and Peterborough regions.
Book a time to chat: calendly.com/laridae/15min
Brittney Masters
Consultant
Brittney brings several years of facilitation experience leading and strengthening teams and individuals. By supporting productive group discussion and encouraging the genuine engagement of beneficiaries and stakeholders, Brittney helps organizations and Collectives identify their intended impact, and articulate a clear and realistic strategy to achieve it.
Brittney holds a Bachelor of Recreation and Leisure Studies with a focus on Community Recreation and a Master of Arts in Applied Health Sciences. She is passionate about working with rural youth, and focused her Master thesis on understanding the ways in which they construct their young adult lives in
relation to social constructions of rural adulthood. Her recent completion of Youth Rex’s course Centering Black Youth Wellbeing: A Certificate in Combatting Anti-Racism, served as a reminder of the power of youth voice and importance of reflexive community engagement.
Prior to joining Laridae, Brittney was the primary coach for the Laidlaw Foundation’s Youth Collective Impact work at Social Impact Advisors (SIA). The Youth Collective Impact initiative brought together collectives of organizations in communities focused on co-developing strategy for change with and for youth 16-29 years. Brittney has coached 8 collectives across Ontario, working on youth homelessness, employment, education, and food security. This work included an engagement with the Northern Lights Collaborative, led by youth in Northern rural communities aiming to connect isolated youth to meaningful employment and entrepreneurship.
Julia Bubrin
Learning Services Consultant
Seek knowledge, share stories, build humanity - these are the principles that guide Julia's work as a coach and leadership consultant. Bringing a more human approach to the workplace through compassion, empathy and play is core to her work building resilient teams.
Julia is an accredited coach (PCC) and mentor coach (individual and team) with the International Coach Federation, certified EQ-i 2.0 Emotional Intelligence, and has been facilitating adult learning programs for 15 years. She holds an MA from King's College, University of London in Environment, Politics and Globalisation. Julia is a cis-gender white, queer woman, with a diverse professional background across multiple sectors and fields of work. Having experienced burnout and supporting others in their own professional journeys, Julia's work focuses on holding space for individual and collective healing, transformation and growth. She is a life-long learner and social justice advocate.
At Laridae, Julia designs and facilitates learning programming, supporting organizations in growing their impact and implementing meaningful change. Using a coach-approach in her work, Julia establishes relationships built on trust and curiosity to drive towards results.
Over the past 5 years, Julia has been an active member of the Coralus Community, a collective of women and non-binary folks deconstructing systems of funding for entrepreneurs, recreating an alternative economy based on regenerative capital. Within this community, Julia co-founded the Queer Collective, creating opportunities for connection and community building in the LGBTQ2SIA+ members. Julia has also been a member of the Philosopher's Stone Collective, a collaborative community of coaches bringing racial justice awareness and action to the coaching industry.
Madison Sweet
Learning Design Manager
With over four years of experience in instructional design and project management in the non-profit sector, Madison is dedicated to creating impactful learning experiences.
Madison holds a Bachelor of Management and Organizational Studies with an Honours Specialization in Nonprofit Management from Western University. Passionate about leadership and governance, she serves on the board at Sexual Assault Centre Kingston as the organization’s first Governance Committee Chair and is an alumna of Fora's "Rise on Boards" program. Throughout her career, Madison has collaborated with a range of non-profit organizations, including Anova: A Future Without Violence, Pillar Nonprofit Network, and the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection.
At Laridae, Madison leads the design and development of learning experiences that build the capacity of non-profit managers and leaders, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to drive positive change within their organizations.
Alexandra Hammond
Project Manager
Motivated by a growing interest in sustainability, Alexandra Hammond supports non-profit organizations that want to keep helping people to the best of their ability. As a Project Manager, Alex provides organizational support, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving to the Laridae team and her clients. Her academic career emboldened her to seek opportunities that make a long-lasting positive impact. She values continuous learning, and actively seeks purposeful experiences that promote sustainable practices.
With a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from York University's Glendon College, Alex enjoys working on complex issues that require a multi-disciplinary approach and careful consideration. A Master's in Sustainability Studies from Trent University strengthens this passion towards solving wicked problems to support lasting impact in this world's ever-changing environments.
Lynsey K
Learning Services Coordinator
Grounded in her passion for health and wellness with a focus on gender-informed health and childbirth education, the first of Lynsey's three separate diplomas is in fitness and lifestyles management with the following two in business administration. With over 5 years of experience in delivering solutions for clients in the non-profit sector, Lynsey is driven to help others unlock their true potential and overcome barriers on their journey. She is a friendly and engaging team player, who is excited to inspire others. At Laridae, Lynsey continues to serve the non-profit sector through relationship-building and coordinating capacity-building learning and development opportunities.
Kevin McGowan
Learning Facilitator
Kevin is a project and people leader who has been working in the non-profit and high tech sectors for 25 years. He has a keen interest in supporting organizations so they can grow and scale, and has a knack for building consensus and finding middle ground so teams can focus their energies on their most important tasks.
As a Learning Facilitator at Laridae, Kevin brings a wealth of knowledge and experience (and a few jokes) to give the class an engaging learning experience.
Kevin is currently the Chief Operations Officer at Pinax (a web3 data company), and serves as Board Chair with Voice Found (an Ottawa-based charity), and also enjoys teaching and speaking at events around the world.
Margaret van Beers
Learning Facilitator & Coach
Margaret is an innovative and results-oriented leader with more than 30 years' experience of bringing people together to build strategic partnerships and create a shared vision for success. Margaret’s background is in the child development and rehabilitation sector, having spent her most recent 15 years in non-profit senior leadership, governance, and partnership with senior Ministry officials on key initiatives.
As a Learning Facilitator and Coach at Laridae, she brings to this role expertise in strategic planning, change management, communications, and stakeholder relations. She is a Certified Health Executive with the Canadian Council of Health Leaders, and has completed a certificate in Public Sector Leadership from the Rotman School of Business. She is passionate about coaching others to develop leadership skills rooted in clearly articulated purpose and meaning.