Elmwood Team

Rachael holds an M.A. in International Law and Human Rights from the United Nations Mandated University for Peace and a B.A. in Political Studies and Drama from the University of Alberta. She has spent her career in the human service sector focusing on the development of supports and services in a variety of areas including early childhood, disability supports, intersectoral initiatives, community mobilization and advocacy. She has served as Manager of Community Services with the Ministry of Social Services, as Program Manager of KidsFirst North, as the Coordinator of the Northern Human Services Partnership and as an Advocate with Inclusion Saskatchewan.

Rachael is an accredited trainer through Helen Sanderson Associates and is currently pursuing her diploma in Global Leadership from the UPEACE Centre for Executive Education. Rachael is a passionate connector, collaborator, advocate, and big-picture thinker. She is driven to facilitate positive, meaningful, and long-lasting change through her strength and relationship-based approach!

Rachael is a proud mother of twins , Bash and Gaia and two fur-babies, Luna and Cooper. She is married to her partner of over 15 years, Mably, who is the love of her life.

Born and raised in Saskatoon, Dani obtained her Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 2009 and obtained her Chartered Accountant (CA) designation in 2011. Dani began her career working in public practice before settling into the world of non-profit. Dani quickly realized she found working in the human services field much more fulfilling and now gets excited to brag about her job!

Dani believes there is much more to her position than just balancing the budget! She lends a hand in all aspects of the organization, being innovative and forming meaningful relationships within the community and within Elmwood that will genuinely help improve the lives of those living with intellectual disabilities.

Dani enjoys playing and watching sports, anything involving her daughter Piper, their big Newfoundland dog Fenway, and travelling as much as possible.

Raised in Saskatoon, Cathy started her career in the agriculture field as a Germination Seed Analyst working to ensure proper safety measures were in place to meet quality standards. Further in her career, she worked at the University of Saskatchewan as a Payroll Specialist. During her years at the University, Cathy held a variety of roles including Executive Administrative Assistant for the Vice Dean of Research, College of Medicine.

Looking for new and exciting challenges, Cathy started working for Elmwood in 2020 as the Director of Support Services. In this role, Cathy was able to tap into her innovative skillset, multi-tasking mastery and is a strong and valuable leader for the Support Services Teams.

Being a single mom, Cathy is a strong role model for her two lovely daughters Chloe and Kira. Their household is always busy and filled with love and laughter as they often have family and friends over, as well as spend time together with their dog Bella May, and their cats Ronnie and Charlie.

Linda is a born and raised Saskatoon girl whose journey began at Elmwood in 1994, the year after completing her BA in Sociology at the U of S. Throughout her university career, this is where Linda discovered great personal satisfaction and experience as a volunteer with the Elizabeth Fry Society working with people experiencing disabilities. Linda’s journey at Elmwood has found her in a variety of progressively senior roles.

Linda is an accredited trainer through Helen Sanderson Associates and is currently the Manor Transition Project Specialist. Throughout Linda’s career, she has been proud to be part of the Elmwood family. Throughout her journey, she has experienced significant organization change and evolution as the Elmwood family grew and flourished. In her role as Manor Transition Project Specialist, Linda leads the Transition Initiative and supports the evolution of supports and services provided by Elmwood, now and into the future.

Linda is married to her husband of over 25 years, Dean, who has been great support throughout her long and rewarding career at Elmwood. Linda loves spending time at the lake, travelling, and seeing family and friends.

Born and raised in a coastal town South in Norway, Sissel completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work in 2011 and travelled to Canada in 2012 to gain work experience. She began her career with a local Community-Based Organization supporting individuals experiencing intellectual disabilities in a home setting. This is where Sissel found a passion for the field and has since held a variety of positions with the Ministry of Social Services, including Community Residential Worker, Crisis Support Therapist and Program Development Consultant. In her roles within the Ministry she has delivered various training programs, developed behavioral strategies for individuals displaying challenging behaviors, supported teams through difficult situations while building their capacity.She believes in effective and open communication between team members, while working towards common goals that benefit the individuals who are being supported.

Sissel has a strong will to learn and develop, and one of her many research interests includes intellectual disability and aging, which is what motivated her to start her Master’s Degree in Social Work through the University of Regina in 2017. Her hope is to obtain a broader understanding of the subject, as well as looking at best practice for individuals as they are entering their later stages in life.

Sissel fell in love with the country and people of Canada, and decided quickly that this is where she wanted to live on a permanent basis. She enjoys spending time with her husband Drew, her son Oliver and her two dogs Ladybug and Athena. Sissel and her family love to travel and they regularly visit friends and family in Norway.

Damon possesses a combination of experience in project management, hands-on individual support for post-secondary students and people with learning disabilities, union negotiation, and corporate training provision.

As a former Communication and Training Consultant with IBM Global, Damon was responsible for managing change resistance and containment as well as developing detailed training and software roll-out plans. In various project and department management positions at Carlton Trail College Damon has been responsible for the creation and administration of entire service frameworks and for selection, hiring and training of staff within a union workplace. Damon believes in equitable treatment of all staff and feels that advocacy for people who work to support persons with disability is an important part of his role at Elmwood.

Damon maintains a lifelong commitment to research and education in topics ranging from motivation and goal setting for high performance; public speaking, workshop facilitation, teamwork, change resistance, training interventions for individuals with disabilities and other barriers; recognition of international education; prior learning recognition; and solution focused problem solving.

Damon lives with his wife, Jodi, their three sons, Logan, Silas and Ezra, and their dog Kaiju in the small city of Humboldt and commutes to Saskatoon to support the staff and residents of Elmwood. Damon loves playing board games and video games and enjoys full contact sword fighting and mixed martial arts.

Signe started supporting people living with disabilities in 2009. She obtained her Continuing Care Assistant diploma from SIAST (now Saskatchewan Polytechnic) in 2009, and later moved on to graduating with a Bachelor’ degree in Psychology from the U of S in 2015.

After working for a few community based organizations as a front line support worker, she moved on to the Ministry of Social Services: Community Living Service Delivery, where she gained experience in the crisis and programmatic field by supporting individuals with intellectual disabilities displaying challenging behaviours.

Additionally, Signe has worked as a case worker for the Ministry of Social Services, Income Assistance: Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability (SAID) program, where she gained insight into the types of financial support and challenges faced by some of Saskatchewan’s most vulnerable population.

Most recently, Signe completed the 2020 Online Longitudinal Training on Assessment and Analysis of Severe and Challenging Behavior” with the Institute for Applied Behavior Analysis (IABA).

Signe loves spending time with her dogs, seeing friends and family, and traveling. She also loves coffee, a Netflix binge, and a good laugh.

Karen has worked with individuals with disabilities for 18 years. Karen spent most of her summers working at Camp Easter Seal while she was attending post-secondary education. It is through her work at Camp Easter Seal that Karen found her passion to work with individuals with disabilities and is the reason Karen changed career paths and applied to nursing. She started working at Elmwood in 2011, shortly after finishing nursing. Karen worked as a Manor Coordinator/Nurse for almost 11 years and has recently transitioned into the Manager of Health and Wellness role. Karen is incredibly excited to take on this new role and be a part of the Manor Transition.

Karen has a love and passion for travel and is always looking to book her next adventure. Some of Karen’s highlights from her travels are living and working in Australia for 6 months in 2018, scuba diving with sharks in Mexico, St. Paddy’s Day in Galway Bay, watching David Beckham play for Manchester United in London, attending many Broadway plays including Les Misérables and Lion King, and visiting Disneyland with four residents.

Jannah has been a Recreation Coordinator since 2000.  After achieving her diploma at SIAST in Recreation and Leisure in 1998, she began her career with the Prince Albert Health District. After three years in Prince Albert, the opportunity to be a part of Elmwood Residences presented itself and Jannah has never looked back!

Jannah has built and developed a robust recreation program that benefits and serves everyone who calls Elmwood home.  She is proud of the relationships that she has developed with community partners, staff and most important every amazing person that lives at Kinsmen Manor.  Trips to Graceland, Montreal, Ogema, and Disneyland have been just a handful of amazing dreams that Jannah has helped make come true. Jannah is the past co-chair of the OH&S board and she currently sits on the Special Olympics Saskatoon board as the Elmwood representative.

Jannah, her husband and their dog love camping.  Packing up and heading to northern Saskatchewan to go fishing is the highlight of their summer.  This past June, Jannah caught a 26 pound Northern Pike, which currently is the family record!

Maggie is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) which is an internationally recognized designation which demonstrates that she upholds the highest standards of ethics, professionalism and experience in fundraising.

Having worked in the charitable sector for over 10 years she withholds experience in coordinating fundraising events, annual and capital campaigns and excels in donor relations, ensuring the donor’s wishes are fulfilled through their charitable contributions.

As Elmwood’s Development Coordinator she will prioritize enhancing donor experiences, relationships and developing a strong long term fundraising strategy for our organization in addition to coordinating the annual Fall Feast.  Success within this role will allow Elmwood to provide those we serve with unique community inclusion opportunities, advances in continued individualized care and support, and capital innovations which will shape our sector.

In her personal time Maggie enjoys cooking new recipes, coffee visits with friends and going out on family walks with her husband, son and their pup-pup, Clyde.

Maggie is on maternity leave until Fall 2023.

Kennedy had begun her work with Elmwood in June 2022, as one of our summer students. Luckily enough, she has been able to continue her work with Elmwood as their Marketing and Development Coordinator as she finishes up her Commerce Degree at the University of Saskatchewan. It’s been rewarding to finally apply her learnings to a company that does such remarkable things for our community and the individuals we support. After just a few months with Elmwood, Kennedy feels as though she will never find a position quite as fulfilling as one in the non-profit sector.

In her free time Kennedy enjoys spending time at her family cabin, volunteering for a local hockey team, cooking and spending time with friends!

Grace’s is responsible for ensuring that the money entrusted to Elmwood for each resident is administered in the best interests of the resident.

While this may seem boring to some people, working at Elmwood is anything but that! Each day Grace has the pleasure of interacting with many of our residents on a social level. They have conversations about their day at work, plans for the evening, or how their favorite sports team is doing. Grace not only works at Elmwood, but also volunteers with our recreation department. Grace’s time with our residents has become an important part of her life and has taught her to appreciate each person for who they are.

Megan joined Elmwood in July of 2022 after deciding to take her career and passion to the next level.

From a young age, she has always enjoyed helping others. This passion led her to work as a front-line worker in the retirement industry and study Human Resources, earning her diploma from Saskatchewan Polytechnic. Megan dedicates herself to creating safe and healthy environments for everyone around her. She is eager to assist the residents of Elmwood in living their best lives and looks forward to the future.

Rhonda started her career working with elderly individuals with dementia. She then applied for a casual position at Elmwood in the winter of 2017 and absolutely fell in love with the disability services field.

Seeing the smiling faces and hearing the excitement from all the residents each day has brought more joy to her than any words could describe. She is committed and works hard to ensure that the residents always come first.

Tisha has been with Elmwood since 1995 and has held a variety of roles including Care Worker and Group Home Manager before moving into her current role of Scheduling Coordinator. Tisha has the challenge of scheduling staff for all eleven Community Homes and also plays a large part in interviewing and hiring new staff.

Tisha is kind and caring and our residents love that about her. She is always willing to stop any work she is doing to go help a resident in need. Scheduling can be challenging, but Tisha is a problem-solver extraordinaire and always comes up with a solution to meet the organizational needs.

Holly began her career with Elmwood in 2007 and has served as both a Direct Care Staff as well as a Group Home Manager. In Holly’s current role as the Community Home Coordinator, she builds meaningful relationships with Elmwood’s amazing employees to support their continued growth and development. She recognizes that Elmwood delivers its supports and services for people and by people through training and mentorship.

Through Elmwood, Holly found her passion for serving people. She believes that Elmwood provides residents with amazing support and opportunities and that this enriches the lives of the individuals Elmwood serves.

Jeaninne moved to Saskatoon in 2019 from Winnipeg, MB. She has worked in the Human Services Field for over 13 years, and comes with a variety of experience including front line work supporting individuals with intellectual disabilities in a home setting, working with high risk youth and also working in the department of Child and Family Services.

Jeaninne is excited to be a part of the Elmwood team and really enjoys spending time with the residents and her teams. She has a strong will to learn, and likes to take on new challenges while growing personally and professionally.

After success in a completely different career, of earlier years in the work force, Ramona wanted a change. She had always felt something was missing in her life and that she had more to offer fellow humans. Ramona started working parttime with seniors at a community center, and as Porter at both Regina hospitals, and absolutely loved the work! Circumstances beyond her control brought Ramona back to Saskatoon and lead her to Elmwood! Ramona started March of 2015 as a Professional Support Worker and fell in love within five minutes of her first shift! Recently she has been feeling like she needs a change but certainly did not want to leave Elmwood, so of course Ramona is absolutely thrilled with her new position as Community Home Coordinator. She looks forward to growing with the Elmwood Team and Residents in whatever the future holds!

In Ramona’s spare time she loves to sing and perform with her life partner Tim, travelling, loves hockey and football (total Riders fan and an avid Leafs fan), and very important snuggling with her little Chi Atticus.

Jennifer was born and raised in Saskatchewan and, as a true Saskatchewanian, Jenn loves her Saskatchewan Roughriders, and she bleeds green! Her love for the prairies has always kept her close to home. In May of 2019, Jenn married her best friend, Ian, creating a blended family of nine! Having a large family mark some of the most important values to Jenn; love, acceptance and belonging, but it is the role of caregiver Jennifer so easily and naturally fits.

She joined the team at Elmwood in 2019, bringing a vast amount of experience. Besides raising her own five children, she has spent time working with the public, caring for at risk youth, as well as assisting individuals who require a little bit of extra support to show their individual ‘shine’ Her heart has been touched by many of the people that she has worked with over the years. In her personal life, there is one special little girl that left a huge imprint on Jenn’s heart. If you know Jenn, you have heard her say “We have more to learn from them than they do from us!” or “Some of the best reminders and lessons come from just being around these beautiful individuals. Always leave your heart open.”

Sarah is so excited to join the Elmwood team and is looking forward to working with everyone! Sarah is a newly separated mom of two kids, Rory who is nine and Ryker who is six. This past year she worked primarily with youth with mental and physical disabilities as a SUB EA with Saskatoon Public School Division and was presented a chance of a lifetime to step into a CHC role. Sarah is so excited to work with everyone and to build relationships with you all!

Owen is a dedicated and passionate individual who has spent his professional career of over 20 years in the Disability Service Sector. His drive for disability services focuses on building meaningful and long-lasting connections with residents and team members alike and helping them to succeed and achieve the impossible. Originally from Yorkton, Owen has served in a variety of capacities at both Cosmopolitan Industries and Elmwood Residences including job coach, coordinator and SILP mentor. He is currently serving as a Community Home Coordinator.

Owen is father to two adult children and spends much of his time with his four-year old grandson, Davius. In his spare time, Owen works out, kick boxes and is comic collector and self-proclaimed movie geek!