Board of Directors

Jim Cooper, Chair

Jim Cooper is the President, and Chief Operating Officer of Brockville manufacturer, Canarm Ltd. He began with the organization in 1978 and took over as president in 2007. Since then, Canarm has become a national leader. For the last 10 years (achieving Platinum level), Canarm has been named one of Canada's Best Managed Companies.

Jim is well known for his passion for helping his community. In June 2017, Jim received an honorary diploma from St. Lawrence College. In 2013, he was named Citizen of the Year by the Brockville and District Chamber of Commerce, which recognized the extensive volunteer work he has done within Brockville and surrounding areas. Jim had served on the Brockville YMCA Board from 2005 to 2012 and as Board Chair from 2010 to 2012. Jim is a former Chair of the Student Advisory Council for Loyalist College's Business Sales and Marketing program in Belleville.

Jim is a longtime supporter of BGH. He co-chairs the Friends of Palliative Care annual golf tournament fundraiser. In 29 years, over $4 million dollars has been raised by this single-day event. From 2015 to 2017, he sat as a Director on the Brockville and District Hospital Foundation's Board. He is proud to be an active member of BGH’s Board of Directors, serving as Chair from 2017 to 2021, and again in 2022.

James Eastwood, Vice Chair

James Eastwood is a partner at Eastwood, O’Reilly Law Offices (practicing in association), in Brockville.  

James obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Toronto, after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (with distinction) from Carleton University. His law practice is focused on family law and employment law.  He has represented clients in multiple levels of court, including the Ontario Court of Appeal, and he has appeared before a number of administrative tribunals.

James spent much of the past 25 years coaching kids’ sports but has now transitioned to Board work, having gained experience in this area by providing legal services for a variety of boards of directors during his legal career.

Kali Conboy, Director

Kali Conboy has been a professor at St. Lawrence College in the School of Nursing, since 2017. She has experience teaching in the practical nursing program in the classroom and laboratory settings. She teaches primarily in second year focusing on nursing sciences, helping students to develop critical thinking skills to provide nursing interventions for individuals experiencing challenges to health. Additionally, Kali works as a Critical Care nurse with Kingston Health Sciences- Kingston General site, on a casual basis.

Kali holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from St Lawrence College, Laurentian University collaborative nursing program and a Master of Nursing-Teaching Focus from Athabasca University.

Kali has experience in a variety of leadership roles, providing expertise to grow and develop the practical nursing program. She developed and implemented high-fidelity simulations for the program, which are now in use across all semesters.

Jim Elsasser, Director

Jim Elsasser is an innovative senior executive within the manufacturing industry. For over 24 years, he has worked with Burnbrae Farms Limited as Senior Director of Engineering and Technical Services. In this role, Jim has led day-to-day operations as well as multiple large-scale capital and technical projects. Most notably, this has included the construction and startup of three new processing facilities. He is well known for creating a positive workplace through inspiring trust, teamwork, and accountability.  

Jim is an active community volunteer with a passion for helping others. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for Brockville Country Club (curling and golf) as Honorary Secretary and as Curling Chair.

Jim lives in Lyn with Lori, his wife, where they have raised two grown children. 

Emily Farrell, Director

Emily Farrell is a professional information manager with over eight years of experience in executive leadership. She has a passion for governance, strategic planning, policy development, strategic budgeting, community outreach and engagement, and team management. Formerly the Chief Executive Officer of the Brockville Public Library, Emily now provides management consulting services to non-profits, charities, and government organizations as Co-Founder of Chapter 3 Consulting.

Emily has a wide-variety of board and committee experience having served with the Brockville Municipal Drug Strategy, Every Kid in Our Community, Leeds and Grenville Community Health Team’s Board of Directors, and Rideau Hill Camp Board of Directors.

Emily lives outside Spencerville with her partner, Nik, and their dog, Skype.

Sarah Hamm, Director

Sarah Hamm is a communications strategist with over 20 years of experience across private, public and not-for-profit sectors. She has an extensive background in designing and implementing communication campaigns for small- and large-scale business transformation initiatives.

Currently, Sarah works for an international not-for-profit that helps people affected by humanitarian crises. She is leading the communication efforts for a global initiative that is strengthening the organization’s operations and enterprise systems in over 40 countries. Early in her career, Sarah worked at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, DC, for the Weston family and at Hudson’s Bay Company, as well as the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

Born at BGH and raised in Maitland, Sarah is happy to be back in the Brockville area where she lives with her husband, Jeffrey. 

Jeremy Hobbs, Director

Jeremy Hobbs is the Superintendent of Human Resources, Facilities and Information Technology for the Upper Canada District School Board, which encompasses 27,000 students, 4,000 faculty and staff at 90 schools. Jeremy’s portfolio includes responsibility for a combined operating and capital budget of over $100M along with almost 300 staff across his three departments.

Having started his career as a teacher, Jeremy worked on IT strategy in Ottawa-Carleton and Peel District School Boards and then moved to the UCDSB in 2004. In addition to his work in public education, Jeremy is involved with the community, having served on the Board of the Brockville and Area YMCA as Vice Chair, the Upper Canada Swim Club as President, the Brockville General Hospital Redevelopment Subcommittee and the St. Lawrence College Board of Governors.

Denise Kall, Director

Denise Kall has been a faculty member at St. Lawrence College in the School of Baccalaureate Nursing since 2012. She teaches primarily in first year, introducing students to the profession of Nursing and in third year to introduce students to community health nursing. Denise holds a Bachelor of Nursing degree from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Public Health (Nursing Specialization) from Lakehead University. She is a Certified Canadian Nurse Educator from the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN).

Prior to joining the College, Denise spent over 20 years working in public health as a program leader in reproductive health, a project leader in early child development, the coordinator of a safe communities coalition, as well as various portfolios in health promotion. Earlier in her career, she led the transition from separate postpartum/nursery units to a combined mother/baby unit at the Ottawa Civic Hospital and held clinical instructor positions in maternal/child nursing at both the University of Ottawa and University of New Brunswick.  Outside of teaching and nursing, her interests include canoeing and camping.

Priti Luhadia, Director

Priti Luhadia is a patient service-oriented pharmacist with over 15 years’ of experience. Overseeing several regional pharmacies, she appreciates the value of building high-functioning relationships with a variety of stakeholders. Priti holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy and Masters of Pharmacy, with a specialization in pharmaceutics, from Gujarat University. 

Priti is a very active community member. She volunteers with a number of boards, including Brockville Public Library, Habitat for Humanity Thousand Island, YMCA of Eastern Ontario, Volunteer Centre of St Lawrence-Rideau, The Great Indian Festival, Gujarati Association of Canada – Ottawa, and Indo-Canada Association of Brockville. In 2021, she received the Ontario Volunteer Award.

A high-performer in all her efforts, Priti is proud to have reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in June 2022.

Catherine Macdonald, Director

Catherine Macdonald was the President of a food and nutrition product manufacturing company for 17 years. She spent her career forging relationships with many of the largest food companies across North America and Europe. She has over 30 years of experience in the food and service industries, gaining expertise in sales, marketing and operations in distribution and manufacturing businesses.

Catherine is Chair of the board of one of Canada's largest safety supply companies and an international mining supply company; she has been a board member for both companies since 2008.

Catherine is a Director of the Thousand Islands Playhouse and has served as co-chair for A Moonlit Night, the Playhouse’s annual fundraising event.

She has a degree in Political Science from McMaster University and she completed the ICD Board Governance program for SME at the Rotman School of Management - University of Toronto.

Catherine is married with three children, who live in Brockville and Ottawa.

Eleanor Newman, Director

Eleanor Newman is a recently retired educator who served in senior leadership roles in District School Boards, the Ontario Ministry of Education, and the Eastern Ontario Staff Development Network. She holds a Master of Education from Queen’s University, a Master of Arts in Canadian Studies from Carleton University, and certification as an Ontario Teacher, Principal, and Supervisory Officer.

Eleanor is trained in the Carver’s Policy Governance model and is recognized for her innovative thinking, her ability to inspire and to develop the capacity of others, and her skill at building consensus for moving forward.

Eleanor is an Honorary Life Member of the Ontario Music Educator Association and member/treasurer of the Brockville Community Choir.

Bob Snelgrove, Director

W. Robert (Bob) Snelgrove is the president and CEO of GerrAudio Distribution, a company he founded in 1979 while studying at the University of Waterloo. GerrAudio caters to the technical needs of major performing arts centres and international touring musical artists.

His career in audio design and sound reinforcement has fostered a dedication to the arts reflected in his charitable work with local and regional theatre groups, including the Brockville Arts Centre. He is a longstanding member of the Audio Engineering Society, the Canadian Acoustical Society, and the Canadian Institute of Theatre Technology.

Bob joins the team with six years' experience on the Board of Governors for St. Lawrence College, the latter portion of which he acted as vice chair. During his tenure with St. Lawrence College, Bob worked with the chair on the recruitment of a new College President and CEO. He now looks forward to serving his community in the health sector as a member of the hospital board.

Brian Van Mierlo, Director

Brian Van Mierlo is a retired Chartered Professional Accountant, who has operated an accounting practice for the past 25 years.

Previously, Brian was a commercial account manager with the Bank of Montreal, and Chief Financial Officer in the manufacturing, commercial properties and hospitality industries.  Currently, Brian serves as the treasurer for the Brockville and Community Living Association.

Brian has been a long-serving community volunteer. His board and volunteer experience has included Family and Children’s services of Leeds and Grenville, Big Brothers, Rotary Club of Brockville, and the Brockville Soccer Club. 

Nicholas Vlacholias, President and Chief Executive Officer, Board Secretary

Nicholas (Nick) Vlacholias joined Brockville General Hospital as President and Chief Executive Officer in July 2017. Nick has more than 25 years of experience transforming and integrating health care organizations into high-performing centres. Previously, he served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) leading a team comprised of clinical departments and corporate services, and as Chief Operating Officer at the Cornwall Community Hospital.

Nick is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) and graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University with an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration. He is passionate about strengthening our local and provincial healthcare system. He is Co-Chair of the Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Ontario Health Team’s Collaboration Council, and CEO Lead for our regional health information system project, Lumeo (Oracle Health). An active member of a provincial working group, Nick invests his passion and love of data to advocate for equitable support for Ontario’s medium-sized, community hospitals.

Under his leadership, Brockville General has become a strong regional partner and leader in healthcare transformation. Nick is dedicated to working with partners to improve services and strives to look for innovative solutions to deliver healthcare to the community.

Dr. Barry Guppy, Chief of Staff, Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee

 Julie Caffin, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive

 Julie joined Brockville General Hospital in 2017 and serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive. Previous positions have been in both community and tertiary, academic health care organizations.

Julie has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Carleton University, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Honours Degree from York University and a Master of Health Sciences Degree from the University of Toronto. She is certified in Advanced System Leadership from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management Executive Program and is a Fellow in The Ivy Academy Community Shift Executive Leadership Program. Julie has successfully completed the Advanced Good Governance certification through The College Centre of Board Excellence. She is an active member of the College of Nurses of Ontario and has an Adjunct Academic appointment in the Queen's University School of Nursing.

Julie has received recognition awards from Kingston Health Sciences Centre including the Team Award for Leadership with the Emergency Department Information System Implementation project and Team Award for Care for her efforts introducing the Inter-professional Collaborative Practice Model. She was nominated to the Canadian College of Health Leaders for a National Nursing Leadership Award.

Julie was appointed to the St. Lawrence College Board of Governors in September 2018 and is currently Vice-Chair.  She is also a member of the Board of Directors at St. Vincent de Paul in Kingston.

Dr. Karim Somani, President of the Medical Staff Association

Dr. Karim Somani received his medical degree from the University of Alberta in 2002 and completed his residency in general surgery in 2007.

Dr. Somani has practiced as a general surgeon in Brockville since 2010.

He assumed the responsibilities of the president of the Medical Staff Association in June 2021, with a particular focus on physician-wellness.

Dr. Kristin Finkenzeller, Vice President of the Medical Staff Association

Bio and headshot coming soon!