HALCO has a volunteer Board of Directors elected by our membership. The majority of our nine-member Board of Directors must be people living with HIV. You can find more information about our Board of Directors on our Get Involved page.
Our current Board Members are:
(in alphabetical order)
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Mark Blans, Vice-Chair
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Michael Capp, Secretary-Treasurer
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Eric Cashmore
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Frederique Chabot
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Peter Gross
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Martha Mackinnon, Chair
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Eric Mykhalovskiy
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Robert Watkin
Please scroll down for our Board member “bios”.
Mark Blans – Vice-President
Mark has been a HALCO Board member since 1998 and started his most recent term as Vice-President in November 2010. Mark came to HALCO after serving on the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation Board of Directors for several years. Mark has brought experience in information technology, business management, group leadership, community issues, and more to HALCO’s Board. Mark has participated in many province-wide activities, held all positions on HALCO’s Executive Committee, and participated on every HALCO Board committee in his 13 years of involvement with HALCO. Mark remains committed to each and every single person infected with, or affected by, HIV/AIDS. Mark encourages others living with HIV/AIDS to get involved with HALCO, as everyone’s input, no matter how small, can make a huge difference. This is something Mark himself continues to experience.
Michael Capp – Secretary/Treasurer
Michael has been a HALCO Board member since 2009, and Secretary/Treasurer since November 2010.
Eric Cashmore
Eric has been on HALCO’s Board since June 2011. Eric currently works at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. In his spare time, Eric participates in the Positive Youth Outreach Program as well as volunteers with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.).
Frederique Chabot
Fred has been a HALCO Board member since 2011. She has worked at the AIDS Committee of Ottawa (ACO) since 2009, and is currently the Women’s Community Development Coordinator at ACO. Prior to working at ACO, she was a volunteer for 2 years. Fred is also busy volunteering with POWER (Prostitutes of Ottawa, Work, Educate, Resist), a non-profit, voluntary organization founded in 2008 by and for individuals of all genders who self-identify as former or current sex workers, regardless of the industry sector in which they work(ed), and to allies who share POWER’s vision. In what is left of her waking hours, Fred plays competitive dominos in order to win the Centretown Championship. Fred’s home-base is in Ottawa, and she splits her time between the nation’s capital, Montréal, and Toronto.
Peter Gross
Peter has been on HALCO’s Board since 2010. Peter was born and raised in Toronto, and went on to graduate from Seattle University School of Law. Peter is licensed to practice law in Washington State and Ontario. Peter practices law in the field of land use, planning and development. Peter lives with his husband and dog Jackson.
Martha Mackinnon – Chair
Martha has been on HALCO’s Board since 2000, and has been Chair since 2010. She is currently Executive Director of Justice for Children and Youth, a community legal clinic in Toronto, Canada. Martha taught English and Drama in secondary school for eight years before becoming a lawyer. She has concentrated her legal practice on children’s rights, from her beginning in private practice, to serving as Counsel to the York Region Board of Education for 8 years, and as Executive Director of Justice for Children and Youth since 1996. Martha is the Chair of the Main Continuing Legal Education Committee of the Ontario Bar Association and a member of Council. She has been on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association for the Practical Study of Law and Education (Capsle) for over 10 years. With Cheryl Milne, she edits Lexis Nexis’ Consolidated Education Statutes and she is a co-author of An Educator’s Guide to Special Education Law.
Eric Mykhalovskiy
Eric has been on HALCO’s Board since 2011. Eric is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at York University. He began working on HIV/AIDS over 20 years ago when he was hired as the founding staff person of what is now CATIE: Canada’s source for HIV and hepatitis C information. He is co-author of Getting ‘Hooked Up’: A Report on the Barriers People Living With HIV/AIDS Face Accessing Social Services (1994), Making Care Visible: Antiretroviral Therapy and the Health Work of People Living with HIV/AIDS (2004) and HIV Non-Disclosure and the Criminal Law: Establishing Policy Options for Ontario (2010). His research on HIV has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals including AIDS Care, Critical Public Health, The International Journal of Public Health, and Medical Anthropology. Eric is a past member of the Board of Directors of CATIE. He is currently a member of the Ontario Working Group on Criminal Law and HIV Exposure (CLHE) and the steering committee of AIDS ACTION NOW!
Robert Watkin
Bob was a HALCO Board member from 1995 to 2003, and from 2004 to the present. Bob is a 59 year-old retired lawyer. He has known that he has been HIV positive for 24 years, and has been advised that he has actually been positive for 26 to 29 years. He served on the original Board of Directors of HALCO and helped to establish it some 16 years ago (including delivering its very first service to a client before any of its staff were hired). Bob has served as HALCO’s Chair and in all other executive positions, and on all of its committees at one time or another. He is also a past President of the Teresa Group, and has been actively engaged in many community events and organizations.