Advisory Board

Angela Absalom, RN
Angela Absalom practised nursing from 1969 to 2016, working in the United Kingdom as well as Ontario and British Columbia. For the last twenty years of her career, she worked at the BC Women’s Hospital in Vancouver.
She became a teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique in 1976 and currently teaches TM in Vancouver. She recently participated in a Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative project in Moncton, New Brunswick, where twenty-three nursing students and four nursing faculty learned TM as part of a research study.

Dr Catherine Aquino-Russell, RN, BScN, MN, PhD

Carol Bellringer, CPA, CA, FCA
Carol Bellringer is the former Auditor General for the Province of British Columbia and former Auditor General for the Province of Manitoba.
A Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), Ms Bellringer holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Concordia University, Montreal, and an MBA from the Warsaw School of Economics/Université du Québec à Montréal. She was named a Fellow of the Chartered Accountants of Manitoba in 2006, and in B.C. in 2015, in recognition of her contributions to the community and the profession.
In addition to her professional experience, Ms Bellringer has held several board positions for businesses, charities, and arts organizations. She currently serves on the board of the International Federation of Accountants and is a member of the Auditing and Assurance Standards Oversight Council. She is a past board member of the Manitoba Chapter of the Institute of Corporate Directors, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Manitoba Hydro, the Canadian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, and CCAF-FCVI Inc.

Linda Cloutier, BA, MA

Rhonda Day, BA, BEd
Rhonda Day is a retired school teacher with over 30 years of experience as a public high school English and Drama teacher and 43 years of experience as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation. She is a three-time nominee for Alberta’s Excellence in Teaching award. Currently Rhonda teaches Transcendental Meditation to the general public and is an advisor on the teaching of Transcendental Meditation at the high school where she formerly taught.

Debbie Lawless, RPN
Deborah Lawless first trained to be a nurse’s aide and then began working in geriatrics, with a focus on dementia care, working in the field for 20 years. She then completed a three-year diploma in psychiatric nursing and now works in that area.
As a psychiatric nurse, she has the responsibility of advocating for the individual to ensure the person’s choices are recognized, communicated and promoted, and that the rights of the individual are upheld. Her experience in mental health and addictions ranges from eating disorders to geriatrics, forensics and tertiary mental health.

Lorraine Mock, CCC

Maria Perri, RN
Maria Perri started working as a registered nurse in 1994 at Vancouver General Hospital, first on a general surgical unit for two years and subsequently on a reconstructive orthopaedics unit for 16 years. She is now a case manager with a geriatric psychiatry outreach team.

Dr Ann Royer, BA, MA, PhD
Dr Royer recently retired from the Quebec Regional Public Health Agency and the Centre for Research on Primary Care and Services at Université Laval. She remains associated with the Faculty of Medicine of Université Laval as a clinical lecturer in the Addictions Certificate Program.
Dr Royer was involved with the evaluation of public health intervention programs, including tobacco-related interventions and preventive clinical practices, and the assessment of partnerships and mobilizations around healthy lifestyles. As well, she oversaw the research of graduate students interested in tobacco control and the evaluation of public health interventions.
For a number of years, Dr Royer was a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Council on Tobacco Control, the advisory committee of the Quebec Survey on Tobacco, Alcohol, Drugs and Gambling among Secondary School Students and reviewer for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada’s federal funding agency for health research.

Ami Stadnick, BA, MSc, R. Psych
She is now retired from counselling and teaches the Transcendental Meditation program full time in Edmonton and northern Alberta.

Les Sylven, BA, MA, PhD candidate
Les Sylven is Deputy Director of Police Services, Policing and Security Branch, Province of British Columbia and Former Police Chief for the Central Saanich Police Service. He has over 29 years of operational policing and leadership experience. Les began his career with the RCMP in 1988 but the majority of his career has been spent as a police officer in Victoria, Esquimalt, and Central Saanich, British Columbia. In 1996, he joined the Victoria police department where he served as officer in charge of the West division and rose in the ranks to become Inspector, heading the Human Resources Department. Prior to being promoted to Chief, he was Deputy Chief in Central Saanich from 2011 to 2015.
Highlights in his career have included Major Crime Investigations, Critical Incident Command, Emergency Response Team, Media Relations, Human Resources and Youth and School Liaison Programs.
Chief Sylven has completed his Masters Degree in Leadership Studies at Royal Roads University and is currently working on a PhD at the University of Victoria where he is researching contemplative practices in police leadership.

Kathleen Thomson, Constable (retired), Saanich Police Department
After training at the Justice Institute in New Westminster, Kathleen was hired by the Saanich Police Department in 2003. During her 11 years as a police officer Kathleen worked in General Patrol, on the Mountain Bike Squad and in the Detective Office.
In her retirement, Kathleen enjoys volunteering at Our Place, an outreach shelter in downtown Victoria.