Meet our Team

We are extremely fortunate to have a dynamic and dedicated team of staff and volunteers

Joellen McHard
​Executive Director

​Joellen McHard was the former Executive Director of LCCJ from 2010 to 2014. Accordingly, she was able to smoothly step back into the part time position of Executive Director in June of
2019. She comes to us with a wealth of experience in program and agency development, as the first Executive Director of Victim Services Lanark County, the first Program Coordinator of the Lanark County Volunteer Hospice Visiting Services. Furthermore, she was also the Supervisor of Addiction Services at Ottawa Detox. Most recently, she was with Primary Care Outreach to Seniors at the North Lanark Community Health Centre. Joellen has a degree in Sociology and a degree in Gerontology. She also has another very important position as, “The Supreme Commander of the McHard Household”, where she oversees her twins, Brianne and Brent and husband Paul.

Samantha Snyder
Program Coordinator

Samantha was born and raised in Perth. After graduating from PDCI high school, she attended Fanshawe College and completed the Social Service Worker Program. Feeling like she was lacking real life experience, she worked and traveled the Canadian Rockies, Ireland, and Europe. In 2023, Samantha graduated with honors from the Community and Justice Services program at Algonquin College, and completed her placement with Lanark County Community Justice where she became passionate about restorative justice and restorative practices as well as supporting youth in our community. Samantha also worked as the Child and Youth Program Manager at YAK Youth Services and for the Rose Garden Family Support Center in Smiths Falls.

Dave Burkett
Chair of the Board

Dave joined the board as Treasurer in 2019.  He is a retired management consultant and, prior to moving to Almonte, a co-owner of an art gallery in Kitchener.  A long-time resident of the Kitchener Waterloo area, Dave and his wife Alison moved in 2019 to be closer to grandchildren.
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Dave was previously on the board of Community Justice Initiatives of Waterloo Region, where he served as treasurer.  Dave and Alison are active in several community service activities, including church and Civitan. 
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Barry Fisher
Treasurer

Barry Fisher practiced law in the USA from 1979 to 1984 and in Ontario until his retirement in 2014; He lived in Geneva, Switzerland from 2015 to 2019; and has an interest in conflict resolution. He has experience in managing lawyers both inside an organization and outside counsel. He has an active and ongoing interest in dispute resolution outside of the court system. He is functionally bilingual in English and French. His previous legal experience includes General Counsel and Corporate Secretary to an interlisted group of mining companies, and major Canadian and US law firms as well as Law Clerk to The Chief Justice of the High Court of Justice of the Supreme Court of Ontario. 

Marilyn Bird
Director

Marilyn was pleased to join the board in 2021.  She is a resident of Perth and is currently the Executive Director at Lanark Transportation Association.  She hopes her previous experience as a police officer in Smiths Falls and London, England, as well as tenure on other board of directors including Lanark County Interval House, RNJ Youth Services and community theatre will allow her to make a positive contribution to Lanark County Community Justice. 

Kayla Millar
Director

Kayla Millar is the current Branch Manager of the TD in Carleton Place. She is responsible for ensuring the compliance of all security measures, cash handling, all lending files and Mutual Fund files as held to rules/regulations/laws in place by the federal government and province of Ontario. Managing day to day operations, expenses, hiring and recruitment of employees are some of the other responsibilities. She is passionate about giving back to the community. Through TD she is a TD Ready Commitment Ambassador. As an ambassador she actively participates and promotes volunteering through TD and other external organizations. She is also the district lead for TD’s Black Experience Committee. 

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Stephen Graham
​​Director

Stephen is a graduate engineer (Queen’s University, 1969) with a Master’s Degree in Environmental Studies (York University, 1975). The last 4 decades of his career were spent as a Professional Engineer providing consulting services in sustainable energy and on issues relating sustainable energy to international development and climate change. Through his firm SGA Energy Ltd. (1980 – 2016) he has worked both in Canada and nearly 20 developing countries on these issues.
In the past Stephen has volunteered for over 20 years with the Re-evaluation Counseling community as a participant and teacher.  In early 2000 he sat on the Board of Salus Corporation of Ottawa. Stephen is retired living with his wife on 100 acres in Lanark Highlands.

Carol Anne Deneka
Director 

Tamara Derkzen
​Director

Elected in the Fall 2021, Carol Anne Deneka is one of three new Members of the Board.
She has a B.A. in Economics, Trent University, 1978 and is a Certified Association Executive and a Certified Gemologist. Carol Anne is recently retired from a 16 year career in communications in the Federal Public Service, following almost a decade managing member services at the Canadian Dental Association, and 15 years in management and merchandising at Henry Birks and Sons.
Passionate about social justice and eager to put her energies to the challenges at hand.
​Carol Anne lives in Lanark County on a farm with her partner in Poland, Ontario.​

Tamara graduated with a Masters of Social Work in 1997, and worked and lived in Western and Northern Canada before settling in Perth with her husband and young daughter on 2001. Since that time, Tamara has been involved with a number of community initiatives and school parent councils. Although she worked as a social worker in Lanark County for many years, she now primarily works in Ottawa. When not working or volunteering, she keeps busy planning long hiking trips with her husband.

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Richard Marquardt
Director 
For much of​ his career, Richard worked
with NGOs in the field of international 
cooperation, first as a CUSO volunteer
teacher in Tanzania, then as NGO staff in
both Africa and Ottawa. Later, he worked as
a social policy researcher with a focus on the 
experiences of Canadian youth in the labour 
market. He holds a Master's in Public
Administration (Queen's, 1994) and a Ph.D.
in Public Policy (Carleton, 2008). For several
years, he was an instructor in Carleton 
University's School of Public Administration.
He has served on the board of the Centretown
Community Health Centre in Ottawa. He 
has been retired since 2016. Richard grew up
in Ottawa and moved to Perth in 2012.

Our Volunteer 
Forum Facilitators
The Heart of our Organization

The very essence of community justice centres on the participation of community volunteers- we could not do anything without our team of amazingly talented and dedicated volunteers.
LCCJ volunteers commit to extensive training, case conferencing and continuous learning to keep their skills sharp. They give their time and energy because they genuinely care about the kind of community we build together.
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​We are extremely grateful and very proud of our team of volunteers and all of the incredible things they do for our agency, our clients and most importantly, for our community.
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