Board of Directors
The Board of Directors provides leadership to the SLF, exercises overall responsibility for the policies, programs and direction of the organization, and provides advice and counsel on a wide range of policy and operational matters. The composition is designed to reflect a broad scope of expertise, with all members having a strong and demonstrated commitment to supporting the work of community-based organizations.
Board of Directors

Stephen Lewis
Co‑Founder and Co‑Chair
Stephen Lewis is the co-founder and board co-chair of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, and he is the co-director of AIDS-Free World, an international advocacy organization.
Stephen is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and Emeritus Board Member of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. He served as a Commissioner on the Global Commission on HIV and the Law.
Stephen Lewis’s work with the United Nations spanned more than two decades. He was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa from June 2001 until the end of 2006. From 1995 to 1999, he was Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF at the organization’s global headquarters in New York. From 1984 through 1988, he was Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations.
From 1970-1978, Stephen was leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, during which time he became leader of the Official Opposition.
He is the author of the best-selling book, Race Against Time, and he holds 42 honorary doctorates from Canadian and American universities.
In 2003, Stephen Lewis was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest honor for lifetime achievement. In 2007, King Letsie III, monarch of the Kingdom of Lesotho (a small mountainous country in Southern Africa) invested Stephen as Knight Commander of the Most Dignified Order of Moshoeshoe. The order is named for the founder of Lesotho; the knighthood is the country’s highest honor.

David Morley
Co‑Chair
David Morley is President and CEO of UNICEF Canada. A prolific international speaker, commentator, human rights advocate and mobilizer, David has more than thirty years of experience advancing children’s rights and sustainable development. David has dedicated his career to improving the lives of children and communities in Canada and around the world.
David has also served as Executive Director of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders Canada, as President and CEO of Save the Children Canada and was founding Executive Director of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. A recognized leader in the field, David has taught at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto and sits on the Advisory Council of the Institute for the Study of International Development at McGill University. He is also an award-winning author of two best-selling books, including Healing Our World: Inside Doctors without Borders.
In recognition of his dedication to global sustainable development, David has been appointed to the Order of Canada. As Canada’s highest civilian honour, the Order of Canada recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to community and service to the nation. David has been invested into the Order “for his leadership in international development and for his humanitarian commitment to improving the lives of children and families around the world.”

Phil Cowperthwaite
Treasurer
Accountant and Auditor, and former Partner, Cowperthwaite Mehta

Josephine Etowa
Secretary
Associate Professor at University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Health Sciences

Debbie Douglas
Debbie Douglas is the Executive Director of OCASI – the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants. Through her work in the NGO sector and particularly at OCASI, Debbie has highlighted issues of equity and inclusion including race, gender and sexual orientation within the immigration system and promoted the creation of safe, welcoming spaces within the settlement and integration sector.
A well-known face in Ontario and across the country, Debbie is often called upon by governments to share her expertise. She was a member of the province of Ontario’s Expert Panel on Immigration which published the report Routes to Success and led to the province’s first immigration legislation (2015); she was also a member of the provincial government’s Income Security Reform Working Group, which in October of 2017 published Income Security: A Roadmap for Change. Debbie is a member of the Immigration and Refugee Advisory Committee of Legal Aid Ontario and the federal government’s National Settlement & Integration Council, co-chairs the City of Toronto’s Newcomer Leadership Table and was appointed as a member of the provinces roundtable on Violence Against Women, and co-chaired the provincial Anti-Black Racism subcommittee. She is also currently on the Toronto Community Housing Corporation Board of Directors.
She is the recipient of several awards including the Women of Distinction from YWCA Toronto (2004); the Amino Malko award from the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (2008) and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations Anti-Racism Award (2014).

Vuyiseka Dubula‑Majola
Vuyiseka Dubula-Majola is the Director of Stellenbosch University’s Africa Centre for HIV and AIDS. She also served as the national representative for people living with HIV on the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), and has served on two national Ministerial Advisory Committees on Leadership, Governance and Service Delivery. She is also the founder of the Activist Centre for Education and Development, which strives to facilitate access to higher education for social justice activists. In her spare time, she has earned her PhD from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s school of Development Studies.
Vuyiseka is the former General Secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa and former Director of Programmes at Sonke Gender Justice – an organization that works to promote gender equality across Africa. She was also a member of the UNAIDS High Level Commission on HIV Prevention. She is the recipient of many awards for her activism, including the Global Leadership Award through Acacia Global for her work in supporting the development and education of women living with HIV and AIDS in the Western Cape (2015), a Leadership Award from the Shared Interest Group in New York as one of the youngest women leading the AIDS movement in South Africa (2011), the John Lloyd Foundation Leadership Award (2010), and was recognized by the University of Oslo as a “Courageous Leader” in 2003.

Notisha Massaquoi
Notisha Massaquoi is one of Canada’s leading experts in developing equity responsive organizations. Most notably she served for two decades as the Executive Director of Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Community Health Centre, in Toronto – the only Community Health Centre in North America that provides focused specialized primary healthcare for Black and racialized women. She holds a PhD in Social Justice Education and is currently a Provost Research Fellow at the University of Toronto Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

Srinivas Murthy
Srinivas Murthy is a physician at BC Children’s Hospital and the University of British Columbia. He has long been active with advocacy for global health justice with a number of international organizations and civil society groups.

Maurice Tomlinson
Maurice Tomlinson is a Jamaican attorney-at-law who migrated to Canada in 2012.
Maurice is the LGBTQ consultant with the HIV Legal Network. At the Legal Network Maurice has acted as counsel and/or claimant in cases challenging anti-gay laws before the most senior tribunals in the Caribbean, authored reports to regional and UN agencies on the human rights situation for LGBTIQ people in this region, conducted judicial and police LGBTIQ- and HIV-sensitization trainings, and facilitated human rights documentation and advocacy capacity-building exercises.
Previously, Maurice was a lecturer of law at the University of Technology in Jamaica and at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. He has also worked as a corporate lawyer.
In 2012, Maurice received the inaugural David Kato Vision and Voice Award, which recognizes individuals who defend human rights and the dignity of LGBTIQ people around the world.
Maurice holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of the West Indies, a Master of Business Administration in Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Calgary, an Honours LL.B. from the University of the West Indies, an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law from the University of Turin (cum laude) and a Certificate of Legal Education form the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica. Maurice was called to the Jamaican Bar in 2006.

Dave Toycen
Retired President and CEO, World Vision Canada
Emeritus Directors
- Hon. Jean Augustine
- Cleta Brown
- Barbara Coloroso
- Mary Coyle
- Michael Fekete
- Grace-Edward Galabuzi
- Patsy George
- Alexa McDonough
- Hon. Roy McMurtry
- Mary Morison
- Richard Phillips
- Valerie Pringle
- Angela Robertson
- Doug Stollery
Founding Members
- Mary Coyle
- Patsy George
- Ilana Landsberg-Lewis
- Stephen Lewis
- James Orbinski