PCFC Advisory Council

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Patient/Client and Family/Caregivers (PCFC) are representatives with lived experience from different stages of life and health sectors. Together, they strategically inform the work of the NOHT-ÉSON’s Planning Table in decision-making, representing the voices of interested and affected parties.

PCFC representatives are leaders and champions, both internally and externally, for the good of Niagara residents accessing services within our health care and social services system. They represent a variety of subject matter expertise, professions, lived experience, and administrative perspectives and represent our priority populations, including members from our Indigenous and Francophone communities.

Dominic Ventresca – PCFC Co-Lead

Dominic is a life-long resident of Niagara, and has had lived experience as a patient, and family caregiver, including to an elderly mother both in her home and later in a long-term care home.

He is serving on the Age-Friendly Niagara Council Board of Directors. This is volunteer-led group that is implementing a community-driven Niagara-wide aging strategy and action plan, that includes aging in place and health and wellbeing outcomes.

Dominic previously served on the Board of Directors of the former Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network (HNHB LHIN).

Prior to this, he was the Director of Seniors Services for the Regional Municipality of Niagara where he was responsible for overseeing the management of eight long-term care homes, ten adult day programs and numerous other community programs.

During his career, he served on many community and provincial organizations including the Board of Directors of the Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes and Services for Seniors (OANHSS) and the Ontario Gerontology Association (OGA).

Dominic hopes that his combination of personal experience with the health care system and career experience in health care will be helpful to the PCFC Advisory Council and related NOHT-ÉSON working groups.

Jori Warren

Jori is a St. Catharines resident and a devoted, proactive advocate for a better health care system. She is a retired autoworker who became a caregiver to a husband with early on-set dementia at 53 and also had her aging mother living with her.

Her and her husband became champions for Alzheimer’s Society of Niagara Region, advocating for better health system planning at the provincial level, meeting with local members of provincial Parliament to discuss issues facing those living with dementia and their caregivers. They also helped launch the collaborative between police and medic alert to improve information sharing for lost dementia patients, and Living Well as a caregiver with Alzheimer’s Society of Niagara Region and Hospice Niagara.

Jori was invited to be a member of the former Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network Family Advisory Committee and moved to the NOHT-ÉSON’s Planning Table at its inception in 2019.

Jori is interested in ensuring patients with dementia obtain early detection and adequate support for themselves and their caregivers at home and in long-term care. She is now also partnering with all members of health sectors to ensure all Niagara voices are heard and listened to, so together health care will improve for all of Niagara.

Patricia MacLaren

I am retired after being a registered nurse for 40 years. My youngest son is autistic. As a single mom, I learned to navigate the system to enable my son to reach adulthood and function in our society. He is now living in a Community Living home here in Fort Erie. He works a part-time job in our community and is an avid artist.

While my son was living at home with my family, my mother developed Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. As her primary caregiver, I managed her household as well as mine until she could no longer live alone. In her confusion, she became “fearful” of my autistic son and could not tolerate living in my home with him. The difficult decision was made to move her to an assistive living situation. My mom passed away in 2008 after she developed colon cancer.

As a proud Indigenous senior, I bring my experience as a caregiver to both my son and mother to the Planning Table and my experiences as both a hospital nurse and community visiting RN.

Lisa Ceroni

Lisa spent her teenage years in the Niagara region, her early adult life in the beautiful landscapes of Alberta and British Columbia, before coming back to Ontario, first residing in Toronto and then returning to St. Catharines in 2021. Lisa’s formal education was completed in Ontario and Alberta, culminating in the completion of a Master of Science degree and a Master of Public Health degree. Between these two degrees and currently, Lisa works in the clinical research field supporting pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on their drug and device development programs and leading employee learning and development in the Medical Affairs team.

Being innately curious and with a love of learning, Lisa was drawn to the Master of Public Health program. Through that experience Lisa’s understanding of the factors that affect health and wellbeing expanded and since then she has devoted time to supporting, advocating, and championing health equity and initiatives that address the social determinants of health.

While Lisa has not yet had to be a caregiver, she has experienced a challenging health journey when it comes to her own mental health struggles. Lisa understands the complexity of mental health illness and how this adds to the burden of disease, and the limitations in public understanding, stigmatization, and proper provision of care. Lisa is also a Patient Partner on the Niagara Health Engagement Network and a volunteer with Bridges Niagara Immigrant and Refugee Services.

Lisa is excited to be on the PCFC Advisory Council to support health care optimization in the Niagara region and where she can draw on her values of empathy, equity, diversity, inclusion, respect, collaboration, empowerment, and sustainability.

Headshot of Lisa Ceroni

Cathy Neil

Bio and photo coming soon.

Chrissy Sadowski

Bio and photo coming soon.

Jennifer Dockstader

Bio and photo coming soon.

Brad Robinson

Bio and photo coming soon.

Joy Stewart-Riffle

Joy brings both lived and professional experience to the PCFC Advisory Council. A long-time Niagara resident who was raised in the region, she is committed to helping strengthen the health and human service systems that support people and communities across Niagara.

Professionally, Joy is an Evaluation, Quality Improvement, and Learning Specialist with extensive experience supporting evidence-informed planning and decision-making, continuous improvement, and organizational learning across child welfare, mental health, education, and other human service sectors. Her academic background in life-span development, stress, coping, and resilience complements both her professional work and lived experience supporting individuals, families, and caregivers through periods of challenge and change across the lifespan.

Joy also brings many years of lived experience as both a patient living with a chronic health condition and an unpaid caregiver supporting parents, in-laws, and other family members. Through these experiences, she has firsthand experience navigating health and community services as both a patient and family caregiver.

Joy is passionate about ensuring that patient, client, family, and caregiver voices meaningfully inform planning, decision-making, and continuous improvement efforts. Joy is particularly interested in bringing together evidence, quality improvement, and lived experience perspectives to support more responsive, accessible, and person-centred systems of care.

Lisa Vreugdenhil

Bio and photo coming soon.

Megan Thomas

Bio and photo coming soon.

Land Acknowledgment

We would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg. This territory is covered by the Upper Canada Treaties, is within the lands protected by the “Dish with One Spoon” wampum agreement and is directly adjacent to the Haldimand Treaty territory.

Today, this land continues to be the home of many Indigenous Peoples. Acknowledging ensures we reflect on our past and what changes can be made going forward to further the reconciliation process, and it reminds us that the great standard of living that we enjoy in Niagara is directly related to the resources and friendships of the Indigenous Peoples who make up this community.

Wampum Belt

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