Board of Directors
Colin Robertson - Chairman of the Board
Mr. Robertson has a strong business background having held numerous Senior Management, Director and VP positions in corporations such as BC Tel and AT&T Canada. He also held the CEO position of a startup up Internet Development Company. His business career spans some 38 years in industries such as Internet, Telecommunications and Construction. He also has personal experience in dealing with children with learning disabilities and mental health issues. Until recently he held a director position on the board of the Fraser Valley Society for Children with Learning disabilities.
Andy MacDonald
Mr. MacDonald has worked at the Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre since graduating from SFU with a B.A in Psychology(honours) and Criminology in 1985. Starting as a Childcare Counsellor working with the most severely thought, mood and behaviourally disordered youth in British Columbia, Mr. MacDonald has worked his way up the ranks to his current position as Manager of Response Services at 'the Maples.' He has served on the FORCE board for 5 years and is the father of 2 boys.
Ross Robinson, M.Ed.
Mr. Robinson has worked as a Child and Youth Mental Health Clinician/Therapist in the Lower Mainland for the past 17 years. He has training in psychology from both major universities in Alberta (U of C & U of A), in clinical psychology from Simon Fraser University, and has practiced in hospital and community mental health settings in a career that spans 38 years. Currently, Mr. Robinson spends half of his work week at the Youth Day Treatment Program in Coquitlam, a milieu-based, multidisciplinary treatment program for adolescents with severe mental health diagnoses. The second half is at the Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre as a certified group leader, supervisor, and trainer in the ‘Connect’ Parent Group Program, an attachment-based model for doing psycho-educational groups for parents/caregivers of youth with conduct problems and mental health issues across multiple domains of functioning. Mr. Robinson is also active in wheelchair sports and holds a director position on the board of the BC Wheelchair Sports Association.
Diane Champion-Smith
Diane Champion-Smith has spent most of her career teaching and working in education in Australia, Alberta and BC. Within the education system, Diane has held positions in classroom teaching, writing curriculum for high school students serving on the Ministry advisory boards, and is currently a middle school counselor. In the middle of Diane’s extensive education career, she took on a new role as Executive Director of the Kaiser Youth Foundation and served on the McCreary Centre for Adolescent Health and other non-profit boards before returning to working ins schools where she is again doing what she loves best, working hands on with kids.
Alan Rohr
Alan Rohr is a dad who experiences first hand the challenges faced by a child with mental health challenges, as his son lives this every day. The F.O.R.C.E. is thrilled to have a father’s perspective on our board, as we know it strengthens our ability to understand the opportunities and challenges that we need to look at in supporting the ‘whole’ family.