Executive Team
Chair: Stephanie Gee, MA
Stephanie Gee is an applied researcher specializing in program development and evaluation. Driven by a deep commitment to social justice, her work has addressed social inequality and inequity. Employing participatory methodologies and processes, Stephanie has worked with diverse communities and organizations to develop, implement, evaluate, and improve programs and services to create meaningful and positive change.
Since 2017, Stephanie has worked at the Region of Peel – Public Health as a Program Evaluation Advisor. In collaboration with her colleagues, she seeks to enhance effective public health practice through building individual and organizational capacity for program planning and evaluation.
Vice Chair: Rachel Skellet
Rachel is the Manager of Planning, Evaluation and Continuous Quality Improvement at Niagara Region Public Health. Prior to this, she was an epidemiologist, supporting both chronic disease and injury prevention, as well as infectious disease epidemiology since 2014. During her time in both of these roles, Rachel’s passion for both planning and evaluation to improve public health practice has continued to grow.
Rachel lives in Niagara with her husband and four kitties. In her spare time, Rachel is currently working towards certification in Privacy, Access and Information Management.
Former Chair: Laura Gibbs, MSc, MPH, CE
Laura is a Credentialed Evaluator with over a decade of experience working in public health, in a variety of roles and program areas. She has been part of evaluations related to mental health, opioid services, physician outreach, student nutrition programming, oral health, food safety course development, comprehensive school health programming, tobacco prevention, online prenatal classes, and an incident response plan. She is passionate about promoting rigour, innovation, and use in public health evaluation. Laura joined OPHEN’s previous incarnation, the Community of Practice for Public Health Evaluation, in 2015 and became the Chair in 2017. Since 2024, she has been the Past Chair of OPHEN and is excited to see what OPHEN’s next chapter brings!
Treasurer: Beatrice Kowalska, MPH
Beatrice Kowalska is the Research and Evaluation Coordinator at Lakelands Public Health. Since 2017, she has been committed to fostering a positive culture of research and evaluation, strengthening organizational evaluation capacity, and supporting evidence-informed public health practice. She has chaired the former organizational Evaluation and Research Committee, led organizational evaluations, and co-led a provincial research project through Public Health Ontario’s Locally Driven Collaborative Projects (LDCP, Cycle 5) Program. With over 17 years of experience in public health across rural and urban settings, Beatrice brings strong organizational skills and transparent financial stewardship to her role as Treasurer of OPHEN.
Secretary: Katrina Bergstrom
Katrina joined Hamilton Public Health (HPH) in 2011 as a Health Analyst, transitioning to Program Evaluation Coordinator in 2013. At HPH Katrina has been involved in evaluations spanning many different programs and services, and has championed performance measurement and monitoring efforts, and how this can be used to strategically direct, and streamline evaluation efforts since 2012. Outside of work, Katrina likes to spend time with her family waterskiing, rock climbing and going on backcountry canoe trips.
Communications Liaison: Melissa Thomas, MPH
Melissa is a Planning and Evaluation Specialist at Chatham-Kent Public Health, where she supports program planning, evaluation, and evidence-informed decision-making across a range of public health areas. She works collaboratively with program teams to support planning and evaluation efforts and strengthen organizational capacity for performance measurement. Melissa holds a Master of Public Health and has a strong background in research, with experience in both quantitative and qualitative methods. She is passionate about using data and evaluation to support effective, equitable public health practice and improve population health outcomes.
Executive Member At Large: John Macdonald, Ph.D., MPH, MA, PMP
John Macdonald is an applied researcher specializing in methodological design and evaluation, and a CEPH certified field epidemiologist. He has conducted evaluations throughout the healthcare sector on behalf of the Northeast Local Health Integration Network (NE-LHIN), hospitals, and research institutions for almost two decades.
John joined Public Health Sudbury & Districts in 2017 as a Specialist with the Effective Public Health Practice Team and acts as the agency’s research ethics committee’s Co-Chair. John has led, collaborated, and supported research, evaluation and continuous quality improvement projects and contributed to evidence-informed decision-making across the spectrum of public health programming and services.