Northumberland Hills Hospital’s Board of Directors welcomes four new Community Members following a successful recruitment campaign
The Northumberland Hills Hospital (NHH) Board of Directors welcomed four new Community Members at the Board’s October meeting on Thursday, October 5.
Community Members play a crucial role in the Board's ongoing commitment to direct public input while also supporting proactive succession planning. Each Community Member holds full voting privileges for the NHH Board committees on which they serve and may also be appointed to a Board Director position when a vacancy occurs.
This past spring, following a similar call for interest in 2022, the NHH Board of Directors invited expressions of interest from local individuals interested in volunteering with the Board as Community Members. An expression of interest form and supporting Frequently Asked Questions document was made available via the hospital website and a Virtual Board Volunteer Open House was held, offering an opportunity to learn more about the Board opportunities available, meet current Board and Community Members and ask questions.
As in 2022, the call for interest and Open House resulted in strong interest. The NHH Board of Directors subsequently conducted interviews of all candidates in June and selected Laina Andrews, Mary-Ann Cocchetto, Randall Freeborn, and Carol Anne Bell- Smith to join the Board as its newest Community Members. Orientation was completed this summer with the October meeting marking the first full Board meeting for the new Community Members.
“We are very pleased to welcome Laina, Mary-Ann, Randall, and Carol Anne to this unique and very rewarding volunteer opportunity with NHH,” said Elizabeth Selby, NHH Board Chair. “They join Myles Noel, Leslie Orpana, and Lynda Sellar to form the NHH Board’s largest ever team of Community Member representatives. Diverse teams lead to better decision-making. As their biographies demonstrate, each of our new Community Members are unique in their own strengths, while bringing experience with and knowledge of the community served, and a commitment to support the quality and growth of NHH. We welcome each to the Board table and thank them for their interest.”
For details on the newest Community Members’ biographies and Committee assignments please see below. These and the biographies of all NHH Board members will also be found on the NHH Board pages of the hospital website.
Laina Andrews (Cobourg) was in school and board leadership for most of her career in public education and recently retired as Superintendent of Education of both Human Resources and Secondary Programming. As the former Principal of both Cobourg West and the newer Cobourg Collegiate Institute, Laina was actively involved in the community and worked with many of its stakeholders in her role. Currently, she is a member of the Faculty of Education at Ontario Tech University.
Her most recent leadership experience included working directly with a governance body, the Board of Trustees, where Laina’s understanding and knowledge of policy and procedure, working with government ministries, labour relations, contract negotiations, hiring processes, health and safety, and more is extensive.
Laina hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia, but has spent the last 30 years in the Northumberland County.
As a Community Member of the NHH Board, Laina serves on the NHH Board’s Quality and Safety and Facilities and Campus Development Committees.
Mary-Ann Cocchetto (Port Hope) holds over 25 years of combined experience as a lawyer and leader in the public sector.
In her career, Mary-Ann worked at Legal Aid Ontario where she represented legally aided clients at the Cobourg Court House and later held positions on the senior leadership team at Legal Aid Ontario’s Provincial Office, including Vice President overseeing Human Resources and the Central Operations and Client Experience Division. Mary-Ann’s work as Associate General Counsel for Legal Aid Ontario has provided her with extensive experience in Board governance.
Mary-Ann has served the community as a board member for the United Way and as a member of the Town of Port Hope Parks, Recreation and Culture Committee. Currently, she is a leadership coach and principal of Mary-Ann Cocchetto Coaching.
A resident of Port Hope, Mary-Ann is a Community Member of the NHH Board’s Governance and Quality and Safety Committees.
Randall Freeborn (Baltimore) has more than 30 years of experience in strategic human resources management and business strategy development in the professional services, media, consulting and high-tech sectors.
He has been a member of several global executive teams working extensively in Asia, North America, and Europe. In his current role, Randall is Senior Vice President of People and Strategic Initiatives at WoodGreen Community Services in Toronto.
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Concordia University in Montreal and a Laboratory Sciences Diploma from Fanshawe College. Randall is also bilingual in French and English.
Randall is a Community Member of the NHH Board’s Quality and Safety and Facilities and Campus Development Committees.
Carol Anne Bell-Smith (Cobourg) is a retired Director of Education and proud Critical Care Registered Nurse with 40 years of experience in health care. She is also a Multi-faith Minister and an award-winning Fine Arts Photographer.
Formerly the Chief Executive Officer of TPG Consulting, Carol Anne provided management consulting services to non-profits, charities, and private sector companies across the province. Carol Anne is also a person with a disability and a regular consumer of health care services, giving her the unique perspective and experience as a patient as well as a former health care executive.
Carol Anne has a wide variety of board and committee experience having served on boards such as Community Care, Community Living, Northumberland Orchestra and Choir, Cobourg Poetry Workshop as well as several Provincial Steering committees such as the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care Technical Working Group for Self-Managed Care and the original Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act Legislative Committee. Carol Anne is currently the Chair of the Accessibility Advisory Committee for the Town of Cobourg and is a seasoned accessibility consultant with a passion for inclusion.
She has a passion for governance, strategic planning, policy development, quality, facilitation, strategic budgeting, community outreach and engagement, and team management.
A resident of Cobourg, Carol Anne Bell-Smith is a Community Member of the NHH Board’s Quality and Safety and Finance and Audit Committees.
Expressions of interest in NHH Board Community Member service are welcomed at any time. For information on the role and how to apply, see the link above.