Allison Pond, President & CEO 

Allison has dedicated her career to workforce development, establishing highly effective employment services that link jobseekers to employers across the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, and Canada.

As our President & CEO, she champions accessible employment services made possible through community collaboration and broad public and private sector partnerships. Through her leadership over the past two decades, ACCES Employment has attracted support from all three levels of government and corporate sponsors to become a $35-million organization. She has focused the organization on supporting internationally trained workers so that they have full and equitable access to employment in their professions and trades in Canada.

Allison has served on many boards in Ontario’s non-profit sector, including six years on the Board of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC). She is part of the BMO-United Way Greater Toronto Inclusive Local Economic Opportunity (ILEO) Leadership Table and a member of the City of Toronto Newcomer Strategy Leadership Table. She is also part of the Refugee Jobs Agenda Roundtable and Chairperson of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion External Advisory Council at University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies.

She holds a Master of Arts in social anthropology from York University and a graduate certificate in non-profit management from York University’s Schulich School of Business.

Yara Damesceno, Chief Operations Officer 

Yara Damesceno is a seasoned Chief Operating Officer with a proven track record in building and managing high-performance teams and ensuring the effective oversight of essential central service departments.  

With an extensive background in human resources, she has specialized in conflict resolution, change management and fostering an inclusive, respectful culture. Guided by a commitment to authentic leadership, Yara champions a people-centered approach, empowering teams to reach organizational goals through collaborative, transparent, and solution-focused practices. 

She joined ACCES Employment in 2002 and has held progressive roles until being named COO in 2016. Today, she has oversight over HR, IT, central administration and program administration, and has strong involvement in finance and governance. She is responsible for monitoring outcomes and seeking efficiencies in service delivery. 

Yara holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Centro Universitário FMU in Sao Paulo, is pursuing a Master’s in counselling psychology, and holds certifications in TESL counselling and human resources. 

Anita Carroll, Senior Vice President Corporate & Stakeholder Engagement 

Anita is a proven relationship builder with a strong track record of leading innovative initiatives in corporate social responsibility, diversity, learning and development, employee engagement and corporate community giving.  

At ACCES Employment, she is responsible for corporate and stakeholder engagement, leading the team that manages sponsor and donor relations. To advance our role as a leader in employment services for newcomers, Anita’s focus is on creative corporate partnerships and donor engagement that will grow and diversify funding needed to support our expansion.  

A George Brown College graduate with a degree in arts, she has held progressive roles since joining ACCES in 2007, becoming Senior Vice President in 2020. As part of the ACCES leadership team, she works on cross-functional collaborations to build strategies and opportunities for growth. She works closely with key stakeholders including major funders and the ACCES Board of Directors to lead and execute the strategic vision to build a fully inclusive labour force that reflects the diversity, skills and experience of Canada’s population. 

Anita volunteers for the Future of Work Champions Council of Civic Action, a Toronto-based group devoted to more inclusive cities. She is a past member of the Board at PAL, a charity that provides free recordings of printed materials to people with visual impairments. She is a past member of the board at Bach Children’s Chorus, a youth choir for which she provided community engagement and strategic planning services. 

Gordon Lee Chan, Senior Vice President Information Systems  

Gordon is a leader in information technology, with progressive experience throughout his career in building, integrating and developing organizations so that they can expand their business value and provide modern, reliable service.  

He has held roles from a broad spectrum of industries and organizations including the YMCA, Dundee Wealth Management, Universal Music Canada, Universal Studios and Compaq Canada. 

He joined ACCES Employment in 2021 as Senior Vice President Information Systems and has since helped lead the adoption of technology to support effective delivery of our services both in-person and online. 

Gord takes a collaborative approach to problem solving and brings innovative ideas to our organization as he helps ACCES support job seekers from diverse backgrounds. 

He is a graduate of Ryerson University, now Toronto Metropolitan University, with a bachelor’s in business management. 

Julia Rim Shepard, Senior Vice President Marketing & Public Affairs 

Julia is a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of brand building, marketing and strategy experience in high visibility, national and global organizations including Future Skills Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University, World Vision and Corus Entertainment. 

She joined ACCES Employment in 2023, leading reputation management, government relations, marketing, strategic communications, and brand. She is raising awareness of ACCES as a leader
in employment dedicated to building a fully inclusive labour force that reflects Canada’s diversity, skills and experience. By raising our profile and promoting client success stories she’s achieving our mission to reach more jobseekers, grow engagement with employers and diversify funding. 

Julia is passionate about equitable access to education, programs and social services. She sits on various local boards and post-secondary program advisory committees. She is also an advocate for effective, ethical public relations practice. She is a member of the National Board of the Canadian Public Relations Society and has served on its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force & Governance Committee. 

Julia is a graduate of McMaster University’s Master of Communications program and holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University. She is change management certified and an accredited public relations professional. 

Manjeet Dhiman, Senior Vice President Services & Strategic Initiatives  

Manjeet has been a leader in the non-profit, charitable sector for more than 25 years. At ACCES Employment, she has been a key contributor to our growth and to the development of employment and training services for jobseekers from diverse backgrounds.

For over two decades, she has led services and strategic initiatives for newcomers, marginalized youth, women, and other equity deserving groups facing barriers to labour market integration. Manjeet provides leadership in collaborative service delivery, program development, community engagement, and marketing and communications. She leads our Equity Diversity and Inclusion Council, which is a key mechanism for planning and operationalizing the organization’s goals and commitments relating to EDI.

Manjeet is a Board member and former president of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants. She is co-chair of the National Settlement and Integration Council, a national body that convenes government and non-government stakeholders to facilitate knowledge exchange and dialogue about policy and program delivery trends and issues.  

Manjeet holds a Master of Business Administration in community economic development from Cape Breton University, a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Toronto, and a post-graduate certificate in non-profit management through York University’s Schulich School of Business.  

Sue Sadler, Senior Vice President Services & Program Innovation 

Sue is a leader in workforce development program delivery who has dedicated her career to easing the plight of marginalized jobseekers and combatting systemic racism in hiring practices. She works with employers, industry, colleges, universities and sector councils to establish programming designed to integrate internationally educated professionals and other marginalized jobseekers into the Canadian workplace.  

Sue has had progressive roles in program development at ACCES Employment since joining in 2007, and is now responsible for the design and oversight of specialized programming that helps refugees, newcomers to Canada, and other disadvantaged jobseekers secure viable employment in their fields. She has leveraged ACCES’s respected brand and platform to significantly scale sector-specific programming. She has launched pre-arrival services, bilingual programming, and customized services for internationally educated health–care professionals. She has developed specialized programming for refugees, women and youth.  

Sue introduced experiential learning, future–proofing, and post-hire supports into ACCES programs and has leveraged the positive results to promote career mobility for jobseekers and to raise awareness about the organization’s contributions.  

She chairs multiple committees and advisory groups. She is an Aspen Institute Fellow, specialized in executive not-for-profit leadership and workforce development. She studied social development at the University of Waterloo. 

Aimee Holmes, Vice President, Data Strategy & Digital Solutions 

Aimee connects our business objectives to technology, allowing us to maximize our investment in technical platforms, make data-driven decisions and measure the impact of our work.  

She worked in the newcomer settlement sector before joining ACCES Employment in 2012, where she held progressively responsible roles before joining the leadership team in January 2024. 

She supports our success through improved access to reliable data and by ensuring that staff have the tools and training they need to perform their work in a hybrid delivery model. High quality data allows us to report on our successes in supporting newcomer employment and expanding our programming and services. Aimee ensures we’re keeping pace with emerging trends in technology so that we can harness these tools to work efficiently and so that jobseekers can be connected to employment services 24-7 through VERA, an AI chatbot on ACCES’ website. 

Through process improvements, data-entry automations, and inter-system integrations, Aimee led initiatives that save thousands of hours of staff time. She oversees the development of e-learning modules and live delivery content, which offers jobseekers a rich library of courses and resources to help them become more job-ready. 

Aimee has a Master’s degree in global studies from Albert-Ludwigs University in Germany and the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology, Spanish and religious studies from Mount Allison University. 

Dan Wilson, Vice President Operations  

Dan has more than 30 years of experience in the charitable and public sector spanning the areas of policy, strategy and evaluation. Throughout his career, he has been a champion of equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives at the grassroots and institutional level, advancing EDI through education, policy and culture. 

At the Ontario Trillium Foundation, he provided research, executive advice, insight and problem-solving to the CEO as Chief of Staff. He joined ACCES Employment in 2021 as Vice President Operations, where he leads administration and procurement, provides governance and board support and is responsible for risk management. 

Dan holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Carleton University. 

Jennifer Hall, Vice President Human Resources 

Jennifer is a proven human resources leader, leveraging more than two decades of experience  to build and maintain a workplace that leads by example in preparing people for job success.  

ACCES Employment believes that supporting our clients and employers in building desirable workplaces must start with our own organization. As a result, Jennifer is focused on creating a supportive and inclusive environment and investing in our diverse workforce so that they have the skills needed to succeed. 

Since she joined ACCES in 2020, Jennifer has led the HR team to create programs and practices that encourage personal growth, well-being and excellence. She implements a people-first strategy focused on keeping staff informed as we work towards achieving our mission to be a leader in employment services. She implements effective change management principles that align with our organizational goals and strives to achieve positive momentum from all team members. 

Jennifer and the team of HR professionals she leads design and implement hiring, learning, recognition, compensation and benefit programs to support our success.  

She has completed the Rotman School of Management Strategic Human Resource Management Program at University of Toronto and has a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology. 

Marlene McGrath, Vice President Services and Program Administration  

Marlene ensures that all programs and services offered by ACCES Employment help us meet our goal to build a fully inclusive labour force that reflects Canada’s diversity, skills and experience. 

She oversees the development, delivery and improvement of our services and programs, ensuring they support equitable opportunities for jobseekers facing employment barriers as they enter the Canadian job market.  

Her work supports the long-term goals of the organization, including strategies to advance organizational growth. She ensures we uphold the highest standards of financial accountability and regulatory compliance. She is responsible for accountable disbursement of employer incentives and client financial supports, implementing robust tracking systems and adherence to relevant guidelines. 

Marlene leverages the diverse skills, perspectives, and strengths of her team, encouraging open communication and active listening to arrive at informed decisions that lead to the most effective programs for the jobseekers we serve. 

She holds a Social Service Worker diploma and has certification in Business Process Management and Crisis Intervention. 

Raj Siva, Vice President Finance 

As a Certified Public Accountant, Raj is a leader in managing, controlling, planning and organizing processes and in ensuring the integrity of financial statements to meet reporting standards.  

Since joining ACCES Employment in 2006, he has held progressive roles that led to his appointment as VP Finance. 

In his many years at ACCES, he has seen the organization expand into a $35-million company and played a key role in finance as we expanded our partnerships locally and nationally to connect more newcomers with our vast network of employers. With increased immigration to Canada, we continue to support greater numbers of jobseekers, expanding our impact through more partnerships and diversified sources of funding.  

Raj holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA), Accounting and Finance from Laurentian University. He has held the CPA designation since 2007.