
National Board of Directors
Wayne L. Kauffeldt, Chairperson
Wayne Kauffeldt has been employed with the Calgary Board of Education since August 1990. For the past 10 years he has served as Coordinator of Training & Staff Development.
Wayne is a graduate of Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ont., and has been utilizing his passion for training and helping people to achieve their highest potential for the past 35 years.
With experience in the retail, financial services, consulting and educational sectors, Wayne brings a wealth of anecdotal knowledge to his presentations.
In addition to his duties at the Calgary Board of Education, Wayne has been involved in developing and presenting leadership workshops with Merit Contractors Association across Western Canada for the past 8 years.
His presentation style, involving a large dose of humour and encouraging active dialogue provides a memorable, energizing and enriching experience for all participants.
Wayne resides in Calgary, Alberta with his wife Laura. They are proud parents of three daughters and grandparents to a grandson.
The loss of their youngest daughter, 17 year old Amy, in 1999 to a drunk driver, led to Wayne and Laura’s involvement with MADD Canada. They share a commitment to the MADD Canada goal of stopping impaired driving and are actively involved in the Calgary Chapter.
Robert Mann, Vice Chair
Robert Mann is a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto. Over the past 20 years, his research has included investigations of alcohol and drug impaired driving, including the impact of prevention and remedial activities. He has served as a consultant on impaired driving issues to the American Medical Association, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Transport Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.
Robert currently is a Director at Large on the MADD Canada’s Board of Directors. He sits on the Public Policy Committee and the Finance and Resource Development Committee.
Carolyn Swinson, Past Chair
Richard and Carolyn Swinson and their three children, Rob, Ian and Emma immigrated to Canada from England in 1972. The children were all born within three and a half years, which is one of the reasons, along with a strong belief in family values that Carolyn stayed at home to look after them until they were teenagers. Since 1984 she has been a real estate salesperson and has worked for Prudential Sadie Moranis Realty since 1991. Since the day she arrived in Canada she has always been involved in volunteer work. She has chaired Community Associations, run a Brownie Pack and for fifteen years she spent each Monday morning working with developmentally or physically challenged preschoolers.
Carolyn, her husband Richard and daughter Emma became involved in MADD after the death of Rob, the eldest of their three children. Rob was killed on February 12th, 1993 almost 12 years to the day Carolyn’s father had been killed, also in an alcohol-related crash.
From 1997 to 1999 she was President of The Toronto Chapter of MADD when she took on the role of National President, a position she held from Sept. 1999 to Sept. 2001. She was very grateful that from two tragic situations she was given the opportunity to make a difference. Carolyn is committed to doing as much as she can to further MADD Canada’s mission and is still very much involved with the National Board and the Toronto Chapter. In 2001 she was very honoured to receive a Volunteer Award from the City of Toronto, the Ministry of Transport’s Road Safety Achievement Award, and has also received a Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award and a Queen’s Jubilee Medal, accepting the awards on behalf of all the wonderful volunteers of MADD Canada.
J. Christopher Nagle, QC, Director – Atlantic
Mr. Nagle is a lawyer resident in Moncton. He is a member of both the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Law Societies and focuses in Fatal Accident cases in both Provinces. He is currently a member of Rotary International and Foster Parents Plan. In the past he has also been on the Board of Directors of Support to Single Mothers and other similar non-profit organizations.
Chris Nagle served as President of the New Brunswick Law Society and was a course leader for its Bar Admission program. He was awarded his Q.C. (Queen’s Counsel) designation in 1999 in recognition of services to his profession.
Chris’ community and fundraising involvement has included the Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament which has consistently been one of Moncton’s largest fundraising events over the last 20 years. He has also been involved in political fundraising for various elections.
He has been a Board Member of the SENB Chapter of MADD and is currently the Chapter President.
Chris has been appointed to the Board of Governors at The University of New Brunswick.
Chris holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and his hobbies and sports include reading, golf and badminton.
Chris feels that MADD Canada is at a critical fork in the road. This organization has narrowly averted disaster as a result of ongoing problems in the last two years brought about by forces outside the organization. In order to deal with the new environment, Chapters have to become more self-sufficient and will have to recruit more people sensitive to the need for fundraising. This has to be balanced, however, with the fundamental need to continue the overall goal of MADD; which is to eliminate drunk driving and lend assistance and support to victims of this senseless crime.
Margaret Williams, Director – Ontario East
After the violent death of her sister in a preventable collision which claimed five young lives, Margaret became involved with MADD in July of 2000. A year later, she founded the MADD Barrie/Simcoe Chapter where she served as President until 2004. Margaret then returned home to rebuild the MADD York Region Chapter. Margaret has been working tirelessly as President in York Region until recently when she was elected to the National Board of Directors.
Margaret brings a variety of skills to her new position. She has had the privilege of serving two terms in the executive position of Secretary/CEO for the York-Simcoe Federal Conservative Association supporting Minister Peter Van Loan, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons. She also held the position of volunteer coordinator for Minister Van Loan during the 2006 Federal Election Campaign. Margaret’s political activism flows into all levels of Government. Along with her Federal involvement, she has worked on both Municipal and on Provincial Campaigns. In last year’s 2007 Ontario Provincial Election, once again, Margaret took on the role of volunteer coordinator for MPP Julia Munro. Margaret currently serves in the position of Vice President for the York-Simcoe PC Association.
With a great sense of humor, Margaret values the seriousness of life. She is a credible and flexible person of high integrity and passion. Margaret stands for what she knows is right! Her priorities are: God, Family, MADD and Politics (in that order).
Margaret and her husband Brian reside on the shores of beautiful Lake Simcoe in the small town of Georgina. They are the proud parents of five children and four grandchildren.
Margaret is the humble recipient of both the York Region Police Services Board "Civic Leadership Award" and the MADD Canada "Victim Services Volunteer Award" Ontario East Region.
Manon Groulx, Regional Director – BC/Yukon Territory
Manon is a marketing project manager in the Vancouver Head Office of a national outdoor goods retailer, and enjoys trail running on the North Shore mountains.
In 2008, Manon became the vice president of the MADD Greater Vancouver Chapter. As a passionate supporter of MADD, Manon enjoys the strategic challenge of being part of the team that has moved the chapter to the solid footing it enjoys today.
Manon is graduate of Concordia University, with a B.A in political science as well a college degree in Creative Arts.
Drew Wilder, Regional Director – Ontario West
Drew Wilder joined the Ontario Provincial Police in 1986 and has served his entire time with the detachment in Grey County which is on the shorelines of Georgian Bay. He and his wife Lori have two children, Preston and Haley.
Drew has been a supporter of MADD by making countless impaired driving arrests through his career. In 1991 he was trained as a Technical Collision Investigator (T.C.I.) whose responsibilities were to attend and piece together the evidence of fatal car crashes. A good portion of these crashes were a result of drivers who had been drinking. In 1999, Drew attended the Canadian Police College in Ottawa and was qualified to be a Collision Reconstructionist. This role supervises the T.C.I. and also enables him to be an expert in the field of collision analysis in the judicial system. Drew has been involved in over 250 investigations in this role. A destroyed family due to senseless deaths or injury is something that has been a part of his entire career. Drew has developed an O.P.P. safe driving campaign with information that is being recognized across the province and can be seen at www.wilderside.ca .
Drew served as the President for the MADD Grey North Bruce Chapter from 2006 to 2008 and continues to work closely with the Chapter, and plays an active role in recruiting volunteers for the Chapter. He volunteers at display venues, with fund raising efforts, and is known in his community as a MADD supporter.
Drew is a marine officer and teaches Transport Canada marine courses at the O.P.P. Academy. He is a Director with Grey Bruce St John Ambulance and an employee representative with the Ontario Provincial Police Association.
Drew states, “I am always committed to new challenges and know I can make a difference.”
Brenda Johnson, Regional Director - Prairie Provinces, Northwest Territories & Nunavut
On February 17, 2006 Brenda Johnson lost her only natural son to a drinking and driving crash. Brenda had always volunteered in community, supported debilitating disease fundraisers and donated to numerous charitable causes, but, it never prepared her for the road she was about to embark on. Remy was the drinker and the driver of the vehicle and at 11:25 pm, Friday, February 17th he hit a post on Hwy. 16 A at Boundary Road, the dividing municipal line between Spruce Grove and Stony Plain, Alberta. So many lives changed that night and certainly in the next few days and for months and years thereafter, many more did. Brenda’s daughters, Tia and Chevais wanted to make a statement to the community about losing someone so precious to a very bad choice. MADD Parkland Chapter was launched from the tenacity of these two young ladies and their mother.
Brenda has always held a position of professional capacity in her adult life. She is currently the Executive Director of the Spruce Grove & District Chamber of Commerce. Education is an ongoing process with Brenda. She completed her academic program in high school at Stony Plain Memorial, majored in religion in a BA program at the U. of A. in Edmonton and then continued on to a commercial art program at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary. She has continued to take courses through the Business Extension program at the U. of A. and recently has taken interest in some relevant economic development courses that are related to her work with the chamber of commerce.
Brenda was born in Calgary, Alberta, has lived in Ottawa and London, Ontario during her childhood and as an adult and has travelled extensively throughout Canada. She is married for the second time to her husband of 20 years, Allen, and had three natural children, from her first marriage of 15 years and has two step children through Allen. Her husband, Allen, lost his sister, Darlene, at 19 years of age in Quesnel, B.C. some 35 + years ago to a drunk driver. Darlene and her fiancé were turning left off the roadway into the driveway of the Johnson home early evening when they were struck. When MADD Parkland Chapter hosts their annual Victims’ Vigil, Darlene and Remy are two of what, we wish were not more, real sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and other family and friends our communities in Parkland remember.
Louise White, Regional Director – Quebec
Louise was born in Montreal and has spent her life in the West Island. She is married and has three teenage children and works full time for Sears Canada as a call centre supervisor with a specialty in Customer Service.
She has volunteered for her children’s elementary school; Nickels for Neurology; Block Parents; her local Church; Lakeshore Hockey and for her husband’s golf tournament which raises funds for the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
In 1982 Louise was in a car crash and lost her best friend at the time. She knows from personal experience what it is like to lose a friend in High School. This life event is what has driven her to be so committed to MADD Canada.
Robin Howlings, Director at Large
Robin Howlings, Owner and President of Danamark WaterCare, has been recognized as one the of the Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs in Canadian business for the past five years, while leading Danamark to a market-leading position in the increasingly important water filtration business.
In October 2006, Robin was invited to participate in the third annual “Corporate State of Canada: A Women’s CEO and Senior Management Summit” to discuss the trends shaking the corporate Canada and a socially conscious world.
Robin is a board member of the Canadian Water Quality Association (CWQA), a member of the advisory board for Canada’s Most Powerful Women-Top 100, a member of the International Women’s Forum (IWF), the Women’s Executive Network (WXN) and Entrepreneurs Organization (EO). She is active in Ronald McDonald’s House Charities, and has recently founded the Robin S. Howlings Foundation for Clean Water, in memory of her father and founder of the company.
Brian Westlake, Director at Large
Brian Westlake is a partner of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP Toronto, where he practises in the area of business law, with primary emphasis on service to multinational corporations and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Blakes, Brian spent a year with Simmons & Simmons, solicitors, in London, England.
Brian serves as a director and officer of a number of Canadian corporations in diverse business segments. His charitable and community involvements have included being the President of The Rotary Club of Toronto and its Charitable Foundation, a member of the board of the Family Service Association of Toronto, of Knox College at the University of Toronto and an elder of Armour Heights Presbyterian Church. He presently serves as a Trustee and member of the Governance Committee of Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario.
Brian and his wife Joyce have supported MADD Canada since the death of their son Andrew in 1995, at the hands of an impaired driver. They and their surviving son Michael live in Toronto.
Marg Stanowski, Director at Large
Marg Stanowski has over 30 years of corrections’ experience as a staff and volunteer. She was a Parole Officer and Superintendent with Correctional Services Canada and Volunteer Ontario’s Executive Director. She has been Springboard’s Executive Director for 16 years, which is a community agency committed to making our communities safer and better places to live. The agency serves over 13,000 at risk youth and adult each year, including those in the criminal justice system, individuals with developmental disabilities, and those needing employment and training.
Marg has been instrumental in pioneering several community based program models designed to hold youth and adults accountable for their actions while also developing the needed skills to become contributing members of their communities. Several models have been replicated within Ontario and across Canada. Springboard’s partnership with MADD Canada is one notable example of an alternative to weekend custody for impaired drivers where no personal injury was involved in the offence. Offenders agree participate in treatment on substance abuse while also performing needed public service in their local communities.
Marg has served on several Boards of Directors, including an Order in Council Appointment to the Ontario Legal Aid Board. She is currently a Board Member and National Chair of Grants with the ProAction Kids and Cops Foundation and serves on various advisory boards, such as Pine River Institute, Rotary Club of Toronto, Connestoga and Humber Community Colleges.
Gregg Thomson, Director at Large
Although born in western Canada, Gregg has spent the majority of his adult life in the Ottawa area. Very proud and very blessed father of 3 beautiful children Stan, Madisen (23) and Neil (17).
Gregg’s educational background includes a professional accounting designation, CMA. Most of his career has been focused on blending his business and accounting background with technology developing business process solutions. Currently (10 years) the Vice-president Operations for a privately held software firm, Multiview Corporation. Multiview produces enterprise level accounting and finance software targeting the middle tier of the North American market space.
Gregg joined MADD in August of 1999 as a result of the death of his son, Stan, and four of his classmates. One of the uniqueness’ of the event that night was that it was drugs only, no alcohol. While attending his first MADD Ottawa meeting it became very apparent that the drugs and driving message was very much an emerging topic in its very early stages.
So Gregg’s mission began. Gregg has had an amazing volunteer career with MADD, including being the local president and the privilege of speaking to over 25,000 students. Gregg’s passion is, and will always remain, to work directly with the youth and the public fostering MADD’s message.
Jason Dubeau, Director at Large – Youth
Jason joined the MADD West Island Chapter, in Montreal, Quebec, as a volunteer in November, 2005. Within a few short months, Jason became interested in becoming a Victim Services Volunteer and came to Toronto for the training in April 2006.
Jason was the founding member of the Upper Laurentians Chapter in Québec, his native area. Unfortunately, the Chapter has since closed, however, Jason has on as a Community Leader for the Laurentides-Laval area in Québec, and still offers victim services in the region.
Jason has always put a lot of emphasis on the importance of representing youth within MADD Canada, due to the fact that so many impaired driving crashes in Canada involve youth. It is with anticipation and excitement that he begins his three-year term on the National Board of Directors.
Margaret Miller, Past National President
Margaret and her husband Robert have been married for 35 years. Together they operated a dairy farm in central Nova Scotia and raised a family of three children.
After more than 25 years, the Millers retired from farming in 1999 and Margaret started a hand-crafted quilting business.
On May 16th, 2004 their lives forever changed. Margaret and Robert’s son Bruce was killed in an impaired driving incident in Caledonia, P.E.I. Bruce was a police constable with Springhill Police Service. As a police liaison at the local schools, Bruce worked tirelessly with the youth of the community to foster a better understanding of the harmful effects of alcohol abuse and the tragic consequences of drinking and driving. Ironically, the crime Bruce fought so hard to fight was the one that would take his life.
Within months of Bruce’s death, Margaret was speaking in high schools and she became a volunteer with the MADD Cobequid Chapter. She worked with MADD Canada staff to successfully establish a White Cross Roadside Memorial Program in the Province of P.E.I. Today, Margaret feels honoured to be representing MADD Canada volunteers across the country and for being able to carry on Bruce’s work in his memory.
Listen to Margaret's story in her own words...
Denise Dubyk - National President
Denise relocated to Calgary, from Oshawa, Ontario in 1975, with her daughter Tammy. The oil and gas development in Western Canada opened up many avenues into the world of office administration and management, providing opportunity for employment and in 1982, Denise started working with the United Association, Plumber’s and Pipefitter’s Union, Local 496, as Office Manager, remaining in this position until retirement, in June 2008.
Denise served on the Executive Board for the Canadian Office and Professional Employees, Local Union 379 for 17 years, in the volunteer positions of Vice-President, Treasurer, and Trustee.
Married to Ken Jones for 22 years, Denise has one daughter, two stepsons and four grandchildren. Along with an eclectic nature, interests such as gardening, reading, golf, close friendships and enormous amounts of quality time with grandchildren keep Denise busy.
In May 2000, after the loss of her son-in-law Darryl, who was a passenger in a vehicle driven by an impaired driver, Denise became a founding member of the MADD Calgary Chapter in 2001. Passionately involved with the mission of the Chapter since that time, she has held the positions of President, Vice-President, and Treasurer and currently sits as a Board Member. Denise's understanding for the Chapter's mission is exemplary and her levelheaded guidance and approach to the business of Chapter function; as well as her compassion for people show strong leadership abilities. In 2003 she was the recipient of the Western Region Award and the John G. Bates Award.
Denise believes that by working together, with the strength and commitment of the MADD Chapter volunteers and under the leadership of MADD Canada, we can continue to make positive changes in our communities and lessen the statistics attributed to impaired driving.
Listen to Denise’s story in her own words…
John Bates, Founder
John G. Bates was an editor/publisher of several transportation magazines with Maclean Hunter Publishing (now Rogers Media) for 25 years. John has been active in the anti-impaired driving movement since the early 1980's when he was a founding member of P.R.I. D.E. (People to Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere). He and others of that organization successfully negotiated with MADD to form MADD Canada. He became the first Chairperson of MADD Canada. He was recognized for his invaluable service to Canadian society when he was inducted into the Order of Canada in May, 1998.
MADD Canada has recognized John's commitment to stop impaired driving and to support victims of this violent crime with the Annual John G. Bates Volunteer of the Year Award.
Andrew Murie, Chief Executive Officer
Andrew Murie has been MADD Canada's Chief Executive Officer since September 1997. His responsibilities include managing the National Office and facilitating national programs and services to it's 70 plus chapters.
Andrew has done hundreds of presentations on Impaired driving to elected members of government, government staff, police enforcement officers, traffic safety organizations and other community based impaired driving organizations.
Andrew's career spans over 25 years within the not for profit sector at local, provincial and national levels. Prior to joining MADD Canada, Andrew worked for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and Big Brothers and Sisters of Canada.
Andrew has a Masters Degree of Management from McGill University, and his major paper was entitled "The Impact of the Alcohol Industry on the Drinking and Driving Movement in Canada". Andrew also has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from McMaster University and a Diploma in Recreation Leadership from Mohawk College.
Andrew currently serves as a community volunteer in the "Out of the Cold" shelter program. Andrew is married to Joan and they have two children, Alex and Stacey.