Board of Directors

As a not-for-profit charity, ACE is governed by a Board of Directors. Our 13-member Board, the majority of whom are 55 or older, is composed of both community members and professionals who have experience that supports ACE’s governance and who have a shared interest in and commitment to the legal issues of older adults. Board members are elected by the ACE membership. The elections take place at the annual general meeting which is generally held on the fourth Tuesday of October.

Our Current Directors:

Irene Carriere, Chair

Retired from her full-time paid career, Irene continues her social justice work and has been active in the creation of affordable housing, food and refugee programs. Navigating the care of family members led to an increased interest in the protection of the rights of the elderly. A past chair of the Board, Irene is honoured to have the opportunity to rejoin ACE.

Saman Jaffery Ullmann, Vice-Chair

Saman is an Executive Trust Officer with TD Private Trust. She works closely with individuals, families, and foundations to assist with estate planning or estate/trust administration. Working exclusively with vulnerable and older clients, Saman is deeply committed to issues that impact this community. Prior to joining TD Private Trust, Saman was a practicing lawyer in the areas of estates, trusts, capacity, and fiduciary litigation. Saman lives in Toronto with her husband, two teenage boys, and a very active three-year-old.

Domenica Ozarko, Vice-Chair

Domenica is an experienced leader in public policy, regulatory and program management, with over 20 years’ experience working in the Ontario government including the Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care and Cabinet Office; leading various provincial legislative, regulatory, and program initiatives. For the past 8 years she has served in a range of positions at the Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority (RHRA) including overseeing governance, government relations and building collaborative stakeholder partnerships to support seniors. The RHRA is a regulator mandated by the government to protect and ensure the safety and well-being of seniors living in Ontario’s retirement homes under the Retirement Homes Act, 2010. Domenica is honoured to serve on the Board for ACE.

Matthew Furrow, Treasurer 

Matthew is a Toronto-based lawyer who practices exclusively in estate litigation including capacity, power of attorney, and guardianship disputes. Matthew has advocated for clients at all levels of court in Ontario. He began his practice at a large national law firm before developing a focus on estate litigation. He has written and presented extensively on estate, trust, and guardianship issues.

Dr. Carole A. Cohen, Secretary

Dr. Carole Cohen is a geriatric psychiatrist. She is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She is Clinical Director of the Community Psychiatric Services for the Elderly at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. This inter-professional team provides assessment and management of older adults with mental health and substance use problems (including dementia) in their place of residence (homes, retirement homes, and long-term care homes). She has been active in inter-agency collaborative care and planning in North Toronto for decades. She has been involved with planning related to Behavioural Supports Ontario locally and provincially since the inception of the program. Dr Cohen is a consultant to the Capacity Assessment Office of the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario. She teaches at the University of Toronto medical school and supervises psychiatry residents during their geriatrics rotation.

Lyndsay O’Callaghan

Lyndsay is retired after running a conveyancing business for thirty years. She became interested in the concerns of vulnerable seniors after dealing with an elder abuse issue twenty years ago. This is her third tenure on the ACE board.

Mark Handelman

Mark was called to the Ontario Bar in 1978 and holds an MHSc in Bioethics from the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics. Mark was first appointed to the Consent and Capacity Board in 1998 and served a ten-year term, for 8 years of which he was a Vice Chair and Senior Lawyer Member. He was reappointed to the Board in 2019, served another 5 years and has now returned to private practice, including frequent appearances before the Board. He was a part time Member of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal from 2008 to 2018 and in 2022 was appointed to the Council of The College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists, where he served on the Discipline Committee for 3 years. From 2008 to 2019 and again since September 2024, Mr. Handelman practiced and practices elder law and health care law. His articles on consent and capacity law, mental health law, end of life decision-making and Powers of Attorney have appeared in the popular press as well as peer-reviewed medical and legal journals. He was a member of Pro Bono Ontario and volunteered at Casey House. Until 2002 Mr. Handelman lived and practiced law in London, Ontario, where he also served as President of The Better Business Bureau, President of the London Chamber of Commerce, Director of The Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the National Council of Better Business Bureaux, The London Club and of Congregation or Shalom. He wrote some 300 restaurant reviews and food articles for The London Free Press.

Melissa Elmaleh

Melissa is an Associate Lawyer at Kimel Law Group practicing in estate, trust, and capacity litigation. She holds a Juris Doctor degree from Osgoode Hall Law School with a specialization in Litigation, Dispute Resolution, and the Administration of Justice. She was a recipient of Osgoode’s Legal and Literary Society’s Graduating Student Award for Exceptional Leadership. Melissa is lead member of the Teaching Team for the Lawyer as Negotiator course at Osgoode Hall Law School. She serves as the Co-Chair of the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto’s Young Practitioners Committee, the Vice Chair of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) Toronto, and is also a Coach for the Law Society of Ontario’s Coach and Advisor Network. Melissa is a Member of the Advocates’ Society Estate Litigation Practice Group, and an Affiliate Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP.) Melissa also sits on executive committees including STEP Toronto’s Membership Committee, and the Baycrest Foundation’s Professional Advisory Committee. Melissa holds a Master of Arts from York University, and an Honors Specialization Bachelor of Arts from Western University.

Jan Goddard

Jan received the 2020 Award of Excellence from the Ontario Bar Association’s Trusts and Estates Section. She is the founding partner of Goddard Gamage LLP in Toronto, which has been named six times as one of the top trusts and estates boutique law firms in Canada by Canadian Lawyer magazine. Jan is a frequent speaker at continuing professional development programs on elder law, capacity, guardianship, powers of attorney, substitute decision-making, and estate issues. Jan co-developed and was the co-director of Osgoode Professional Development’s Certificate in Elder Law from 2015 – 2017. She was a member of the advisory group to the Law Commission of Ontario’s landmark project on Legal Capacity, Decision-making and Guardianship. She is former counsel to the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee of Ontario. In 2015, 2017 and 2019 Jan co-chaired the bi-annual Canadian Elder Law Conference. She has been annually selected since 2009 by Best Lawyers as a leading practitioner, and was Best Lawyers 2020 Lawyer of the Year, Trusts and Estates (Toronto).

Lisa Manuel, Phd

Lisa is Director, Clinical Programs in a social service organization in Toronto where she has responsibility for a range of programs that offer mental health and gender-based counselling supports to a range of communities as well as case managements supports for children and adults living with a developmental disability. Lisa is the team leader of Toronto’s only Elder Abuse Consultation Team. This team met for the first time in December 2001 and has met continuously to this day. She is also the founder of Pat’s Place – Ontario’s first haven for older people experiencing abuse and authored FST’s Best Practice manual on abuse of older persons. Lisa has presented papers at local, national, and international conferences and has conducted training sessions for the general community on the topic of elder abuse in church basements, community organizations, local libraries, and private businesses.

Lindsay van Roosendaal

Lindsay is the Senior Director of Professional Development at the Ontario Bar Association (OBA), a membership organization representing close to 17,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers and law students from across the province. Lindsay was called to the Ontario bar in 2010 and practiced family law before joining the OBA in 2010. Since that time, she has focused exclusively on adult learning and education, developing professional development programs for lawyers across various legal areas including elder law, and trusts and estates law.

Kim Zarzour

A journalist with Torstar Media Group (Toronto Star and Metroland) for 30 years and published non-fiction author, Kim’s writing concentrates on social issues and concerns involving marginalized communities, health care and the elderly, winning multiple provincial, national and international newspaper awards. Many of her articles involved research and interviews with experts from Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and now – newly retired – she looks forward to working with the Centre in an advocacy/supportive role.

Philippa Geddie

Philippa is supervising counsel of the Disability, Health, and Income Security Division at Downtown Legal Services, the legal clinic operated by the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law. After her call to the bar in 2010, she served as counsel for the Children’s Lawyer before moving to private practice at litigation boutique Phillips Gill LLP as a Children’s Lawyer panel agent, representing numerous child clients in appeals of their commitment to secure treatment facilities. In 2011, she joined the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee, first as litigation counsel and then as client and investigations counsel. As counsel for the Public Guardian and Trustee, Philippa provided a wide range of legal services to Ontarians experiencing cognitive impairment and/or serious mental health issues, from representation in class actions to defence against fraud, misappropriation, and medical abuse. She joined Downtown Legal Services in 2022.