Alberta Association For Better Communities dba Centre for Wholeness & Well Being
Board of Directors
Centre For Wholeness & Well Being is operated by the Alberta Association For Better Communities, which in turn is governed by a Board of Directors. The Board of Directors focuses on long term strategic and governance issues only, at arm’s length from the leadership, management and daily operations of the Centre. It is comprised of alumni and community members.
Sue Snow, Co-Founder, Board Chair, CEO
Sue has worked in addictions and recovery for 14 years. She is a highly regarded educator with a B.A/B.Ed, a Certified Chemical Dependency Counsellor, Brain Story Certification, Compassionate Inquiry Counsellor and is a registered member of the Association of Counselling Therapy Alberta. She has incorporated her love of curiosity, teaching, counselling and neuro-rehabilitative studies along with her empathetic passion for self-growth and personal development to co-found and serve as Chair of the Centre for Wholeness & Well Being.
Research supports Sue's belief that wholeness and well being is a natural byproduct of a healing climate in which innovation, creativity and originality of the individual is supported and cherished.
Sue was driven to start the Centre for Wholeness & Well Bein when she saw the need for an alternative trauma and mental healing model that prioritizes health and wellness and that empowers members to “be the change” that they want to see in the world.
Ryan Snow, Co - Founder, Program Advisor to the Board
Ryan's mission is to empower clients to know themselves and to act in alignment with their values, principles, and truths; in essence, to find compassion for their situation and develop a sense of self love. His vision is to shift the context of recovery from coping with and managing addictions or mental health issues, to uncovering and healing the deepest source of addictions or mental health distress, resulting in the client becoming more self-realized. Read more about Ryan here:
Tyler Williscroft
Tyler Williscroft is a Professional Engineer with 20+ years spent in Oil & Gas. His focus has been working in and helping to build small companies, with a passion for developing teams and people. He has held various engineering and leadership roles in operations culminating in VP, Production in his former company. He transitioned to VP, Corporate services in the final year of the company’s existence to support several restructures and ultimately a corporate sale. This role gave him a unique perspective of the universal challenges shared by people of all disciplines and positions and the common struggles people seem to suffer with alone. It taught him the power of open and honest dialogue and in naming struggle. Since then, he has spent a great deal of time and effort digging into the root of the anxiety-driven burnouts he witnessed and suffered from personally. He has explored breath work, yoga, meditation, and other modalities as complements to the traditional psychotherapy and medication-driven systems that he leaned on for so long. Ultimately, he attended a week-long Iboga retreat where he was able to understand the root of his anxiety and begin his path to healing. He is now a strong advocate and supporter of integrative healing using an intelligent combination of modern, traditional and natural medicines for healing. His work with CFWWYYC is aimed at bringing these important tools to the corporate world to help people be happier, healthier, and more productive in their personal and professional lives. His hope is that open, honest sharing of struggles and successes will propel change in organizations, giving leaders and employees courage to alter unhealthy dynamics.
Tyler lives with his wife and two young children on their acreage West of Cochrane, AB and is the owner/operator of Ebb & Flow Rustic Bakery.
Brandie Sunley
As an award-winning boutique photographer focused on artistic portraiture and special event photography, Brandie Sunley loves being behind the camera.
Born in a small town in Southern Alberta, she grew up travelling North America in the back of a wood-paneled station wagon. Her unique experiences and daring personality sparked her passion for the arts early on, starting with creating outrageous paper dolls and later experimenting with mediums like oil painting, fabric sculpture, and more. Brandie often relied on photographs as inspiration for her artwork, so she began creating her own photographs to use as source material.
As life brings unexpected twists and turns, Brandie has come to awareness of well-being through tragic loss. The loss of loved ones and the desire to help others avoid similar losses has motivated Brandie to participate in groups such as Mom’s Stop the Harm and the Center for Wholeness and Wellbeing.
Brandie balances her time between her photography, substitute teaching, family and spending solitary time in the wilderness.
Sam Allison
Sam Allison is a student at the University of Calgary studying Civil Engineering. She plays Ringette for the Dino’s and serves as a coach for the Bowview Ringette Association. Sam is passionate about serving those in her community and is continuously looking for opportunities to make a lasting positive impact; building and supporting programs that build resiliency and capacity within at-risk communities.
Dr. Faraz Sachedina
Dr. Faraz Sachedina is the national director of Medical Operations at Harvest Medicine. Having done his medical training in Europe, the States and Canada, it has been a great experience being able to add a different perspective to the benefits of medical CBD cannabis to mental health and addictions. After being involved in research with the US fencing team, sports nutrition and traumatic brain injury, Faraz has switched gears to actively working on publications and key partnerships across Canada to increase the power of the data being released in an effort to increase information to further analyze how the response to these cannabinoids can be utilized. His passion for sports and rehab medicine along with mental health awareness has led him to research in the medical cannabis sector. Research that indicates there are major benefits in the addiction and mental health recovery side of medical cannabis CBD therapy.
Hillary Hassen
Hilary Hassen is a second year sociology student at Mount Royal University. She is passionate about social justice and environmental protection and has worked continuously in these sectors. After her degree, she is hoping to continue her work in the non profit sector helping social structures to better support the people they were made for. This will be her first experience being on a Board of Directors, and her first opportunity to write grants for a non profit, two opportunities that have already taught her immeasurable amounts. Being on the Board of Directors for Alberta Association for Better Communities dba Centre for Wholeness & Well Being, has opened numerous doors for her as a blossoming professional, and has allowed her to help others wherever, and however she can.
Liana Gilmour
As a fierce advocate for social and environmental change, Liana Gilmour is an experienced professional whose personal and professional passions cross paths where social reform begins. Liana is a promoter for advancing policy to better serve marginalized groups within her community. She hopes to blend her personal passion for serving the vulnerable, with her breadth of professional expertise. She brings an extensive resume in macro- level strategic planning, needs analysis, and resource allocation. She is an adept public speaker, a community advocate, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to participate on a board that will influence the social and political space for persons suffering from mental health and addiction.
Wanda Rowe
Executive Director at Lionsheart Wholeness Centre. Bio coming.