Our Team

Ashoka Canada Team

Elisha Muskat
Executive Director, Ashoka Canada

Prior to joining Ashoka, Elisha worked primarily in youth development, building and running programs in Toronto, New York City and Syracuse. She has launched youth conflict-resolution and peer-mediation programs and developed a green business advisory for small business owners. Elisha has also run after-school and summer programs for elementary- and middle-school students and worked in the field of health education, bringing knowledge and skills to teenagers in public schools across the US. Elisha has an MBA from Schulich School of Business at York University and a BA in Psychology from McGill University. 

Elisha has been with Ashoka since 2009, when she started as a volunteer while completing her MBA in non-profit management, sustainable business and strategy. She quickly became absorbed in the systemic change approach at the core of Ashoka's work to create a world of Everyone A Changemaker. She has worked with the Canada team, the USA team, Changemakers and global committees and across many functional areas.  While at Ashoka, Elisha has developed new systems for managing Venture pipelines, financial models, and launched Canada's first country-led Changemakers competition.

Claudia De Simone
Program Director Venture, Fellowship and University Partnerships, Ashoka Canada

Claudia leads the selection process of Ashoka Fellows in Canada, Fellowship support, as well as the development of the Ashoka University Program. She began at Ashoka in March 2008, after completing her thesis on environmental education initiatives with women community health workers in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In Brazil, and later here in Canada, Claudia co-designed and facilitated environmental workshops with community groups, the designs and partnerships of which are still vibrant today. Prior to joining Ashoka, Claudia was a Senior Writer at CBC.ca, a Researcher at York University and a Teacher with Equitas’ International Human Rights Training Program.

Claudia holds a Masters degree in Environmental Studies, with a diploma in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from York University, and a Bachelor degree of Journalism from Ryerson University.

Alexandra Audet
Executive and Program Assistant, Ashoka Canada

Alex joined the Ashoka Canada team in 2010 as a world traveler with a diverse range of experiences. Throughout her academic studies, she became increasingly interested in the field of International Sport for Development, as well as ethical practices in international development. During her studies, she researched the link between corporate social responsibility and sponsorship of United Nations led international sport for development and peace programs. At the same time, Alex collaborated on developing a pilot research project in a remote village in Tanzania to implement use of solar panels and create an alternative for kerosene lamps. The initiative was community and participatory-action based, aimed at stimulating rural development, capacity building, and poverty alleviation.

Alex’s work experience includes facilitating physical education for at-risk youth at inner-city schools in Vancouver, working with adolescent girls to promote positive self-esteem and providing education on prevalent health issues. Alex has a Bachelor degree in Human Kinetics from the University of British Columbia.

Jean-Christophe Cuttaz
Venture and Fellowship, Ashoka Canada

Jean-Christophe joined the Ashoka team through his job at Commodus, which was founded by Ashoka Fellow Lucie Chagnon in Montreal. He currently splits his time between the two organizations. At Commodus, he works as the Coordinator of Communications and builds work-life balance, wellness and health strategies for employees. At Ashoka, he is the Quebec representative for the Venture and Fellowship programs.

Jean-Christopher’s experience in a social enterprise allows him to use his communication skills for the promotion of work-life balance services as rewards for employees in the province of Québec. He contributed to several research projects on work-life balance services and has presented at conferences in France on behalf of Commodus. Before immigrating to Canada from France, he used to work in the communications and advertising sector. He also volunteered for Amnesty International France while he was a student. Jean-Christophe has a Masters degree in International Relations from La Sorbonne University, and a Bachelor degree in English from University Paris 7.

Carolyn Doyle
Changemakers Project Manager, Ashoka Canada

Carolyn joins Ashoka from the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto, where she just completed her Masters in Public Policy. Carolyn’s work experience has primarily been with membership-based governance structures in Southern Africa and Canada. Carolyn coordinated and launched the website of the Public Good Initiative, connecting Master of Public Policy student volunteers with non-profit organizations in pro-bono policy consulting projects. In Botswana, she was the first Xtending Hope Partnership Representative where she assisted partner organizations with human resource, coordinated volunteer placements, developed narrative and financial reports for the project, and facilitated community leadership development. She also expanded a peer support program for People Living with HIV and AIDS from Botswana to Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. Carolyn has a history of a strong commitment to social justice issues and looks forward to working with Ashoka to bring about systemic change through innovation.

Johl Ringuette
National Aboriginal Community Mobilizer, Ashoka Canada / Ashoka's Changemakers 

Johl is First Nations Ojibwe Algonquin, descendant from Nippissing and Maniwaki Nations. He is Anishnawbe Ojibwe from north of North Bay, Ontario. He is from the Mink Clan which signifies his Traditional role as helper and protector to his community. Residing in Toronto for more than two decades. His first passion is revitalizing the palette/knowledge/history/ceremony and optimal health in culinary arts through providing Traditional Aboriginal cuisine with his businesses, Ringfire Productions and Nishdish Marketeria and Catering.  He has worked in the Toronto Aboriginal community for over ten years in social justice, specializing in the Gladue principles and extensive advocacy for Aboriginal people in conflict with the law and the impact of intergenerational oppression from the Residential School legacy.  

Yeleka Barrett
Executive and Program Assistant, Ashoka Canada

Yeleka joins Ashoka from Scotiabank with a BA in Kinesiology from the University of Western Ontario, and a BASc in Public Health from Ryerson University.  During her time at Ryerson University Yeleka volunteered with Youth Challenge International spending 2 months in Zanzibar, Tanzania working with youth and local community based organizations (CBO's) on, youth employment, peer education and HIV/AIDS awareness and stigma reduction.  in 2008, Yeleka was awarded the Environment Canada & Ryerson University  Outstanding 4th Year Thesis Award for her research paper she entitled: A Qualitative Review of Attitudes, Myths, and Beliefs of Zanzibar Youth with Regards to HIV/AIDS and Gender: Implications for an Educational Manual.  After graduating from Ryerson, Yeleka completed a CIDA internship as a Capacity Building Officer in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania  with the: Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development, and the charity organization: Canadian Support of Rural African Initiatives (CSRAI). In this role, Yeleka worked with a wide variety of CBOs helping them to effectively combat the effects of HIV/AIDS through business training, project implementation and outreach. Today, she continues to volunteer on the board of CSRAI as acting Project Committee Chair.  Yeleka is passionate about community health development and is enthusiastic about working with Ashoka to help drive the vision of: Everyone A Change Maker. 

Changemakers in Canada

Christopher Heald
Technology Director, Ashoka’s Changemakers

After more than fifteen years of providing technical service and support to a wide range of citizen sector organizations, Chris finds himself continually impressed by the people he meets , how open they are to change, and how willing they are to adopt (and adapt!) new technologies to advance their goals. Having made a lifelong occupation of helping to develop and deploy new technology in organizations, he saw Ashoka as the perfect fit and joined the organization in February 2008. As a part of a trend-setting organization with globe-spanning and wide-ranging impact, Chris is always looking forward to the unique opportunities and challenges that lie ahead with Changemakers and Ashoka. Chris is now in charge of the Changemakers technology team, which is responsible for the health and growth of the Changemakers.com line of products. His job is to make sure that Ashoka's Everyone a Changemaker vision is built into the foundation of every single Changemakers product. Chris holds a BA in Journalism & Political Science from Concordia University.

Board Members

Bill Drayton (President)
CEO, Ashoka

Bill Drayton is a social entrepreneur. As a student at Harvard, Oxford and Yale, he founded a number of organizations including Harvard’s Ashoka Table, an interdisciplinary weekly forum in the social sciences, and the Yale Legislative Services to help legislatures across the Northeast.

In 1970, Bill graduated from Yale Law School and began his career at McKinsey and Company in New York. From 1977 to 1981, Mr. Drayton served as Assistant Administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he launched emissions trading (the basis of Kyoto) among other reforms. He has also taught at Stanford Law School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

In 1981, while working part-time at McKinsey and Company in New York, he launched both Ashoka and Save EPA and its successor, Environmental Safety. After being elected a MacArthur Fellow in 1984, he was able to devote himself fully to his career as a social entrepreneur.

Bill is currently the Chair & Chief Executive Officer of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. He is also Chair of Youth Venture, Community Greens, and Get America Working! and is a trustee of the Black Rock Forest. He is an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College at Oxford University and also of Pennsylvania Law School, and Polytechnic University gave him an Honorary Doctor of Laws. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The National Academy of Public Administration, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Yale’s School of Management gave him its Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence and the Law School its Award of Merit.

Bill has won numerous awards and honors throughout his career. In 2005, he was selected one of America’s Best Leaders by US News & World Report and Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership. Other recognitions include The National Public Service Award from the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Society for Public Administration, the Public Service Achievement Award from Common Cause, the Vanguard Award for Achievements in Nonprofit Law from the American Bar Association, the Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation, the 2007 Goi Peace Award (Japan), and the Civil Society Development Award from the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations. In 2008, he was recognized by Tufts University’s Institute for Global Leadership with the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, and Americans for Informed Democracy’s Social Innovator in Smart Investing Award. In 2009, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Yale University.

William Carter (Vice President)
Everyone a Changemaker Leader, Ashoka Africa

Bill Carter was one of Ashoka's founding Board members. After stepping down from the Board of Directors in February 2009, Bill joined Ashoka as it’s Everyone a Changemaker Leader for Africa. In this role he guides Ashoka's overall strategy for our programming in Africa. Before working fulltime with Ashoka, Bill was the CEO of an independent power company, the Long Lake Energy Corporation, that developed hydroelectric, cogeneration and other types of power generation which was sold to public utilities in the US and Canada. He also played a leading role in developing Ashoka's Indonesia program starting in 1981. He spent a number of years in McKinsey & Company's international practice and served at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he was responsible for wide-ranging management reforms.

Mary Gordon (Secretary)
Founder/President, Roots of Empathy

Mary Gordon was the first female Canadian Ashoka Fellow. She is recognized internationally as an educator, best-selling author, child advocate and parenting expert who has created programs informed by the power of empathy. In 1996, she founded Roots of Empathy, which now offers programs in Canada, New Zealand, the United States, the Isle of Man, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Mary is also the founder of Canada's first and largest school-based Parenting and Family Literacy Centres, which she initiated in 1981. They have become public policy in Ontario, with hundreds of schools involved. They have been used as a best practice model internationally. The Nelson Mandela Children's Foundation brought Ms. Gordon to South Africa to share her parenting expertise.

Mary speaks and consults to governments, educational organizations, and public institutions. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards recognizing her contribution to innovation in education and international social entrepreneurship, including the 2009 Public Education Advocacy Award from the Canadian Teachers' Federation. Her 2005 Canadian bestseller, Roots of Empathy: Changing the World Child by Child, was ranked as one of the Top 100 Books of the Year by the Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper. She was a recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal for her outstanding commitment to education.

Mary has presented on early childhood development to conferences organized by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Health Organization, and the United States government, among others. She worked with the World Health Organization's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health's Knowledge Network for Early Childhood Development for their report Total Environment Assessment Model for Early Childhood Development.

In 2005, Mary founded the Seeds of Empathy program.

Mary has twice had dialogues with His Holiness the Dalai Lama: First in 2006, at the Vancouver Dialogues, and then in 2008, in Seattle, Washington, as part of the Seeds of Compassion event. The Dalai Lama expressed that programs like Roots of Empathy will build world peace.

In 2008, Roots of Empathy was one of three winners to win an international competition from Changemakers for programs that help youth at risk.

Also in 2008, National Chief Phil Fontaine and the Assembly of First Nations passed a resolution to support Roots of Empathy and Seeds of Empathy in First Nations schools across Canada. Mary is committed to making her program available to Aboriginal communities.

She is a member of the Executive Board of Directors of Ashoka and a member of the Order of Canada.

In September 2010, Mary was invited to speak about emotional literacy at the United Nations International Literacy Day Celebration in New York. This marked the first time that emotional literacy was included in the event.

Edward J. Waitzer (Treasurer)
Senior Partner, Stikeman Elliott

Ed Waitzer is the Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance and is Director of the Hennick Centre for Business and Law at Osgoode Hall and the Schulich School of Business at York University. He was Chair of Stikeman Elliott from 1999 to 2006 and is a senior partner whose practice has focused on complex business transactions. He also advises on a range of public policy and governance matters. He has served (1993-1996) as Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission (and of the Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions) and (until 1981) as Vice-President of The Toronto Stock Exchange. He has written and spoken extensively on a variety of legal and public policy issues and serves or has served as director of a number of corporations, foundations, community organizations, editorial boards and advisory groups. Ed is the former Falconbridge Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School and earned his LL.B. (1976) and LL.M. (1981) from the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. Called to the Ontario (1978) and the New York (1985) Bars.