Board of Directors
Heather Galt:
Heather Galt is the Vice President, Marketing at P&P Optica in Waterloo, Ontario and a growth coach at Communitech. In her coaching work, Heather focuses her energy on helping early-stage companies led by women, especially those from under-represented groups.
Heather has an extensive background in product and service go-to-market, B2B and channel marketing, and internationalization in small, rapidly scaling, and large companies. Prior to P&P Optica and Communitech, Heather worked at companies like Kik Interactive, Research in Motion (BlackBerry) and two other rapidly growing companies. Heather has her MBA in Marketing and Strategy from York University.
Outside of work, Heather is also the Chair of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Board and an active community volunteer. Heather has two teenagers and a house full of animals (currently 3 cats, 1 dog, and two fosters). She enjoys reading (especially historical fiction), loves to host and cook huge meals for friends and family, and always seems to be organizing something.
Heather is an ENFJ (THe Protagonist) and her five Strengthsfinder Strengths are Activator, Arranger, Achiever, Learner, Belief. That means she can very quickly see how the big picture fits together, and loves to make stuff happen!
Kelly Martin
As a lifelong resident of Chatham-Kent, Kelly was blessed with a 40 year career at Union Gas (Enbridge Gas). The last half of her career was spent in leadership with a focus on business and project team success. She enjoyed building high performing teams as well as mentoring colleagues. Change Management became her passion, leading multi million dollar customer facing projects, leveraging her certifications in Project Management, Process Redesign, Facilitation and Change Management.
Union Gas has always been very active and committed to our community, supporting initiatives financially as well as enabling employees the opportunity to volunteer. Kelly appreciated and took pleasure in the many ways she was able to participate in giving back to CK over her career.
As a wife of 36 yrs and mother of two grown sons, volunteering has always been an important part of Kelly and her family’s lives. In February 2021, she retired from Enbridge and turned a greater focus bringing her corporate experience and passion for people together, as a founding and active volunteer with Come Together CK. It is an honour and privilege to be part of a group that cares so deeply for the people of Chatham Kent, listening to the needs of our citizens and taking action to serve. She looks forward to contributing as a Board Member, as well as a volunteer, to the positive future of our community.
Kelly’s Mantra – “Be the Change you wish to see in the World” – Gandhi.
Joshua Lane
Josh was born and raised in Chatham-Kent and now makes Lakeshore his home with his wife Melissa and two young children. He is currently an owner of a financial planning and wealth management firm based in Windsor, ON. Josh is passionate about community and sharing his knowledge of the financial world with families and businesses across southwestern Ontario and beyond. Volunteering his time whenever possible, Josh was named as winner of a National Philanthropy award in 2021 for his role in originating the successful June 27th Miracle fundraiser in Essex County. In his spare time Josh enjoys staying active with his family, playing and watching sports, travelling and spending time with friends.
Fannie Vavoulis
Fannie loves Chatham-Kent. From a very young age she has volunteered in the community in many different roles. Her passion is with her community. Currently she is the Director of Communications at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA). Prior to that she was the Physician Recruiter for CKHA/Chatham-Kent where she had the privilege to recruit close to 100 new physicians to the place she loves – her home community. In this role, she was able to spend more time giving back to CK and expanding her knowledge about her community.
As a founding Director of ComeTogetheCK she works closely on Board Governance, day to day initiatives and visiting the Community Shop with her dog – Juno – who has been captured in many photos and delivering bags of Famous Amos cookies for the volunteers. Other organizations Fannie has been involved with include Rotary Club of Chatham (Past Chair 2015/16), Chatham-Kent Public Library Board, Chatham-Kent Chamber of Commerce, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Chatham-Kent Hospice and many others. In her downtime, you can find Fannie with her nose in a book or travelling to see her favourite bands whenever they are touring (especially Coldplay).
Dr. J. Andrew Lanz-O’Brien
Dr. Lanz-O’Brien is a family physician at the Blenheim branch of the Chatham-Kent Family Health Team and the Medical Director of Technology and Transformation at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance. He is also an adjunct professor at Western University.
Andrew has a background in statistical and actuarial mathematics and software development. Prior to his medical education at Schulich in London, he worked with partners at London Health Sciences to design software for the analysis of cancer treatments, and was previously a two-time NSERC undergraduate research award recipient for his work on imaging processing software. In his down time, he enjoys bike riding, 3D printing, working on small software projects, and learning new skills.
Andrew is interested in new methods of management, process optimization, community building, and self-actualization. Having grown up in Blenheim, and returning there to raise a family of his own, he feels a duty to see Chatham-Kent rise to its fullest potential. Come Together CK is on the cutting edge of a paradigm shift in how organizations may operate in the future, laser-focused on forward-thinking approaches to getting things done. As an early adopter, Andrew feels called to this innovative organization. He believes in the philosophy and the purpose of Come Together CK, having seen first-hand not only the good it has done thus far in our community, but also the way it has done it.
Brent Wilken – Exective Director
Brent’s greatest gift is seeing humans as humans. It really is as simple as that.
Brent has always had a deep yearning for something more when feeling the disenfranchisement of himself and those around him in the typical dominance hierarchy. Due to his mental health, behaviour and unconventional work habits, he’s highly motivated him to find new ways to create more connections within communities). Alongside many other extraordinary people, Brent has helped ComeTogetherCK embrace more open, purposeful, soulful and productive ways so individuals and communities can thrive. Some of skills include helping people & organizations discover their purpose and ways to unleash it. Brent strives to help people tell their stories, guides them to face the humility to follow the purpose and the ability to build systems through this lens.
Previously, Brent tried to innovate inclusion through small business ownership, sales, and marketing. He earned a Bachelor’s Honours Degree in Social Psychology and a Bachelor’s of Education from The University of Windsor. During the pandemic, the community of Chatham-Kent coming together to perform a miracle in the May 16th Miracle inspired Brent to reprioritize his professional goals and focus on his community work. Following the May 16th Miracle, “The GIFT” continued to teach him the power of community and further called him to build a grass roots non-profit organization to help facilitate people connecting to people.
You may see Brent being a “Tornado” around town interviewing and learning about people through their stories, but he works hard at maintaining a simple life by relaxing with loved ones or connecting with nature.