Dianne Ledingham
Facilitator
Dianne Ledingham has worked in the political field for many years first as a constituency assistant and then executive assistant to a Member of Parliament and former Prime Minister. She has volunteered on federal, provincial and civic campaigns for the last 25 years as well as serving on federal and provincial riding executives. She also was elected and served as a Vancouver Park Board Commissioner. An interest in multiculturalism and conflict resolution was pursued by serving as chair of the City of Vancouver’s Cultural Diversity Committee and becoming a mediator through the B.C. Justice Institute. Her most recent volunteer activities have been as a Board of Director of the Christian non profit microfinance organization, Opportunity International, a fund raiser for Prison Fellowship Canada and Chairperson of Save the UBC Farm Community group.
Jack O’Halloran
Facilitator
Jack O’Halloran is a Senior Operations Executive and Leader with a significant record of achievement in the areas of strategic planning, brand development, operations management, and management development.
For the past year Jack has been working on developing the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Canada as National Director. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Pacific Region of the Canadian Bible Society as Vice President, and serves as a MBA Mentor at Trinity Western University.
Jack is married to his wife Anne and has 2 children Zachary 12 and Emma 10. The family resides in Tssawwassen BC.
Herb Reesor
Facilitator
Herb Reeor spent 33 years working with IBM Canada in the Customer Service Division, 25 years of which he was in staff and senior management. In 1987, he and his wife agreed to trade money for time by taking an early retirement from IBM so that he could be a part of the informal Christian network for business and professional people working in Downtown Vancouver, and also to encourage “Community” where he lives on the “4000 block of 29th Ave.”
For 47 years he was married to Verna Reesor, who had gone to be with the Lord on October 4th 1999. They have three children, eight grandchildren. As a friend of Jesus, he wants to offer His friendship to others, and to run an “Import/Export Business,” importing despair and exporting hope.
Jonathan Bird
Facilitator
Jonathan Bird is the executive director for City Gate Leadership Forum, an associate ministry of City In Focus. City Gate informs, equips and coordinates organizations and leaders for the spiritual and social renewal of metro Vancouver. He is also president of the newly formed C.E.D.A.R.S. Group, a sister nonprofit to City Gate, which aims to leverage market forces into a self-sustaining ecosystem for social housing, social lending, and social business.
Jonathan lives in east Vancouver with his wife and three young children who appear to be nuclear-powered and two of whom are twins.
BCSF Alumni and Leadership Team: Adrian (AJ) Pau
During my third year at the Sauder School of Business in UBC, I had the chance to get involved with a small prayer group that was just starting up. The group was a great encouragement during our crunch years, and also where I first learned about the BC Student Forum. Intrigued by the concept and opportunity of connecting with Christian professionals, I took my friend up on her nomination, and attended my first Forum in 2006.
Inspiration was instant, and quickly I felt engaged and encouraged.
It was a turning point in how I looked at my degree and how it can be more than “what everyone else did with it.” To see the work of God in and for these professionals’ lives was something I had never seen before, especially how unashamed they were in their honest professing of faith. For the next five years, I would return to the Forum in different capacities and leave each time with different insights. The event is truly a blessing, and one that continues to be so. Many students need to hear about it so that they too can benefit from as well as take the opportunity to contribute to it. Currently, I work as an accountant in the property management field and daily put into use the attitudes I gained from the BC Student Forum.
My thanks and blessings to this ministry! –AJ Pau
BCSF Alumni: Alex Cheong
Faith and Workplace
I started attending the BC Student Forum in 2005 as a commerce student at UBC. I’m currently helping public junior mining companies with their regulatory compliance and am fulfilling my work experience requirements to become a designated chartered accountant.
My experience at the past student forums has given me insight and motivation to live out my faith in a challenging work environment. I find that at times, when faced with a difficult situation at the workplace, I would look back to certain conversations at the Forum and draw from them to help me deal with the particular situation. –Alex Cheong
Ron Reed
Panelist of the BC Student Forum
Ron Reed (MFA Acting, CalArts) is the Artistic Director of Pacific Theatre, which he founded in 1984. Ron has written twenty plays which have received over fifty productions, including BOOK OF THE DRAGON (Chalmers Canadian Play Award), TENT MEETING (Sterling and Dora Award nominee) and REFUGE OF LIES (Off-Broadway, 2008). Ron will perform his own one-person adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL this December. Nominated five times for Vancouver’s Jessie Richardson Award as an actor (COTTON PATCH GOSPEL, GOD’S MAN IN TEXAS, SHADOWLANDS, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, MOURNING DOVE), he has been nominated for Canada’s Siminovitch Prize in Theatre and the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts. Ron taught acting at TWU for 22 years, and occasionally lectures at Regent College. Ron lives in Richmond with his wife Carole and their two daughters, Thea and Katie, and is an active blogger (oblations.blogspot.com / soulfoodvancouver.blogspot.com / soulfoodmovies.blogspot.com).
Sharon Smith
Panelist of the BC Student Forum
Dr. Sharon Smith has spent much of her professional career working as an occupational therapist in community mental health settings in South Africa. She has her masters in theology and her PhD in rehabilitation sciences. Her research explored the meaning of spirituality for people living with a mental illness diagnosis. She has always been passionate about working with people who live with mental illness, facilitating their integration into spiritual communities. This passion became more of a life theme as she journeyed with her late husband through his depression and eventual suicide. She now works for Vancouver Community Mental Health services where she assists mental health professionals to integrate spirituality into mental health care. She also enjoys working with spiritual communities to make space for people living with mental health diagnoses.