Board of Directors

Sasha Mullally, Chair, Fredericton

Sasha Mullally holds a doctorate in history from the University of Toronto, where she studied Canadian and American history with a specialization in the social history of medicine and health. Prior to joining the Faculty at the University of New Brunswick in 2009, she was Co-Director of the History of Medicine Program at the University of Alberta (2008–2009). Dr. Mullally teaches and supervises graduate students in the history of medicine and health care, Canadian social history, women’s history, the history of the Atlantic region and digital history. Her current research projects include the gendered professional and community roles of women physicians in rural and small town practices. As well as collaborating on other projects, she is examining the transnational history of physician migration in the second half of the twentieth century, looking “outward” from Canada.

Michael Rea, Past Chair, Toronto

Michael Rea earned a degree from the Ivey Business School in 1965 and a Chartered Accountant degree in 1968 while working at Price Waterhouse. A former Chair of the Canadian Magazine Publishers Association, Michael held a variety of roles at Key Publishers in Toronto, Including board member, shareholder, and Vice-President, Finance and Administration.

He served as a board member and Treasurer of the Nature Conservancy of Canada and when expansion at NCC led to the need for more management, was appointed Chief Operating Officer and later a Vice-President. Michael retired from NCC in 2009 and has volunteered there since then, lately as President of American Friends of Nature Conservancy Canada. Michael supports several environmental causes and is on the Heritage Committee of the Toronto Golf Club. In 2002, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for his work with Canadian Geographic Magazine. He grew up in Oakville and has lived in Toronto for 40 years with his wife Barbara. He has 2 adult sons and 3 grandchildren.

Bill Caulfeild-Browne, Business Executive and Corporate Director, Tobermory, Ontario

Bill Caulfeild-Browne has a degree in Modern History from the University of Exeter. He came to Canada in 1965, and built a career in international reinsurance. In addition to gaining insurance and business qualifications, he chaired the industry’s Research Council. He retired as Chief Operating Officer, US Life and Health, for the Swiss Reinsurance Group. He then served as Vice-Chair of the Scottish Reinsurance Company and as a director of the Owen Sound Transportation Company, an enterprise of the Province of Ontario.

With the Nature Conservancy of Canada he performed board roles in audit, investments and governance, culminating in the chairmanship from 2015–2017. He is a Director Emeritus of the Sources of Knowledge Forum and a member of Parks Canada’s Advisory Committee for the local National Parks.

An ardent naturalist and photographer, he has published two books, the latest celebrating Canada’s 150th year of Confederation. He and his wife live in Tobermory, Ontario and love to travel to all corners of this country. They have three children and five grandchildren.

Tim Cook , Historian, Ottawa

Dr. Tim Cook is a historian at the Canadian War Museum. He was the curator for the museum’s First World War permanent gallery, and he has curated numerous temporary, travelling and digital exhibitions. He is the author of eleven books and they have won the C.P. Stacey Prize for Military History (twice), the Ottawa Book Award (twice), the RBC Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, and the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize (twice). Vimy: The Battle and the Legend (2017) was an award-winning book and a number one national best-seller. In 2018 Cook published The Secret History of Soldiers: How Canadians Survived the Great War. In 2012, Dr. Cook was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for his contributions to Canadian history and in 2013 he received the Governor General’s History Award (The Pierre Berton Award). He is a frequent commentator in the media and he is a Member of the Order of Canada.

Magda Fahrni, Professor, Montréal

Magda Fahrni teaches women’s history, family history, and the history of twentieth-century Québec and Canada at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her book Household Politics: Montreal Families and Postwar Reconstruction (University of Toronto Press, 2005), was awarded the Clio-Québec Prize by the Canadian Historical Association in 2006. She is also the author of Of Kith and Kin: A History of Families in Canada (Oxford University Press, 2021) and the co-editor, with Robert Rutherdale, of Creating Postwar Canada: Community, Diversity, and Dissent (UBC Press, 2008) and, with Esyllt W. Jones, of Epidemic Encounters: Influenza, Society, and Culture in Canada, 1918–20 (UBC Press, 2012).

Dr. Fahrni is currently working on a new monograph on risk and accidents in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Montreal. She is a member of the Montreal History Group and edits the McGill-Queen’s University Press series Studies on the History of Quebec.

Edward S. Kennedy, President and CEO, The North West Company, Winnipeg

Edward Kennedy is President & CEO of The North West Company, having served in a number of senior management positions in both the U.S. and International divisions of the company as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer respectively. Edward is very proud of the heritage of his company and is a history enthusiast and longtime supporter of Canada’s History. He chaired the United Way campaign in Winnipeg, and through The North West Company is actively involved in a number of health and economic development initiatives to support Aboriginal communities in the North. Edward serves on several boards of non-profit organizations as well as being a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, the Associates of the Asper School of Business (Faculty of Management, University of Manitoba), and the Business Council of Manitoba.

Michèle Leduc, President, Creative Director and Strategist, ZIPCOM, Montreal

Michèle Leduc has contributed to the success and notoriety of a number of brands, both in Québec and Canada. Throughout her 25-year-strong career, Michèle has handled mandates for some of Montréal’s most renowned agencies. In 1984, she landed her first job with Vickers & Benson, then went on to work with Ogilvy & Mather, Chiat Day, Publicis and FCB. As a Copywriter, Creative Lead and finally Creative Director, she worked on various regional, national and international brands. Michèle founded her own agency, ZIP Communication, in 2000. An efficient strategist with a result-driven approach, she offers her clientele a highly diversified experience in communication and marketing, demonstrating a great capacity to exceed the expectations of her clients as well as to initiate relevant and effective solutions.

Bruce MacLellan, President & CEO, Proof, Inc., Toronto

Bruce MacLellan is a proud Canadian and entrepreneur. The Proof family of companies operate in five offices across North America with a team of over 200 people and provide communications and public affairs services to more than 100 active clients including corporations, foundations and governments. In 2016, Bruce founded an annual in-depth study of trust levels of Canadians in our society, institutions and leaders. The Proof CanTrust Index is made public and available for use at no cost by schools, businesses, government and individuals. As an active volunteer, Bruce has served as Chair of the National Board of the Nature Conservancy of Canada, and the Lake of Bays Heritage Foundation. He received the Vision Award in 2016 from the Ontario Land Trust Alliance for his work in using social media to promote conservation. He is the author of two local history books: Post Cards from Lake of Bays and Back Again at Lake of Bays.

Natasha Pashak, Calgary

Natasha Pashak has an MA in Art History from Concordia University and a BFA from the Alberta University of the Arts (formerly ACAD). She has served on a number of public and non-profit boards, including the Calgary Subdivision and Development Appeal Board, the AUArts Board of Governors, and the Contemporary Calgary Arts Society board. During her tenure as chair of the Governance and HR Committee at the Alberta University of the Arts, the institution transitioned from a college to a university and confirmed the reappointment of its first two-term president. Over the course of her time on the Contemporary Calgary board, the organization achieved numerous milestones, most notably opening in the Centennial Planetarium. She is a director of the Flanagan Foundation, a private charitable foundation. She grew up in Treaty 7 territory, where the Elbow and Bow rivers meet and where she lives with her partner and their son.

Carla Peck, Professor, Edmonton

Carla Peck is Professor of Social Studies Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta and is the Director of the Thinking Historically for Canada’s Future SSHRC Partnership Grant. She researches teachers’ and students’ understandings of democratic concepts, teachers’ and students’ historical understandings, and is particularly interested in the relationship between students’ ethnic identities and their understandings of history.

She has held several major research grants, has authored and co-authored numerous journal articles and book chapters, and has co-edited several books related to her research interests, including Teaching and Learning Difficult Histories in International Contexts: A Critical Sociocultural Approach, The Palgrave Handbook of Global Citizenship and Education, and Contemplating Historical Consciousness: Notes from the Field.

Carla regularly works with teachers at the provincial, national, and international level and serves as a consultant on numerous boards and advisory groups for history and civic organizations. Strongly committed to social justice education, Dr. Peck has always sought ways to engage students of all ages in discussions about how to make the world a more equitable and just place to live. She views a solid grounding in history and historical inquiry as foundational to these discussions. Before Dr. Peck found her way to academia, she was an elementary school teacher in New Brunswick.

Stephen Thomas, Chairman & Executive Creative Director, Stephen Thomas Ltd., Toronto

Stephen Thomas has been described as both the ‘Guru' and the 'Godfather' of Canadian direct response fundraising. Though he started off life as a historical geographer and a teacher, he has been a fundraiser for well over 30 years. Stephen's early career began with Oxfam Canada as Development Director, where he established their direct mail program as Canada's first modern and scientific use of the medium. In 1980, he founded Stephen Thomas Associates (now Stephen Thomas Limited), Canada's first direct response fundraising agency working exclusively in the not-for-profit sector. Over the years, Stephen has worked with thousands of charitable and not-for-profit organizations in Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He was Canadian Ambassador of the International Fundraising Conference (IFC) from 1993–2008, serving as Chair in 2004 and 2005. In 2012 Steve published 30 Letters that Changed the World.

As a resident and former businessman in the Beaches of Toronto, Stephen carries his belief of involvement and political activism to his own community where he has been a basketball coach for twenty-four years at Malvern C.I.

Joseph E. Martin, President Emeritus and Past Chair 1997–2001, Toronto

Following graduation from United College (now known as the University of Winnipeg) in 1959, with an honours Arts degree, Joseph E. Martin embarked on a varied and successful business career. He served as the Executive Assistant to the Honourable Duff Roblin, Premier of Manitoba. He completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program in 1983. He was a Partner in what is now Deloitte Consulting, serving as Partner in Charge of Canada and Chair of the Global Consulting Committee. He is now Director of Canadian Business History at the Rotman School of Management. Past president of the Manitoba Historical Society, Past Treasurer of the Ontario Historical Society, Mr. Martin joined the Board of Canada's National History Society in 1994, and served three consecutive terms, stepping down from the Board in June 2003. He is Founding President of the Canadian Business History Association.

Rolph Huband (1929–2016), Founding Publisher, Oakville

Former Vice-President and Secretary of Hudson's Bay Company, it was Rolph Huband's vision, initiative and leadership that established the History Society and for which he was named Founding Chair in recognition of his contributions. From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Huband held dual positions as Chairman of the Board of the History Society and Publisher of The Beaver, the publication with which he had been closely associated since 1960. He was responsible for the shift in focus from a magazine about the North to one of general Canadian history, which led to an increase in The Beaver's circulation and visibility. In August 2003, Mr. Huband was appointed to the Order of Canada.