Louella Mathias has more than 25 years of experience in the public, not-for-profit and post-secondary sectors.
Currently Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Options Community Services, Louella is a strategic leader with a proven track record of building and leading effective cross-functional, multi-business teams, managing change while driving and implementing strategic and operational initiatives. Her expertise is in enterprise risk management, project management, business process redesign, and stakeholder engagement.
Louella began her career at the City of Toronto, working on both, housing, and income assistance portfolios. After moving to BC, she worked on funding and program evaluations at the United Way of the Lower Mainland; managed policy and evaluation for the Canadian Cancer Society BC and Yukon; and worked in leadership roles at the BC Public Service and Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Louella now owns her own consulting practice offering a wide range of services from strengthening board governance, to building risk management capability and conducting program and project evaluations.
Louella has a long history of volunteering and is committed to giving back to the communities in which she lives. Louella has chaired a women’s services non-profit in Ontario that doubled revenue and expanded services during her tenure there. She volunteered at the United Way of Greater Toronto, chairing a panel that determined grants to shelters in the City of Toronto. She was appointed by Order-in-Council to represent York Region Funding group at the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Since arriving In BC, Louella has been vice-president of a small community cultural association; worked on expanding volunteerism through the Volunteer Organizations Consortium of British Columbia (no longer operational); and now is board Vice-Chair at Options Community Services.
Louella holds a master’s degree in public policy, a bachelors (honours) in psychology, a graduate diploma in public relations and corporate communications, and certificates in Canadian Risk Management (CRM) and in board governance. She has presented at public sector and post-secondary sector conferences, and published works on topics including food security, corporate social responsibility, and policy intervention to promote the wine industry.
Louella was elected to the Board Voice board in September 2020.