Board Members

AJ and his wife Holly, along with their three beautiful children, are members of Northview Community church in Mission BC. AJ graduated from MEI secondary school in Abbotsford and then attended Columbia Bible College in the Missions program. While at MEI, AJ and his wife had the opportunity to travel to Haiti on a high school mission trip. As a result, he decided to spend 10 months teaching English there from 2003-2004.   

AJ’s time in Haiti stretched him outside of his comfort zone and created an opportunity to grow in his faith and as a person. As a result, Heart to Heart Children’s home has a special place in his heart. Currently, AJ is a construction worker and runs Athletes in Action basketball gym in Mission for Kindergarten – Grade 4 students. AJ’s role on the board is to manage communications with our team in Haiti and his ability to speak Haitian Creole is a huge asset.

Janelle grew up in a strong Christian family on a dairy farm where she developed strong work ethic by taking care of various jobs and responsibilities on the farm. Through these experiences she learned the value of hard work and the joys of working with animals.  Janelle has been involved in the church community for several years as youth leader and women’s bible study leader. Janelle also enjoys exploring the world through travelling. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and two master’s degrees: Masters in Public Health and Tropical Medicine and European Masters in Disaster medicine. Janelle currently has a full-time position at the University of the Fraser Valley as an Associate Professor in the Bachelors of Science in Nursing program.

Janelle has had a heart for Haiti since she was eight years old as a result of an influential teacher who was a missionary in Haiti. Since then, Janelle has travelled to Haiti 8 times with church teams, on Trinity Western trips and more recently with the H2H medical team. Janelle’s role on the board is to manage communications and she also coordinates mission teams.

Emily is a Respiratory Therapist who has always had a heart for serving others. As the granddaughter of one of our founders, Claire Roberts, Emily grew up hearing stories of H2H Children’s Home and had the people of Haiti in her heart from a young age.

In 2008 Emily joined Claire on her first trip to Heart to Heart where she worked in the local hospital and provided education sessions to community members. It was this trip that confirmed she wanted to continue to work with H2H and carry-on Claire’s legacy. Emily is passionate in her role as President of the Board of Directors to enable the youth of Haiti to recognize their full potential and become future leaders.

Colleen is our longest-serving board member and has been volunteering for H2H for over 22 years! Colleen first joined the board after volunteering with her friend, and then-board member, Shawna Medley. Her first trip to Haiti was right after the 2010 earthquake, to physically carry down financial support as the banks were unable to send money to our team on the ground. She has since been down 3 more times and was elated to be able to take her family with her.

Colleen and her husband Wayne run a family blueberry farm in the Fraser Valley, and spend their free time with their children and two grandchildren. “What makes Haiti special to me? The people – they are my family”. As Board Treasurer, Colleen is responsible for financial

Albert became involved with H2H in 2002 along with his wife Jolaine, and made his first trip to Haiti in 2005. Only one year later Albert was already leading teams, playing an integral role in the operations in Haiti and has since been to H2H over 40 times! Albert has served on outreach crusades, door to door ministries and dental teams in Haiti, and has made several trips to the northern communities Bouva and Grande Savant. Albert was drawn to Haiti because of the people, he has grown to know, trust and love a lot of people in Haiti and is passionate about being a difference maker for those people.

His history of working in construction and being a successful business owner has been a great asset for planning and maintenance of the H2H compound. Albert leads construction projects and works closely with our Haitian leadership team on operations.