Meet Our Board
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Debbie Miles-Senior
FOUNDER & CEO
Debbie Miles- Senior, has a broad range of professional and lived experiences with over 30 years of practice working with families, children, and youth. Mrs. Miles-Senior is a parent, a grandparent, and the principal owner of a well-established supervised access centre, and the founder and Director of Durham Family Cultural Centre.
Mrs. Miles-Senior’s passion for this work is reinforced by her desire to address the importance of anti-racism and anti-oppressive practices within organizations for the best outcomes for the community and families it serves. She feels at her best when walking along with families while celebrating, supporting, and navigating to reach the best outcomes.
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Carol Wade
CO-CHAIR
Since the very beginning, Dr. Wade has been a board member and co-chair of the Durham Family and Cultural Center.
Dr. Wade has extensive experience working within the child welfare sector and breadth of knowledge in clinical practice focusing on equity deserving people, self-reflexivity practice, and clinical supervision. Dr. Wade is a lecturer at several universities and a contributor to many webinars and seminars. She is passionate about centering the well-being of young people and their families and has been recognized for her contribution to training for the Ontario Youth Sector on Centering Black Youth Wellbeing.
Dr. Wade's Ph.D. dissertation was on understanding the impact of historical trauma on current-day parenting. Her focus is on cultivating practices and policies that disrupt inequitable practices to create the best outcomes for young people and families. Dr. Wade feels that it is a privilege to be on the Durham Family and Cultural Centre Board and is grateful that she gets to share in the organization's vision of providing a space for social and culturally specific programming for empowering lives.
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Audrey Spence
DFCC Board Member
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Ella Neverson
Ella has been a DFCC board member since 2019. She has extensive experience with social and community services for over 15 years.
Ella is interested in making a difference in the community and supporting the building of programs and services that provide Black and other diverse individuals and families with relevant programming and support. Ella believes this is what Durham Family & Cultural Centre provides and she is happy to be involved in such an organization.
Ella is a parent of a recent university graduate and enjoys being in nature, spending time with family and friends, reading and watching anything science fiction-themed, and completing home renovations.
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Tery Johnson
Tery Johnson is a retired professor from Seneca College and his tenure with the Board began in January 2022. He brings his Masters of Education and more than 25 years of adult teaching and learning experience to the Board.
As an educator, Tery worked for many years with young people, mentoring hundreds of students to shape their goals and ambitions, and creating ways to accomplish or continue their professional pathways. In his role as a Director, Tery is committed to making a difference in the Durham racialized and black communities by helping research, define and implement strategies that achieve the objectives of DFCC.
Born in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, father of two sons, and a grandfather to a grandson. Tery is passionate about his role as a working member of the Board because he is helping create the direction of the Centre, as well as actively building the pillars that support the strategic initiatives and ongoing growth of DFCC in Durham and beyond.
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Tala Lumbu
Tala Lumbu is an award-winning Afrikan Spoken Word Artist and Social Justice Activist. She began writing stories at the age of 6 and went on to write speeches during elementary school. She was awarded the Town of Ajax Library Short Story Contest in 2015 and a scholarship from the Congress of Black Women of Canada in 2019. In her own words; Poetry and Spoken Word are powerful art forms that facilitate genuine human connection and are capable of captivating the soul and positioning it in a state of reflection.
Ms. Lumbu is extremely passionate about social justice advocacy of minority communities and as the Youth Board Member with the Side By Side Family Centre Durham Family & Cultural Centre and Member of Durham Regional Police Youth Advisory Committee, she is truly committed to contributing to a diverse and inclusive environment.
During her high school career, she was heavily involved in groups and clubs that were catered against discrimination of any kind and creatively used her platform as president of her high school spoken word team to advocate for anti-racism and mental health. Ms. Lumbu is also an aspiring health care professional studying Neuroscience and Health Studies at the University of Toronto.