Students Commission Board

Eric Costen works at Health Canada as Director, Mental Health and Addictions, First Nations and Inuit Health. He is a proud SC alumnus. He lives with his wife and four sons not far from the Gatineau hills in Aylmer, Quebec, where he can often be found on his bike.

 

 

Gaston (Gus) Croteau was one of the founders of the Students Commission in 1991. During the early years Gus was the organization's National Chairman, worked on fundraising, facilitating, bus driving and was always there to help out. He remembers with pride how a young SC delegate from Newfoundland, on returning as a facilitator to a later SC conference, shared how the SC had changed his life. Besides being one of SC's original adult allies Gus has also run his own business and volunteered in his own community. He describes his many activities:

"In the auto interior customization and restoration business for 37 years. Optimist with Optimist International, since 1976. Served as Distinguished President of my club The Optimist Club of St Clair Sarnia , was Lt. Governor of Zone 6 and moved on to become a Distinguished and Outstanding Governor of the SW Ontario district in 1989-90. I partnered with Stoney McCart and Paul Mills to form The Students Commission of Canada starting in 1990 with the planning of the first conference in 1991. I’m currently mostly retired but I run a small seasonal business." Though he describes himself as 90% retired he still sits on the SC Board of directors and continues his work with the Optimist club.

Stephanie Di Trapani (née Collins) works at Health Canada at the Natural Health Products Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch. She attended her first SC conference in 1998 and has been involved ever since! She's a proud Newfoundlander but happily resides in Ottawa with her husband Filippo. For fun Stephanie dances, spends time with friends and catches up her favourite blogs on interior design, community events, and cooking!

 

Peter MacLeod has worked with cutting-edge organizations in North America and Europe, including Fast Company magazine, Vancouver’s Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Britain’s Demos think tank and the Kaospilots, a Danish school for business design and social innovation. He now runs MASS LBP, a new kind of company that is re-inventing public consultation. A fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen’s University, he writes and speaks frequently about the citizen’s experience of the state, the importance of public imagination and the future of responsible government. In 2004 he spent several months traveling across Canada visiting almost 100 federal constituency offices as the basis for his doctoral studies at the London School of Economics. In 2006 he delivered the convocation address at the Alberta College of Art and Design. More recently he has advised Ontario’s Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform and worked with former Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson and John Saul to develop the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. He is the 2008 recipient of the Public Policy Forum’s prestigious Young Leaders Award.