At our Annual General Meeting this week, we said goodbye to Eric Ellis, who was our passionate board chair for five years, and we welcomed his successor, Lisa MacLean.
Eric Ellis joined our board six years ago after he retired from his job as a child psychologist in Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. Eric had just been on our board for a year when he was asked to step up as a board chair.
“It is unusual for someone to do that after just one year, but it speaks to the person Eric is that he rose to the occasion,” says executive director Janine Fernandes-Hayden. “Eric is a extremely loyal and conscientious leader. I’ve deeply appreciated his unwavering support – thorough, diligent, encouraging, and always there to back me up. We are very grateful to have had him as our chair for this long”.
Looking back on his career, Eric wished that there had been an organization like The Circle Education, he wrote in our Annual Report in 2024. As a former child psychologist in Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, he worked directly with children who had been neglected or physically and sexually abused. Additionally, he served as an expert witness for lawyers and child protection services, advocating for over 200 children and youth, participating in cases some reaching the Supreme Court.
“The hardest part of my job was not being able to reach all the kids who needed help. While I conducted one-on-one sessions with kids, their parents, foster families and group home staff, I couldn’t change the environment these kids were in. Sometimes I advised a teacher when a child had problems in school, but that was just one kid, in one class, in one school.”
That’s how he became attracted to the work The Circle Education does. “Our programs teach kids essential skills that would have benefited my young clients or helped prevent their situations from worsening. Our facilitators create a safe environment where kids learn how to regulate emotions, set boundaries, advocate for themselves, recognize bad situations and reach out for help. Basically, skills that help to deal with life.”
“The best thing about The Circle Education programs is that they happen in the schools, where kids spend their formative years and a third of their time until they graduate,” he continued. “While I saw one kid at a time, doing the best I could, the Circle Education programs reach kids in multiple school classes year after year. That creates immense potential for impact.”
