I love Ontario, food and drink, meeting people and having new experiences. Lucky for me, I have the best job in the world! In my role as Executive Director for OCTA, I have the distinct pleasure of crisscrossing the Province of Ontario connecting growers and producers to chefs and restaurateurs. As well as engaging Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO’s) with regional agricultural groups and economic developers. Since the fall of 2008, I have expanded the original 5 destinations invested in developing culinary tourism to over 25.

In my previous role with Taste the County™ – Prince Edward County’s DMO, I became passionate about agriculture, tourism, arts, culture and their interrelation. During my nine years with Taste the County™, I was instrumental in the development and management of tourism products including the award winning Taste Trail, annual TASTE! a celebration of regional cuisine, the Arts Trail, Countylicious and the buy-local program: Harvestin’ the County.

I designed and developed several courses for George Brown College’s cutting edge Culinary Tourism Management on-line program which launched in 2009. I am also on the Boards of the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation North America Committee, the Canadian Tourism Commissions Brand Experience Advisory Committee, the Terroir Hospitality Symposium Executive, the Greater Toronto and Area Agricultural Action Committee and Treasurer of Slow Food Canada.

Born and raised in Toronto, I spent my summers in Prince Edward County. I spent my grade 12 year of high school, sailing on a 156 foot tall ship to 20 countries in four and a half months (covering Europe and Africa) – an experience that rooted my passion for travel and adventure! I still splits my time between Toronto and Picton, and shares my adventures with my beautiful boys – Jack and Liam, and my life partner Andrew Mackenzie

Why I do what I do:

I am a firm believer in partnerships and the power of them. By working together across a variety of sectors we can build strong, healthy and sustainable communities!