Christina MacPherson

Co-Chair

Tia grew up in the small town of Buckhams Bay West. Her hospital has always been the Queensway Carleton Hospital (QCH) as a patient, as a caregiver, as a volunteer and as a parent. QCH would become critical for Emergency Care for her and her father.

She joined PFAC in 2017, after experiencing many struggles in finding emergency care and treatment for her father, who would pass away shortly after. She brought with her a passion for improving patient and family healthcare and experiencing the very best care at QCH in her own mental health crisis.

Tia is the patient and family representative on the Emergency Department Unit Leadership Team, the Mental Health Group Leadership Team, and other strategic planning projects.

Being a part of this amazing PFAC group of diverse individuals with a multiplicity of experiences and knowledge has been an incredible journey for her. Each month these volunteers come together to improve patient care within QCH and our medical community. Thank you PFAC volunteers for all you do. Thank you to our QCH Physicians, Nurses and Allied health care teams for your empathy and commitment to our community. You are all appreciated.

Listening, engaging, and collaborating is the only way to move patients' and families' healtcare forward with accountability, innovation and respect.
As a current out-patient within the Mental Health Department, Tia is most excited for the new expansion and rebuild of the Mental Health Unit. The redevelopment includes additional inpatient beds and expanded outpatient mental health services. It is currently under construction with a tentative grand reopening in 2023.

Tia is grateful to be running a portrait photography business, working in business management, engaged in philanthropy, volunteering and spending time with her life partner and two amazing daughters in this wonderful city.

"Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect."

In memory of her beloved Father, Robert Alexander MacPherson (1948 - 2015)

Tom Moss

Co-Chair

Tom Moss has been associated with the Queensway Carleton Hospital (QCH) since 2008 motivated by bringing forward the patients & family views and expectations together with the community’s views and expectations to QCH’s medical and administrative leadership teams.

Currently Tom is the Co-Chair of QCH’s Patient-Family Advisory Council (PFAC) and has been a PFAC member for over 3-years. As a sitting PFAC member on a number of QCH committees, Tom focuses on having the patient-family voice heard in the planning, delivery and evaluation of health care services. Prior to being a member of PFAC, Tom sat on QCH’s Board of Directors for 9-years. Over the last 2-years, Tom has been invited to sit on several external city and provincial committees with the specific focus of bringing the patient-family views & hopes into the mix for consideration.

Nowadays Tom is a semi-retired executive with over 35 years experience in the telecommunications, software and government sectors, both in Canada and the United States. He currently sits on two corporate boards and is an active advisory member on two of the City of Ottawa’s community council committees and to two young companies.

On a personal note, Tom has been married to his wife Brenda for over 50 years and has for a number of years become her principal caregiver. They have an only son who operates an oil patch business in Alberta and formally was a professional hockey player having played both in the NHL and in Russia.

Shawn Batten

Member

Born and raised in Ottawa, Shawn is a creative enthusiast who is passionate about anything he puts his time and energy into, including his community. QCH represents a lot to him - exemplary care for patients and families, leading initiatives that positively impact the medical community, and a local organization that leads with heart. He is proud to be part of the Birthing unit as a patient rep as well as PFAC and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience based on a variety of ways his family has accessed care at the hospital; birthing unit, day surgery, ER, ICU and Ace Units. He is a dedicated Dad and is the Sailing Activities Manager at the Nepean Sailing Club and also volunteers in a variety of activities his kids enjoy including the Kanata Theatre! Shawn, his wife and their four kids raise backyard chickens and love family pizza night!

Rita Cuccia

Member

Rita lives in Ottawa’s West End and the Queensway Hospital has been her family’s “go to” hospital. Ranging from imaging appointments, to Emergency Room visits and most recently for her mom’s joint replacement and stay in Rehabilitation Unit. She is currently employed at Algonquin College as a Financial Analyst, and is also a member of Diversity and Inclusion Circle and AODA Committee. She has volunteered in various community groups and brings lived experience in being a family caregiver. Rita is looking forward to creating a positive, sustainable change at QCH.

Rebecca Hickey

Member

Rebecca is a communications strategist with a passion for making our community a better place. She is currently the Director, Communications and Marketing at Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation. Prior to joining Ingenium, Rebecca held communications leadership roles at NAV CANADA and Hydro Ottawa. Her experience includes government relations, issues management, digital communications and marketing.

Since 2018, Rebecca has served on the Board of Directors at Ottawa Community Housing, the largest social housing provider in the nation's capital.

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Journalism and Communications, and an MBA from Carleton University. Rebecca is married and has two daughters, both born at the Queensway Carleton Hospital.

Katayoun Houshmand

Member

Her experience with PFAC started in 2016, when she became the main caregiver for her father in his journey to recover from cancer.

She has a medical background and practiced as a physician in different countries for years, which was very eye- opening for her. She was able to apply some of the knowledge she had learned during these difficult times of terminal illness of a loved one, which involved reflecting and valuing the insights and inputs of a family caregiver and how that could provide relief for the whole family and potentially reflect on improving the health care outcome for other patients in the community. One can see the hospital through a different lens, when your loved one is the one being the patient.

Unfortunately, her father’s journey through cancer recovery stopped after 18 months. The difficulties they experienced while navigating through his terminal months, were valuable as his care-partner and allowed her to provide input, which was always valued and heard with great respect by the leadership team and policy makers at Queensway Carleton hospital. While still being a patient and caregiver for her family members at QCH, she had the privilege of sitting on different committees and bringing her personal perspective, whenever this could help to create more positive experiences for patients and families.

She strongly believes that QCH has a welcoming culture, based on the diversity of the community and through this culture, even little changes can make a big difference to improve patients healthcare outcome. 

Marsha Maslove

Member

Marsha Maslove is grateful to have the opportunity to serve on the Patient and Family Advisory Committee in order to support the work of the group. She has been interested in joining PFAC for many years but until last year did not have the personal or family experience to qualify. A knee replacement at QCH changed all that.

Marsha has spent her entire thirty three year career in the delivery of health care information, the majority of the time at the Canadian Dental Association. The last seven years, prior to retirement, Marsha was the medical librarian at the Queensway Carleton Hospital and considers this the highlight of her professional career. Her focus during that period was to provide healthcare related information to QCH’s Physicians, Nursing Staff and Senior Administration. In addition to online searching, she also maintained the hospitals periodical and textbook collections.

Marsha has an ongoing passion for the delivery of health care related information and looks forward to participating in new and ongoing committees and assisting in any way possible to enhance the patient and family experience at QCH. Marsha is currently on a Covid related hiatus from her volunteer position in the Emergency Department at Queensway Carleton Hospital.

Donna Neil

Member

Donna became involved in the Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) after her then-94-year-old Mom spent over four months in the Queensway Carleton Hospital (QCH) recovering from a fractured femur. With the help of her brother and sister, Donna was her Mom’s primary caregiver and, while the stay wasn’t without its challenges, she found that the hospital’s care team listened and welcomed her as a willing participant in her Mom’s care. The overall experience made Donna feel she wanted to help out at QCH, so she looked to PFAC given it is an opportunity to be constructively engaged in the hospital’s ongoing efforts to improve the patient experience.

Donna has always lived in Ottawa’s west end, has a business background in the banking and media sectors, and received her B.A. from Trent University. 

Marg O'Brien

Member

Marg O’Brien has been a volunteer with the Queensway Carleton Hospital since 2002 motivated by a strong desire to give back to the community. Marg had a 35-year career working in the RCMP which included more than 10 years in Information Technology as a Certified Network Administrator and was responsible for programmers and interface group dedicated to the RCMP’s administrative systems. After retiring in 2007, Marg was able to increase her support for the hospital by taking on additional and varied roles in a volunteer capacity.

Marg became part of the PFAC Team in 2017 as a result of hospitalization experiences involving a family member. Marg has participated in clinical and administrative interviews and has been a PFAC representative on the Emergency Department Unit Leadership Team.

Marg has two daughters and three grandchildren and has been seen on the golf course!

Michael Shaughnessy

Member

While selling greeting cards door to door (at the ripe ol’ age of 11), Mike learned early on that influence and persuasion, could serve as the catalyst towards helping others become “the best they can be.” That passion continues to fuel his lifelong journey as an award-winning Entrepreneur, Professor, Keynote Speaker, and Corporate Consultant.

Mike has held a number of Executive Consulting positions within a wide variety of industries including Funeral/Cemetery, Education, Security, Healthcare, Telecom, Banking and Investment Firms. He was a proud recipient of the Telfer School of Management Career Educators Honours Roll, Professor in the Education Marketing Dept. at Algonquin College, and was a Charter Certification Instructor for the Canadian Professional Sales Association. While he feels fortunate to have received awards for both his Professional, and Community Service efforts, Mike is perhaps most proud when he sees his own clients “pay forward” from their own success towards the continued benefit of others.

As a fourth generation Ottawa son, brother, father, and (yikes!!!) grandfather, he feels blessed to have been born and raised in such an amazing place. Mike sincerely hopes his participation on the QCH Patient Advisory Council will continue his own efforts to pay forward in order to help the QCH provide their amazing services for many years to come.

Dr. Georgios Tsimiklis, MD.CM. FRCPC

Member

Dr. Tsimiklis graduated from McGill University for both his undergraduate and medical school education before attending The University of Toronto for Internal Medicine. After completing his fellowship for cardiology at Queen’s University, he joined the team at The Queensway Carleton Hospital where he has been practicing cardiology since 2010. Dr. Tsimiklis believes that equal access to safe and quality care is vital and he is pleased to be a member of the Patient Family Advisory Council; an innovative team that strives to improve the delivery of care to the members in our community.

Elizabeth Venditti

Member

Elizabeth Venditti was inspired to join the Queensway Carleton Hospital (QCH) Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) through her role and experiences as caregiver to her father. QCH was an important part of her father’s life.

In July 2020, QCH provided emergency care in diagnosing her father with multiple pulmonary embolisms and possible cancer. QCH quickly referred him to the thrombosis and oncology clinics at The Ottawa Hospital – General Campus. Her Dad’s diagnostic imaging and other tests were carried out at QCH. When her Dad needed radiation treatment, in 2021, he also went to the Irving Greenberg Cancer Centre. In previous years, her Dad was also a surgical day unit patient and an inpatient.

Elizabeth has always been fascinated with medicine, health and health care. She uses her experiences, as a caregiver, to help enhance patient and family care at QCH. Having been born and living in the National Capital Region her entire life, Elizabeth is keen to apply her skills, knowledge and network to a leadership role in the local community.

Elizabeth holds a Graduate Diploma in Public Policy and Program Evaluation (Carleton University); Master of Public Health, Specialization in Indigenous and Northern Health (Lakehead University) as well as an Honours Bachelor of Social Sciences, Specialization in Sociology (University of Ottawa).

In honour of my father, Vincenzo Venditti (1951-2021).

Colleen Zubchuck

Member

Colleen has been a member of PFAC for 5 years. She became aware of, and interested in PFAC as a result of a serious medical condition for which she was treated at the Queensway Carleton Hospital.

Her background is in Finance and Information Technology, with a focus on healthcare IT. Colleen spear headed healthcare related projects across Canada and the US. She held an executive level position at an Ottawa based consulting firm which was ultimately acquired by Telus Corporation. She then worked as an independent consultant for 15 years before retiring.

Through PFAC Colleen has been involved in many activities/committees at the QCH, most notably the redesign of the patient discharge process, the strategic planning process and the implementation of the Patient Portal. She has enjoyed working with a group of talented individuals all of whom are motivated by a desire to improve the patient experience.

Colleen is an Ottawa native. She is married to her husband Don of 29 years and enjoys gardening and golf. She is also an animal lover and along with Don has been a Golden Retriever parent for many years.