Nadine Sookermany
Nadine Sookermany’s (she/her) commitment to HIV comes from her early work in urban settings as a community health and harm reduction worker in her hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. She worked in community health and STBBI prevention at the Women’s Health Clinic (WHC), most recently as their Executive Director. As a queer cis-woman navigating the diagnoses and loss of many of her HIV+ friends and colleagues in a resource-scarce environment, she came face to face with HIV activism.
This is also where she began her work toward reconciliation as settler in a city where the systemic injustices towards Indigenous people could not be ignored. During her time with WHC, she worked with Indigenous elders to develop a Grandmothers’ Council to support the governance of the agency. Early in her career, her activism expanded beyond the prairies of Turtle Island to her work globally in Turkey, Israel, Italy, Taiwan and France – eventually landing her in Toronto, where she has resided for just over 25 years.
As an educator and community leader, Nadine brings over two decades of senior leadership in the non-profit, community health and HIV sectors specializing in community and social services, public health, equity, inclusion and accessibility. Before joining the OHTN, she was the Executive Director of Fife House – the largest provider of supportive housing to people living with HIV/AIDS in the country for over four years. At Fife House, she worked with people living with HIV and other community members to establish its first Community Advisory Committee (CAC) on Truth and Reconciliation, and supported the development of the Confronting Anti-Black Racism (ABR) Committee.
Across the HIV sector, Nadine has been a Steering Committee member of the Toronto HIV/AIDS Network (THN), a member of OHTN’s Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Advisory Committee (DIEAC), and most recently, involved in the Toronto to Zero (TtZ) led by OHTN and Toronto Public Health. In the healthcare realm, Nadine was the Co-Chair of the Health Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Working Group with the Downtown East Toronto Ontario Health Team (DETOHT), member of the Health Equity Committee of the Mid-West Ontario Health Team (MWTOHT) and engaged in the Toronto Region Anti-Racism Framework with Ontario Health. She has held Board roles with the Canadian Association of Community Health Centers (CACHC), Manitoba Health Coalition and Manitoba Association of Community Health (MACH). In the housing sector, she was a Steering Committee member of the Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness (TAEH) and Chair of their Anti-Oppression and Equity Working Group, as well as invited to join the City of Toronto’s Shelter and Housing Advisory Committee (SHAC). In addition, she sits on various task forces and advisory committees focusing on HIV, housing, homelessness, gender, mental health and substance use.
Nadine holds subject matter expertise in Intersectional Queer, Disability and Reproductive Justice frameworks with work and research experience specializing in housing, gender-based analysis (GBA+), education (both institutional and community-based), reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, harm reduction, mental health and community literacy which makes her incredibly passionate about community-based approaches to health and harm reduction, anti-oppression and social justice – a passion that has guided her work as a community leader for over 30 years.