OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Sushma Narisetty
Board Chair

Sushma is a Professional Engineer and an Action Canada Fellow. She has a passion for volunteering and giving back to her community. Sushma regularly volunteers her time with several organizations. She mentors newcomers and female professionals to help advance their careers in STEM. As Director, Standards at Toronto Hydro, Sushma leads electrification efforts and provides oversight to construction standards, engineering policy, quality, compliance and maintenance planning functions.

Helen Moroz
Vice Chair 

Helen has had a lifelong passion for volunteering and she is excited to be a member of the Board of Volunteer Toronto to support and connect volunteers with organizations, creating strong and vibrant communities. Helen has an extensive background in policy, research, and stakeholder and government relations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She currently works with Digital ^ Shift as Chief Policy Officer. Helen holds a Ph.D. in Political Studies from Queen’s University.

Jenny Okonkwo
Treasurer

Jenny Okonkwo is a Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practitioner at Transform Consulting, where she helps leaders build inclusive workplace environments, through advisory, training, education, strategy review and program development. She has also leaned into her lived experience and leveraged her background as a CPA to create and launch a professional women's network, Black Female Accountants Network (BFAN).

Joanne McKiernan
Secretary

Joanne serves as Board Secretary and Executive Director of Volunteer Toronto, where she leads strategy and sector engagement. In this dual capacity, she works closely with fellow board members to ensure effective governance, clear communication, and thoughtful decision-making. She has also served as Board President of Community Development Halton, as a municipal committee member with the Halton Hills Active Easy Alliance, and is an Executive in Residence with Capacity Canada.

Kanta Wadhwan
Director

Kanta is a retired partner of Baker McKenzie, where she practiced international commercial and regulatory law. She has a passion for volunteering and continues to actively coach and mentor law students, newly called lawyers, and entrepreneurs. Kanta previously sat on the Board of New Circles, a community services organization providing clothing and skills training to immigrants and low income persons.                     

Vernis Cheung
Director

Vernis is a lawyer who practiced at a large national firm before joining a government agency as legal counsel and currently helps to implement the commercial framework to conduct and manage igaming within Ontario. Volunteering has been a big part of Vernis’ life for years and she is a Duke of Edinburgh Gold recipient. Since 2019, Vernis has volunteered at SickKids Hospital on a weekly basis.

Polina Kosareva
Director

Polina is a passionate public sector professional with a background in developing partnerships and building capacity across the government, not-for-profit, and philanthropic sectors. Some of Polina’s career highlights include designing and managing programs focused on enhancing employment opportunities for youth with disabilities. Polina was also a key driver in leading public consultations and developing content for a landmark Ministry of Education project, Project Inclusion, which cemented disability inclusion into the training curriculum for Canadian educators.

Tony Nguyen
Director

Tony is an experienced operational healthcare leader who has worked in the healthcare sector for over 20 years. Tony has worked with acute care and teaching hospitals in Mississauga and the greater Toronto area and is currently the Chief Operating Officer for a healthcare consulting firm. With strong business and financial acumen, combined with extensive human resources management experience, Tony is a strategic, mission-driven, collaborative and compassionate leader. His transformational leadership has empowered and enabled teams to exceed organizational missions and goals.

Aseem Bhatnagar
Director

Aseem Bhatnagar is the VP of Canadian Retail Risk Management, Cards & Personal Lending. In this position, Aseem, with his team, leads all aspects of Credit Risk for Canadian Unsecured Lending Portfolios. He has 25+ years of experience working across Banks in Asia, the US and Canada, currently with TD Bank for 13 years. Through exposure to the Corporate & Investment Bank at Citi, he has also had the benefit of studying Liquidity, Treasury and Market Risk, which have rounded off his Risk expertise.

Martin Casazza
Director

Martin brings over 20 years of senior management and executive experience across the financial services, IT, consulting, and telecommunications sectors in Canada and Latin America. He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering, now leading the Claims Operations team at Zurich Insurance in Canada, Martin moved to Toronto from Argentina in 2021. He also serves as an advisor to several technological startups, and is passionate about helping other newcomers settle in and thrive in Canada.

Horace Wright
Director

Horace joined the board of Volunteer Toronto in 2020. However, helping others is an intrinsic part of his nature, and he’s spent most of his adult life volunteering with a number of organizations, most notably Junior Achievement, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the Brampton Youth Soccer Club. Horace holds an undergrad in Economics, and an Executive MBA jointly from the Kellogg School of Management and the Schulich School of Business. Horace has held senior management positions in digital and business strategy, as well as a broad range of technology roles, at RBC, TD and currently at National Bank."