Our Team
Naushaba Degani
Co-Lead Excellence through Quality Improvement Project, CMHA Ontario Division
Naushaba Degani joined CMHA Ontario on November 18th, 2019. She has worked in health system performance and evaluation for more than 20 years and has a PhD and an MHSc from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto as well as a BScH from Queen’s University (Cha Gheill!). She comes to us from Health Quality Ontario (now part of Ontario Health) where she worked as the Manager, Performance Measurement supporting public reporting, quality standards and measurement for quality improvement. In addition to strong skills in data and measurement, Naushaba has a background in harm reduction, evaluation and equity assessment.
Eleni Tsoutsias
Co-Lead Excellence through Quality Improvement Project, Addictions and Mental Health Ontario
Eleni joined Addictions and Mental Health Ontario (AMHO) and the E-QIP team as a Co-lead in November 2022. She brings with her extensive policy and program development experience, having worked across multiple sectors during her 15 years in Ontario Public Service. Eleni’s ministry experiences span the health care, social assistance, policy and community safety and environment sectors. During her time at the Treasury Board Secretariat, Eleni led complex and transformational health sector initiatives through the central agency, fiscal approvals process. Throughout her career, Eleni has led complex policy issues and managed relationships to drive consensus on strategic initiatives working with a wide range of stakeholders, including health sector partners.
Ash Koster
Program Manager, Excellence through Quality Improvement Project, CMHA Ontario Division
Ash joined the E-QIP team in December 2017 as Program Coordinator where she provided administrative and operational support to the team as well as social media engagement and knowledge exchange activities. In June 2019, Ash transitioned roles to Program Manager where she provides project management, operations and program planning support to the directors and team. As Program Manager, Ash is also primarily responsible for work plan development, knowledge exchange activities including newsletter and resource development, website maintenance, financial management, risk management and reporting. She also serves as conference co-lead and is currently overseeing the development of a French version of E-QIP’s online Foundations to QI (IDEAS) course. Ash has a keen interest in Quality improvement (QI) and is excited to see the increased focus on quality improvement and the use of data to improve outcomes for individuals accessing community mental health services as well as their families, caregivers and service providers.
Ash graduated from the University of Guelph with an honours degree in psychology and holds a certificate in human resources management from George Brown College as well as a Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI.) Ash lives in Mimico with her wife and two dogs, Kevin and Homer. In her free time she enjoys cooking and spending time outdoors.
Naveen R. Maqbool
Program Coordinator, Excellence through Quality Improvement Project, Addictions and Mental Health Ontario (AMHO)
Naveen recently joined the E-QIP team in August 2021 as a Program Coordinator where she provides operational, programmatic, and administrative support aimed at building QI capacity and culture within community mental health and addiction agencies in Ontario. In addition to supporting day to day activities, Naveen is also part of the evaluation work geared at ensuring that the E-QIP Project is delivering a high standard of services relevant to the sector and in line with the priorities laid out in the Roadmap to Wellness.
She has previously worked in the development sector abroad, gaining extensive field experience as a public health researcher focusing on developing, implementing, and evaluating impact through innovative, scalable, and sustainable interventions that support a strong QI culture. Her most recent projects abroad focused on the integration of mental health services with routine service delivery, and expansion of mental health service delivery through community-based care and health-related quality of life via a task-shifting model.
Naveen thrives in diverse, multi-disciplinary teams, cultivating relationships with stakeholders and collaborating with partner organizations. A proactive problem-solver, and critical thinker, she enjoys automating systems to create efficiencies in the workflow. Naveen has a graduate degree from the Master of Science program in Family and Child Psychology at the University of Chester, UK. She is currently engrossed in everything QI and aspires to become a domain expert one day.
E-QIP Coaches
Laura Daly-Trottier
QI and Data Coach
Laura Daly-Trottier, delivers Quality Improvement Coaching through the Excellence through Quality Improvement Project (E-QIP). Since October 2016 Laura has delivered coaching to member organizations in the Mental Health and Addictions sector throughout the province of Ontario to increase the capacity for Quality Improvement. Laura knows firsthand the importance of using a structured approach to Quality Improvement as well as recognizing that each initiative is unique with its own set of values and purpose.
Prior to working with E-QIP, Laura Daly-Trottier worked as a Quality Coordinator at CMHA Nipissing where her focus was to ensure that service standards were met as well as overseeing the development and maintenance of the agencies quality assurance and improvement systems, including the continual monitoring of the agency’s client data management system. Laura was responsible for coordinating and implementing staff orientation and training events and was a contributing member of the Governing Health and Safety Committee.
Laura served on the NE LHIN Implementation Team in 2016 for the Ontario Perception of Care Tool acting as the Agency Lead at CMHA Nipissing.
Laura thoroughly enjoys providing coaching supports through the offerings of E-QIP and is passionate about improving care in a meaningful way for service recipients, friends, families and service providers.
Abel Gebreyesus
QI and Data Coach
Abel Gebreyesus is a Data Coach for the Excellence through Quality Improvement Project (E-QIP) since the project’s first phase in October 2016. He worked with many mental health and community based organizations in coaching and facilitating their data needs related with the project. Additionally, he is also Data Management Coordinator (DMC) at TAIBU Community Health Centre since 2009; and was also involved from 2009 – 2011 at LAMP Community Health Centre; and from 2011-2013 in Flemingdon Health Centre – both in a DMC position.
Other than in CHC sector, Abel was also involved in Family Health Team (FHT) sector; and worked for four Peel Region FHTs as Quality Improvement Decision Support Specialist (QIDSS) in 2013-2016.
Abel also involved at different capacities, such as Project Manager for Nightingale on Demand Transition Project and Coordinator for Business Intelligence Reporting Tool coordinator in those organizations mentioned above. He also worked briefly for Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) as a Business Analyst. For many years, Abel contributed in different teams involving data, quality improvement, reporting and business Intelligence (BI) areas.
Abel holds a Masters of Health Informatics (MHI) from Dalhousie University; and he is Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (CLSSGB) professional.
Ian Masse
QI and Data Coach
Ian Masse joined as a Quality Improvement Coach for E-QIP and for CMHA Branches in August 2022. Ian has most recently worked in the Niagara Region where he has worked for more than 10 years in clinical services and supporting quality improvement. Ian’s clinical experience includes working in hospital settings as a crisis worker and community settings as a Crisis worker on a crisis outreach team, Outreach Social worker for an addiction team and as a therapist at a Community Health Centre. In the last five years, Ian has worked as a program manager at CMHA Niagara supporting an interdisciplinary team of 30-40 frontline staff supporting Case management, Support within Housing, Employment and Counselling and treatment programs. In addition to this work, Ian has supported QI projects at CMHA Niagara and has actively supported better collection and use of OCAN data. Ian has a Master of Social Work and in addition to his work at CMHA Niagara, Ian maintains a private counselling and psychotherapy practice as well as engaging in a number of volunteer activities in his community.
Ian is passionate about client services and supporting teams to help improve their care to clients and contribute to system wide improvements through Quality improvement.
Lori Derry
QI and Data Coach
Lori Derry is a Data coach for the Excellence through Quality Improvement Project (E-QIP). She joined the E-QIP team in October 2020 and brings over 20 years experience in the Community Mental Health and Addiction sector. Her previous roles have included Data Analyst, Decision Support Specialist and Manager of Program Administration. An avid learner, she is both Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and OMDP (Ontario Management Development Program) Leadership and Business Management Skills certified.
As a Data Coach for E-QIP, Lori is passionate in supporting the Community Mental Health and Addiction sector organizations use data to improve their programs and services for their clients.
Lucy Forman
QI and Data Coach
Lucy recently joined the EQIP team as a Quality and Data Coach and continues to work as Team Lead for CMHA Thames Valley Addiction & Mental Health Services. Her background working directly with clients, families, and community has given her a direct service lens to Quality Improvement. Lucy has served as Clinical Accreditation Project Lead as well as Quality and Client Safety Committee member and has incorporated Quality Improvement into her program development work. She has been practicing in the mental health and addictions field for 16+ years and has degrees in Social Work and Psychology as well as certificates in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and Addictions.
