About Us
Rev Dr. Darrell S.C. Peregrym, MA, D.Min, DTM
Chair
Darrell has served as the President for the Partners In Care Alliance for the past 10 years (2008-2018), and is currently Chairman of the Board.
Also an ordained minister with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, Darrell has served as a pastor since 1979, and as the lead Pastor of Hearts in Fellowship in Surrey, BC for the past 15 years, focusing primarily on the seniors demographic in Metro Vancouver, but also serving abroad.
In 2000, Darrell founded the Heart of The Nations Ministries to provide and facilitate leadership development in the ministry, business and government sectors globally, as well as providing practical humanitarian aid. Darrell has traveled, taught and ministered in over 40 countries to date, with invitations to many more.
Darrell is an Adjunct Professor and Faculty Advisor at Trinity Western University (Langley, BC, Canada) and George Fox University/Portland Seminary (Portland, OR, USA), and President of ICCL Seminary in Kiev, Ukraine. Darrell is also President of the Eusebia Rarama Foundation that provides leadership development and humanitarian aid in The Philippines
Darrell is also Founder and President of Integrity Etc Leadership (2005), a Leadership Company which has provided strategic Planning for organizations, and leadership consulting and coaching for executives across Canada and the USA.
Darrell has a Masters Degree in Servant Leadership, and a Doctoral Degree in Transformational Leadership. He has served on the boards of various non-profit and charitable organizations and Foundations over the past 40 years.
Albert Lo is President of Partners in Care Alliance (PICA), and has served as a Board member for more than ten years.
Guided by the principles of excellence, integrity, fairness, compassion, respect and tenacity, Albert Lo has been blessed with more than three decades of successes in many fields in the public and private sectors, ranging from real estate valuation and financing, television broadcasting, program production, international diplomacy, business development, communication, diversity management to ethno-cultural and race relations.
In the real estate arena, he was involved in many significant development and redevelopment projects in BC.
He played a pivotal role in obtaining a CRTC broadcasting license to launch CHNU—a 24/7 television station in BC. As a licensing requirement, he became their VP Corporate Affairs & Partnerships Development and Director of Programming Balance. His oversight ensured the broadest spectrum of differing views on public issues was aired, and cross-cultural cross-religious dialogue was supported, including an early Jewish-Palestinian public forum and a Christian-Jewish-Muslim dialogue series.
As consulting VP of the Office of International Diplomacy, Albert spearheaded successful initiatives that received the support and cooperation of senior business and government leaders in the Asia-Pacific region. He was also CEO of IFD Beneficence Corporation.
Albert was Chairman of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF), a federal Crown corporation purposed to help eliminate racism and racial discrimination in Canada. Under his leadership, many successful initiatives were launched to foster positive race relations across Canada. Many challenges were successfully overcome during his tenure, earning impeccable reports from Canada’s Auditor General, and lavish praises from the all-party Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts. Albert was first appointed by the Government of Canada in 2007, and was twice reappointed.
He was a facilitator at the 2009 St. Louis Conference on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research in Toronto. He was invited to the 2010 Roundtable on Racism and Discrimination advising the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism. He was a member of the Prime Minister’s delegation to China in 2012.
Among his various involvements in community service, he was an Advisor on Cultural Diversity to the Commanding Officer, BC RCMP from 2010 to 2017. He was a founding member and President of the Foundation for the Advancement of Christian Maturity from 1982 to 2016. He is a Board member of the Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University, BC & Alberta, and Canadian Magen David Adom’s Ambassador to the Christian community, among others.
Albert graduated from NSAC (Dalhousie Faculty of Agriculture), Nova Scotia, and University of Guelph, Ontario, with a degree in agriculture. He also took studies in other disciplines, and earned many professional credentials.
Albert received an Award for Excellence in Employment Equity in 1996 from CMHC—Canada’s national housing agency, having served as national President of the Advisory Group on Visible Minorities and their Regional Representative for BC & Yukon. He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for his contributions to the community and to Canada in 2002, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for helping to strengthen Canada’s relations in the Asia Pacific Region in 2012. In 2013, he received a Diversity Award for Leadership from Silvertrust Media, and was honored as one of Top 30 Visionaries in Diversity in 2014.
Thomas P.J. Crean (Tom)
Vice President
Tom Crean became President of Kearney Funeral Services Ltd. in 1978, which subsequently bought Columbia Chapel and Royal Oak, Woodlawn, S. Bowell and Sons in New Westminster, B.C. Tom and his family were honored for being the only founding member still in business when the BC Funeral Service Association celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 2012. In 2016, Tom sold his shares in the family firm to his brother Michael.
In October 2016 Tom acquired land in Surrey which he helped rezone into the first new cemetery in Metro Vancouver in 50 years. In cooperation with Partners In Care Alliance (PICA), partnerships were developed with the Orthodox, Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities, making affordability a key focus in one of the most expensive markets in North America. The new cemetery was opened in March 2018.
Tom has been involved in consumer advocacy and public education since the early days of his career. He was invited to give testimony to regulators in many jurisdictions including Ottawa, New York and Washington, D.C. He has also been invited to address many sustainable business groups and funeral associations, including the American Independent Business Alliance and the American Sustainable Business Council.
Tom’s leadership and passion led to a civic movement which saved Mountain View –City of Vancouver’s only cemetery, from privatization in 1996.
Tom was able to organize 4,000 independent funeral firms in the US, and successfully prevented the misdescriptive trademarking of the phrase “family funeral care” in the United States and Canada by a major conglomerate.
Despite impossible odds, Tom has succeeded in four of five campaigns against inadequate consumer protection of grieving families, with one still ongoing. As a result, Simon Fraser University’s faculty of Anthropology student Matthew Hayes made a film on Tom’s endeavors, which won Best Picture and Best Screenplay at the Annapolis Valley Film Festival. Aptly named after Tom’s all-time hero—Don Quixote, the film is called “Tom Quixote”, which can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/62996908
In addition to 45 years of funeral service experience, Tom also serves as a board member of a number of civic and professional organizations, including: Past-president of the Rotary Club of Vancouver, President of the Family Funeralhome Association and President of the Surrey Hospice Society, as well as Board Member of the B.C. Association for Media Education, Family Association for Media Education, Canadian Institute for Information and Privacy Studies, and Board of Governors of Catholic Pacific College.
Reverend Giulio Lorefice Gabeli
Director
Reverend Giulio Lorefice Gabeli serves as an Overseer of the Canadian Assemblies of God and an Advisor to a number of National Canadian Ministries. He is the Lead Pastor of Westwood Community Church, in Vancouver Canada, a multi-cultural congregation with a number of ethnic satellite works.
Rev. Gabeli is also the Executive Director of the Hope Vancouver Network, the Executive Director of the Association of Christian Ministries of Vancouver and the Chair of the Voices Together Movement, and he was the Executive Leader for the Festival of Hope in Vancouver in 2017.
Against the background of the age-old menace of anti-Semitism, Pastor Gabeli is leader of a Christians and Jews network dedicated to promoting understanding, friendship and cooperation.
Pastor Gabeli has also authored the book, “Grafted In, A Jewish Christian Perspective”, and is a frequent guest/ speaker on the Program ‘Inside Israel’, with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem Canada.
Jo-Ann Turner
Secretary
Jo-Ann is a graduate of the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Physical Education (Hon). After an introduction to Funeral Service in 1981, Jo-Ann began her apprenticeship in earnest by 1982 and was mentored and taught under the tutelage of Ellen Kearney-Crean, a well-respected licensed Funeral Director/Embalmer and owner of Kearney Funeral Services, Vancouver, a family-owned and operated firm since 1908.
During this time, Jo-Ann was introduced to bereavement services for grieving clients and was an integral part of the formation of a provincial non-profit association formally registered in 1988 known today as the BC Bereavement Helpline. She was also mentored and trained as a Bereavement Support Group Facilitator with COPES (Community of People Extending Support) and volunteered in this role from 1988 through 1998. When licensing of Funeral Directors was introduced to the province of BC in 1984, Jo-Ann was grandfathered along with her peers at Kearney Funeral Services and continued as an active Funeral Director, specializing in helping families with loss of young babies and children as well as with families in particularly difficult circumstances. She served in this capacity as well as administrative roles until her retirement in 2014.
While at Kearney’s, Jo-Ann followed in the footsteps of her mentor and became instrumental in coordinating bereavement workshops and conferences with internationally-renowned speakers and community networking fairs. During her career, she served on various non-profit boards and community organizations including Richmond Grief Recovery (1986-1993); the Rotary Women’s Association of Vancouver (1992-present); the Lower Mainland Grief Recovery Society (2002 -2014); and the Serra Club of Vancouver (1996-2012). Her longest volunteer commitment was with the BC Bereavement Helpline serving in many positions including President over a 28-year period from 1986 to 2014.
Because of her extensive background and networking in the bereavement field, Jo-Ann was invited to join a community networking project sponsored by the University of BC which brought community healthcare partners to offer insight for medical students training to be future physicians. She served on this volunteer board from 2004-2008.
Jo-Ann is the mother of three with her former husband who she also worked with for 33 years. She is currently working part-time in data entry and bookkeeping with her children in a new, family-owned cemetery business.
Semi-retired, she enjoys travelling but keeps up with her volunteering when at home through the CUDDLE program of Vancouver Coastal Health and the Brock House Society.
James Aikens
Director
An effective leader, entrepreneur, and strategic marketing professional, James Aikens has served as a senior executive with a number of successful corporations including many start-up companies. He was instrumental in developing many successful projects, rending valuable assistance to many enterprises with early stage financing, and taking many companies public.
James was the Founder of a premier Canadian tax consultancy. Having built up and maintained a client base of over 5,000, he sold the company 25 years later. He then became President at Leduc Tax Research Inc., a Canadian commodity tax practice, while also serving as Executive Vice President & COO at IFD Beneficence Corporation (IFDBC), a distributor of caskets and funeral care products. Concurrently he worked in conjunction with CIDA, BC Research Inc. and others, to develop Biorelieve, a proposed grower of botanicals in Cuba for the nutraceutical markets.
James now operates Inversiones 888 EIRL in the Dominican Republic, a company focused on agricultural and development projects, as well as construction, import and distribution throughout the West Indies.
James is a past Rotarian. His interests include literature, sustainable agriculture, education, elder care, and cycling. In addition to his longstanding involvement with FFA and PICA, he currently serves two charitable endeavours in the Dominican Republic, dedicated to serving the Haitian children in the areas of feeding, clothing and education.
Erin Sweeney
Director
Erin Sweeney has a wealth of experience in administration, management and teamwork. She was Unit Manager of “Love it or List it Vancouver” between 2013 and 2014.
Prior to the film project and for more than ten years, Erin worked with Senior Level Management and Council in the City of Richmond, British Columbia. She was involved in corporate strategic plan teams, programs and committees, as well as community relations, Community Engagement campaigns and major event planning, chaired the National Public Works Week Open House Committee in an acting capacity, facilitated department workshops, managed communication with city residents, implemented inter-divisional procedures, and liaised between the General Manager and managers of the Engineering & Public Works Committee.
Erin also stage managed for local theatres such as Theatre under the Stars, Metro Theatre and the Gateway Theatre for fifteen years.