Lunchtime Dialogue – Ratna Omidvar, Executive Director, Maytree Foundation

Poverty and Newcomers – Complex Problems, Simple Solutions

Ratna Omidvar is the Executive Director of Maytree. Ratna also serves as a director of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, and is a member of the board of the Tamarack Institute. She was the first executive director of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council and is its founding chair. In 2003, Ontario’s Premier-designate Dalton McGuinty appointed Ratna to the Transition Advisory Board. In 2004 Prime Minister Paul Martin appointed Ratna to the External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities. Ratna is a Fellow of Centennial College, and received an honorary diploma from George Brown College in 2006. Also in 2006, Ratna was appointed to the Order of Ontario.