The painting, “Nature’s Garden”, was created by Mary and Brenda for our 2022 Art Together Show
Governance & Leadership
Get to know the dedicated volunteers who are leading L’Arche Greater Vancouver.
Board of Directors · L’Arche Greater Vancouver
The L’Arche Greater Vancouver Board of Directors governs the operations of our six homes and two community inclusion programs. This Board is also responsible for contracting with government that provides funding for the majority of operational needs.
Grant T. Smith
Director
FeiFei Peng
Community Leader/Executive Director (Non-Voting Member)
Thomas Lattimer
Director
Board of Directors · L’Arche Foundation of Greater Vancouver
The L’Arche Foundation of Greater Vancouver is dedicated to securing funds from individuals, grantors, corporate donations and other sources for the programs not covered by government, construction, property upgrades and other capital expenses.
Mary Boucher
Director
Thomas Lattimer
Director
FeiFei Peng
Community Leader/Executive Director (Non-Voting Member)
My 25+year experience working with people with diverse abilities stems from witnessing how my younger sister defied all doctors’ predictions after she worked with a variety of teachers and therapists. It was this experience that led me to become an Occupational Therapist.
My work involves visiting various housing models where people with developmental disabilities live and this inspired my vision for a new inclusive community model of housing.
Through research, I realized that my values and vision aligned with what is already being done at L’Arche. There were different instances that kept reminding me about L’Arche so I decided to dig deeper and investigate whether my talents and time would be an asset.
I bring five years experience with the BC Brain Injury Association Board of Directors, where I loved networking, developing policy and strategy, and generating innovative ideas. I am excited to see where this path will take me and how my talents will be used. I hope to help reinforce that ALL humans have diverse abilities AND something to contribute to humanity.
I am a lawyer in Vancouver, with a practice in criminal prosecutions. I joined the Boards of both L’Arche Greater Vancouver and the L’Arche Foundation of Greater Vancouver in August 2025. My first exposure to L’Arche was as a swim instructor in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, which was an incredible experience working with participants of all ages and abilities.
Now, several years later, I joined the Vancouver Board of Directors to offer my time and talents in order to ensure that the important sense of place, spirit, and community that L’Arche Greater Vancouver provides is continued and fostered. It is my sincere hope that I am able to make a difference in the lives of our core members, staff, and wider community, as we look forward to the next 50 years of nurturing the individual value and gifts of everyone at L’Arche Greater Vancouver.
From the time L’Arche became known in British Columbia, I have supported its vision. As a young teacher, I experienced the richness that a special needs student brought to the other students in a regular class as they learned empathy and the acceptance of differences.
As a teacher, principal and Director of Religious Education in the Vancouver Archdiocese, I facilitated workshops and retreats for teachers, administrators and parish leadership teams. Over the past 15 years I have been involved with L’Arche Vancouver because I would bring my autistic aunt to the afternoons of prayer and appreciated seeing how the L’Arche community welcomes and enriches all who come.
Now as a retiree, my experience with another non-profit board and my commitment to the L’Arche vision, spirituality, and contributions to society inspired me to serve as a board director.
In 2010, I started my journey with L’Arche as the Development Assistant, supporting fundraising events and initiatives. Every day, I was greeted by the friendliest staff and core members that would stop by the front office. Here, I learned the importance of community and empowering those in it. L’Arche also gave me the confidence and experience to support the next step of my journey.
I’ve been a proud member of the TELUS team for 9 years, working in a number of diverse roles within Customer Experience and Marketing. Currently I lead the Strategy & Program Office portfolio on the Local Content team – supporting aspiring filmmakers and content creators in BC and AB through grants and community broadcasting opportunities. At TELUS, I also serve as the National Chair of the Abilities Team Member Resource Group.
I’m so honoured to be part of the L’Arche family once again and I’m looking forward to giving back to the community.
I am a Commercial Banker at the Royal Bank of Canada, specializing in assisting diversified enterprises and entrepreneurs grow their businesses through strategic commercial banking solutions. I also serve on the Board of Directors of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada West.
I am passionate about affordable housing and believe L’Arche has an opportunity to continue leading the way in creating an accessible world for people of all abilities.
It is a pleasure to work with the Board to ensure that L’Arche has all that it needs to continue and expand its mission. This includes both housing and community inclusion programs in which people with and without disabilities can live, work, and gather. Mixed communities can address the affordability crisis in an inclusive manner, providing adequate housing for people of all abilities.
My involvement with L’Arche spans 30 years. I have held various positions from volunteer, live-in assistant, day program support staff, pastoral presence, retreat leader, Community Leader and Board Member/Chair.
I first became involved with L’Arche in 1988, working as a live-in assistant at L’Arche Homefires in Wolfeville, Nova Scotia. What started as a one-year opportunity became a 4½ year full-time vocation, extending to active involvement over three decades. I was ordained to Ministry in the United Church of Canada in 1997, serving on both the East and West Coasts. My participation in various L’Arche communities across Canada has brought the richness of relationship and many blessings into my life. I feel immediately at home when walking into any of our communities around the world.
As a teacher, vice principal and principal with the Vancouver School Board for 37 years, I had the opportunity to work closely with special needs students and their families and the staff members who supported their learning.
In 2014, one of my teachers who had been involved with L’Arche for 30 years – Sandra Kirkegaard – asked if I would accompany her class on a visit to L’Arche. I took her up on the offer and spent a wonderful morning watching her class interact with the people of L’Arche.
I was most impressed by this visit and by L’Arche’s mission and continue to beimpressed by the dedicated and caring staff who support the people with disabilities in our homes. And I’m looking forward to my next four years on the board as our new building project becomes a reality.
During my 45 years as a school teacher in the Burnaby district, I found great reward in volunteering my time both within and outside the education system. I established district-wide volleyball tournaments and track meets, while organizing outdoor education field trips for many years. I supported fundraising initiatives for the Burnaby Children’s Fund and Burnaby’s first Fine Arts Elementary School at Confederation Park School.
My wife Pat and I have four children. Our daughter Erin (40), who lives with a developmental disability, led us to become founding members of the Family Support Institute (FSI) and serve as Regional Resource Parents to this day. I served on the FSI Board of Directors for almost 20 years, as well as the Vela Microboard Association and Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network. Currently, I am a member of the board of Community Ventures in Port Moody.
Nate became aware of L’Arche through an associate and immediately felt a kinship to the ideals that L’Arche represented, such as providing safe environments that allow those who need help to succeed in life enjoy the same opportunities that most people take for granted. He is humbled to be a part of the L’Arche family and hopes he can learn, contribute and, most importantly, live up to the L’Arche values.
Nate was born in Vancouver but spent his childhood in India growing up in the city of Calcutta and later going to public school in Mussoorie. These experiences at such a young formative age defined his personal struggles and growth in his journey as an individual.
His journey as an entrepreneur started at age 20 and he has never looked back. He is currently a managing partner at Audiospace where he focuses on business development for the last 12 years. In 2016 he also began consulting for small and medium size businesses in Vancouver ranging from construction to hospitality and to media.
I arrived in Canada as an international student with plans to continue my studies in Business Administration. However, in 2005 I started volunteering at L’Arche which resulted in changing my life’s journey completely. I was welcomed into an incredible community that gave me a great sense of belonging. In the following 18 years in this beautiful community, I held various positions that gave me significant leadership experience. As interim Executive Director/Community Leader, I am dedicated to contributing my best to fulfill my responsibilities. I am excited about our new building and the opportunity to lead our community into a brighter future.
I am a retired social worker who worked in the tri-cities communities and Burnaby for many years. My first involvement with L’Arche was through my sister-in-law Linda who has a developmental disability. Linda lived her whole life with her parents and extended family.
Her parents were aging and the family was thinking that one of us would have to share our home with her. A worker from BACI (Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion) suggested to us that we look at L’Arche as a possibility for Linda. We did and decided to give it a try.
When Linda was moving into her new home at L’Arche I began to get emotional and wondered if this was the right thing to do. It was then that a L’Arche staff member put her arm around me and said “it’s okay, Linda has just grown up and is moving into her own home.” We have not looked back. This model is outstanding. That was 16 years ago, and then I was subsequently asked to join the Board of the L’Arche Foundation of Greater Vancouver. I’ve served as a Board Member and Board President. This organization more than meets its mission statement, it is truly a humanitarian group of people doing what they do best.
I began my journey with L’Arche over a decade ago as an assistant, living full-time in our Vancouver community. It is a time I deeply cherish. I saw first-hand how essential and wonderful this community really is, the joy and care it provides, and the dedication it takes every day to thrive. Since then L’Arche has always been in my mind and heart.
For the last number of years I have been a teacher in the Catholic Independent Schools of Vancouver (CISVA), working alongside students with a variety of needs and abilities. As a teacher I live every day something I learned in L’Arche: happiness is shared. At the end of the day it is people who matter, and they matter more than anything. As a member of the Board of Directors, it is my job to support and encourage the people of our community and to make sure they are at the core of everything we do.
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