the
staff
Dr. Briana Hagen
Chief Executive Officer | Lead Scientist
Deborah VanBerkel
Chief Programming Officer
As a Registered Psychotherapist and dairy producer, Deborah has a strong passion for mental health and agriculture. After 15 years of working in the non-profit sector, Deborah was thrilled to start her own business, Cultivate Counselling Services. The work done in this private practice led to the development of the Farmer Wellness Program in partnership with the Lennox and Addington Federation of Agriculture. The Farmer Wellness Program offers a safe and flexible way for farmers and their families to access the mental health support they need with a therapist/counsellor who understands the unique challenges of farming.
In 2021, Deborah was the recipient of the prestigious Bridgid Rivoire Award given to “champions of agricultural mental health” for her work with the Program.
Deborah also added author to this career change and wrote the resource manual for the In the Know Mental health literacy program whilst becoming its national trainer.
Deborah’s drive to help and foster growth in the ag community, coupled with her experience and passion for mental health ensures that she will maintain focus to bridge all gaps, fulfill the needs and increase accessible services for those in ag.
Marnie Wood
Chief Operating Officer
Marnie’s ground up agricultural experience began as a participating member of a dairy farming family. Her love of cows started early and her passion for agriculture grew quickly! Marnie attended the University of Guelph and received a BAH in Sociology and Rural Extension. After graduating, she had the privilege of working in the agricultural industry, gaining experience in a variety of roles and particularly loved being the Ontario Dairy Educator at Dairy Farmers of Ontario.
In 2014, Marnie returned to academia and completed the three-year graduate program at the Toronto Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education (as part of a Master’s degree at the University of Toronto) and became a Registered Psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario in 2017. At the same time, she and her partner Brian began a dairy operation as DFO New Producers, which required designing and building a barn from scratch and putting together their own herd of Holsteins. They are thrilled to be farming in the Region of Durham.
Marnie is the Program Manager for The Guardian Network – a suicide prevention network for the agricultural community – at the Canadian Mental Health Association-Ontario Division’s initiative, Agriculture Wellness Ontario. She is enthusiastic about her work in public mental health, community programming, ag communication, research, and policy development and enjoys being a graduate student at UofT.
Marnie is very grateful to be an Ontario farmer and is a passionate member of Canada’s agricultural community.
The CCAW has partnered with several organizations across the country, including the Government of Canada, Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Canadian Agricultural Safety Association, and Farm Management Canada, and all are working together to support the wellbeing of the farming community.
