Board Of Governors

She practiced general family dentistry for 33 years before her retirement in 2019. She taught part-time in the faculty of dentistry for many years and remains associated with Dalhousie as a long-time member of the Dalhousie Dental Alumni Committee. For many years she contributed to her profession by her involvement with committees for the Nova Scotia Dental Association and the Halifax County Dental Society. She serves on the Board of Governors of STFXU.

In 1993 Dr. Abbass founded Isaiah House Special Care Society, a not-for-profit group which operates a small group home in Dartmouth, NS to care for her handicapped brother and two other men. Presently she continues to oversee the operation of the home and serves as Chair of the Board of the Society.

Mr. Bassil is a sought-after thought-leader and speaker at offshore wind industry events and M&A conferences. He is focused on providing strategic and financial advisory services to accelerate the global energy transition and the shift to a net-zero carbon economy.

A Managing Director and Head of Global Offshore Wind M&A at NORTHGREEN CAPITAL, Mr. Bassil is a former founding member and Advisory Board Member at Business Renewables Centre Canada at the Pembina Institute in Calgary, Alberta and was the head of Marathon Capital in Canada.  Mr. Bassil works closely with offshore wind developers globally and pension funds, insurance companies, as well as other institutional investors and infrastructure funds focused on accelerating the energy transition.

Mr. Bassil earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Rowe School of Business at Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of Computer Science with the Electrical Engineering Stream from TUNS. He has completed Level 1 and 2 of the CFA designation, the Canadian Securities Course (CSC) and the PDO.

 She completed her undergraduate education at St. Francis Xavier University and then taught in both the public and private sector for 17 years.  In 1975 she entered the Society of the Sacred Heart and subsequently completed a MA at Boston College in Pastoral ministry. 

In 2011, Sr. Anne-Marie Conn returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia to reside at Barat Residence where we have now established a small spirituality centre.  From 2013-18, she was a member of the Provincial Leadership Team of the United States–Canada province of the Society of the Sacred Heart.  Prior to this she lived and worked for 5 years in the United States, following the15 years on the leadership team in Canada.

The beginning of her time in the USA was spent at Sprout Creek Farm, an educational learning center based on sustainable living.   In 2009, Anne-Marie left there to study in Oakland, CA at Holy Names University.  In the late 80’s, she worked at Anishinabe Spiritual Center in Espinola, ON and since then, has had a growing interest in an earth-based spirituality.  This was enhanced while Anne-Marie was at Sprout Creek Farm and led her to enroll at Holy Name University in the MA Culture and Spirituality program.  While there, Anne-Marie was engaged by the Cosmology program at Genesis Farm, based on the writings of Thomas Berry. 

 Her journey has now led her back to Halifax, where she collaborates with others around the work of Spiritual programming and Accompaniment in which she has been working since 1991 in a variety of settings.  She currently serves on the Facilities committee of Sacred Heart School in Halifax.  She is an avid gardener and enjoys oil painting.  

Claudia graduated from the private school Lycée Français Louis Pasteur of Bogota. Claudia holds a BA Honors in Fine Arts and two Master’s degrees, the first one in Education with a specialization in Second Language Acquisition and the second one in Spanish and Latin American Studies, both degrees earned from the University of Alberta.

She has been teaching since 1998, first as a teacher of French in Colombia and later as a teacher of Spanish at the University of Alberta and Dalhousie University before starting in 2015 at Sacred Heart. She has had the opportunity to teach in both Barat and Fountain schools at all senior levels.

Claudia lives in Bedford with her husband, Jean-Jacques, and her two teenage boys. She loves to travel and to spend her summers visiting her family in Colombia and France.

His books include Nietzsche and Theology and The Tyranny of the Banal: On the Renewal of Catholic Moral Theology. Originally from Ireland, he lives in Dartmouth with his wife Jennifer and their daughters, Sophia, Chora, and Áine. Chora and Áine are both students of Sacred Heart.

After graduating from Dalhousie and TUNS with a mechanical engineering degree Torquil worked on the Confederation Bridge and then spent time working overseas at a trans-shipment facility. Torquil completed his MBA through the Saint Mary’s University Executive Program while working at Jacques Whitford and shortly thereafter established Capital Management Engineering.

Beyond his work commitments, Torquil understands the importance of giving back to the community and has sat on the Board of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron in addition to volunteering with various committees for over a decade. He has supported local minor hockey through coaching and training efforts for the last five years. His real passion is his family; his wife Lisa works at the IWK and his son Macadam attends Sacred Heart.

Treena has previously been the Chief Financial Officer at the IWK Foundation. While her two girls were growing up, Treena
owned and operated Treena Faloon Consulting where she worked closely with CEOs to articulate their company vision, facilitated business planning with senior management teams, and supported their work in defining business models and financial planning.  Treena is married to Rob Faloon, their oldest daughter Julia attends Acadia University and their youngest
daughter Laura is currently in grade 11 at Sacred Heart.

For the past 30 years, she has built her career in the Operations side of Scotiabank, holding various positions in Operations and Human Resources. For the past 18 years, Monique has worked exclusively in the Wealth Management division and most recently assuming the position of Sr. Manager, Regional Operations & Service for Eastern Canada, involving responsibilities throughout locations in Ottawa, Montreal, and Atlantic Canada.

Monique holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree from St. Francis Xavier University. She is actively involved in supporting her community and has been a long-time volunteer and fundraiser for many local charitable organizations. She was also a former Treasurer of the Sacred Heart Parent Guild. Monique was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia but has made Halifax her home for the past 30 years. She has raised two daughters, Hannah and Olivia, who both attend Sacred Heart School.    

She has been a member of the Board of Trustees at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri since 2003, where she is a member of the Finance, Investment and Audit Committee. Sr. Gruner recently completed nine years on the Sacred Heart-Greenwich Board where she was a member of the Committee on Trustees and the Audit Committee. She has also served on the Boards of the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles,
MO, and the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans. Prior to her current ministry as the Canonical Treasurer of the Antilles Province (Puerto
Rico, Haiti and Cuba) of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Sr. Gruner was the business manager for Sprout Creek Farm in Poughkeepsie, NY from 2016-2020. She served as assistant to the Provincial Bursar for the Society of the Sacred Heart’s Uganda-Kenya Province from 2010-2013. Before that, Sr. Gruner was the assistant treasurer and accounting manager for the Society of the Sacred Heart’s U.S. Province (1997-2008). She has held positions within the Network of Sacred Heart Schools: Josephinum High School in Chicago, Schools of the Sacred Heart in San Francisco, and Doane Stuart School in Albany, NY.

A graduate of Capital University in Bexley, Ohio, she went on to receive a master of divinity degree from the Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio. In 1995, she received a master of business administration with a concentration in management accounting from DePaul University in Chicago. She joined the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1980.

In 1982, she came to teach at The Convent of the Sacred Heart and worked there until 1988. She then went overseas to the Philippines to do mission work, and founded the NGO “Imagina”, which is still in operation today. Kim returned to Sacred Heart School in 2010 and taught various grade levels until 2020, when she retired from the classroom.

Kim is a mother to four children, two of which attended Sacred Heart School. Her daughter Cassandra is a graduate of Sacred Heart, and her son Jericho attended the elementary school and Fountain Academy. Kim continues to tutor students privately and works part-time at Adsum House. In her spare time, she enjoys horseback riding and learning to play the harp. Kim is pleased to have the opportunity to serve on the Board and to share her career and life as a Sacred Heart educator.

Rebecca received her Queen’s Counsel designation in 2022. In addition to her involvement with Sacred Heart, Rebecca is a part-time instructor at the Schulich Faculty of Law at Dalhousie University, a Life Director of the Neptune Theatre Foundation, having served as Chair for four years and on the executive for ten, and is a 28-year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces. Rebecca lives in Dartmouth with her husband Mitch LeBlanc and their son Luc, who has attended Sacred Heart since Junior Primary. 

Engaging people through clear communication, a common understanding and shared values fosters a sense of team and connection and drives engagement to achieve organizational goals. An HR practitioner and business professional with over 20 years of experience and education, Marlee has a full understanding of both the strategic and operational needs of an organization.

Using a people-centered approach, Marlee guides leaders in making informed decisions to foster inclusive and respectful working environments primed for achievement. Marlee has a passion for helping business leaders in purpose-driven and value-centric organizations create alignment, connecting the dots between the organization’s mission and goals. Marlee is currently employed as the Director, People and Culture with ISANS, the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia. She has her CPHR designation and is a member of CPHR Nova Scotia.

Marlee has earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and an MBA specializing in Human Resources. She is actively involved in supporting her community and has been a long-time volunteer and fundraiser for many charitable organizations. She is also a former Secretary of the Sacred Heart Parents’ Guild. Marlee and her husband Mark are raising two daughters, Jasmine and Jacklyn, who both attend Sacred Heart School. Marlee and Mark are also frequent homestay parents with Sacred Heart, hosting international students from Mexico, Japan, and Germany.

Prior to her current role, she spent over 13 years in public accounting working for Grant Thornton. While there, Valerie worked in the audit and assurance area of the firm with a variety of clients ranging from privately held owner-manager businesses to those in the municipal and health care fields.

Valerie has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Saint Mary’s University. Over the years, she has worked with a variety of non-profits and community organizations as a board member, advisor, and volunteer. Valerie and her husband, Robert, share five children: Rachel, Emma, Michael, Matthew and Patrick ’28.

Mike is also a volunteer with Scouts Canada and in the sport of sailing. Mike lives in Halifax with his wife, Lee and their four children, Charlie, Elspeth, Henry and William, all of whom are current SHSH students.