Jennifer Breakspear

Jennifer Breakspear has had the privilege of working in the non-profit sector for several years. When she first found her way into a non-profit leadership role, she knew that she’d found her calling supporting powerful missions and teams.

Jennifer is currently the executive director of the SARA for Women Society in the Fraser Valley. SARA supports women and children fleeing gender-based violence by providing shelter, housing, counselling and outreach services in Mission and Abbotsford. She was previously the interim executive director at the Elizabeth Bagshaw Women's Clinic, a non-profit abortion clinic in Vancouver.

Jennifer has held a number of roles in non-profit leadership, including being the executive director of PHS Community Services Society, an innovative non-profit housing, health care, harm reduction and community development agency in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. She has also held leadership roles at the organizations Options for Sexual Health (Opt), the largest sexual and reproductive health care provider in Canada, and QMUNITY – a queer resource centre in B.C. 

In addition to her current role, Jennifer also runs her own consulting firm, Breakspear Leadership and Training –where she supports leadership in the nonprofit sector by providing interim executive director services, governance training for boards, strategic planning, workshop facilitation, and one-on-one guidance for executive directors.

Before she moved into non-profit management she had other career paths in academia and labour, and spent 10 years as a paramedic in Ontario.