DIRECTORS & ADVISORS
Here’s our Board of Directors, with the year they joined the Board in parentheses. Click on a name to find more about them.
Ben DormaN, Chair
Ben Dorman was born in London, England, and after graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge in Mathematics, he came to Canada for graduate work, first at Queen's University at Kingston and then at the University of Victoria, obtaining a PhD and the Gold Medal of the Governor-General.
He was on the research faculties of the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia, and then secured a Research Associateship at NASA/Goddard Spaceflight Center where he stayed for 10 years as a researcher and then a software engineer, returning to Victoria in 2009. His subsequent international IT career included working in Enterprise Integration, Business Process Management, Data Architecture, and Cloud Engineering, in multiple countries.
Ben got involved in non-profit organizations after his son was diagnosed with autism in 1995. He ran small advocacy groups in the suburbs of Washington DC and was elected nationally to the Board of the Autism Society of America in 2001. On return to Canada, he studied accounting and finance at Camosun College until pulled back into the IT field. With his background in astronomy and non-profits, he became the founding chair of the Friends of the DAO in 2015. Retiring from the IT industry in 2023, he works nearly full-time on building the Friends into a thriving business.
Contact: bdorman@centreoftheuniverse.org
Amy Archer, VicE-Chair and operations lead
Amy Archer is a first generation Canadian with roots from Trinidad and Tobago. Amy was born in Edmonton, Alberta and has spent most of her life on the West Coast. Amy has a love for her community and seeks opportunities to make the world a little better for her daughter and future generations.
Amy is the Vice-Chair of the Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory and has been involved with the organization since 2017. Amy is constantly fascinated by the knowledge of the astronomers and can be found at most Saturday Night Star Parties, either behind the scenes of looking through her favourite telescope. Amy also sits as an executive of the transitional board of the Black Anglicans of Canada.
Contact: aarcher@centreoftheuniverse.org
Shahid Naqi, Treasurer
Shahid is a retired Chartered Accountant responsible for the budgeting and accounting functions of the FDAO. His work experience includes a few years with large international accounting firms, a few more years as CFO of a large private company and more than thirty seven years in public practice. A grandfather, he is an avid reader and loves to travel. Retirement has allowed him to be able to work on his green thumb.
Contact: snaqi@centreoftheuniverse.org
Patricia Gilbert-sturm Secretary
Patricia Gilbert-Sturm B.A. B.Ed. is a retired secondary school teacher who worked at the Toronto District School Board for 25 years. She taught academic subjects such as history, philosophy, world of religions, politics, anthropology, sociology and psychology and also served as a department head as a special educator and guidance counsellor. Prior to teaching, she worked as an archaeological researcher in Japan, Scotland and northern and southern Ontario. She also taught school in Nanasivik, Baffin Island and Fort Albany, Ontario where she taught indigenous and European children at the elementary level.
Ida von schuckmann, Education Lead
Ida von Schuckmann enjoys the sense of community and friendship afforded by her involvement as a volunteer and FDAO Board member. Ida was born in Germany and came to Canada as a toddler. She spent her first 13 years in Canada in Edmonton and it’s surrounding farmland and many lakes. A family move to join her Grandmother in Victoria brought with it different outdoor adventures. It was around that time that her family paid their first visit to to the DAO. It was fascinating and invoked her imagination.
Her passion and interest in the outdoors, especially the night skies started early with family night walks when identifying constellations was part of the challenge especially on dark winter prairie nights. The Aurora Borealis in Northern Alberta was always nature’s magical show to be looked forward to.
Because of her passion for science and love of life long learning opportunities, she pursued a career in teaching, earning degrees from UVIC and later SFU. As a retired teacher, she continues to enjoy sharing that passion with children and enjoys watching children when their curiosity and sense of wonder is sparked.
Contact: idavs@centreoftheuniverse.org
Brock Johnston
Brock Johnston is a board member of the FDAO and a RASC member with a life-long interest in the night sky. He has both Mechanical Engineering and Economics degrees from UVic and is presently the Director of Innovation & Development Manager at FLT, a local manufacturer of solar lighting products. For the past 24 years he has been designing products in the vibrant Victoria tech community, with a focus on solar powered lighting & signalling. He enjoys seeing his creations in use around the world. He’s also an avid mountain biker, enjoying the local trails as often as possible.
Brock has always been passionate about science and interested in astronomy, with a penchant for sharing his interest. He has fond memories of setting up his small telescope at his family’s beach resort on Saratoga Beach and showing Saturn & Jupiter to guests in late August. He enjoys sharing scientific subjects with the public and believes sound epistemology, rooted in science, is critical for the future of our pale blue dot.
Contact: bjohnston@centreoftheuniverse.org
Tim Woods
Tim brings to the Board of Directors long experience in public policy, community engagement and communications at the Federal and Provincial levels. He holds a diploma in Dialogue Deliberation and Public Engagement from the University of California – Santa Barbara. He worked in communications and issue management for federal organizations in Ottawa (Canada Labour Congress, Citizen and Immigration Canada, the CRTC) and was Press Secretary to the leader of one of Canada’s Federal Political parties. He worked on community engagement for a number of significant provincial organizations such as the Immigration Employment Council of BC and the BC Building Trades. He is currently retired and spends time as a radio host for an interior BC station.
Contact: twoods@centreoftheuniverse.org
Ash Enefer
Ashley Enefer is a current Astrophysics undergraduate student at the University of Victoria. She has previously attended the University of Alberta, and has also completed studies with the European Space Agency’s Space Standards Training Course in Belgium. She worked for a year with the Canadian Space Agency’s Sun-Earth and Science Division on Earth Observation Satellites. She has also volunteered as a planetarium demonstrator at the Centre of the Universe, and worked as a tour guide at the Jasper Planetarium. She brings a wide set of experiences in science outreach to the organization.
Contact: aenefer@centreoftheuniverse.org
Nick Versteeg
For the past 45 years, Nick has been producing and directing documentaries for television, A&E, The A&E History Channel, Discovery Channel, CBC, and CTV in Canada.
With DV Cuisine, Nick specialized in culinary work and produced a variety of specials for the US and Canadian Food Networks. "The Bocuse d'Or" series, which saw big ratings on the TV Networks. He was nominated four times for the prestigious James Beard Awards in New York and won twice, as producer of the documentary "On the Road to Bocuse d'Or" and for his documentary on the "World Pastry Cup". These awards are considered the Oscars of the Culinary Industry. He co-produced 2 seasons of "The Next Great Chef", an 11-part series for Global Television, which won four LEO Awards, and, as producer, he was nominated twice for a Gemini Award. (Canadian Screen Awards)
Semi-retired but no slowing down, he produced a five-minute video on the Cowichan Valley called "Once Upon A Day-Cowichan", and made an 8-minute promotional video on the world-renowned Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC, "A Year at Butchart Gardens", and recently produced "Northern Star" for CHEK TV, a biography of the founder of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, John Stanley Plaskett. This documentary got him interested in astronomy and the work at the DAO, and he is excited to join the board.
Contact: nversteeg@centreoftheuniverse.org
Rigel McDonald
Advisors
James Di Francesco Ph.D. Director, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
James E. Hesser, Ph. D., Advisor, Emeritus Director, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
David Balam, Advisor
Emeritus Directors
Catriona Johnson (Secretary and Founding Board Member 2015 - 2021)
Jennine Gates (2015-2018)
Don Moffatt (Vice Chair and Founding Board Member 2015 - 2022)
Nelson Walker (2015 - 2020)
Lauri Roche (2015 - 2025)
Bob McDonald (2015 - 2025)
Stephanie Skalitzky (2018-2024)
Dan Posey (2017-2018)
David Payne (2022-2023)
Sarah Alshamaily (2022-2023)
Lorraine Hewlett (2022-2024)
Patrick Earl (2023-2024)
Dennis Crabtree (2023-2025)
Kirsten Pedersen (2024 - 2025)