Staff

Raine Laurent-Eugène is the Founder, CEO, and Chair of the Jessie My Love Foundation, a Canadian nonprofit committed to creating safe, sustainable futures for Black and Indigenous women and their families. Rooted in lived experience and driven by structural awareness, Raine’s leadership is both visionary and deeply practical. She brings over a decade of experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), working with institutions such as the Ontario Association of Art Galleries, CAMH, Museum of Inuit Art, and the City of Mississauga.

Under her direction, Jessie My Love Foundation offers free housing, transitional employment, childcare, and regenerative farming opportunities designed to foster long-term independence and emotional safety. Raine holds an Honours degree from the University of Toronto and is completing a second in Communications at York University.

Her work is not rooted in charity, it’s a strategic blueprint for justice. She believes in creating systems that honour ancestral wisdom while protecting future generations, especially those historically excluded from safety, ownership, and power.

Raine continues to build Jessie My Love as both sanctuary and structure, a place where healing meets self-determination, and where Black and Indigenous women don’t just survive, but thrive.

Ifraax Aden is a Somali-Canadian multidisciplinary artist weaving writing, film, and archival practice into portals of memory and healing. Her work centers Black queer resistance, tracing its echoes across digital landscapes and ancestral timelines. She’s deeply committed to food justice as a way to build a more equitable and connected world.  She’s dedicated to advancing the work of Jessie My Love Foundation and support for Black & Indigenous women and families, recognizing these as foundational to long-term healing and autonomy. 

Jessie Eugene is a highly respected Registered Nurse with over four decades of experience in mental health and seniors’ care. Since earning her nursing diploma from Humber College in 1983 and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Ryerson University in 1998, Jessie has built a distinguished career defined by clinical leadership, education, and innovation.

Her tenure at Trillium Health Partners – Mississauga Hospital spans more than 30 years, during which she served as Clinical Leader for both the Seniors Mental Health Inpatient Unit and the Adult Mental Health Unit. In these roles, she oversaw daily operations, mentored nursing teams, and championed best practices in patient centred care, particularly in dementia and behavioural management.

An accomplished educator, Jessie has trained countless nurses and inter-professional staff in areas such as the Gentle Persuasive Approach (GPA), Crisis Prevention Intervention, and the Resident Assessment Instrument – Mental Health (RAI-MH). She has also led award-winning initiatives that advanced non-pharmacological approaches to dementia care, including the integration of music therapy to minimize responsive behaviours.

Jessie’s professional excellence has been recognized with multiple honours, including the Trillium Health Partners Nursing Award (2016) and the Award for Implementation of Non-Pharmacological Techniques in Dementia Care (2018). She holds certifications in psychiatric mental health nursing, GPA coaching, P.I.E.C.E.S., cognitive behavioural therapy, and more.

Passionate about both the science and humanity of nursing, Jessie is committed to fostering compassionate, evidence-based care that enhances quality of life for patients and families. Outside of work, she enjoys gardening, classical films, opera, and traveling.