Leadership Team
SAMINA SAMI
Chief Executive Officer
YASMINE DOSSAL
Director Social Services
JANET HALLETT
Senior Director
Samina Sami, M.Ed. and Executive MBA is the Chief Executive Officer of COSTI Immigrant Services. COSTI is a community-based diverse organization that has been providing a broad range of services to immigrants and refugees in the greater Toronto area since 1952.
Samina has a proven track record of dynamic and visionary leadership of more than 26 years in the public sector. Her diverse career includes working in government, higher education, and community services, on a range of initiatives, including strategy-setting, transformation, service and program delivery, grant funding management, policy, and public affairs, including working with the Ministry of Citizenship, Immigration, and International Trade. Samina is driven by a passion for collaboration and innovation and enjoys working with diverse communities on issues of justice, public policy, and social development, using an equitable and inclusive lens. Her sectoral experience spans justice, human rights, gender-based violence, public safety, education, innovation, and economic development.
Recently, Samina has held leadership roles at York University, including Executive Director and Executive Lead of an equity-driven service delivery transformation. She is a well-respected leader and her contributions have been significant, especially in the establishment of the community-driven strategy-Safer Together, and her leadership skills and operational experience were instrumental in updating the university’s critical incident, emergency, and operational plans, including leading the response to COVID-19.
Samina has a personal connection to settlement services as a child of immigrants, and she began her career in the settlement sector, establishing the HOST program in Peel Region. Samina is committed to giving back to the community and has personally focused on access to education and employment for diverse communities. She has also served as a part-time Faculty Member of the Social Services Worker Diploma Program – Immigrants and Refugees at Seneca College.
A creative and results oriented professional with an enthusiasm for people, organizational change, and innovation, Samina has led diverse teams who have achieved awards for innovation, teamwork, and excellence. In 2019, her team earned a York presidential team award and a commendation from the City of Toronto and the Red Cross, for leading relief efforts for residents of the Gosford Tower Fire. In 2016, her teams won the provincial government’s Amethyst Award for leading the development of a gender-based violence prevention campaign, and she has won awards for grant financial administration, service delivery, and innovation. Samina holds an M.Ed. from the University of Toronto, an Executive MBA from the Schulich School of Business, York University and the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. She is currently a PhD student, with a focus on leadership, equity, and public administration.
Janet Hallett has over twenty-eight years of progressive management experience in managing the capacity and growth of concurrent programs, community engagement, program development, and management experience for diverse ethno newcomers, youth and women. She has over ten years’ experience working with youth and management, noticeably working with teen parents.
Janet was a longstanding member of the Toronto Community Partnership Committee, past Co- chair of the Toronto West Local Immigration Partnership (TWLIP), Chair of the Education Resource TWLIP Action Group, and a member of the TWLIP Collective Impact Team. She currently sits on the Peel and Halton Labour Market Partnership, Peel-Halton-Dufferin Language Partnership (LP) Committees, York Region Local Immigration Partnership, the Peel Newcomers Strategy Group Central Planning Table and the Anti-Black and Systemic Discrimination Collective.
Yasmine joined COSTI in her present position in 2002.
With a Masters in Psychology and teacher training certification from England, Yasmine came to Canada from Pakistan in 1999, following a twenty-five year career in teaching and educational administration in both Iran and Pakistan, where she was also responsible for educational program development. Prior to leaving Pakistan, Yasmine was the Regional Director for the largest private network of schools in South Asia. She has supervised a number of educational projects funded by the World Bank, IMF, CIDA and the Aga Khan Foundation.
Yasmine has served as Chair of the Investment and Fundraising Committee of the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) and co-chair the Immigration and Settlement Working Group of the CCR. She is a member of the Board of the Social Planning Council of York Region as well as being a member of the Social Inclusion Working Group which is part of the Central Planning Table of the Peel Newcomer Strategy Group. In the past, Yasmine served as Co-Chair of the South Asian Community Services Network - York Region, member of the Woman Abuse Council, and Treasurer of the Board of the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA).
JULIE DARBOH
Director, Employment Services
RENA ZHOU
Director, Finance
NAWAL AL-BUSAIDI
Director, Refugee Services
Julie has a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Toronto with an area of interest in Policy, Communities & Organizations.
Julie has worked in various management positions since joining COSTI in 1999 and is currently serving as the Co-chair of the Economic Inclusion Working Group of the Peel Newcomer Strategy Group and the Lead for CASIP Governance and Leadership Project’s E-Learning Working Group. She served on the Inclusivity Action Plan Working Group of the Human Services Planning Coalition of York Region. She has in the past served on the boards of agencies serving the African community including: as the President of Africans in Partnership Against Aids and Vice President of the Ghanaian Canadian Organization. Her volunteerism and dedication in public education and awareness of settlement issues faced by African women and their children in the Greater Toronto Area earned her a Ministry of Citizenship Volunteer Award in 1995 and a Remarkable Woman Award in 1997 from the Rubena Willis Counselling Centre for Assaulted Women and Children.
Rena Zhou graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering, with a major in Electronic Engineering from Beijing, China.
Rena then worked for a few years as a computer programmer, building a number of accounting software applications. By the end of 1990, Rena came to Canada and a few years later switched her career to the accounting field. In 2004, Rena achieved her Certified General Accountant designation Rena has worked in a number of private industries including: a private high school, a marketing company, an insurance company and a logistic company, as well as a not-for-profit organization, Harbourfront Corporation. Working at senior management positions, Rena has gained sound experience in financial accounting, financial reporting, auditing, taxation, system conversion, budgeting, strategic management and sound business practices. Rena joined COSTI in July 2013.
Nawal has been the Director of Refugee Services at COSTI since 2020, where she oversees a team of over 200 employees assisting refugees and refugee claimants to resettle. Nawal has over 17 years of experience in not for profit organizations, in leadership, social advocacy, and in managing multiple social and economic development programs in areas related to social development with a particular emphasis on population health.
Nawal has a degree in Computer Science Engineering with a focus on creating communication strategies that streamline operational goals, by facilitating a climate that encourages innovation and calculated risks.
She has held numerous leadership positions both locally and nationally ranging from community health, community revitalization, violence against women programs, child, youth and family development initiatives.
