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Staff & Board » Colleen Mahaffie
Headshot of Colleen Mahaffie, Marketing and Communications Manager at CSI

Colleen Mahaffie

Marketing and Communications Manager

The ability to communicate clearly and effectively is a foundational skill, which Colleen saw in her youth as a camp counselor with toddlers and as a tutor to high school students. She graduated from Villanova University with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and worked in marketing for travel and interior design before finding her place in the impact sector. Colleen worked for an environmental nonprofit, Forests Ontario, prior to joining CSI as the Marketing and Communications Manager. Putting people and planet first is a core value for Colleen, and one that she is happy to embody at CSI. Here, she works closely with the team to manage the external communications of the Centre and helps to market its many offerings, ideals, and members. She also has a passion for good design, typography, and the Oxford comma.

Colleen moved to Toronto from the beautiful green mountain state of Vermont. You can usually find Colleen hanging with her rescue pup, Bennie, and exploring the many neighbourhoods of Toronto. She’s always happy to chat about craft beer, politics, and Grey’s Anatomy.

Stories by Colleen Mahaffie

A group of CSI Community Animators is gathered around the large table in the CSI Spadina ground floor kitchen
Happy International Women's Day to all the women-identifying folks out there! CSI is a women-led organization, and just over 50% of our staff identify as women, so it's safe to say that at CSI, we're celebrating women all year long. Today, we asked our staff to highlight some of the women who inspire us every day. Here are the people whose cultural, social, economic, or political achievements inspire, encourage, and motivate us to continue putting people and planet first.
Cocktails from ZERO Cocktail Bar
We spoke with Regent Park entrepreneur Gail Lynch, CEO and Experience Designer of ZERO Cocktail Bar, about building a non-alcoholic bar and her experience as a Black woman entrepreneur. 
Celebration at the CSI Community Living Room
It’s been almost a year since we announced the official opening of the CSI Community Living Room - a community experiment that provided a platform on which community initiatives could thrive, a new innovation in our 10th year in the Regent Park community.
A graphic of multiple face silhouettes, made of crinkled paper, in various skin tones.
As we celebrate Black History Month, we’re continuing our learning, and we thought an update to our Black history reading lists (see our lists from 2018 and 2020) was in order! This year, we turned to our CSI community to crowdsource their recommendations. We asked our members and staff to share with us a favourite book, essay, movie, show, or podcast that they found impactful about the Black experience.
Guests cheer at CSI's 2022 Holiday Gathering
Every year, we honour a member or members with the Bow Tie Award during our famously festive Holiday Gathering. And no, it’s not for the best dressed attendee!
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The Canada Animal Welfare Scorecard, the second annual report and the only one of its kind in the country, ranks more than 50 food companies. We spoke to PJ Nyman, Corporate Engagement Manager, about the report, its implications for the Canadian agriculture sector and for consumers nationwide, and how being a CSI member has benefited their work.