Verlyn F. Francis
Verlyn Francis was appointed to the Ontario Arts Council board of directors in June 2010. Ms. Francis is a Toronto-based lawyer, mediator and arbitrator with a strong community service background that spans over 20 years. 
From 2006 to 2009, Ms. Francis was a trustee for the Youth Challenge Fund where she oversaw the allocation of public funds to support Toronto’s youth in underserved communities. Since 2004, she has been a member of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Festival Centre Campaign Steering Committee. From 2000 to 2004, Ms. Francis served as a board member on the Governance Committee of the Toronto Board of Trade. During her tenure from 1998 to 2004 as a board member of the Toronto Community Foundation, she organized a summit of community leaders and developed a report, Root Causes and Solutions to Youth Violence in Toronto: Insights of Black Community Leaders, based on her research. Ms. Francis has worked with the African-Canadian Christian Network to create sustainable church/community partnerships to assist and encourage youth civic engagement.
As a board member for the Black Business and Professionals Association since 1990, Ms. Francis implemented a strategic plan, a governance structure and multiple fundraising techniques in order to overhaul their post-secondary scholarship program. Her efforts generated a sizable endowment fund and $100,000 per year in annual scholarships within three years.
In 2004, the Government of Ontario appointed Ms. Francis to the Education Relations Commission and College Relations Commission, a division of the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
Her professional credits include teaching Ethics and Professional Responsibility to lawyers entering the legal profession in Ontario at the Law Society of Upper Canada from 2006 to 2008.
Ms. Francis is the 2010 recipient of the Raising the Bar Award of Excellence, a prize awarded by the Black Law Students’ Association at Osgoode Hall Law School. She also received the Osgoode Hall Law School Alumni Association’s Gold Key Award in 2007, and in 2006, the government of Antigua and Barbuda awarded her the Prime Minister’s Special 25th Anniversary of Independence Award.