Search Mentor Canada

Our Team

Meet the team

Tracy Luca-Huger
Executive Director

Tracy’s vision, leadership and strategic acumen are, collectively, a powerful force in establishing a strong mentoring field in Canada. Tracy is profoundly well-suited to her position. Leveraging her extensive consulting experience, as well as past senior roles at leading charities, she is galvanizing a vast network of change-makers—across sectors and regions, private industry and public institutions—to deliver on the promise of assured access to mentors for any young person, anywhere in Canada.  

An ongoing contributor to Alberta Mentoring Partnership and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada, Tracy is adept at focusing her team on developing innovative mentoring programs, tools, partnerships and collaborations.  

She holds an M.A. in Counselling Psychology from Gonzaga University and is a Certified Canadian Counsellor. A talented cook and food-lover, Tracy enjoys travelling the world. 

Véronique Church-Duplessis
Senior Director, Research and Impact

Armed with an inquisitive mind, Véronique conducts vital research that illuminates realities, obstacles, and opportunities for mentoring in Canada. By contextualizing both the benefits of and barriers to mentoring, her work enables practitioners to make informed decisions and Mentor Canada to deliver much-needed solutions that link research to practice. Committed to making research actionable, she helped create the Canadian Centre for Mentoring Research to facilitate exchanges between academics and practitioners.

Véronique's past studies and professional experiences centred on the development of modern gender norms, gender-based violence prevention, and healthy relationships for teens. This unique background informs her current focus on mentoring as a compelling example of the power of positive relationships in our lives. She holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Toronto and an M.A. in History from the Université de Montréal.

Véronique loves travel and gardening and is an ardent baseball fan and cat lover. 

Jessica Sims
Manager, Communications, Digital Marketing and Events

A compelling storyteller in both official languages, Jessica is passionate about highlighting the human side of mentoring, engaging diverse audiences in recognizing why Canada needs a stronger mentoring field where no one is ever denied access to a mentor.  

As a true digital native, Jessica loves weaving words and visuals into high-impact, highly relatable web and social media content. Daily, she channels her innate creativity, marketing experience, and consummate organizational skills to propel Mentor Canada’s mission forward.  Jessica has a B.A. in Management and Finance from Concordia University. 

An avid runner, Jessica loves introducing her dog to new corners of Montreal and watching Sunday football with her parents and grandparents. 

Michèle Mantero
Manager, Training and Support

Michèle designs, curates, and delivers bilingual training materials that elevate ability and expand capacity among internal and external audiences. She brings over ten years’ multi-industry experience in developing customized training programs focused on new hires, new technologies, or new skillsets. Now, this design-savvy “techie” directs her proven abilities and ingenuity toward taking Mentor Canada’s training portfolio to the next level by integrating wide-ranging digital platforms, software applications and technologies.   

Michèle acquired a Diploma in Sales & Tourism from Collège Paul-Émile Dufresne and studied education at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) before relocating to Alberta.   

She enjoys going for brunch, watching True Crime documentaries and taking nature walks with her husband and two dogs. 

Ben Dantzer, Ph.D.
Manager, Quality Mentoring and Capacity-Building

As a Ph.D. researcher, Ben’s ability to transfer knowledge from academic literature into daily practice with respect and sensitivity makes him vital to Mentor Canada's mission. In fact, he authored a literature review that shaped our own innovative Quality Mentoring System (QMS).   

Ben has extensive knowledge about quality mentoring relationships and programming. His thoughtfully facilitated learning sessions empower staff and volunteer mentors to effectively nurture high-quality mentoring relationships. He holds an Honours B.A. in Psychology from the University of Western Ontario. Through the University of British Columbia, he earned an M.A. in Human Development, Learning, and Culture (Specialization in Cross-Age Peer Mentoring), and a Ph.D. in Human Development, Learning, and Culture (Specialization in Youth-Initiated Mentoring).  

Ben enjoys playing volleyball, reading, walking his dog, and spending time with his family.