Commission Members

Phylomène has more than 25 years of experience in administrative management. She served as editorial project coordinator at the Revue de l’Université de Moncton for more than a decade and as executive director of Community Adult Learning Centre in southeastern New Brunswick. She is currently an administrative manager at Vitalité Health Network and a member of the New Brunswick Judicial Council.

Phylomène is well known for her community involvement and her commitment to equality for women and the professional and social inclusion of men and women immigrating to New Brunswick.

After immigrating to New Brunswick from the Democratic Republic of the Congo more than 30 years ago, she completed programs in business management and information technology at the Université de Moncton.

Named one of the Top 25 Immigrants in the Maritimes in 2018, she was also recipient of the Black Excellence Award in 2015 and 2016 for excellence in leadership and influence.

Among other volunteer activities at the community level, Phylomène was the first co-president of the New Brunswick Women’s Council and founder of the New Brunswick Provincial Council of People of African Descent (CPPAANB).  She has served on a variety of boards and was active on parent-school support committees, the mental health community advisory committee of Vitalité Health Network, the Committee on Poverty and Social Inclusion of the City of Moncton, and the Artsnb Commission on Cultural Diversity. She is mother to Nash Zangio. Biographical note as of August 15, 2022.

Randy Dickinson is a long-time disability and human rights advocate as a lifelong resident of New Brunswick. He served in various professional positions during his career such as Director of Camping and Community Relations and then Executive Director of the Canadian Rehabilitation Council for the Disabled now known as Easter Seals NB. Randy then served for many years as the first Executive Director of the Premier’s Council on Disabilities. During this period, he was seconded to act as the Executive Director of the Premier’s Council on Health Strategy and also served as the Executive Director of the Canadian Paraplegic Association before returning as the Executive Director of the Premier’s Council on Disabilities until his
                                        retirement.

For his community service, Randy and was awarded the Order of Canada in 1999 and was named as a Member of the Order of New Brunswick in 2022. He has also received various other public recognitions for his professional and volunteer efforts on behalf of persons with disabilities.

Randy served as the Chairperson of the Commission from 2010-2015 and is an active member of the Age-Friendly Community Advisory Committee for the City of Fredericton; Vice-President of the John Wood Foundation; Co-Chair of N.B. Disability Awareness Week; and was previously appointed to a term as the Chairperson of the Premier’s Council on Disabilities.

Randy lives in Fredericton with his wife Karen who is an occupational therapist. Biographical note as of August 15, 2022.

Shelley Dumouchel was called to the New Brunswick Bar in 1994 after obtaining her Law Degree and Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of New Brunswick.

From 1994 until 2008, she worked as an associate lawyer in both Oromocto and Fredericton gaining significant experience in the areas of Family Law, Insurance Law, Personal Injury, Real Estate and Wills and Estates. From 2008 until 2011, Shelley was Senior Legal Counsel for the Office of the Public Trustee, Province of New Brunswick. In 2011, Shelley returned to private practice and has had her own law firm since this date.

A native of Perth- Andover, NB, Shelley lives with her family in Fredericton.  In addition to raising a family and practicing law, Shelley is one of the founders of the Oromocto Legal Clinic, an alternate Chairperson for the Mental Health Review Board,  an adjudicator under the Liquor Control Act and a board member for the New Brunswick Human rights Commission. Bio up-to-date as of March 25, 2020.

Elizabeth Forestell grew up in Saint John New Brunswick and graduated from University of New Brunswick. In her 40-year career in non profit management, Elizabeth worked in the areas of mental health, youth justice, criminal justice, violence against women, refugee services and a wide range of community services, retiring in 2020 as President and CEO of The Neighbourhood Group in Toronto.

Elizabeth is happily back in her hometown of Saint John. Biographical note as of August 15, 2022.

Dr. Shannonbrooke Murphy holds a BA (Hons) in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto, an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Galway, and a PhD in Law from Middlesex University. She relocated from Ireland to New Brunswick in 2019 to take up a position as Endowed Chair in Human Rights and Assistant Professor in the Human Rights Department at St. Thomas University, where she also serves on the faculty trade union executive.

In Ireland, she worked for more than a decade as a legislative, policy, and political advisor to elected representatives at all institutional levels on matters of equality and human rights protections in domestic law, constitutional law, EU law, and under international treaty obligations including the Good Friday Agreement. In this brief, she worked on a wide array of issues such as the human rights to healthcare and housing, police accountability and oversight mechanisms for human rights compliance, redress of historical systemic human rights violations related to colonization and religious institutions, as well as the equality rights of ethnic minorities, women’s rights, children’s rights, the rights of people with disabilities, LGBTI rights, workers’ rights, and the rights of economically marginalized individuals and groups.

She lives in Nashwaaksis (Fredericton Northside) and would like to improve her French and learn Wolastoqey. She is grateful to have been welcomed in New Brunswick and considers it an honour to serve its peoples. Bio up-to-date as of March 9, 2023.

Originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cyprien has lived in Moncton for over 20 years. He has a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the Université de Moncton.

He has taught at the Dieppe campus of the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick and is the CEO of Okana-Solutions Marketing (O.-S.M.), a consulting firm founded in 2000 that has its head office in Moncton. In 2002, the company conducted the first study on the settlement and integration of Francophone immigrants in the province.

Cyprien was president of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party (NB NDP) from 2019 to 2022 and spent seven years (2016 to 2023) as a member of the board of directors of House of Nazareth in Moncton. Before that, he was president of the Intercultural Heritage Association of Greater Moncton from 2010 to 2013, during which time he organized two exploratory visits to Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia, and to Charlottetown and Miscouche, Prince Edward Island, to discover Acadian and Canadian history. One of the visits was for Black youth and the other for Black women and children.

He also stays active, walking an average of 45 minutes each day. He learns by reading books and articles on various topics, including but not limited to politics, law, the economic and social inclusion of immigrants, cultural diversity, leadership, public speaking, religion and organizational management.

He is a proud supporter of human rights and has always endeavoured to foster an even more egalitarian New Brunswick society. He is eager to devote himself wholly to serving New Brunswick and improving its prosperity, diversifying its cultural riches and ensuring the dignity and rights of its young people, regardless of their origin, are protected and respected. Biographical note as of March 9, 2023.