Vancouver Island Crisis Society With Elizabeth Newcombe, Executive Director & Karen Love, Board President

Navigating an Executive Director Search requires finding a leader who embodies deep compassion, strategic vision, and an unwavering commitment to community impact. For decades, the Vancouver Island Crisis Society has provided critical suicide prevention and crisis intervention programs across British Columbia and Canada. In this episode, host Christoph Clodius sits down with outgoing Executive Director Elizabeth Newcombe and Board President Karen Love to discuss the transition, the core priorities for the incoming leader, and what makes this unique opportunity so compelling. Together, they explore the organization’s collaborative workplace culture, the realities of hybrid leadership, and the essential role of 24/7 crisis support.

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Vancouver Island Crisis Society With Elizabeth Newcombe, Executive Director & Karen Love, Board President

The Vancouver Island Crisis Society And Its Mission

I have the distinct pleasure of speaking about the Executive Director Search of the Vancouver Island Crisis Society. I’m joined by the outgoing ED, Elizabeth Newcombe and Karen Love, who’s both Board Chair and involved in the Search committee as well. We’re going to have a great conversation. It’s nice to have you both. I’m looking forward to learning more about the society, about the activities, learning more about what we’re looking for in the new ED and talking about a few things for that matter. Let’s get started with a little bit of context. Liz, since you’ve been living and breathing the society for years now, for that matter. Tell us a little bit about the society. What is Vancouver Island Crisis Society? What does it do? Who is it? All those are wonderful things.

We’re a charity and nonprofit, but at the heart of it, we’re a dedicated group of staff and volunteers. We’re providing suicide prevention and crisis intervention programs on Vancouver Island across BC and Canada. Two main departments. We have a Community Education Department, and that’s the one where the face-to-face and touching people in community and providing our programs. We do a lot of work with the indigenous population on the island, and also our crisis line operation. We support people over the phone, chat and text. We took over 46,000 interactions in 2025, so we’re very busy.

Our focus is prevention, most of the time and supporting people that may have thoughts of suicide and struggling with their mental health. Every life is precious to us. It’s about connection for us. We don’t want anybody to be alone. We listen. We validate. We support. The bottom line is, we save lives.

That’s such a crucial function, to say the least. As I learn about the association, learn about the society and the work you do, that’s coming through. It’s life-saving work fundamentally. Not many organizations can say that to that degree. I appreciate the work you’ve done. Liz, you’ve been doing this work for some time. You’ve been ED for some time. I didn’t want to bury the lead necessarily, but people are going to ask. They want to know, “Why is this role open?”

It’s nice to see you’re leaving on such great terms. It’s nice to do a podcast like this with the outgoing ED, for that matter. It’s hard to capture. When you think about what you’ve achieved in your tenure at the society, and maybe you can talk a little bit about that or the recent things you’re proud of that you’re proud to hand over that you want to speak a little bit about.

It’s unheard of to be in the nonprofit world for 34 years. I am leaving on a good note, too. A very strong foundation. I’m proud of so much. We’re an accredited agency, and the people that I work with. The work is there’s always a problem to solve or there’s always challenges around the corner. There’s never a day where you’re bored. There’s always something different. I can’t say in 34 years, I’ve had a duplicate day. Some of it is HR, contracts, and speaking out in the community. It’s a varied job.

Our service has always been needed and always will be needed. We know how important being able to access mental health is when you need it. Share on X

The past decade, we’ve had to handle a lot from our staff team in terms of we’ve had to adapt to funding changes. We had to increase and double our workforce. I’m proud of the work that we do with our partners in the community, the BC Crisis Line Network and the 988 team nationally. We truly do not do this work alone. I feel very supported by not only my internal team, but the external team that we have.

In 2024, one of the proud achievements was we went to Vegas for the American Association of Suicidology Conference, which we usually attend annually. We were presented. Our little crisis center on Vancouver Island was presented with the Crisis Services Award. I was cheered on with our team and with the other BC partners to receive that award. It was a nice way of going out in terms of our accomplishments being recognized by such large organizations.

Another thing I’m proud of is being able to increase wages over the years and good benefits for our team. It’s been slow progress because you have to ensure that you have a foundation of good funding in order to do that. That’s something that I’m proud that we’ve been able to do for our team because they work hard and they deserve it.

Strategic Priorities And Future Growth For The Incoming Leader

That’s fantastic. As you say, that supports looking outward and looking inward, for that matter, supporting the people that do this life-saving work. I like how you characterize it as a little society. I don’t know that you’re necessarily a little society in the impact you have. You shared the numbers before, over 40,000 contacts in 2025. Kudos to you. I won’t ask you for your plans for the future, Liz. I’ve had a look at the camper at one of our meetings. You were out in the woods, for that matter, so I could probably guess what the future holds for you. Thinking about what’s on the horizon for society, for that matter.What’s on the horizon? What context is the ED stepping into, for that matter?

We’re in the second year of a five-year strategic plan. I’m getting familiar with that plan and implementing or making adjustments as needed. Rebranding is another thing. We’ve had the same logo for quite a long time. I’ve been told its vintage. Whether that sticks around or not, we’ll see. We’re pressed for space where we are. We’ve been hybrid for a while and virtual as well, which has allowed us to stay in the space that we’re in. Looking at a possible move is definitely something as part of our strategic plan.

The bulk of the work is supporting our leadership team who provides the programming, both on the provincial and the national stage. We’ve been a leader in many respects, our center. Continuing that on. Also, modernizing. It’s been around a long time. I started off when we were doing overhead projectors for training. Now it’s AI and trying to get away from manual timesheets and modernizing some of our processes will be something that we’d be looking forward to. Also, new opportunities, like BCCMHA, where we do a lot of collaborative training. There’s new opportunities on the horizon in 2027. In 2028, we’re renegotiating our funding contracts. It’s a mixture of people and number crunching. There’s a lot for them to do.

 

Lots to sink their proverbial teeth into, for that matter. That’s great. Lots to take on, both, as you say, some compelling things around space and operations. Also, some high-level strategic things and some discussions to be had. That’s fantastic. Karen, let’s turn to you then. Speaking of all things strategic, all things board-like. What do you see as exciting and compelling on the horizon for society?

It’s just the fact that our service has always been needed and always will be needed. That’s one of the key things and it speaks to the growth that Elizabeth had mentioned. I’ve spent the last twenty or so years working in the field of mental health at various levels. We know how important being able to access mental health is when you need it. The fact that we offer 24-hour, we go beyond just Vancouver Island, as Elizabeth mentioned. We do BC and we do across Canada.

I always think as well, a huge part of why we’re very successful is our community education. I know Liz and I both are mentioning that, especially our youth support program. We offer a program in schools where we educate youth around recognizing and challenges of mental health. Post-pandemic, many people are struggling, particularly our youth. That’s a compelling place to start to look at as we move forward. How can we even increase that number?

It’s exciting to hear Liz talk about our staff. Maybe I’m biased, but we have the best trained staff of any crisis center across Canada. We used to run a lot on volunteers, but it’s a lot for volunteers to deal with the issues that we deal with. Knowing that we’ve doubled the staff and they’re all highly trained. That is just such a compelling case for any organization.

I fully expect you both to be highly biased. I expect nothing less for that matter. Tell me a little bit, Karen, the ED is going to work with the board. We’ve heard about Liz’s perspective with the partners, community partners, the staff and so on. You’ve spoken about staff as well. Tell me a little bit about the board, the culture, how the board collaborates and works together for that matter.

Board Dynamics And Moving To Strategic Governance

I was an ED. The new person will be our only employee, as is Liz. We all take our roles very seriously. Not just about the strategy, but supporting the ED. Over the past few years, we’ve certainly moved from an operational board into a governance board. That was a focus, I know when I joined. I wanted us to move to that governance. It allows for two things. It allows the board to focus on what we should be focusing on as board volunteers, but also allows the ED to do their job.

We’re employing someone to be an executive director and we have to allow them to do their job. I hope that’s one of the things that comes out when we have a new ED joining. We want to collaborate, support the ED, but we also want to empower them to make changes, to make decisions, and to support their staff team. As a board, we’ve typically never had to advertise for board members, which is quite rare in the not-for-profit sector.

 

We usually get our board members through knowledge, recommendations, and quite a few of our board have got a background in management or mental health. They tend to reach out to Liz through the website and find out about joining us. We’re proud of that. It’s that move from operational to governance. We’re strategic now.

That’s great. As a former ED yourself, I know you appreciate the importance of that dynamic, the empowering relationship and so on. If I may, Karen. I’m going to go a little off script here. What brought you to society then? You talked about what typically brings people. You’ve talked about your own twenty-year history and working with mental health. What drew you to society and what keeps you engaged?

I’ve always given back to my community. I’ve always been on board since I moved to Canada. You can tell that I am from Scotland, but I moved to Canada in 2005, and I’ve always given back to my community. I moved to Vancouver Island in 2020, as the pandemic hit. I changed jobs, changed provinces, and I always wanted to give back, just the field of mental health. What I liked about Vancouver Island Crisis Society was the growth that we’re seeing. If you have to look at our website, you can see the growth. Being able to still use my skills as a leader and a board position, all not-for-profit Liz and I were looking for board directors. Why did I choose VICS?

It’s just because of what we do. It is. I’ve never personally had any connection to suicide over the years, and I’m very fortunate to not have that. It’s such a key issue in our society, and it’s so misunderstood. We have to be able to talk about it more often, just the way we do about mental health. When I looked for an agency to give my time to, there was no competition with Vancouver Island Crisis Society.

Thank you for sharing. I know how seriously you take the work, and knowing you for a few years, having gotten to know the board over the past months, you’ve characterized the board accurately in the seriousness and the intent with which they take the work. Thank you and the board for that. I know you’re all dedicated volunteers for that matter. Transitioning back to the ED. When this person is in place, what do you think are their key priorities? If you were to map out their to-do list early days, early months, what might be on that list? What do you think are the key priorities for them?

Before I say a few things, I wanted to jump off of what Karen was saying in terms of the board. As an ED, I have been very supported by the board from a legal standpoint. We have legal representation. We have someone from the crisis team. Sometimes I say it’s only on the top. It hasn’t been because I’ve been supported as well in terms of some of those difficult conversations.

When I see the new ED coming in, I see first getting to know the board, getting to know the leadership team. There’s going to be a myriad of signing things to transfer over from banking to signing officer stuff. Shadowing stakeholder meetings and introducing that new person to provincial and national stakeholders, orientation to our programs, familiarizing ourselves with the strategic plan, and being able to ask questions. Also, I’m preparing for that person a calendar, your calendar of all the deadlines and all the reports that are due to give them a heads up in terms of success.

Suicide is such a key issue in our society, and it's so misunderstood. We have to be able to talk about it more often, just the way we do about mental health. Share on X

Karen, from your perspective, anything to add there in terms of what you’d like to see this person working on or any collective board thoughts you want to share?

Liz stole most of my thoughts there. One thing that we have noticed as a board about our outgoing executive director is the relationship building that she does with her team. From the team, I don’t just mean her leadership team. I mean from the front lines all the way up, has been key to the success of Vancouver Island Crisis Society. I can’t say enough about that as the person we’re looking for. Someone who’s interested in building relationships with the team, also with the board and the community, but to be able to build that relationship with the team and make them feel supported and whilst not being on top of them all the time.

Liz is the kind of ED that steps in when needed, but she also empowers her team to do their job, just as we empower Liz to do hers. That’s something that is a huge priority. It’s just building that relationship with the team. Elizabeth mentioned the strategic plan and making sure that they’re aware of what the priorities will be for the next year and getting us to the next year of our strategic plan. Getting themselves orientated to the agency.

We have a lot of staff and we do a lot of good work. We have a lot of funding, but they have to be orientated well. Knowing that they’re very lucky to have an outgoing executive director that can do a handover with them. Having been in that role myself and joined agencies where there was no handover, it is tough to get to know the ins and outs. That’s a key part is getting through the orientation with Liz and being able to find out what the good things are about the organization and also what things they might want to look at.

Fair enough. Liz, the team theme is coming up a lot in the collaboration with the team. Maybe tell me a little bit about the team, the staff group as it is now, your leadership group, the balance of the staff. There’s 40 odd staff members that you’d mentioned earlier. How does the staff collaborate? What is that team culture like?

Fostering Team Culture And Supporting A Hybrid Workforce

There’s structured meetings like monthly, weekly, depending on whether you’re a call responder or quality assurance or that type of thing. Also, Ad hoc meetings. We do meetings through Zoom, and email communication. It’s very vibrant. We have a very strong HR component, and that HR component is supportive. We say no wrong door. Wellness is very important to us, and we want people to be able to go to HR, their crisis line supervisor or colleague, to be able to talk and get support so they’re not alone in doing the work that they’re doing.

We believe in transparency and a lot of our decisions are made by consensus as much as possible. We have a lot of diverse voices. We’re a very diverse organization and we’re also not afraid to have tough, challenging conversations. We say we have to set an example. We’re in the communication business. If we can’t talk amongst ourselves with that model, then how can we do that in community or over the phone? Our biggest challenge, and we’re successful most of the time, but we can do some work in that area.

Not-for-profit is a tough game. Someone who's got that passion to actually make a change in people's lives is essential. Share on X

That’s because we’re a hybrid agency, both virtual and in the office. Being that connection, that in-person connection is very important. In November, we have a cultural potluck. Some people will be in person and some will be via Zoom. How do you interact with those two groups together? We have a show and tell and we have just to build team connections. With this new hybrid, it’s become a challenge for us. Karen had mentioned it. When I say we’re a small agency, we’re mid-range. The ED has the opportunity to be involved with more frontline programming. That as a large center, they may not have that opportunity, but we’re not so small where we’re on the provincial and national stage.

There’s some big things happening. I like that middle of the road. There’s an opportunity to do both. I know when I came in, I took the crisis line training. I started off on the ground and it changed how I parented. It changed how I became a leader in the organization, modeling those same communication skills. It’s very much a collaborative, transparent process of communication amongst the team.

That’s great. That’s a nice pivot to the skills, background, competencies we’re looking for in the next ED. You’ve talked a lot about leadership, communications, obviously compassion and empathy for the cause of the work you’re doing fundamentally. Liz, why don’t you go first. I want to hear from both of you on this and what you think we’re looking for in the new ED.

I’ll jump on a word you just mentioned, and that is compassion. Amongst all the team players, one of the things they would like is a leader that has compassion and empathy because that is the business we are in. That sees each person of value. No matter who the employee is or volunteer, that person has value. They’re a collaborator, a unifier, and very strong project management skills. They’re driving some of those projects, and they’re part of committees and groups of perhaps provincial and national projects.

Continuous, strong leadership skills. That’s one of the things that I’m proud of that I’ve had good leadership skills over the years. I grew in the agency, so having, passing off that baton to someone, they need strong leaders. There’s no question about it. They need to be approachable. It’s not me personally, it’s my position, but I always felt like I was intimidating sometimes. It’s like, “I want to be approachable.” Even though sometimes I would have a call responder not approach me or whatever, I think I’m approachable. That’s definitely a very powerful quality.

Fair enough.

 

Before I hand it over to Karen, it’s like an example. You can say a lot without words just by how you behave. That’s a big one. Also, admitting when you’re wrong.

I was going to commend you for the self-reflection there about yourself growing as a leader in this role. I would imagine anybody coming into this role, they’re going to have to grow and change. To thrive, you have to do that. You’re going to be a great leader managing others who are going to do the same thing. I appreciate you sharing that, and sliding that in there too, for that matter. Karen, over to you.

Essential Leadership Qualities For The Next Executive Director

A seasoned and passionate leader. For our team to see the passion that the leader of the organization brings, not just about the field of mental health and suicide itself, but passionate about the not-for-profit. Not-for-profit is a tough game. It has been for many years and it’s getting tougher by the year. Someone who’s got that passion to make a change in people’s lives is and I love the servant leadership style.

Personally, that’s what I always tried and Liz said it well. That you’re listening to everyone, no matter what the role is in the organization. You might not always give them the answer that they want, but you should always give them the answer that they deserve. If they’ve went to the bother of coming to you or coming to you via somebody else, then you have to make sure that you’re supporting them. We mentioned it once before with the work that our call responders deal with.

For the ED to know that what vicarious trauma is, how they can support the team is important. That listening to calls during the night may be the most serious issue, and then they might get a result that they’ve not expected. How to support that staff to make them feel that they have done their job as well as they could have. We cannot control the outcomes, but we can control how we support our staff team. That’s what I’ve been looking for in an executive director.

Quite often I phrase this piece as being very mission-driven. In your mission, in your organization, it means something very specific. It means being compassionate, empathetic, and understanding what the call responders are doing. That vicarious trauma piece that you talked about, Karen, that’s so apt and so important to understand the nature of the work fundamentally. Karen, what would make the ED earn a gold star? If we were talking again in a year, you said, “This ED is amazing because they were able to do X, Y, Z, or this is the person they are.” What do you think we might look for in that respect?

Retain the culture that we have within Vancouver Island Crisis Society and also make the staff team feel that there’s been a seamless transition. We know that the team, no matter what the role is, is going to miss Liz. You always miss what is familiar to you. For me to be able to sit down as the board president in a year and say, we have had a seamless transition and to say kudos to the ED for that. Towards the end of the year, successful contract negotiation. We’re very well-funded by the government and that contract has to be successfully negotiated. That will definitely get them the gold star with the board.

 

As I understand it, the nature of those relationships that you have are positive to start off with, so you’re coming at these negotiations from such a position of strength, alignment and familiarity, for that matter.

Liz mentioned at one point as well, being out in the community and meeting with your funders and meeting in the community with other people who do similar work to what we do, and just making sure that people know who we’re as an organization. We could be Vancouver Island’s best kept secret. We don’t know. However, by the number of calls that we take every year, and I’m quite sure many people do know about it in the amazing work that we do.

For sure. In closing, then here’s your opportunity to talk about Vancouver Island’s best kept secret then. What are your closing messages? If somebody’s reading, they’re interested, they’re curious, but they’re not quite sure that they might want to throw their hat into the ring. What is the message you want to share with them to have them leave potentially where they are and come join you?

Why This Executive Director Role Is A Rewarding Opportunity

In our world, we say crisis is opportunity. It could be a crisis or we’re losing the ED, but not really. It’s a huge opportunity for the agency. Whoever joins the team will, the learning environment is always evolving. I’m still learning. The agency has a strong foundation. Whoever joins us, they’re building on innovative opportunities for new programming. There’s always something around the corner. The team is a very supportive, compassionate group of people.

Karen mentioned it a few times, autonomous work. You don’t have someone looking over your shoulder. My day is my day, and how I plan it is very autonomous work. It’s very rewarding work. It’s tangible. I’m leaving my employee feeling like you’ve contributed to the world in what you’re doing. When I say saving lives, sometimes you know the people you’ve touched and you’ve saved. Sometimes you don’t.

There’s so many out there that we don’t know but I know we are that pebble in the pond that trickles by. I just know that. I always say that I’m only one person in this agency. Every year at our annual appreciation, I would say I’m one person. It takes a team to do this work. Whoever’s joining is joining the team and will be part of the team.

If you want to have an impact from youth, all the way to seniors, that also impacts families, peoples, and community networks, and you want to work in a positive work environment. There is no better job than Vancouver Island Crisis Society. I know as a board, we panicked a bit when we knew that Liz was retiring, but we’ve had lots of time to get used to it. It’s hard to lose any long-term staff. It’s the knowledge that goes with them.

We cannot control the outcomes, but we can control how we support our staff team. Share on X

She’s going to leave it so set up for that new executive director that they’re going to be incredibly fortunate to be able to join a well-run, well-funded, passionate team as well and make some changes. It doesn’t have to be the status quo. We do an amazing job, but there are always opportunities around the corner that Elizabeth has already mentioned. We’re looking forward to working with you, Christoph, to look at the resumes. We’re going to be inundated with the resumes, then take it from there.

I will miss Christoph and Karen’s travels that I had the opportunity to do. Every year, I got to go to two conferences. I visited many cities in the States and in Canada as part of this job. I didn’t think that I would have the opportunity to do that.

Fair enough. The warmth, the impact, as you say, like changing the world fundamentally in such a positive, unique, important way. That comes from the staff. It comes from the team and the volunteers. You feel that. Hopefully, that’s come across in our conversation. Anyone that’s reading that is curious, that is interested, I would encourage them to reach out to me at [email protected].

You’ve got a wonderful webpage as well, Liz. As you mentioned, the logo might be a little outdated. You don’t see many phone cords. You still have the phones that still have the cord attached to the handle, but it’s neither here nor there, but your website is VICrisis.ca for more information. Again, thanks to you both. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and to learn from you. Again, thank you both for the wonderful work you’re doing.

Thank you.

Thank you both for having us.

 

Important links

• Elizabeth Newcombe on LinkedIn
• Karen Love
• Vancouver Island Crisis Society
• Barry County Community Mental Health Authority
• [email protected]