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Siloam Mission, one of Winnipeg’s largest homeless shelters, has a new CEO — its third in the past five years.
Sonia Prevost-Derbecker was announced as the organization’s new head in a news release on Wednesday. She will be formally introduced at an event on Friday.
Prevost-Derbecker was chosen following a national search that drew more than 1,100 candidates, the Siloam news release said.
“She is a Winnipeg-born leader with more than 25 years of experience across Indigenous-led, community-based, and public-sector organizations,” the release said.
Prevost-Derbecker fills the role left vacant by the departure of Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud, who stepped down in January 2025 to become the Manitoba government’s senior adviser on homelessness and lead the Your Way Home strategy.
Blaikie Whitecloud had been Siloam’s CEO since November 2021. She replaced Jim Bell, who had resigned earlier that year after accusations surfaced that the organization was not meeting the spiritual needs of Indigenous community members.
Since Blaikie Whitecloud’s departure, Julianne Aitken has served as interim CEO.
Prevost-Derbecker has served as a director with the Native Women’s Transition Centre in Winnipeg, director of the Point Douglas Revitalization Initiative for the provincial government, vice-president of education for the national Indigenous-led charity Indspire, and global director of Indigenous programs for the non-profit organization Movember.
In its news release about Prevost-Derbecker’s appointment, Siloam Mission said the organization is at a pivotal moment in its history, with “an ambitious housing-focused strategy aimed at ending chronic homelessness in Winnipeg.”
Over the next decade, Siloam intends to help create homes for 1,000 people, according to board chair Tracey Silagy.