Executive Director of the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance (OCTA)

Rebecca loves Ontario, good, clean and fair food and drink, meeting people and having new experiences. Lucky for her she has the best job in the world! In her role as Executive Director for OCTA, she has had the distinct pleasure of travelling across the Province of Ontario connecting growers and producers to chefs and restaurateurs. Engaging Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO’s) with the regional agricultural organizations and economic developers, Rebecca has worked with a variety of partners to expand the original 5 culinary regions developing culinary tourism (in 2008) to 15 regions as of 2009.

In her previous role with Taste the County™ - Prince Edward County’s DMO, Rebecca became passionate about agriculture, tourism, arts and culture and their interrelation. During her nine years with Taste the County™, she was instrumental in the development and management of culinary tourism products including the award winning Taste Trail, annual TASTE! a celebration of regional cuisine, Maple in the County and Countylicious events and the buy-local program Harvestin’ the County.

Rebecca designed and developed several courses for George Brown College’s cutting edge Culinary Tourism Management program which launched online in 2009. She holds positions on the Boards of the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation Town & Country Committee, Terroir Hospitality, Slow Food Canada and Slow Food PEC.