About Us

Rachel Byrne serves as Acting Executive Director, at AWARE-NS.

She plays a crucial role in driving AWARE NS’s administration, strategic planning, program growth, and team culture. Confident and capable, Rachel has a diverse educational and professional background with an overarching focus on client care, procedural streamlining, and pushing performance growth.

Beyond her professional life, Rachel enjoys skiing with her family in the winter and camping, or spending the day on a beach, in the summer. She also loves indulging in sushi and savours a strong cup of coffee.

Reza Jannati is an Occupational Health and Safety Advisor at AWARE-NS, where he develops and delivers evidence-based training and resources to support workers and employers across Nova Scotia’s health and community services sectors. A Certified Registered Safety Technician (CRST) with a Master’s degree in Occupational Health and Safety from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Reza brings a strong background in risk management, human factors engineering, and safety system design. His experience spans occupational health, environmental safety, and regulatory compliance within healthcare, education, and service-based industries. At AWARE-NS, he focuses on strengthening safety culture through innovative learning initiatives and practical, solutions-driven approaches that help organizations build safer, healthier workplaces.

Outside of work, Reza enjoys hiking, live music, dancing, and exploring new places.

Jonathan joined AWARE-NS in 2025 as an Occupational Health and Safety Advisor.

He has over a decade of experience working in the pharmacy sector and providing safety support for both long term care pharmacies, and retail.
His background in Safety focuses heavily on providing safety related training, performing safety audits, and development of safety programs.

Jonathan graduated from Saint Mary’s University in 2015, receiving a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology and a Certificate of Human Resource Management. In 2024, he earned his designation as a Canadian Registered Safety Professional.

In his free time Jonathan enjoys games, sci-fi movies, brain-teasers, and hosting Dungeons and Dragons adventures.

Alan (he/him) is Team Lead and Occupational Health and Safety Advisor with AWARE-NS, having joined the team in 2017.

His career brings an extensive breadth of customer care experience, and people and program management, having delivered progressive customer solutions for various North American companies. A career re-focus brought Alan to a true passion of supporting clients in creating safe and healthy workplaces.

In addition to holding a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from University College of Cape Breton, Alan obtained his Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety (Honors, Gold Medal Award recipient) from Nova Scotia Community College

Outside of work, Alan is a fan of pop culture, enjoys travel, making friends with animals, hiking, biking, golfing (i.e. looking for lost golf balls), and spending time with family and friends.

Beth is an Occupational Health and Safety Advisor with AWARE-NS who has 14+ years of experience in the long-term care sector.

Beth’s experiences in Workforce, Hospitality and Support Services adds to the organizational diversity of the AWARE-NS team.

Beth’s willingness to work hard and love of learning led her to become a university student once again, completing an Occupational Health and Safety Certificate through University of New Brunswick.

Aside from her work-related interests, Beth enjoys gardening, travelling, 4-wheeling and Summers on the back deck.