Mark Bayley is Program Medical Director & Physiatrist-in-Chief at UHN-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. He is a Professor at the University of Toronto in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine. Mark has held a number of health system leadership roles including Chair of the Canadian Stroke Best Practices committee, the  Stroke Evaluation Committee at Corhealth Ontario, and the Vice Chair of the Greater Toronto Area Rehab Network. He has led large randomized controlled trials including the Stroke Canada Optimization of Rehabilitation by evidence (SCORE), Fluoxetine to open the Window of Stroke Recovery (FLOW) study, the Getting on with Life after stroke and the EVREST (Efficacy of Virtual Reality Exercises using Wii gaming technology in STroke Rehabilitation). He has been very interested in implementing evidence at a health system level in the areas of stroke and brain injury rehabilitation initially through  the stroke guidelines for Canadian Stroke strategy (www.strokebestpractices.ca), a smartphone app to determine post stroke arm rehabilitation (www.viatherapy.org) and guidelines for concussion and traumatic brain injury (www.braininjuryguidelines.org).

Dr. David Butler-Jones was the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada and Deputy Minister for the Public Health Agency of Canada) from 2004 to 2014. He stepped down following a stroke in 2012. He was the first person to hold this office. Throughout his career, he has worked in many parts of Canada in both Public Health and Clinical Medicine. Since recovering from a stroke he has resumed an active role with a number of organizations. He has taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has been actively involved as a researcher and consultant in public health issues. He is a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba, as well as a Clinical Professor with the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine. From 1995 to 2002, Dr. Butler-Jones was Chief Medical Health Officer and Executive Director of the Population Health and Primary Health Services Branches for the Province of Saskatchewan. In professional organizations, he has served as President of the Canadian Public Health Association; Vice President of the American Public Health Association; Chair of the Canadian Roundtable on Health and Climate Change; International Regent on the board of the American College of Preventive Medicine; Member of the Governing Council for the Canadian Population Health Initiative; Chair of the National Coalition on Enhancing Preventive Practices of Health Professionals; and Co-Chair of the Canadian Coalition for Public Health in the 21st Century. He has received honorary degrees (LLD) from Carleton University (Ottawa) and York University (Toronto), as well as a DSc from the University of Waterloo. He is recipient of The Canadian Public Health Association Robert Davies Defries Award, its highest honour. The College of Family Physicians, ScotiaBank Family Medicine Lectureship. And the Medal of Service from The Canadian Medical Association for, “his outstanding and exceptional contribution to health care in Canada”. In 2017, he received the Presidents Award from the Public Health Physicians of Canada. He is a member of the National Board for the a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and continues to speak, teach, mentor and advise on a range of issues in Leadership, Health Systems, Indigenous Health and Public Health.

Dr. Charbonneau received his B. Sc. And M.Sc. in Physics from the University of Ottawa and his Ph.D. degree in Photonics – Semiconductor Physics from Simon Fraser University, British Columbia in 1988. He joined the Institute for Microstructural Sciences of the National Research Council (NRC) in October 1988. From 1998 to January 2000, he took on the responsibility of Director of Components Technologies for the Institute of Microstructural Sciences at NRC, with managing responsibility of 160 FTE within the Institute. In late 2000, Dr. Charbonneau, along with three other colleagues, founded a company, Optenia Inc. a NRC spin-off in the communications technology sector. In 2002, Dr. Charbonneau returned to the NRC and, in May 2011, he was named Executive Director responsible for the strategic development of the Printable Electronic Flagship Program. In April 2013, Dr. Charbonneau took the position of Associate Vice-President, Research at the University of Ottawa. In 2017, he was named Vice-President, Research at the University of Ottawa.

Mr. Churchill-Smith, Q.C., is former senior partner with BLG. In addition to maintaining his own mediation and litigation practice, Mr. Churchill-Smith has been extensively involved in pro bono work. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for Pro Bono Legal Service 2015 from the Law Society of Alberta and Canadian Bar Association. He is Past-President of Pro Bono Law Alberta, Past-Chair of BLG’s National Pro Bono Committee, and a member of the Law Society of Alberta’s Pro Bono Task Force. He is also a coordinator of the Child Advocacy Pro Bono Project (a Joint Initiative of BLG, the Children’s Legal Education Resource Centre, and Pro Bono Law Alberta) and a past chair of the Volunteer Lawyers’ Service. Mr. Churchill-Smith is also a Council Member of the Foothills Medical Centre Development Council, 2007 to present (Foothills Hospital) and a past Member, Board of Directors, Womens’ Health Development Council (Grace Hospital).

Dr. Andrew Demchuk is an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences for the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. He is also a stroke neurologist and Director of the Calgary Stroke Program, Alberta Health Services. Dr. Demchuk received his undergraduate degree in 1989 from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan. He then went on to complete his medical degree (with distinction) from the University of Saskatchewan in 1993, followed by his residency in neurology from the University of Calgary (1993-97). Dr. Demchuk completed a fellowship in cerebrovascular disease (1997-99) from the University of Texas-Houston. Dr. Demchuk’s primary research interests focus on vascular imaging, where he is trying to establish target populations for new stroke treatments by selecting patients based on imaging tests performed in the emergency setting. In addition to his research and clinical activities, Dr. Demchuk is a member on a number of local, national, and international committees. He is the past board chair for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta, NWT, and Nunavut and he is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Stroke Consortium.

Janice Eng, PhD, is a professor in the UBC Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia and directs an interdisciplinary research team in neurological rehabilitation with several graduate students, post-docs and staff in the Rehabilitation Research Lab at the GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre. She is a recipient of a Senior Scholar Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research which protects her research time.  She is also a faculty member of the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), UBC graduate program in neuroscience, and UBC Brain Research Centre.  During her training years, she studied at the University of Toronto, graduating with an MSc in Biomedical Engineering and completed her doctorate in Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Eng also completed her post-doctoral training in Neurophysiology at Simon Fraser University. Dr. Eng’s research focuses on the development of innovative and effective rehabilitation interventions to improve functional abilities in people with neurological conditions. Her trainees have had backgrounds in physical therapy, occupational therapy, engineering, medicine, kinesiology, psychology or science. She studied as an undergraduate at UBC in the combined Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy (PT/OT) program.

Jean Lazarus is accountable for the operations of the Research Division at Baycrest, which includes managing the operating budget; overseeing the grants budget; managing the human resources function for the division; planning and allocating space requirements; and, representing the department on various centre-wide committees.

Debra Lynkowski received her law degree from the University of Alberta in 1986. Following this, she began a career in the non-profit sector and has worked at all levels – local, provincial/territorial and national. Ms. Lynkowski served as President and CEO of the Canadian Lung Association from 2013-2017, leading a process of revitalization and renewal, including the continued refinement and implementation of the organization’s National Respiratory Research Strategy. Prior to this, she held several leadership positions including the CEO of the Canadian Public Health Association and National Director of Public Policy and Government Relations for the Canadian Diabetes Association. In 2004, Debra joined the Canadian Stroke Network, in partnership with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, to help lead the Canadian Stroke Strategy, bringing together stakeholders and partners to develop and implement a coordinated and integrated approach to stroke prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and community reintegration in every province and territory in Canada.

Diego Marchese is the Executive Vice President, HSF Canada. He previously held the roles of Vice President, Prevention Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and at the HSF BC and Yukon he was CEO, COO, and Vice President, Research and Health Promotion. Diego has more than 20 years of service with the Foundation, during which he has been an integral part of its leadership team nationally and provincially and has made outstanding contributions to its success in working towards its mission of healthy lives free of heart disease and stroke. Diego holds a Bachelor degree in exercise science and a Master’s degree in education with a focus on health education and program planning.

Rod McKay is director of Fidelity Capital Corporation; director and past chair of the board of Tourism Calgary; chair of Calgary Sport + Major Events; and, a member of the advisory committee of the Institute of Corporate Directors.  Rod served as board chair of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada. He is a fellow of the Chartered Accountants of Alberta. As a partner of KPMG, an international audit, tax and advisory firm, he held senior leadership positions in the firm in Canada and internationally. Rod has been active in numerous community-based health services and cultural organizations for many years.

Ms. Vivian-Scott’s 25 years in professional practice has led her in fields as diverse as engineering construction to corporate finance. The majority of her career has been occupied by the challenging task of commercializing university-based research discoveries into meaningful products and services. She took on the headship at Kinarm in 2009, becoming full-time in 2013. Her current role is very representative of the approach taken by PARTEQ Innovations, the technology transfer agent of Queen’s University, to commercialization: roll up your sleeves, develop an achievable business plan, get operationally involved, and run those entities through the early years. She manages sales, marketing, finance and the quality management system. Ms. Vivian-Scott has a B.A.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (Waterloo) and MBA (Concordia). She holds a seat on the Ontario Brain Institute’s Industry Advisory Council.

With over 30 years of health care experience, Michael has worked in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations; both in the Canadian and U.S. health care systems. In Ontario, he held past positions as Vice-President, Information and Corporate Services and C.F.O. at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre; Vice-President, Finance and CFO at Markham Stouffville Hospital; Director of Financial Services at the Wellesley Hospital; and Vice-President, Finance at the Riverdale Hospital (now BridgePoint Health). Michael’s private sector and U.S. experience was gained as C.F.O. and Chief Medicare Compliance Officer for the U.S. operation of Dynacare Laboratories (a $300M medical laboratory NASDQ company); Chief Operating Officer of a privately owned diversified holding company; Regional Vice-President for the Canadian operations of Gentiva Health Services (a $1.5B NASDQ home health care company), where he was responsible of full Canadian subsidiary operations; and Managing Director, Bayshore HealthCare (a division of Bayshore Health Group), where he conceived and orchestrated the purchase of and subsequent integration of Bayshore and Gentiva. Michael is a graduate of the University of Toronto. He articled with Ernst and Young, Chartered Accountants and received his CA (now CPA) designation in 1984. He is a the Board Chair of Plexxus (on Ontario Shared Service Organization), and past Board Member of CImTeC (Centre for Imaging Technology Commercialization), CPSR (Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery), Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation and Booth Centennial Hospital Linen Services. Michael has also participated on a number of health care advisory committees for U.S. information technology companies.