Speaker Biographies

Stephen Quinn (Moderator – Shedding Light)

Stephen Quinn, a multiple Radio Television News Directors Association award winner, brings his energy, passions and wealth of journalism experience to the popular CBC radio show, On the Coast. Fresh from an eight-year stint as CBC’s provocative civic affairs reporter, Mr. Quinn delivers a daily dose of must-listen-to radio through news, reviews and interviews that keep Vancouverites informed on local issues, sports, weather and entertainment.

Dr. Charles Tator (Opening Address - Shedding Light)

Dr. Charles Tator is a brain surgeon who founded ThinkFirst Canada in 1992 and was President from 1992-2007. He is a Professor of Neurosurgery at the Toronto Western Hospital and University of Toronto, where he has held two research chairs. He is also a neuroscientist with a brain and spinal cord regeneration laboratory, and has a PhD in neuropathology. He has published many articles on injury prevention with a focus on prevention of brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. In 2008, the University of Toronto Press published his edited book, “Catastrophic Injuries in Sports and Recreation, Causes and Prevention - a Canadian study.” He is a member of the Order of Canada and was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. ThinkFirst is one of the leading agencies for the promotion of safety for Canada’s children and youth and has developed and disseminated targeted injury prevention programs for schools and sports and recreation.

Dr. Carolyn Emery (Shedding Light)

Dr. Emery is an associate professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Pediatrics and Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary.  She is an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Population Health Investigator, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator and holds a Professorship in Pediatric Rehabilitation at the University of Calgary.  Her PhD in Epidemiology is from the Department of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta. Dr. Emery is the co-Chair of the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre at the University of Calgary.  Dr. Emery has 22 years of clinical experience, including expertise in pediatric orthopedics and sport medicine. The primary focus of Dr. Emery’s research program is the identification of risk factors for injury and evaluation of prevention strategies to reduce the risk of injury in youth sport.

Dr. Jamie Kissick (Shedding Light)

Dr. Kissick is a sport medicine physician from Ottawa, practising at the Ottawa Sport Medicine Centre. He holds a Diploma in Sport Medicine from the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine, and is a former president of this organization.  His main clinical interest is concussion in athletes. Dr. Kissick was head team physician of the Ottawa Senators (NHL) from 1992-2002, and has been a team physician for the Ottawa Renegades (CFL) and Ottawa Lynx (Triple A Baseball).  He is currently the team physician for the National Mens’ Sledge Hockey team.  Dr. Kissick has been part of the health care team at the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Pan American Games, World University Games and Canada Games.   He holds the 2006 Think First Public Education and Awareness Award and is a member of Think First’s Concussion Education and Awareness, Soccer Safety and Hockey Safety Committees.  

Dahna Sanderson (Shedding Light)

Ms. Sanderson works at The Pampered Chef as the Director of Marketing & Communications. She founded the Donald Sanderson Memorial Fund in memory of her son Donald, who died Jan. 2, 2009, after falling into a coma as a result of hitting his head on the ice during a hockey game. She is a former professional figure skating coach and for 20 years has coached and volunteered in sports and the community. With 20 years plus playing women’s slow pitch, she was a part of the 2000 Canadian championship winners. She is a member of the Vaughan Task Force related to sports and helmet safety.

Dr. Alison Macpherson (Shedding Light)

Dr. Macpherson received her PhD from the University of Toronto’s Institute of Medical Science preceded by a Master’s degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from McGill University.  Her research interests include prevention of childhood injuries in mainstream, First Nations, and Inuit children, and pediatric health services research.  She is an adjunct scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), a member of the LaMarsh Institute for Child and Youth Health, and a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Injury Prevention. She is currently the co-principal investigator on several CIHR grants, including the CIHR Team in Child Injury Prevention.

Dr. Michael Cusimano (Shedding Light)

Michael Cusimano, M.D., Ph.D., (ThinkFirst Canada Vice-President and Director of Research) is a neurosurgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital and Professor at the University of Toronto. Dr. Cusimano also has a Ph.D. in Educational Measurement and Evaluation from the Ontario Institutes for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. Dr. Cusimano holds cross appointments in the Department of Public Health Sciences and at OISE. He has been an active Board Member with ThinkFirst Canada for over ten years. He is a practicing Brain surgeon with a Phd in Education. Dr. Cusimano has published widely in the area of injury prevention including in the area of hockey injuries and primary prevention.

Sheldon Kennedy (Stand Up / Speak Out – Linkages Between Intentional & Unintentional Injury)

Sheldon Kennedy skated for three teams in his eight-year NHL career (Detroit Red Wings, Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins) and played for Canada’s gold-medal winning team in the 1988 World Junior Hockey Championship. He is best known for his courageous decision to speak out about the abuse he suffered over five years while a teenager under the care of his Major Junior Hockey league coach, which led to sexual assault charges against the coach. His life story was made into an award winning television movie and he has appeared on Oprah, ABC’s Nightline, W-5, The Fifth Estate and was nominated as Peter Jennings’ Man of the Week.

In 2006, Mr. Kennedy wrote, “Why I Didn’t Say Anything” a riveting account of the many psychological impacts of abuse. He continues to carry his message through Respect Group Inc., the company he co-founded, which provides empowering online education for the prevention of abuse, bullying and harassment in sport, schools and the workplace.

Dr. Sue Bennett (Stand Up / Speak Out – Linkages Between Intentional & Unintentional Injury)

Dr. Sue Bennett is a Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa and a pediatrician and psychoanalyst and Director of the Child & Youth Protection Program at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa. Her clinical work with maltreated children, youth and their families spans more than two decades. She was a founding member and first president of the Child and Youth Maltreatment Section of the Canadian Pediatric Society. She has travelled widely and worked for several years as a pediatrician in the United Arab Emirates. More recently in the UAE, she developed a rehabilitation program for trafficked camel jockey children with UNICEF, organized the first national child protection conference for health professionals, conducted training for local professionals and assisted the government with the development of a child protection strategy.  

Dr. Bennett is an Associate of the International Institute for Child Rights and Development based at the University of Victoria and has been an International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Councilor since 2008.

Dr. Jeremy Shiffman (Keynote)

Dr. Shiffman is Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy at American University. A political scientist by training, he researches the politics of health policy and administration in poor countries. He has a particular interest in health agenda setting: why some issues receive priority while others are neglected. Among other topics, he has investigated maternal survival, newborn survival, family planning, donor funding for health and health systems reform. His work has appeared in multiple journals, including The Lancet, The American Journal of Public Health, Social Science and Medicine, The British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and The Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Prior to working in academia, he served as an executive with the international public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, and as a social worker, working with Vietnamese boat people.

Dr. David Butler-Jones (Keynote)

Dr. Butler-Jones, Canada’s first Chief Public Health Officer, heads the Public Health Agency of Canada, which provides leadership on the government’s efforts to protect and promote the health and safety of Canadians.

Dr. Butler-Jones has taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has been involved as a researcher in a broad range of 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.

Dr. Butler-Jones has served with a number of organizations including 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.

Jade Berg (Youth Champions Panel)

Jade had had his driver’s license for just three days when he picked up two of his best friends to go for a drive. The friends often did risky stunts for a rush. So when Dieter suggested riding on the hood of the car, they all agreed. But as Jade picked up speed, Dieter began to slip off the car and Jade slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting him. Dieter fell and slid down the road on his head. He nearly died and now lives with a permanent brain injury. Jade, uninjured, was charged, lost his driver’s license for five years and felt ostracized by his family and community. He left his small town in Alberta and moved to British Columbia to start his life over. As a presenter, Jade helps educate young people about thinking through whether “it’s a smart risk or a stupid risk, because things happen so quickly and you can’t take them back.”

Caitlin Dobratz (Youth Champions Panel)

Caitlin grew up in Mattawa, Ontario and graduated from high school in 2008. Currently, she is living in North Bay, Ontario where she is attending Nipissing University. Caitlin is going into her third year and is studying Social Welfare and Development and Sociology. She enjoys reading, writing, watching movies and spending time with friends and family. After three years of involvement with SMARTRISK at her high school Caitlin joined the Youth Advisory Team in 2009 and has been actively involved for the last two years. The issue of injury is important to Caitlin because she feels that there are too many young people in today’s society who are taking dangerous risks without thinking about the consequences. Caitlin knows that something as simple as wearing a helmet while biking or skating could be the difference between life and death, and appreciates the positive message that SMARTRISK offers: that there are many ways to have fun while reducing your chance of injury.

Kate MacLeod (Youth Champions Panel)

Kate MacLeod grew up in Newmarket, Ontario and currently lives in Halifax Nova Scotia, and worked with the Health Promotion Youth Corps this past summer. She works specifically with Addiction Services at the Department of Health and Wellness with most of her work pertaining to prevention of harms related to alcohol use among youth. The two biggest projects that she was involved with over the last year since she started working here are No Magic Goat, a social marketing campaign created by Injury Free Nova Scotia, as well as Addiction Services, unwasted.ca. She is a recent graduate of the Health Promotion undergraduate degree program at Dalhousie University. 

William Hui (Youth Champions Panel) 

William Hui, P.Eng., is a transportation engineer at TransLink, the  regional transportation authority in Vancouver, British Columbia.  His work involves data analytics and transportation planning for Metro Vancouver.  His expertise is analysing and visualizing data, and has managed several large scale data collection projects.  He holds a Bachelors degree in civil engineering from the University of British Columbia, with a minor in information technology. 

William is currently serving as the chair of the Canadian Road Safety Youth Committee (CRSYC).  As a delegate to the inaugural World Youth Assembly for Road Safety, hosted by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, William has been serving on the committee since 2007.  Over the past years, he has participated in the planning of Canadian Multidisciplinary Road Safety Conferences, and Days of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims.  William also serves as the webmaster for the Greater Vancouver section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

Kelly Lendsay (Organize/Mobilize - Building Partnerships)

Kelly Lendsay is President and CEO of Aboriginal Human Resource Council. He is recognized as one of Canada’s foremost innovators and social entrepreneurs of Aboriginal diversity in Canada. As Council President, Mr. Lendsay designs partnerships, programs and knowledge networks that transform leaders and employers into high performance organizations of inclusion. He is a proud Canadian of Métis, Cree and European ancestry and has helped grow the enterprise into one of Canada’s most recognized leading innovators in organizational inclusion performance. His vigorous speaking, writing and workshops are widely acclaimed as powerful announcements of the challenges and prospects of full Aboriginal participation in the Canadian economy.

Dr. David Meddings (Closing Keynote – “Be Seen”)

Dr. Meddings is with the World Health Organization’s Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability. He conducts the Department’s work in response to small arms, landmines and human security, including the Armed Violence Prevention Programme, collaboration with UNDP and several other UN agencies. He also facilitates the Department’s work in support of policy development in countries as well as the work on capacity building - which includes the development and roll out of TEACH-VIP and Mentor-VIP.

Dr. Meddings was born in Canada where he obtained his degree in medicine and subsequent specialization in Community Medicine. He has earned several awards including the S. Stewart Murray Award and a Fellowship from the Medical Research Council of Canada. Prior to joining WHO, Dr. Meddings held several positions at field and headquarter levels with the International Committee of the Red Cross where his primary interests were armed violence and the integration of operational research with policy development.

Dr. David Sleet (Closing Keynote – “Be Seen”)

Dr. Sleet is a behavioral scientist and Associate Director for Science in the Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, where he is the senior adviser to the division on matters of science and policy.  Dr. Sleet’s work focuses on understanding the ways behavioral science can be used to prevent injuries. 

Highlights of Dr. Sleet’s contributions in the injury field include: leading the CDC campaign on the dangers of airbags to children; co-authoring the world report on road traffic injury prevention as well as 160 other publications; and putting into practice a child-proof lighter standard, which has saved an estimated 200-300 children every year from burns.  He and his team received the 2003 NHTSA Administrators Award for systematic reviews of traffic injury interventions and The President’s Award for Research from Mothers Against Drunk Driving in 2006.  His team’s research played a pivotal role in the passage of national legislation establishing the legal definition of DUI as a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or higher. He is adjunct faculty at Curtin University (Perth, Australia) and on teaching faculty at Emory University’s School of Public Health in Atlanta.