Vincent T. Covello, Ph.D.

Dr.Vincent Covello is the founder and Director of the Center for Risk Communication in the United States. He is an internationally recognized trainer, researcher, consultant and expert in crisis, conflict, change, and risk and crisis communications. Dr. Covello serves as a lead consultant, trainer, and advisor for the World Health Organization, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the US Department of Energy, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Covello serves on the editorial board of several journals and is the Past President of the Society for Risk Analysis, a professional association with over 3000 members. Dr. Covello received his doctorate from Columbia University. He has authored or edited more than 25 books and over 75 published scientific articles on risk and crisis communications. His most recent book is Effective Media Communication During Public Health Emergencies:A World Health Organization Handbook.

Keynote sponsored by the Institute of Population & Public Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Dr.Vincent Lam

Dr.Vincent Lam was born in London, Ontario. His family is from the expatriate Chinese community of Vietnam. He studied medicine in Toronto, where he works as an emergency physician and as a writer. Dr. Lam’s first collection of short stories, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, won the 2006 Giller Prize, and is currently being adapted for television. Dr. Lam’s non-fiction writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Toronto Star, and Toronto Life Magazine. He is the co-author of The Flu Pandemic and You, a practical Canadian guide to pandemic influenza. His forthcoming novel, Cholon Near Forgotten, tells the tale of a Chinese gambler in 1960s Saigon, and will be published in Canada by Doubleday. Dr. Lam lives with his wife and son in Toronto.

Angela Robertson

Angela Robertson is the Executive Director of Sistering: A Woman’s Place, a multi-service women’s organization for marginalized, poor and homeless women.Angela is a past Co-Chair of Nightwood Theatre and Central Neighbourhood House, current Chair of the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention and member of Second Harvest Board of Directors. She was co-founder and Chair for five years of Blackness Yes!, sponsor of Blackorama at PRIDE. Angela co-edited (with Ena Dua) Scratching the Surface: Canadian Anti-Racist Feminist Thought (Women’s Educational Press) and was coordinator of Sistering’s community-based research report Common Occurrence: The Impact of Homelessness on Women’s Health. Angela has been recognized by Toronto’s NOW Magazine as a top 10 community activist on social justice issues, received the Rubena Willis Women of Distinction Award for her work on violence against women, and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations Awards for her work on equality and social justice issues.

Michele Simon

Michele Simon is a public health lawyer in the United States who has been working as a nutrition advocate since 1996, specializing in legal strategies and food industry tactics. She has published numerous articles about such issues as the National School Lunch Program, the USDA's dietary guidelines, banning obesity lawsuits, and corporate lobbying. She lectures extensively and teaches Health Policy at the University of California, Hastings College of Law, where she also received her law degree. Michele obtained her master's degree in public health from Yale University. She is the author of Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back, which Library Journal calls an “essential purchase” and recommends as a follow-up to Fast Food Nation and Food Politics. Marion Nestle has made Appetite for Profit required reading for her nutrition students at New York University. Michele is currently Research and Policy Director for the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog.

Janet Gordon

Janet Gordon has worked in the health care system in the Sioux Lookout Area for many years. She is currently director of health services with the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority and works on a path that will bring change to health care for First Nations in the area. Ms. Gordon provides management, advocacy and advisory support to health services and programs that are delivered to First Nation communities. She was the project manager to the District Health planning project, supporting the development of a Primary Health Care system with a First Nations governance structure. She continues to be in a leadership role with the implementation of the Anishinawbe Health Plan.

Sylvia Maracle

Sylvia Maracle is a Mohawk from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territories and has been the Executive Director of the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres since 1979. Ms. Maracle is the Chair of the Noojimawin Health Authority and a member of the Joint Management Committee of the Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy since its inception in 1994. She was the founding Chair of the National Aboriginal Headstart Committee; founding member of Ka:nen Our Children Our Future; President of the Board of Native Child and Family Services of Toronto for ten years; and President of the Board of Directors of Native Women's Resource Centre for ten years. Ms. Maracle is involved in many additional activities, including addressing violence against Aboriginal women, urban Aboriginal children and youth programming, traditional healing, culture-based programming, health planning and education.

Dr. Janet Smylie

Dr. Janet Smylie has recently joined St. Michael’s Hospital as a research scientist at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto and past Director of the Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre in Saskatchewan. Dr. Smylie completed her Masters of Public Health Degree at Johns Hopkins University. She has practiced and taught family medicine in a variety of Aboriginal communities, both urban and rural. She is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario, with Métis roots in Saskatchewan. She is the vice-president of the Indigenous Physicians Association in Canada. Her current research interests include: health indicators of relevance to Aboriginal communities; interfacing Indigenous knowledge and Western science; and the health of young Aboriginal families. She holds a senior research fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Moderator: Rhonda Roffey

Rhonda Roffey is the Executive Director of Women’s Habitat, a shelter and counseling service for women and their children who are fleeing abuse. Rhonda has dedicated many years to public advocacy based on a strong commitment to equality rights. Her policy interests centre on ending violence against women, reproductive rights, Aboriginal issues and women’s equality. Rhonda’s formal education includes studies at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University Journalism program. Rhonda also has extensive experience in community development with young people and women and has worked in international development in both Guatemala and El Salvador.

Dr. Nick Kates

Dr. Nick Kates is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University with a cross appointment in the Department of Family Medicine and is the program director of the Hamilton Family Health Team. For 12 years he was the director of the Hamilton HSO Mental Health & Nutrition Program. He is also the Provincial lead for the Quality Management Collaborative, the next stage in the implementation of Family Health Teams in Ontario. He has co-chaired the shared mental health care working group of the Canadian Psychiatric Association and College of Family Physicians of Canada since 1997 and chairs the Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Initiative Steering Committee, a National PHCTF project. He has participated in many planning initiatives in Ontario for both mental health and primary care reform. He has consulted extensively on redesigning systems of care and has published over 60 articles and authored two books.

Adrianna Tetley

Adrianna Tetley is the Executive Director of the Association of Ontario Health Centres. She has over 20 years experience in advocacy, public administration, community development, financial and staff management, and policy and board development. Her work in government, the labour movement and several community-based associations has focused on issues related to health care and determinants of health.

Jean Trimnell

Over the course of her career, Jean has held a variety of positions in mental health and addictions settings, and in acute teaching hospitals, including Toronto’s Wellesley Central Hospital. Jean spent 5 years as CEO of the Northeast Mental Health Centre, based out of North Bay and Sudbury. In August 2005, she became one of 14 inaugural Local Health Integration Network CEOs and now leads the North Simcoe Muskoka LHIN, based in Orillia. A strong focus in Jean’s work has been to improve equity of access for disadvantaged populations. She has served on regional and provincial working groups and committees such as the OHA Mental Health and Addiction Leadership Council, the Northern Health Issues Strategy Steering Committee, and the Ontario AIDS Advisory Committee. She is currently a member of the Simcoe County Healthy Communities Sub-Committee. Jean holds a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Toronto, and is a certified health executive with the Canadian Council of Health Service Executives.

Moderator: Dr. David McKeown

Dr. David McKeown is Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto and Executive Officer of the Board of Health. He leads Toronto Public Health, Canada’s largest public health unit, providing programs and services for 2.6 million residents. He is a physician specialist who has worked in the public health field for over twenty years. Dr. McKeown served as Medical Officer of Health for East York and the City of Toronto prior to amalgamation, and more recently for the Region of Peel.

Gelek Badheytsang

Gelek Badheytsang is assistant coordinator for Greenest City’s From the Ground Up, a Youth Green Squad initiative. Greenest City embraces community diversity and engages locally-appropriate solutions to global environmental problems. Gelek is involved with many community activities and is an active member of the Board of Directors for Students for a Free Tibet. Through his work with the FGU community garden project, he has become very environmentally conscious, is now an avid bike commuter and never fails to extol the virtues of all things organic, local and sustainable. He is taking a hiatus from post-secondary education but plans to return to it soon. Gelek is also a photography enthusiast and blogger for the Greenest City website.

Natricia Drummond

Natricia Drummond is an active community leader who spends most of her free time helping youth in her community organize around the issues that affect them. She serves on various boards and committees and has worked with groups such as Project Peace, East Metro Youth Services and Oxfam International Youth Partnership. She co-founded a mentorship program to encourage youth to pursue post- secondary education and has worked as an intern at Queen’s Park in the office of Premier McGuinty. She is a full-time student at the University of Toronto in Psychology and Health Studies and is the coordinator for the Scarborough HIV/AIDS Prevention Project. This program uses peer educators and interactive workshops to educate youth from the African/Caribbean, South Asian and Arabic speaking communities about HIV/AIDS.

Jess Maher

Jess Maher is the proud mother of her daughter, Calysta, who was born February 28, 2007. For the past year, Jess has been working as a participant with the National Film Board of Canada’s Filmmaker-in-Residence project on an award-winning media project called I WAS HERE. She is now pursuing a career in art and photography. I WAS HERE is a Filmmaker-in-Residence project in partnership between the National Film Board of Canada, the Young Parents No Fixed Address Network, and St. Michael’s Hospital. Collaborative and community-based, The Filmmaker-in-Residence program places media creation in the hands of citizens so they can participate and become agents of true social change.

Stolen from Africa

On their website, Stolen From Africa introduce themselves as a movement “to promote cultural and historical awareness through education, fashion, music and the arts.” Founded in Toronto by the spoken word artists known as Logikal Ethix and Unknown Mizery, S.F.A. have been touring high schools with the mission of “bridging the gap between youth and authority” by addressing issues of media awareness, cultural identity, hidden histories, family and gender roles. They have worked with Mayor Miller in outreach to at-risk communities and have performed with many prominent Canadian and international artists. “We hope to empower society by confronting issues surrounding black/indigenous oppression and humanity as a whole…our music and politics speak to a new generation of youth who are looking for more than the clichéd ‘bling-bling’ lifestyle.” For their appearance at OPHA 2007, the two co-founders are joined by Ebony, a sister-traveller.

Moderator: Boonaa Mohammed

Dr. David McKeown is Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto and Executive Officer of the Board of Health. He leads Toronto Public Health, Canada’s largest public health unit, providing programs and services for 2.6 million residents. He is a physician specialist who has worked in the public health field for over twenty years. Dr. McKeown served as Medical Officer of Health for East York and the City of Toronto prior to amalgamation, and more recently for the Region of Peel.