Jenny Theriault is the executive director of Caregivers Nova Scotia (CNS). She has a bachelor of arts in gerontology from Mount Saint Vincent University. She has 14 years of experience working in the non-profit community-based sector. She spent many years working in community programming specifically with seniors and their caregivers. She has been with CNS for two years and brings her own personal caregiving experience and a commitment to supporting, recognizing, and advocating for caregivers as essential partners in care.

As the executive director at Family Caregivers of British Columbia (FCBC), Barb has championed large scale change in support of families and people living with a range of challenges — the basis of the person-and-family-centered philosophy. With FCBC, she has been instrumental in implementing caregiver-friendly approaches in health care, seeing firsthand the positive shift when becoming visible partners in care. She brings personal experience to her caregiving-focused work after joining her family in her mother’s cancer journey and end-of-life care.

Barb has a BA from the University of British Columbia and a master’s of arts in leadership and training from Royal Roads University. She sits on many national, provincial and regional committees including, Doctors of B.C. Shared Care, Coordinating Complex Care for Older Adults, CBSS Leadership Council, B.C. Council to Reduce Elder Abuse, BC Ministry of Health Patients as Partners and a number of Canadian research committees (i.e. Age Well and the Canadian Frailty Network, Citizen Engagement).

Barb enjoys ongoing learning and spending time with her family unplugged, outside and traveling whenever possible.

Dr. Afolasade Fakolade trained as a physiotherapist in Nigeria and completed her MSc in Neurorehabilitation at Cardiff University, Wales and her PhD in Rehabilitation Science at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. She then proceeded to the University of Ottawa, where she completed her postdoctoral training in dyadic (care recipients and caregivers together) physical activity programming in multiple sclerosis. She is currently an assistant professor in the School of Rehabilitation Therapy at Queen’s University, Kingston, where the overarching goal of her research program is to support active and healthy living among families of people affected by physical disabilities (inclusive of the person with the disability).

Her research has a dual focus on understanding the impact of disability on both care recipients and their family caregivers and implementing appropriate intervention strategies to promote their collective well-being. Her work strongly focuses on characterizing and examining factors influencing care recipients’ and caregivers’ wellness needs, outcomes, and experiences across the spectrum of mild to advanced disability. She is co-developing a Caregiver Research Wellness Collaborative (CARECO) at Queen’s, which will focus on building capacity to address caregiver well-being needs.

Bharati Sethi is an associate and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Care Work, Ethnicity, Race and Aging in the Political Studies department at Trent University. Her teaching interests include policy, community practice, immigration, and diversity.  Bharati’s scholarly trajectory is fuelled by her lived experiences as an immigrant to Canada from India. She utilizes participatory action research and arts-based methods to highlight social determinants of health in immigrant/refugees’ lives and capture their relevance to social justice.  She has contributed to 53 peer-reviewed publications, one edited book, and over 100 public presentations in the last ten years. Her research projects totaling 4.5 million dollars have earned her prestigious community and academic awards. She was interviewed by the Free Press, Sarnia and Lambton County, Globe and Mail, CBC, 980 CKNW, Toronto Star, and Conversations Canadian Press on her research with racialized personal support workers. Her advocacy work has earned her prestigious academic and community awards.

Professor Ito Peng is a Canada Research Chair in Global Social Policy and the director of the Centre for Global Social Policy at the Department of Sociology, and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. She is recognized as a leading researcher and expert in global social policy, specializing in the care economy, gender, migration and care policies. She has written extensively on social policies and political economy of care. She currently leads a SSHRC, Hewlett Foundation, and Open Society Foundations supported global partnership research project, Care Economies in Context (2021-2028) and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund supported Comparing Child Care Initiatives in a World of Climate Change (C5) Project (2022-2023). She is also the co-lead of the Room 5 for the Rockefeller Foundation-Brookings Institute’s 17-Rooms project.

For more information, see: https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/profile/peng-ito/ and http://cgsp.ca/

Dr. Kate Mulligan is an assistant professor in Social and Behavioural Health Sciences at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She is the senior director of the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing and advisor to the Canadian Red Cross on knowledge mobilization and determinants of health. Kate was a public member of the Toronto Board of Health from 2019-2022 and a contributing author to the 2021 report of the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, “A Vision to Transform Canada’s Public Health System.”

Greg Link is the director of the Office of Supportive and Caregiver Services with the Administration for Community Living (ACL)/U.S. Administration on Aging (AoA), which oversees programs funded under the Older Americans Act (OAA), including Title III-B in-home supportive services, Title III-E National Family Caregiver Support Program as well as ACL’s Alzheimer’s disease programs.  Most recently, Greg’s team, in collaboration with a range of stakeholders from across the public and private sectors developed and released the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. The Strategy is intended to serve as a roadmap for the nation for better recognizing and supporting family and kinship caregivers.

Greg and his team also provide general oversight and technical assistance to the aging network on a range of program areas, including Information and Referral, family caregiver support programs and policies, housing, employment, transportation, LGBT aging, and Holocaust survivors.

Before coming to ACL/AoA, Greg worked at the National Association of State Units on Aging where he provided technical assistance and training to states on family caregiving, consumer direction, and transportation. Greg has also worked at the community level as a case manager and social services manager at Senior Friendship Centers in Fort Myers Florida. There, he oversaw the social services staff and the delivery of services funded by the Older Americans Act, state funds and Medicaid waivers.

Greg holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Central Florida and a Master of Arts in Government from Johns Hopkins University

Ann-Marie has over 25 years of experience in the developmental services sector at both a local and provincial level. Currently, she is the senior manager of community engagement and advocacy at Community Living Toronto, where she leads a team working with stakeholders including individuals, families and community members on important advocacy issues. At the provincial level, Ann-Marie works closely with government and community partners to expand and support new innovative initiatives with the goal of strengthening the workforce in developmental services across Ontario. Ann-Marie is also a part-time professor at Fanshawe College where she enjoys teaching for the developmental services apprenticeship program.

In addition to her work life, Ann-Marie has a deep understanding of caregiving at home and is supporting her senior parents.

André Picard is the health columnist at The Globe and Mail and the author of six bestselling books.

He has received much acclaim for his writing and dedication to improving health care, including the Michener Prize for Meritorious Public Service Journalism, the National Newspaper Award as Canada’s top newspaper columnist, and the Sandford Fleming Medal for Excellence in Science Communication.

André is a graduate of the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, and has received honorary doctorates from seven universities, including the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto.

Alison Barkoff serves as the Administration for Community Living’s (ACL) acting administrator and assistant secretary for aging. She provides executive leadership and coordination for ACL programs across the United-States and is an advisor to the U.S. Home and Human Services Secretary, Xavier Becerra, on issues that impact people with disabilities and older adults.

Alison is a lifelong advocate for community living – both professionally and personally. She is the sibling of an adult brother with developmental disabilities and worked alongside her brother and parents from an early age to advocate for disability rights in her home state, and later across the country.

Alison has appeared before Congress and the US Commission on Civil Rights and has been part of countless coalitions of people with disabilities, older adults, and advocates.

Prior to joining ACL, Alison served as special counsel for olmstead enforcement in the civil rights division of the Department of Justice; held leadership roles with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Department of Labor; and directed advocacy efforts at both the Center for Public Representation and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.