Previous Speakers

Dr. Velji is currently the Chief of Nursing & Professional Practice and Assistant Deputy Minister for the Province of Ontario. She has held senior leadership positions in several Academic Health Science Centres and has operated a successful consulting company. Dr. Velji is a sought-after consultant for system level projects and has led external reviews of several organizations. She is a surveyor with Health Standards Organization/Accreditation Canada.

Dr. Velji’s responsibilities extend to provincial and national leadership. She has held the roles of Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Accreditation Canada and member of Board of Directors or Health Standards Organization (2012-2018), United Way Campaign Chair for London Middlesex (2016) and as President and Chair of the Board of Directors of Canadian Nurses Association (2014-16).

Dr. Velji has cross-appointments to the University of Toronto, University of Western Ontario, University of Ontario Tech University and Nippissing University. She has won several outstanding achievement awards including the Sigma Theta Tau Excellence in Administration award, University of Toronto Distinguished Alumni award, Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) Margaret Comack Award of Excellence in Nursing Leadership, and the Award of Excellence in Teaching (student nominated) from the Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at University of Toronto.

She has been profiled in the boundless banner campaign as an outstanding alumnus of University of Toronto. At the system/global level, Dr. Velji is a consultant to global sites, including East Africa, the Middle East and Asia, for development of policy, credentialing, training, and academic plans.

Tazim brings close to 40 years of experience working in the health and social development sectors through various roles including: clinician, administrator, educator, researcher, and system leader. She has designed and led national and international programs in strengthening health systems, advancing human rights as well as human resource and organizational capacity building initiatives through design and testing of innovative programs. Some of the results include a 25- year legacy program in establishing evidence-based health care, international networks and knowledge partnerships, global joint ventures, and social impact programs addressing needs of marginalized communities and populations.

Tazim has completed a 6-year term on the governing board of Health Quality Ontario and a six-year term on Kinark Children’s Mental Health Board. She has academic affiliation with McMaster University as a Clinical Associate and sits on several Editorial boards. Tazim has participated in numerous collaborative research projects, provided keynote addresses and other conference presentations globally. She has numerous publications including publications of chapters in three textbooks.

Tazim is currently the Senior Vice President, Social Impact & Global Initiatives at SE Health. In this capacity, she is leading a social impact initiative called Future of Aging. This program focuses on a vision that provides older adults to live with dignity, choice and independence in their home and communities. The program has four key pillars: 1) Human rights and combating ageism; 2) Age friendly and affordable housing options; 3) Innovation in ageing; 4) Social connectedness. Our focused attention in this area is enlarged through partnership development, public engagement and storytelling.

Prior to working with FOCUS, Shakeel was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Aga Khan Foundation Canada where his responsibilities included finance, communication, resource development and facilities management.

Shakeel’s background is in Oil and Gas where he worked for over 20 years in upstream data management sector. Following his long career in the Oil and Gas industry, Shakeel was a founding partner of a high-tech start-up that developed web conferencing technology.

Camille takes pride in providing practical, cost-efficient advice, while zealously advocating for her client’s rights and interests throughout all stages of litigation. Camille is a skilled negotiator and advocate, appearing before all levels of court in Ontario and administrative Tribunals, including professional regulatory bodies, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and the Ministry of Labour. She handles a broad range of civil and insurance litigation matters, including defending professional negligence claims as well as regulatory and disciplinary proceedings. She also teaches the Lawyer as Negotiator course at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Camille regularly appears on radio and media programs discussing current issues in Labour and Employment Law. She also serves as an Executive Member of the Ontario Bar Association’s Labour and Employment Group.

Here, she teaches across the curriculum, including courses focused on Living with Chronic Illness, Research Methods for Health Professionals, supporting students in final clinical practicums, and research at the undergraduate and graduate level.

A component of Dr. Hallaran’s stewardship is focused on food security and community development. Dr. Hallaran is the chair of the Community Development Council of Quinte, a non-profit agency with a mission of promoting food security through community development, service provision and social planning.

Dr. Hallaran’s program of research contributes to the recruitment and retention of healthcare providers and promoting healthy work environments for high-quality provision of care. Dr. Hallaran’s current studies focus on readiness for practice of nursing students, the transition to practice of new nurses, and retention in the workforce.

Prior to joining EnterpriseHealth, Carly facilitated partnerships across multiple sectors, including community mental health, primary care and housing at the Waterloo- Wellington Local Health Integration Network. Carly also led and supported key strategic projects including on government relations and communications for the largest hospital capital project in the country while at Trillium Health Partners.

At EnterpriseHealth, Carly leads our strategic planning processes from inception to implementation to ensure our clients are always ahead of ever-evolving health system. Carly specializes in in supporting senior leaders and boards work through complex problems and engage their communities while also bridging the gap between operations, communications and government advocacy.

Carly holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Queen’s University’s School of Public Policy and an Honours degree in Health Sciences from the University of Western Ontario. Carly is passionate about city building and is a 2020 CivicAction DiverseCity Fellow as well as a TEDxToronto speaker coach.

Before becoming Associate Director, Paolo held several leadership positions in long-term care such as Director of Care and Administrator. He also has a broad knowledge and experience in managing and leading health operations in primary healthcare and public health. He was a former Fellow on Health Policy Development Program (HPDP) and a current surveyor at Canadian Centre for Accreditation (CCA).

Paolo is a Registered Nurse and completed his Master of Science in Aging and Health at Queens University. He is currently completing his Master of Management (International Masters for Health Leadership) at Desautels Faculty of Management – McGill University.

In his spare time, Paolo enjoys hiking, cooking and spending time with his family.

Partners, Talent Acquisition Specialists, and HR Assistants who support the day-to-day recruitment and HR strategies across the organization. He enjoys supporting his organization by addressing peoples’ issues and ensure the success of the business. He cares about retention and providing a great employee experience, enabling employees to be as successful as they can be.

Biography coming soon…

As Sr. Manager of Communications and PR she worked closely with HR to on several organization-wide initiatives including the Client Choice Awards—a program that recognizes spectacular staff—which was named a leading practice by Accreditation Canada.  

For nearly a decade, Pam consulted for Shepell-fgi (now Lifeworks), Canada’s largest Employee and Family Assistance Program Provider (EFAP) on a variety of projects including work for Bell, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Canada Post.

Pam holds a master’s degree in Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MMIE) from Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, and is a PROSCI Certified Change Practitioner.

Work in Dr. McKinnon’s laboratory focuses on identifying the neural and behavioural correlates of PTSD and trauma-related illnesses and on translating this knowledge to the development and testing of novel treatment interventions aimed at reducing the cognitive and affective sequelae of these conditions. A licensed clinical psychologist and clinical neuropsychologist, Dr. McKinnon has a special interest in military, veteran, and public safety populations (including healthcare workers), and has worked with these groups clinically and in her research program. She has published or in press nearly 150 scientific works. Work in Dr. McKinnon’s lab is supported by federal and provincial funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Institute for Military and Veterans Health Research, Veterans Affairs Canada, Defence Canada, the PTSD Centre of Excellence, MITACS, and the Workers Safety Insurance Board of Ontario, by a generous donation to Homewood Research Institute from Homewood Health Inc., and by generous gifts from private foundations, including True Patriot Love, the Cowan Foundation, the Military Casualty Support Foundation, the FDC Foundation, and the AllOne Foundation. Dr. McKinnon is a frequent commentator in the media on matters related to PTSD, moral injury, and the impact of trauma on special populations.

She is versed in a range of psychotherapeutic approaches to anxiety and depression including cognitive behavioural therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, and mindfulness-based therapies, among others. She and Dr. Van Lieshout have developed an effective group CBT intervention for perinatal depression that is used in clinical settings around the world and that improves outcomes for mothers and mother-infant dyads. She lives in Halton and is mother to two young sons.

Kaiyan also provides executive leadership to more than 15 senior’s living facilities in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario.

Kaiyan’s career path includes Chief Executive Officer at the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care, one of the largest not-for-profit long term and community care organization in Canada, Director of Nursing Innovation and Change Management at St. Michael’s Hospital, an eminent leading academic health sciences centre in Canada, National Health Services Consulting Manager at Deloitte and Provincial Chief Nursing Officer with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

Kaiyan is currently a Board of Governor and a member of the Board’s Quality Committee at North York General Hospital (NYGH), one of Canada’s best academic community hospitals. Prior to NYGH, she has served on the Boards of Accreditation Canada, the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario and the Canadian College of Health Leaders GTA Executive Committee. Kaiyan is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese.

Full biography coming soon…

During her tenure as board chair, she amalgamated three large hospitals and created a more effective governance structure.

Dr. Baumann has over 200 peer-reviewed publications, including four books, and she is considered a methodological expert in health systems, human resources and workforce integration. Her work emphasizes the critical link between evidence, policy and practice. Foci include the effect of policy on the employment integration of internationally trained healthcare professionals, emerging trends in infectious disease and potential outcomes for health human resources and the influence of transdisciplinary collaboration on health education.

Full biography coming soon…

As a respected pioneering consultant in the field of workplace health and wellness in Canada, and in her role as President of INSIDE Health & Business Consulting, Mary-Lou has spearheaded many ground-breaking projects that have paved the way for leaders to understand and adopt healthy and high-performing workplace practices and strategy.

Her fascinating career encompassed establishing and leading the national Health & Performance practice within the Employee Benefits division of HUB International Canada, including the development of an innovative Digital Health Platform for clients.

Prior to joining HUB International, she led the employee wellness portfolio for Canada Post where she influenced and established a company-wide mental health strategy and initiatives for the 50,000 employees and their families. Serving as the Director of Research in Workplace Health, Wellness and Safety at the Conference Board of Canada she established the first ever benchmarking report on organizational health in Canada. Other career highlights include serving as the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Nova Scotia Health and Community Services Safety Association and Executive Director Atlantic, for Excellence Canada.