Panels and Plenaries

Day 1

Plenary Presentation

 3:30 – 4:15 PM | Coal Harbour Ballroom

Ms. Lucy Sager, All Nations Driving Academy

Lucy has an extensive knowledge of Northwest British Columbia. With over 20 years of experience living and working in rural British Columbia First Nations communities, her ability to develop and execute stakeholder and engagement strategies exemplifies creativity and authenticity.

Lucy has had the privilege to craft with integrity programs that have brought together the community, educators, industry and the Province.

Having grown up in the Northwest, her family worked extensively with the Wet’suwet’en, Tsimshian, and Nisga’a Nations. Her sensitivity and passion for the heart of people allowed the facilitation of trust and respect in seeking the best outcomes of communities affected by major projects currently proposed in British Columbia.  All Nations Driving Academy was founded in 2018 in direct response to the needs and requests for driver training by community leadership and their members.

Today, Lucy has been involved in supporting Indigenous owned driving schools in British Columbia and has worked extensively along the Highway of Tears in partnership with the Ministry of Advanced Education Skills and Training.

Working to further make a difference not only in the community and along the highway, Lucy earned her MBA from UNBC in 2013 and she currently resides in Victoria, British Columbia with her two sons. Today she continues to support Indigenous Drivers Licensing and research through her studies at Royal Roads University where she is earning Doctorate in Social Sciences with a focus on understanding the Impacts of Colonization on Drivers Licensing for Indigenous Peoples.

Panel Discussion: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Across the Injury Prevention Spectrum

4:15 – 5:00 PM | Coal Harbour Ballroom

The panel discussion on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Across the Injury Prevention Spectrum examines the research, policy, and programming in injury prevention. This session departs from the traditional EDI workplace culture change but instead dives into HOW researchers and practitioners must focus on strengthening EDI in injury prevention work and WHO should be the focus of their efforts. The moderator will guide the panellists and audience in an injury-prevention-laden discourse, thus allowing sharing of knowledge, research, and practice to the injury-prevention community. With the diversity and intersectionality of the panellists, we will have dialogues on the synergy of injury prevention and health equity among Indigenous populations, immigrants and refugees, the LGBTQ community and other minority groups. More so, the session will probe into the challenges the injury prevention community faces at the systemic and grassroots level. Ultimately, we want everyone to leave with a renewed sense of purpose that will make equity, diversity and inclusion critical in conducting research, transforming policies, and changing practice.

Moderator – Ms. Laura Dale, First Nations Health Authority

Laura Dale is a second-generation uninvited settler currently living on the beautiful unceded and ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She is on a journey of un-learning through deep self-reflection to support an environment that is free from racism and discrimination.

Laura is currently the Director of Benefits Management and Program Development at the First Nations Health Authority, the first province-wide health authority of its kind in Canada. Before joining the FNHA, Laura worked alongside inspiring Injury Prevention Professionals at the Community Against Preventable Injuries, British Columbia’s leading injury prevention social marketing campaign.

With a breadth of experience spanning the insurance, healthcare and charitable sectors, Laura has focused her career on improving wellness outcomes by addressing systemic policy-level barriers to equitable healthcare access. She has a Masters of Science in Population and Public Health from the University of British Columbia which has supported her to always center community-generated insights within evidence-informed practices.

When Laura is not working she can be found jogging around town in search of strong black coffee. Outside of coffee hours, Laura is a shameless collector of incomplete “do-it-yourself” home projects, much to her wife’s chagrin.

Panelist – Dr. Audrey Giles, University of Ottawa

Audrey Giles is a Full Professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. An applied cultural anthropologist, she works with Indigenous communities in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic to examine the intersections of gender, culture, and place as they relate to engagement in sport for development program sand injury prevention (mostly drowning prevention) and . Her recent research has been funded by SSHRC,CIHR, and Transport Canada. She has authored over 130 journal articles and over 20 book chapters. Audrey was awarded the Fulbright Arctic Research Chair at Dartmouth College in 2018. In the same year, she received the University of Ottawa’s Excellence in Education Award. When not working, she can be found playing with her dogs or rehabbing her running injuries.

Panelist – Mr. Kirvy Quiambao, BC Centre for Disease Control

Kirvy Quiambao is one of the new BCCDC Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion leads and works with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. He studied nursing until his family emigrated from the Philippines in 2010, and his new life in Canada took him on a different path. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Psychology and Developmental Studies from the University of Winnipeg and finished his master’s in International Public Health from the University of Liverpool.

Kirvy held various volunteer roles with the Canadian Red Cross, one of them being a facilitator who educated new immigrants on common injuries. With Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, he worked in various communicable disease programs such as Immunization, Tuberculosis, and Sexually Transmitted & Blood Borne Infection programs. He supported immigrants, people who were homeless, sex trade workers, LGBT, and other high-risk populations to access health services. After completing his studies, Kirvy joined the George Spady Society in Edmonton as a Harm Reduction Specialist working in addiction and mental health. His renewed interest in safety promotion led him to be a Health Promotion Facilitator with the Alberta Health Services, focusing on injury prevention before moving to British Columbia this year.

Panelist – Ms. Catherine Liao, University of the Fraser Valley

Catherine Liao (she/her), RN, MSc, is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Nursing, University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on promoting equity-oriented burns care within a social justice agenda. Catherine is also a faculty of nursing at the University of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia. She specializes in critical care nursing and has over two decades of clinical and leadership experience locally and globally. She is also the director of Resurge Africa, a medical non-profit focused on strengthening burns and reconstructive surgery care in West Africa. Catherine’s global health projects include strengthening health systems and building nursing research capacity in Sierra Leone, consulting on national nursing curricula and standards in Somaliland, and, more recently, partnering on projects with persons with albinism to amplify and address human rights issues. 

Day 2

Panel Discussion: Why is Injury Prevention Not a Priority?

9:00 – 10:30 AM | Coal Harbour Ballroom

Injury prevention remains under resourced and not identified as a public health priority commensurate with the magnitude of the burden, despite being the number one cause of death for Canadians aged 1 to 44 years and the third leading cause of death to all Canadians. While prevention efforts have seen success, for example the introduction and use of seat belts, they have taken years to see results. Human lives are the cost of inaction. Families suffer. The impact of the loss of people contributing to the education of our children, the manufacturing of goods, delivery of services, creation of knowledge, volunteering in our communities. Society suffers. The 2022 Cost of Injury in Canada report reveals that the costs to Canadians is $29.4B in one year. We have data and effective interventions are known. After decades of action to prevent injuries, the reality remains that preventing injuries should be a priority – from human, financial and total burden perspectives. Workplace injuries, prioritized, resourced and assigned responsibility, have seen the opposite – deaths and injuries at workplaces have plummeted. Why not all injuries?

Moderator – Ms. Pamela Fuselli, Parachute

Pamela Fuselli, MSc is the President and CEO at Parachute. Pamela was the Executive Director at Safe Kids Canada and, during her tenure, was one of the four leaders who successfully led a process of national consultation and visioning, resulting in the formation of Parachute, Canada’s national charity dedicated to injury prevention.

What really drives her is the heartbreaking knowledge that the majority of serious injuries and deaths are preventable. Pamela leads Parachute’s mission to turn evidence of what works into action, building strong, longlasting relationships with stakeholders across Canada to achieve this mission. Over 20 years in the health care/injury prevention sector, Pamela’s work has focused on influencing public policy and public perceptions and knowledge with effective interventions. She strongly believes in collective impact, harnessing the strength of those seeking similar outcomes to achieve social change.

Panelist – Ms. Brandy Tanenbaum, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Brandy Tanenbaum is a certified risk manager and works as the Injury Prevention Coordinator in the Tory Trauma Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario. Brandy grew up in a suburban neighbourhood north of Toronto, where she cultivated her safety skills riding bikes and playing with friends until the street lights came on. Following a degree in Kinesiology and Health Sciences, her early career opportunities in sport and recreation helped shape thoughts on the value of quality physical activity. Moving into healthcare, and with a Master’s in Public Health, she was introduced to big ideas about equity, empathy and the role of prevention within a trauma setting. Combining her passions, Brandy currently focuses on physical literacy as predictor of physical activity and modifier of fall-related injuries. Additionally, she leads a hospital-based violence intervention program called BRAVE, and recently co-authored a paper on intersectionality in youth injury prevention programming. Away from work she can be found practicing her risk management skills on her motorcycle, playing baseball, and dreaming about running away to the beach with her teenage sons, husband and dog named Captain.

Panelist – Dr. James Talbot, University of Alberta

Dr. James Talbot has a B.Sc. (1^st class Hon), a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, and a M.D. from the University of Toronto. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Medical Microbiology.

He has served as the Director of the Provincial Laboratory for Public Health in Edmonton, Medical Officer of Health for Edmonton and Area in Alberta Health Services, Chief Medical Officer of Health for Nunavut and Deputy and Chief Medical Officer of Health for Alberta.

He is currently an Adjunct Professor of the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta -with a continuing interest in laboratory testing, communicable disease, and syndromic surveillance (including injuries). He has had a lifelong interest in injury prevention, sparked by dangerous working conditions on job sites, while earning his way through university. In the office of the CMOH in Alberta, he co-authored three provincial public health annual reports–the first was on the importance of early childhood development, the second on healthy aging and the third on the importance of injury prevention at home, at work, on our roads and at play. The provincial government refused to release the injury report.

His research and teaching interests are in using surveillance and epidemiology to provide evidence needed to guide action to prevent or mitigate disease or injury and promote health.

Panelist – Ms. Megan Oakey, BC Centre for Disease Control

Since 2016, Megan has been the Provincial Manager for Injury Prevention at the BC Centre for Disease Control and the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit. She has a passion for injury prevention and over 17 years of public health experience in Canada, Australia, Cambodia, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Megan provides leadership in the province of British Columbia and currently chairs multiple committees including the BC Provincial Public Health Injury Prevention Committee, the BC Injury Prevention Alliance, and the BC Falls and Injury Prevention Community of Practice. Through her work Megan facilitates guidance and recommendations on injury prevention to the Ministry of Health, and the Provincial Public Health Executive committee.

Megan holds an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a BHK in Exercise Science from the University of British Columbia.

Panel Discussion: Data and Surveillance

3:20 – 4:50 PM | Coal Harbour Ballroom

Data forms the foundation of injury prevention efforts. Knowledge about how many people are being seriously injured or killed, and from what, directs the focus on where harm is occurring. Married with evidence of what is most effective, injury prevention practitioners can direct their efforts. Injury data comes from a variety of surveillance systems, with varying collection methodologies, timeframes, and sources, at the federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal levels. Understanding how these various systems interconnect, or more commonly don’t, and the similarities or differences, is essential to be able to interpret what story the data is telling. While data is essential, as important is the synthesis and analysis of the data to understand the context of the injuries, as well as the current evidence that is effective in addressing the burden.

We will present a one-hour panel on data and surveillance systems at the 2022 Canadian Injury Prevention Conference, at a gathering of a diverse group of injury prevention practitioners who play various roles in the injury prevention field, including public health, researchers, policy makers, Indigenous peoples, front-line community, and social workers, first responders, and those working with priority and under-served populations. They use data in different ways, for example as epidemiologists, researchers, programmers, policymakers. This conference is an ideal event to present on the current state of data and surveillance in Canada and solicit feedback from delegates on current gaps and future priorities. Topics will include injuries across the unintentional and inflicted spectrums, including traffic, drowning, falls, fire, violence, and suicide, all topics that require and use data.

Moderator – Ms. Pamela Fuselli, Parachute

Pamela Fuselli, MSc is the President and CEO at Parachute. Pamela was the Executive Director at Safe Kids Canada and, during her tenure, was one of the four leaders who successfully led a process of national consultation and visioning, resulting in the formation of Parachute, Canada’s national charity dedicated to injury prevention.

What really drives her is the heartbreaking knowledge that the majority of serious injuries and deaths are preventable. Pamela leads Parachute’s mission to turn evidence of what works into action, building strong, longlasting relationships with stakeholders across Canada to achieve this mission. Over 20 years in the health care/injury prevention sector, Pamela’s work has focused on influencing public policy and public perceptions and knowledge with effective interventions. She strongly believes in collective impact, harnessing the strength of those seeking similar outcomes to achieve social change.

Panelist – Ms. Louise Meilleur, First Nations Health Authority

Louise has been the Director of Health Surveillance at FNHA for 4 years, prior to that she worked with the shíshálh Nation as their Community Services Division Manager. As the Director of Health Surveillance Louise oversees teams working on surveillance projects including those related to the toxic drug crisis, communicable disease including COVID, immunizations, chronic diseases, perinatal health, injury, cancer, healthcare utilization, and the Regional Health Survey.

Fahra Rajabali has been at the BCIRPU since 2000. She is a specialist in injury data, epidemiology, visualizations, and evaluation. Fahra manages the data at the BCIRPU and is responsible for the data and interface for the Injury Data Online Tool (iDOT). She is the evaluation manager for the Period of PURPLE Crying program in BC. Along with her co-workers, Fahra was a recipient of the UBC President’s Staff Award in 2014. On a personal level, Fahra has a passion for cooking and during the pandemic, led the BCIRPU and BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute staff through numerous cook along sessions for team building and social stimulation.

Panelist – Dr. Alison Macpherson, York University

Dr. Alison Macpherson is a Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University and an adjunct senior scientist at IC/ES.  Her research is related to keeping kids active, healthy, and safe, and focuses on the prevention of childhood injuries primarily through policies and laws designed to reduce injuries. 

Panelist – Ms. Stephanie Cowle, Parachute

Stephanie Cowle has spent more than a decade working in the area of injury and trauma prevention. She is the Director of Knowledge Translation at Parachute, leading the analysis and synthesis of research to develop the organization’s evidence-based solutions that advocate and educate. She led the publication of the Cost of Injury in Canada 2021 report. Stephanie’s experience includes working with government, health, sport and education stakeholders at national and provincial levels. Stephanie holds an Honours Bachelor’s degree in Sociocultural Anthropology from Wilfrid Laurier University and Knowledge Translation Professional Certificate from the University of Toronto.

Day 3

Panel Discussion: Social Marketing and Public/Private Partnerships in Injury Prevention

9:00 – 10:30 AM | Coal Harbour Ballroom

Change doesn’t occur in a vacuum—organizations and companies are often required to lead by example in order to make lasting changes to public health issues. Today, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts are widespread, with positive benefits to both the company and the organizations that they support. Companies realize the value of getting behind societal causes—not only does it benefit their employees, but it can boost sales, contribute to brand halo, and improve goodwill. Research suggests that publicly-traded companies who are dedicated to their employees’ health, safety, and well-being outperform in the stock market. Further, data suggests that consumers experience moral elevation and are more willing to donate their money and/or time to company-sponsored causes after witnessing positive CSR efforts.

This panel, consisting of executives from leading organizations in British Columbia, will discuss why their companies are interested in supporting injury prevention, which has traditionally been under a public health mandate. They will ponder best practices for public health departments and non-profits who are looking to engage companies to champion their cause. Other discussion topics include the value of a company taking initiative in health promotion, the role of “moral elevation” in prompting the public to act out a desired social responsibility outcome, and long-term investment in public health issues.

Moderator – Dr. Ian Pike, The Community Against Preventable Injuries

Dr. Ian Pike is the Director of the BCIRPU; Professor of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia; Investigator and Co-Lead of the Evidence to Innovation Research Theme at the Research Institute at the BC Children’s Hospital; Director of the Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome BC Program; and, Scientific Director, The Community Against Preventable Injuries. He holds adjunct appointments at York University, Vancouver Coastal Health, and Fraser Health Research Institutes, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Parachute.

He completed his PhD at the University of Alberta, and has held positions at the University of Regina, The Healthcare Benefit Trust, and the Canadian Red Cross, and was appointed Director, BCIRPU in 2004. Ian’s research is funded by CIHR, AUTO21, Transport Canada, and Public Health Agency of Canada, where he has co-led three national teams to conduct projects to develop and validate injury indicators for Canadian children and youth; injury prevention among First Nations and inuit children and youth; child passenger safety; risky play; and, the efficacy of social marketing to reduce preventable injuries.

He has published his research extensively and is a sought-after speaker and media spokesperson. Ian is the recipient of the UBC President’s Award for Public Education Through the Media, the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs Researcher of the Year, and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, Research Fellowship. His current research is focused on social and systems innovation to reduce preventable injuries.

Panelist – Mr. Shawn Pettipas, BCAA

 Shawn Pettipas is a community engagement and marketing leader with an MBA in Marketing and International Business, and 20 years of experience working with companies and communications agencies across Canada. Shawn leads BCAA’s community impact and safety initiatives, bringing to life the 117-year-old organization’s Purpose to ‘Empower British Columbians to Move Forward’ in innovative new ways. Building on BCAA’s rich history of protecting and helping British Columbians, Shawn and his teams are evolving BCAA’s purpose-led initiatives to build stronger, more resilient communities across the province, in ways that are relevant to how we live, work and play in BC. Whether it’s how BCAA measures itself through a Triple Bottom Line approach, or it’s developing partnerships with like-minded organizations such as Preventable, BC Earthquake Alliance and Firesmart, devising campaigns to encourage safer driving in school zones, teaching British Columbians more about seasonal driving challenges or how to prevent and prepare for fires or floods, Shawn is passionate about sharing BCAA’s trusted expertise with over one million members, and bringing people together for a greater good.

Panelist – Mr. Adam Bell, TYLin Group

Panelist – Ms. Brooke Moss, Pacific Blue Cross

With a unique blend of marketing and operations experience, combined with strong financial acumen, Brooke has spent her career understanding the ecosystems required to successfully propel financial services brands forward in both B2C and B2B environments.

Today, as Associate Vice President Brooke oversees all aspects of Work & Wellness at Pacific Blue Cross and is accountable for the range of products and services geared to employees who are healthy at work, at risk at work as well as those off work due to disability. In collaboration with other PBC stakeholders, Brooke is focused on bringing relevant and meaningful partners, products and services to the market as well as ensuring that Life and Disability products are delivered to meet the needs of claimants and plan sponsors alike.