We are pleased that our inaugural Convention will feature the following speakers:

Adalsteinn Brown is the inaugural Chair of Public Health Policy of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, and a former Assistant Deputy Minister, Health System Strategy Division, for Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Until recently, he was the principal investigator for the Hospital Report Research Collaboration, which develops balanced scorecards for acute care, emergency department care, chronic care, rehabilitation and mental health, and integrates women's health and nursing perspectives.

Nancy Edwards is the scientific director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)'s Institute of Population and Public Health in Ottawa, Ontario. She is a professor in the School of Nursing, with a cross-appointment to the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Edwards is also a senior scientist at the Institute of Population Health and Elisabeth Bruyère research Institute, and Academic Consultant for the City of Ottawa's Public Health Services.

John Garcia is the program leader for the master of public health program and an associate professor in the department of health studies and gerontology in the faculty of applied health sciences at the University of Waterloo. He has held several positions over the years in public health at the international, national and provincial levels. He was instrumental in the development of the original Ontario Tobacco Strategy (OTS).

Bob Gardner is Director of Health Care Reform and Public Policy at the Wellesley Institute, a non-profit research and policy think tank focusing on advancing urban health and health equity. He researches, writes and speaks widely on health-equity policy; works with governments, LHINs, service-provider networks and community partners to develop effective strategies and action plans to enhance health equity; and is on the board of the Ontario Health Quality Council. Bob has a PhD in sociology; has been an academic, public sector executive and consultant; and has been a community activist on HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and other issues.

Ruth Grier is the founding member of the Environmental and Occupational Working Group of the Toronto Cancer Prevention Coalition and member of Take Charge on Toxics - a provincial campaign spearheaded by the Canadian Cancer Society. She held elected office for twenty-five years, during which time she served as a councillor in the former City of Etobicoke, M.P.P. for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Ontario's Minister of the Environment (1990-93), and Minister of Health (1993-95). As Minister of Health, Grier created the Trillium Drug Plan, legalized midwifery as a profession, expanded community health centres and passed Canada's toughest anti-tobacco legislation.

Sandra Laclé is currently the director of the Health Promotion Division at the Sudbury & District Health Unity. Her 30-year career has included roles as acting chief executive officer, acting director of Clinical Services, director of the Nursing Division, and director of Staff Development and Quality. Laclé is a lecturer in public health at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and a clinical associate with he School of Nursing at Laurentian University. Her professional passions include equity-focused health promotion, population health, chronic disease prevention and child health.

Angela Mashford-Pringle is an urban Algonquin woman from Québec's Temiskaming First Nation, and a PhD candidate specializing in the area of Aboriginal health at the Dalla Lane School of Public Health. She worked for many years at Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada managing a variety of Aboriginal social programs, including Aboriginal Head Start. Mashford-Pringle is currently an Assistant Professor in the University of Toronto's Aboriginal Studies Program and the contracted Aboriginal Programs Manager at Centennial College.

Irving Rootman is a visiting professor in the department of gerontology at Simon Fraser University, where he teaches a course in health promotion to graduate students. He has worked in the field of health promotion for more than 30 years - as a researcher, manager, teacher, consultant and volunteer at the international, national, provincial and local levels.

Penny Sutcliffe began her appointment with the Sudbury & District Health Unit in 2000 as the area's medical officer of health and chief executive officer. A community medicine specialist, Sutcliffe has a faculty appointment with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine as associate professor of Public Health, Human Sciences Division, and associate professor of Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine, at Lakehead University and Laurentian University. She was the chair of the Royal College of Physician and Surgeons' Examination Board for Community Medicine. Sutcliffe has a long-standing interest in health promotion and population health.

LuAnn E. White is the director of the Tulane Center for Applied Environment Health (CAEPH), Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a toxicologist and professor in the Department of Environmental Health. She directs the Academic Partners of Excellence for the Environmental Public Health Tracking Network funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She also directs the New Orleans Study Center for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Children's Study. White's research focuses on environmental factors that affect children's health, particularly childhood lead poisoning and environmental triggers of asthma. She also studies other vulnerable populations, including the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the elderly.

Stephen Whitehead holds a joint position as Medical Health Officer for the Saskatoon Health Region and Assistant Professor in the College of Medicine University of Saskatchewan. As well as being responsible for medical undergraduate teaching in public health, he is director of the practicum program, which is part of the Masters Public Health degree program at the University of Saskatchewan School of Public Health. During his public health career, Whitehead has led and been involved in many initiatives aimed at tackling health inequity.