Speaker Details

Dr. Dara Abells is a community family physician who completed extra training in intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). In addition to delivering comprehensive family medicine, she runs an IDD consultation clinic through Forest Hill Family Health Centre and Surrey Place. Finally, Dr. Abells teaches learners at the University of Toronto medical school and is the program director for the University of Toronto DFCM Enhanced Skills Training in IDD. 

Andria Bianchi is a Clinical Ethicist at Unity Health Toronto, where she supports multiple post-acute care organizations. Andria’s primary areas of ethics expertise involve those related to people with intellectual disabilities, as well as people with dementia. Andria recently co-edited a book entitled Intellectual Disabilities and Autism: Ethics and Practice.

Kerry Boyd is a psychiatrist who has over 25 years of experience. She is committed to improving care through education and advocacy. She contributed to DDPCP Mental Health, Transition, and Communicate CARE tools. As an AMS Phoenix Project Fellow, she rallied a network of partners to develop the Curriculum of Caring for People with Developmental Disabilities to create web-based resources found at CommunicateCARE.machealth.ca.

Krista Carr is the Executive Vice President of Inclusion Canada. She has over 27 year's experience working with children and adults with and intellectual or developmental disability and their families in the pursuit of full inclusion in society. Krista is also the Chair of the Ministerial Disability Advisory Group.

Dr. Priya Chandan is a physician-scientist who engages in health services research to improve the quality of medical care for people with disabilities. She has been involved in health policy and advocacy efforts for over 15 years and has served in leadership positions in both academia and industry at national, state, and local levels. She is a clinical associate professor at the University Louisville School of Medicine and is passionate about medical education. She serves as a mentor and a teacher to medical students and medical residents nationwide, across multiple medical specialties. For the last eight years, she has served as Project Director of NICHE-MED, an initiative that has activated close to 40 medical schools to develop and implement community-engaged medical education efforts that are co-created with disabled self-advocates. Dr. Chandan serves as a senior editor for PM&R, the official scientific journal of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and has expertise in mixed methods, econometrics, and community-engaged research methods. She also currently serves on the Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board for the National Down Syndrome Society and the Board for Special Olympics Kentucky.

Dr. Heidi Diepstra leads the Developmental Disabilities Primary Care Program at Surrey Place, where she spearheads the program’s knowledge translation strategy to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice. She brings extensive expertise in knowledge translation and implementation, having received specialized training from the Hospital for Sick Children, St. Michael’s Hospital, and the Center for Implementation in Toronto. Dr. Diepstra leverages a systems thinking approach to drive meaningful improvements in healthcare delivery.

Lauren Erickson (she/her) serves as the Director of Policy and Programs at IEC, where she oversees the development and implementation of programs and policies that support IEC’s organizational goals and mission.

Lauren brings more than 12 years of industry experience in the healthcare field, most recently at Berkeley Research Group where she advised clients on healthcare mergers and acquisitions. She also worked at Anthem, Inc., where she developed and implemented a partnership strategy to support independent physicians in providing high-value care. Lauren also led the implementation of the Quality Payment Program at the CMS Innovation Center, based on the most significant legislative changes to Medicare physician payment policy in more than 30 years. She previously worked for Senator Tom Harkin in the United States Senate and for the Iowa Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health and Disability Services.

Lauren also serves as a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Committee to conduct an Independent Analysis of the Department of Defenses’ Autism Care Demonstration Program.

Lauren received her MPH from the University of Iowa and her BA from the University of Northern Iowa. She has the lived experience of supporting a sibling with IDD.

Marihan Farid (she/her) is an internal medicine resident at Dalhousie. She completed medical school at Dalhousie, where she actively engaged in medical education and advocacy for emotional well-being among medical trainees. Her academic interests include grief in medical residents, disability justice, and enhancing diversity in medical education.

Zachary Ford (he/him) is a resident in radiation oncology at Dalhousie. He has been involved in advocacy work in LGBTQ+ access to medical education and healthcare in Nova Scotia. Academically, his interests are digital health technologies and improving pathways to implement and engage medical technology in clinical settings.

Angie is a Nurse Professional Practice Lead and Clinical Nurse Specialist at Surrey Place. She has Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Life Sciences, Bachelor of Nursing Science and Master of Nursing degree in Community Health from the University of Toronto. Prior to Surrey Place, Angie worked at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab Hospital in Acquired Brain Injury inpatient unit and Neuromuscular outpatient clinic. She now provides nursing consultation care with Surrey Place’s Plus 45 clinical team. She is part of ECHO Ontario Adult Intellectual & Developmental (AIDD) Disabilities program. Angie is also part of the IDD Provincial Intellectual and Developmental Disability Palliative Care Network (IDD PCN), and DD Ontario Nurses Community of Practice Vice Chair.

Dr. Lori Haskell is a pre-eminent expert on trauma-informed mental health approaches. A clinical psychologist and educator, she provides therapeutic services for survivors, and has helped transform service delivery models and legal processes for victims of abuse. Notably, she developed and delivers front-line training programs on sexual violence for legal, law enforcement and health care professionals. Her groundbreaking work has raised awareness of the impacts of abuse and has positively changed societal, institutional and criminal justice system responses to vulnerable individuals and groups.

Tracey has served in her present role 14 years as Director of the Palliative Pain & Symptom Management Consultation Service (PPSMC) for Toronto; past Member of the Toronto Central Hospice Palliative Care Network Board of Directors; Ryerson University Advisory Council to the Health Services & Health Information Management Programs; past Chair of the provincial Palliative Care Consultation Network (PCCN); current Member of the Ontario Palliative Care Network (OPCN) Clinical Advisory Council; and Chair of the provincial Intellectual and Developmental Disability Palliative Care Network (IDD-PCN).

Nekeisha Jean-Baptiste is a second-year Clinical Psychology Master’s student at Toronto Metropolitan University, supervised by Dr. Karen Milligan. She has done work reflecting her interests in understanding and improving mental health and well-being among youth and families, especially those navigating the world along the margins. Nekeisha has examined the sources of stress and well-being among young newcomers to Canada and the influence of culture on mental health perceptions, specifically, attitudes towards mental illness and help-seeking. Currently, in collaboration with St. Michael's Hospital, she is examining the risk and resilience factors related to child welfare involvement among Black caregivers of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, given the disproportionate representation of Black and disabled children in the system, and how such factors impact health and social service access.

As an Adjunct Professor, Nancy continues to support graduate students and work in the field of aging and intellectual disabilities with a focus on dementia practices and quality of life. She is a longtime member of the US based National Task Group on Intellectual Disabilities and Dementia Practices (NTG). In Canada she co-created the NTG-Canadian Consortium on Intellectual Disabilities and Dementia that has piloted an adapted version of the NTG’s national education and training curriculum. In May 2018, Nancy was invited to the National Conference on Dementia to participate in the development of the Canadian National Strategy on Dementia. With the advocacy efforts at the conference and from people from across the country, the newly released Canadian National Dementia Strategy includes recognition of the needs of adults with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers affected by dementia.

Dr. Yona Lunsky is Director of the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre, and Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She directs the Health Care Access and Developmental Disabilities Program (H-CARDD) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) which brings research, policy and practice together to improve the health of adults with developmental disabilities. She is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Adjunct Scientist at ICES Toronto. Dr. Lunsky’s research explores clinical and systems issues related to health services. She is involved in a number of projects focused on improving primary, emergency and mental health care and is particularly interested in working together with health care providers and recipients to design tools to improve health care delivery.

Website/Social media links: Website; Twitter; @yonalunsky @hcardd

Abbey MacLellan (she/her) is a psychiatry resident physician at Dalhousie. She completed medical school at Dalhousie and her undergraduate degree in physiology and neuroscience at the University of British Columbia. Her academic interests include writing and the humanities, disability justice, and medical education.

Dr. Karen Milligan, PhD, CPsych is a registered clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University. She has over 20 years of research and clinical experience working with children, youth and caregivers who are neurodiverse and/or are experiencing mental health challenges. Her research focuses on the contributions of cognitive processing and emotion regulation to mental health and parenting and the development and evaluation of integrated health and social service models. 

Dr. Ullanda Niel is the Chief of Family Medicine and a Developmental Consultant at Surrey Place, Toronto. She is the Clinical Lead Family Medicine for the Developmental Disabilities Primary Care Program (DDPCP). She is also an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto and assistant professor at Queen’s University. She has a clinical practice as a family physician at Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities and a care home (Participation House) in Toronto. Dr. Niel has completed a fellowship in the Primary Care of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities at Queen’s University and is a co-author of the 2018 Canadian Consensus Guidelines on Primary Care for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Dr. Niel has interests in primary care access for adults with intellectual disabilities, knowledge translation, caregiver supports (acceptance and commitment therapy) and global health.

Amanda is a Lived Experience Associate at Surrey Place. She has been working at Surrey Place since 2020. She is a permanent part-time employee. Amanada uses her lived experience to provide feedback on projects, help with research, promote accessibility, consultation and co-design work. Amanda loves her job because she gets to teach people how to work with people with IDD and help to make things better for clients at Surrey Place. When she isn’t working, Amanda loves hanging out with her friends, going to movies and out for dinner, Ice Capps, and swimming

Avra Selick is a project scientist in the Provincial System Support Program (PSSP) and the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre at CAMH. Avra has worked for over a decade on designing and implementing tools and models to promote accessible and equitable healthcare for adults with developmental disabilities.

Lee graduated from the George Brown College Intervenor for Deafblind Persons Program in 2005 and started her career as a dedicated full-time intervenor for CHKC. In 2006, she moved into the role of Consumer Support Specialist, where she works closely with consumers of the deafblind community and community partners.  Lee is a behavioural competencies trainer and sits on a number of committees including National Deafblind Awareness Month, CHKC Revenue and Diversification/Occupancy Committee.

Dr. Sullivan serves as the Joseph P. Kennedy Senior Chair in Bioethics, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. He has experience in family medicine and a doctorate in philosophy (Bioethics). His clinical and academic work integrates ethics and primary health care of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Tamara Taggart is a community leader, activist, veteran broadcaster, cancer survivor, mother, and former candidate in the 2019 Canadian election.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Tamara is a community leader who advocates for others and raises much-needed funds for many important causes. Throughout her career as a broadcaster on local television, radio and digital media, Tamara earned her place as a trusted voice for people in Vancouver. She has focused two decades’ of volunteer efforts on health care and the well-being of children and people with disabilities.

Tamara chaired BC Women's Hospital’s Hope Starts Here campaign, raising $17 million for the newborn intensive care unit. She also served as chair of the BC Cancer Foundation’s Inspiration Gala for five years, raising more than $16 million for cancer research and treatment in British Columbia.

Tamara’s 2014 TED Talk, “Two Conversations that Changed My Life”, struck a chord with medical professionals and universities around the world, by reframing the way healthcare practitioners communicate hope.

In 2015 Tamara was awarded the Order of BC—the highest honour awarded by the Government of British Columbia—in recognition of her years of public service. She also received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of the Fraser Valley in 2016.

Alicia completed family medicine residency and Enhanced Skills in primary care for adults with IDD at the University of Saskatchewan. She is a board member of the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry and chair of the Developmental Disabilities Member Interest Group for College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Dr. Young is a general and developmental Paediatrician at St. Michael’s Hospital. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. Her dual training and work experience in developmental and general Paediatrics provides her with a unique perspective in caring for families of children and youth with developmental disorders.