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Lynda Hessey was the Executive Director of the Durham Haliburton & Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Council for five years, responsible for health planning for a large geographic area with a widely diverse population of over 800,000. Lynda was Executive Director for six and a half years at the former Durham Region District Health Council and was involved in several health services restructuring projects in the Durham Region, a rapidly growing part of the Greater Toronto Area.
Prior to her involvement with District Health Councils, Lynda held a number of progressively responsible policy and planning positions in the Ontario Ministry of Health. As well, she has had direct service experience in community health and social services.
Lynda holds a M.Sc. in Health Services Planning and Administration from the University of British Columbia.
Russ Larocque is Director of Services at Algoma Family Services in Ontario. He previously held a variety of senior management positions in the Social Services and Correctional systems in Alberta. He has presented workshops at national and international conferences on peer based youth treatment issues.
In Ontario, Russ has been involved in the design and delivery of innovative programming in youth addictions and children’s mental health. He helped develop the first public sector interactive website in youth addictions treatment services in Ontario, a site which has been used as a model by many youth services. The community treatment model he designed and used in the Alternatives for Youth Program is included in the “Best Practices Compendium,” which contains exemplary Canadian programs to prevent substance abuse problems for youth. Russ designed an educational program on substance use for teens that was evaluated and published in 1993 and is used in the Sault Ste. Marie High School system.
Russ is a member of the constituency Board for the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health and former Chair of the Research Review Committee of the Board of Directors for the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre. He holds diplomas in Behavioural Therapy, Youth Counselling, and Addictions Studies.
Terry Goodtrack is Chief Operating Officer of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation where he is responsible for a $7 million operating budget and a $150 million Healing Fund.
Terry brings knowledge and experience in regulatory, operational and policy issues related to gambling in Canada. Terry was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Indigenous Gaming Regulators Inc. in his home province of Saskatchewan. There he was responsible for building the new First Nations Gaming Regulatory Authority, where he oversaw the development of full jurisdiction over First Nations gaming and the negotiation of a licensing and regulating agreement with the Province of Saskatchewan.
Terry has a strong interest in operational, policy and financial management. He has worked as Chief Financial Officer for both the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, and the Assembly of First Nations. Early in his career he rose through the ranks at the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, becoming Manager, Headquarters Financial Services. Terry received his Master of Arts in Public Administration from Carleton University. He speaks English and French.
Virginia Carver has worked within the addictions field since 1974. Since 2001, she has been a private consultant on addiction related issues. Prior to 2001, she worked at the Office of Canada’s Drug Strategy, Health Canada, managing projects related to the development of best practice guidelines for substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation; with the Addiction Research Foundation (now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) where she worked in the area of treatment service development, particularly for women and older adults; and as a staff psychologist at the Royal Ottawa Hospital Addictions Program.
As well as her consultancy work, Virginia maintains involvement with the local and provincial addictions network through membership on a number of community boards, advisory committees and working groups.
Judythe Little has been a provincial judge for the Northwest Region of Ontario since 1986. Based in Kenora, she presides primarily on family, and some criminal law cases.
Prior to her appointment to the bench, she practised family law in Kenora with a special interest in the representation of children. She was a member of the Regional Mental Health Review Board for the region from January 1985 to May 1986. Before attending law school, Judythe worked as a psychometrist at the Queen Street Mental Health Centre, Toronto.
Since 1976, Judythe has been active in legal education for the public, lawyers and the judiciary as a presenter or panelist, more recently with an emphasis on first nation’s justice issues. She was Chair of the steering committee that established the Kenora Community Legal Clinic; the Kenora Child Abuse Council; and the Kenora Panel of the Child Representation Program. In addition, she was a board member of the Institute for the Prevention of Child Abuse [formerly Ontario Centre for the Prevention of Child Abuse.]
Currently, Judythe is a board member of the Canadian Chapter of the International Women Judges Association and a member of the Ontario Conference of Judges [President of a predecessor organization, the Ontario Family Law Judges Association, 1993 – 1994].
Joan Marshaman is Professor Emerita in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto where she continues to teach a Health Systems course. Her current research interests are in the evaluation of medication-related health services.
Joan was a scientist in Ontario’s Addiction Research Foundation for many years, and is a former President and CEO of that agency, prior to its merger into the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She is currently a member emeritus of the Ontario College of Pharmacists, and a member of the Academy of Health. Joan holds B.Sc.Phm. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Toronto and a M.Sc. from McMaster University.
Michael Salter recently retired as Associate Vice-President of Academic Affairs at University of Windsor. Michael is Coordinator of international liaison at the North American Public Health Institute, an international collaboration of the University of Windsor and Wayne State University in Detroit to compare and study health outcomes and uncover new approaches to lead the way to solutions. He also works with Lambton College in Sarnia.
Michael’s academic research as a sports anthropologist combines with his extensive experience, contacts and skills making partnership work with government, universities and health care policy and program administrators.
Paul Whitehead is Professor and Past Chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Western Ontario. His research specializes in addictions and he has written many articles in scholarly journals and books on the value of various alcohol control policies. Paul’s research interests include: Policy and Program Evaluation; Criminology; Youth in the Social Welfare and Justice Systems; Social Problems in First Nations Communities; Epidemiological and Preventive Aspects of Alcohol and Other Drug Use; Mental Health; Suicide and Other Types of Self-injurious Behaviours.
One of Paul’s most important contributions to public policy was research he and others contributed to the decision to raise the age of majority in Canadian and U.S. jurisdictions.
Kate Pautler has a passion for designing state-of-the-art service delivery systems that truly embrace people in their recovery journeys. Interdisciplinary training in Human Development frames her systems perspective and ability to draw from diverse knowledge bases. Kate devoted her early career to working in Ontario’s health care planning system, taking on progressively more responsible roles specializing in building and reforming local, regional and provincial systems of mental health and addictions care. In 1999, she was seconded to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to lead the mental health task force reform process.
Kate is now working as a consultant bringing her experience in human research, project management, policy development, program planning and design, community service coordination and organizational change to clients. She is also a skilled team leader with interdisciplinary groups, an accomplished presenter, writer and published author in peer reviewed journals.
Kate holds a Ph.D. from Catholic University of America and an M.A. and B.A. from Laurentian University.