Kim Raine
PhD, RD, FCAHS, Professor and Associate Dean (Research), School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Food Environments for Children and Youth: How do we Measure up?
Dr. Kim Raine is Professor and Associate Dean (Research) in the School of Public Health, University of Alberta. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Her research focuses on community and policy interventions to promote the health of populations. From 2008-13 Dr. Raine held an Applied Public Health Chair. She served as President of the Alberta Public Health Association from 2009-2012, and was a member of the inaugural institute advisory board for the CIHR’s Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (2001-2006). She has published over 150 peer reviewed articles, and has presented her research at numerous national and international conferences. Much of her work has involved integrated research, practice and policy advocacy for promoting health. Dr. Raine is also an avid endurance athlete, having completed dozens of marathons and many full Ironman triathlons. She has represented Canada as an age-group athlete in multiple world championship triathlons.
Charlene Elliot
PhD, RD, FCAHS, Professor and Associate Dean (Research), School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Food Promotion and Health: Packaging, Perceptions and Implications
Dr. Charlene Elliott holds a Canada Research Chair in Food Marketing, Policy & Children’s Health at the University of Calgary. She is Professor of Communication, jointly appointed with the Faculty of Kinesiology. She is a leading expert on food marketing to children, providing input and recommendations on initiatives pertaining to food, labeling and policy to national and international public health authorities (including Health Canada, the World Health Organization, and the European Commission’s Directorate on Health). She has published extensively on food marketing to children, and is also editor of several books, including How Canadians Communicate about Food: Promotion, Consumption and Controversy (2016). Dr. Elliott was recently inducted to the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists for her innovative research related to the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, a current global health challenge.
Michelle Hooper
Restricting the Marketing of Unhealthy Foods to Children in Canada: A Proposed Monitoring Approach
Michelle Hooper is Team Lead, Evidence and Monitoring, in Policy and Issues Management, Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Health Canada. Ms. Hooper’s focus area is evidence to support public health nutrition policy interventions to improve the health of Canadians.
Transition Beyond the Clinic | Plenary Panel
Susan M. Samuel
MD MSc, Pediatric Nephrologist, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
Dr. Samuel is a pediatric nephrologist and clinical researcher. She is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Her research goals are to improve care and outcomes of children with chronic disease, and in particular those with kidney disease. She leads the multi-centre Canadian Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome Project, a national initiative to improve care of children with nephrotic syndrome. She is working with a multi-disciplinary team in Calgary to improve transition to adult care for youth with special health care needs, and leads the Transition Navigator Trial research team. She serves on various committees and organizations to enhance child health and kidney research both locally and nationally.
Tracy Rhyason Lebel
amily Representative, Edmonton, AB
Tracy has been a supporting parent for her boys, who have been part of the Weight Wise program at the Edmonton Pediatric Center for Weight and Health for several years. It has been an evolving voyage. As they reach or start to reach their teen years, the challenges change and require different supports, but the focus remains on creating lifelong change through the hurdles.
Michael Watts
MSW, RSW, C.CYCC, Pediatric Centre for Weight & Health, Alberta Children’sHospital; Contract Faculty, Mount Royal University, The University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
Michael is a Medical Social Worker at the Alberta Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Centre for Weight and Health. Michael is also Contract Faculty within the Department of Child and Youth Studies and Social Work at Mount Royal University and within the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary.
Michael is trained as a therapist and his areas of expertise include at-risk youth, mental health, individual, group and family therapy, and psychosocial issues related to adolescents and families impacted by Type 1 diabetes, and weight and health issues.
Brenndon Goodman
Patient Representative, Toronto, ON
Brenndon attends University and is looking forward to a career in politics or law. He has faced the challenges and difficulties of being overweight his entire life. He attended many unsuccessful weight loss programs until he found the Sick Kids Team Obesity Management Program. It was here that he discovered the support and helpful approach to weight loss. In 2012, he underwent bariatric surgery and has lost over 1/3 of his body weight thus far. Brenndon was featured on a CTV W5 program about his weight loss journey. Brenndon is very committed to helping young people understand and cope with the stigma and difficulties they face being overweight and to help curb the growing epidemic of childhood obesity in a modern world.
Raylene A Reimer
PhD, RD, Faculty of Kinesiology,University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
Gut Microbiota: Do they have a role to play in preventing and treating pediatric obesity?
Dr. Raylene A Reimer is a Professor with the Faculty of Kinesiology and Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She is also a full scientist at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, a Fellow of the Obesity Society and a Registered Dietitian. Her research focuses on the role of diet in regulating energy intake, and gut microbiota in the context of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic diseases such as fatty liver disease. She has done extensive research in animal models to study how maternal diet during pregnancy influences their offspring’s gut microbiota, satiety hormone production, and obesity risk. Her clinical studies in adults and children with obesity have identified prebiotic fibre as a promising dietary intervention to improve metabolic health. In 2012, Dr. Reimer was honored with the Centrum New Scientist Award for Outstanding Research by the Canadian Nutrition Society.
Challenges in Pediatric Weight Management | Plenary Panel
Catherine Bellamy-Stack
BA, RN, Alberta Children’s Hospital, Calgary, AB
Catherine has twenty-seven years of nursing experience in acute care settings, the community and management. The majority of her clinical nursing career has been spent in pediatrics in the areas of oncology/BMT transplant, clinical telehealth and weight management.
Michelle Jackman
MD, FRCPC, Pediatrician, Clinical Lead Pediatric Centre for Weight & Health, Alberta Children’s Hospital, Calgary, AB
Dr. Michelle Jackman is the Clinical Lead and Pediatrician at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Pediatric Centre for Weight and Health. She is also a Pediatric Hospitalist with the Section of Hospital Pediatrics. Dr Jackman enjoys teaching medical students and residents as her role as Clinical Assistant Professor with Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Alberta.
Prior to moving to Calgary, Alberta, Dr Jackman obtained her MSc in Exercise Physiology from the University of Guelph and her medical degree from University of Toronto. She completed her Pediatric Residency at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Dr Jackman practiced as a member of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology at the London Health Sciences Centre form 2008-2010. She was part of the Pediatric Obesity Clinical Research and clinical team and Adjunct Assistant Professor with the University of Western Ontario. She has a long-term passion for helping children and their families with Pediatric Obesity. She also served a member of the Canadian Pediatric Society Section committee for Sports Medicine and Healthy Active Living from 2011-2013. She has been a co- author on abstracts and papers related to collaborative clinical research in Pediatric Obesity.
Dr “J” loves living in Calgary, Alberta, where it is a short drive to a mountain bike ride or ski day with her husband and 4 year old daughter, who is determined to be faster than her parents!
Celine Koryzma
PhD, Registered Psychologist at Pediatric Centre for Weight & Health, Alberta Children’s Hospital, Calgary, AB
Dr. Koryzma completed her graduate training in the Clinical Psychology Lifespan Development program at the University of Victoria, and a portion of her residency training with the Calgary Adult Bariatric Surgery Clinic. Currently, she is the medical psychologist for the Pediatric Centre for Weight and Health at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. Dr. Koryzma is also a Clinical Lecturer for the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Calgary, where she teaches about patient-centered communication skills and mental health treatment in primary care.
Paola Luca
MD, FRCPC, MSc, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary Pediatric Endocrinologist, Alberta Children’s Hospital, Calgary, AB
Paola Luca, MD, MSc, FRCPC, is a pediatric endocrinologist at Alberta Children’s Hospital and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Calgary. She graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School and did her residency training in pediatrics and fellowship training in pediatric endocrinology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. She completed a Master of Science during her pediatric endocrine fellowship, where she studied outcomes of a pediatric lifestyle clinic. Her research interests include childhood and adolescent obesity including the evaluation of pediatric weight management programs and identifying patient characteristics that predict treatment outcomes. She also has a strong interest in teaching medical students and residents, and quality improvement initiatives.
Michael Watts
MSW, RSW, C.CYCC, Pediatric Centre for Weight & Health, Alberta Children’s Hospital; Contract Faculty, Mount Royal University, The University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
Michael is a Medical Social Worker at the Alberta Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Centre for Weight and Health. Michael is also Contract Faculty within the Department of Child and Youth Studies and Social Work at Mount Royal University and within the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary.
Michael is trained as a therapist and his areas of expertise include at-risk youth, mental health, individual, group and family therapy, and psychosocial issues related to adolescents and families impacted by Type 1 diabetes, and weight and health issues.
Laura Wilson
RD, CDE, Registered Dietitian, Pediatric Centre for Weight and Health, Alberta Children’s Hospital, Calgary, AB
Laura has been working with the Pediatric Centre for Weight and Health for the past four years. She completed her undergraduate education at University of Alberta, her internship in Calgary and holds the title of Certified Diabetes Educator. Laura has worked primarily within the area of chronic disease management, both in Canada and Australia.
Paul Vrskovy
BSc, CSEP-CEP, Exercise Specialist, Pediatric Centre for Weight & Health, Alberta Children’s Hospital, Calgary, Calgary, AB
Paul has a bachelor’s of science in kinesiology for the University of Calgary and is a Certified Exercise Physiologist with the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology. He has worked at the Pediatric Centre for Weight and Health for 6 years and also has past experience with adult weight management and exercise prescription for clients of all ages and physical abilities.
Kerri Murray
BSc, Director of Projects, Ever Active Schools, Calgary, AB
Physical Activity Permissive Learning Environment
Kerri has a background in health physiology with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Calgary. Her career has centred on the field of health promotion in both the private and public sectors. She has a special interest in population health strategies for school-aged children and youth, with experience in facilitating a comprehensive school health approach. She currently oversees projects with Ever Active Schools, a provincial initiative that aims to improve health and learning outcomes of Alberta students.
Evidence from APPLE Schools: Creating Supportive Environments to Improve Health Behaviours
Landra Walker
School Health Mentor, APPLE Schools, Edmonton, AB
Landra Walker completed her bachelor of physical education in 2013 at the University of Alberta. She has been with APPLE Schools in varying capacities since 2012, and is now a school health mentor where she applies her passion for health by supporting the northern expansion APPLE Schools in Alberta, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories. The highlight of her job is hearing stories from school health facilitators and health champions about how they successfully implemented an activity or initiative in their school community and its positive impact, and celebrating their successes. She believes that working to improve the lives of students through healthy eating, active living, and mental wellbeing creates balance in her own life. Landra loves to spend her spare time outdoors, travelling, and hanging out with Max, her rambunctious beagle.
Kate Storey
PhD, RD, Assistant Professor, School of Public Health, University of Alberta; Distinguished Researcher, Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation; Member, Women and Children’s Health Research Institute; Edmonton, AB
Dr. Kate Storey is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta where she currently holds a CIHR New Investigator Grant in Maternal, Reproductive, Child & Youth Health and is also a Distinguished Researcher, Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation and Member, Women and Children’s Health Research Institute. Dr. Storey’s research program SIRCLE: Settings-based Intervention Research through Changes in Lifestyles & Environments focuses on school- and community-based strategies to promote healthy weights, prevent chronic diseases, reduce health inequities, and promote Mino-Bimaadiziwin (“living in a good way”). Her research aims to improve the overall health and well-being of families and communities by making the ‘healthy choice the easy choice’ where we live, work, learn and play. Dr. Storey is supported through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute, the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Alberta Innovates. She is also a Registered Dietitian. Dr. Storey has an enthusiastic love of cooking, being active, travelling, and taking on new adventures with family and friends.
CHANGE Adventure Camp – Fueling Your Adventure
Doug Klein
MD, CCFP, MSc, Family Physician, Researcher, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Dr. Doug Klein is family physician and researcher with the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta in Canada. Dr. Klein is interested in and has research grants in the area of nutrition, physical activity and the health benefits of nature for both children and adults. Dr. Klein co-founded Edmonton’s MOVE program (www.moveyeg.ca), the CHANGE Adventure Camp (www.campchange.ca), and has a health blog at www.changehealth.ca. He has strong connections to primary care physicians in Alberta. Passionate about health promotion and the benefits of nature, he can often be found outdoors with his wife and three children.
Clark Svrcek
MD, CCFP, PEng, MEng, Family Physician, Clinical Lecturer, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
Dr. Clark Svrcek is a family physician in Calgary, Alberta and a clinical lecturer at the University of Calgary. Dr. Svrcek has strong interests in the health benefits of nature, the built environment, and active, healthy communities. When he’s not working you can find him (or not) out in nature with his family, playing music, or desperately trying to organize thousands of digital photos.
Celine Koryzma
PhD, Registered Psychologist at Pediatric Centre for Weight and Health, Alberta Children’s Hospital, Calgary, AB
Helping Without Harming: How to Communicate with Children and Adolescents about Weight
Dr. Koryzma completed her graduate training in the Clinical Psychology Lifespan Development program at the University of Victoria, and a portion of her residency training with the Calgary Adult Bariatric Surgery Clinic. Currently, she is the medical psychologist for the Pediatric Centre for Weight and Health at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. Dr. Koryzma is also a Clinical Lecturer for the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Calgary, where she teaches about patient-centered communication skills and mental health treatment in primary care.
Amy McPherson
Fostering Positive Weight-Related Conversations: Evidence and Real-Life Learnings from the Heart of Care: A Knowledge Translation Casebook
Dr. Amy McPherson is a Scientist in the Bloorview Research Institute and Assistant Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the University of Toronto. Dr. McPherson’s program of research focuses upon health and wellness promotion in children with long-term conditions and disabilities. She has a particular interest in the use of strengths-based interventions to promote healthy lifestyles, and weight-related communication best practices.
Louise C. Mâsse
Aim2Be: Gamified Approach to Changing Health Behaviours: Development and Evaluation of the Living Green and Healthy for Teens (LiGHT) Mobile Intervention
Dr. Louise Mâsse is a Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia and a level 3 scientist at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Her current studies, which is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Public Health Agency of Canada include:
- Evaluation of policy strategies and capacity building interventions to influence children’s health behaviours, specifically physical activity, sedentary and dietary behaviours in multiple settings including childcare, recreation centres, and schools.
- Developing and evaluating gamified lifestyle modification interventions targeting children and their families.
- Understanding how transitional periods, specifically the transition from elementary to secondary schools, influence children’s PA, sedentary and dietary behaviours as well as weight outcomes.
Dana Olstad
PhD, RD, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
Does Policy Matter? Improving Food Environments in Recreation and Sport Facilities
Dr. Dana Olstad is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary and a Registered Dietitian. Her research focusses on the impact of policy on socioeconomic inequities in dietary behaviours and health.
Child Care Centres as Portals of Influence: Assessment and Interventions
Lynne Lafave
PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Health & Physical Education and Centre for Child Well-Being, Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB
Dr. Lynne Lafave is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health and Physical Education at Mount Royal University. She serves as the nutrition program coordinator for the Health and Physical Education, Nursing, and Midwifery programs. Lynne holds a PhD in nutritional sciences from the University of Manitoba and her research focuses on interrelationships between nutrition behaviours, attitudes, and knowledge with special interest in individual and organizational behaviour change. She has developed the evidenced based Creating Healthy Eating EnviRonments Scale (CHEERS) for child care that provides evaluation and a feedback report to promote healthy child care environments (cheerskids.ca). This public health initiative is in its first year of roll out to the provincial child care community and has been positively received in this stakeholders group. This work represents a collaboration with early learning and care providers, the provincial health authority, Alberta Health Services – Population and Public Health, and Government of Alberta Ministry of Children’s Services – Early Childhood Development Branch.
Anna Farmer
PhD, MPH, RD, Associate Professor, Community and Public Health Nutrition, Academic Lead, Dietetics Specialization and Honours Program, Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Dr. Farmer is Associate Professor of Community and Public Health Nutrition in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science at the University of Alberta. She teaches courses in community and public health nutrition. Dr. Farmer holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, Master of Public Health from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and BSc from Mount St Vincent University. Her research focuses on understanding food and nutrition behaviours and policy adoption at the individual and organizational level in child care settings. She has over 50 peer-reviewed and other articles (dietary behaviours related to sodium, sugar, food security and dietetic practice). Anna has been a registered dietitian since 1989 and a member of several dietetic associations: Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Hawaii, American Dietetic Association, and the College of Dietitians of Alberta since 2007. She has held several positions as a public health and research dietitian in public and government settings. Anna is the Academic Lead for the new Dietetics Specialisation program at the University of Alberta.
It Takes a Village: Using iKT to Inform, Develop and Grow the Guelph Family Health Study
Andrea Buchholz
PhD, RD, Professor, Deparment of Applied Nutrition, Univesity of Guelph, Guelph, ON
Andrea Buchholz is a Registered Dietitian and Professor of Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph. She is a co-investigator of the Guelph Family Health Study, and has expertise in measurement and lifestyle correlates of obesity.
Jess Haines
PhD, RD, Professor, Deparment of Applied Nutrition, Univesity of Guelph, Guelph, ON
Jess Haines is a Registered Dietitian and an Associate Professor of Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph. She is the Associate Director of the Guelph Family Health Study, and has expertise in family-based obesity prevention interventions.
Jason Gilliland
PhD, MA, MArch, BA Hons, Director, Urban Development Program; Professor, Departments of Geography, Paediatrics, Health Studies, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, London ON
Healthy Active Living and Child Obesity: How Environment Matters
Jason Gilliland (B.A.Hon, M.A., M.Arch., Ph.D) is Director of the Urban Development Program and Full Professor in the Dept of Geography, Dept of Paediatrics, School of Health Studies and Dept of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at Western University in Canada. He is also a Scientist with the Children’s Health Research Institute and Lawson Health Research Institute, two of Canada’s leading hospital-based research institutes. His research is primarily focused on exploring social and environmental determinants and developing interventions to ameliorate children’s health issues, such as poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and obesity. He is also Director of the Human Environments Analysis Lab (www.theheal.ca), an innovative research and training environment which specializes in community-based research and identifying interventions to public policy, programming and neighbourhood design to promote the health and quality of life of children and youth.
Noreen Willows
PhD, Associate Professor of Community Nutrition,Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Community-based Participatory Research in Indigenous Communities: A Primer for Academic Health Researchers
Noreen Willows is Associate Professor of Community Nutrition in the Department of Agricultural, Food & Nutritional Science at the University of Alberta. She uses qualitative and quantitative methods for studying the nutrition of school children, university students, and communities. Her research program explores the cultural meanings of food and health; how food beliefs and dietary practices affect well-being; and, how socio-cultural factors and the social determinants of health affect food selection. Dr. Willows is currently conducting community-based participatory research with First Nations communities in Alberta and British Columbia to improve food security and nutrition.
Innovation, Technology and Childhood Healthy Active Living: Moving Forward by Looking Back
Mark Tremblay
PhD, Director, Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research, CHEO Research Institute, Ottawa, ON
Professor Mark Tremblay has a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Sports Administration and a Bachelor of Physical and Health Education degree from Laurentian University. His graduate training was from the University of Toronto where he obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Department of Community Health with a specialty in Exercise Science. Dr. Tremblay is the Director of Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research (HALO) at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute and Professor of Pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, Chair of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance, Chair of the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines Committee, and Founder of the Sedentary Behaviour Research Network. Dr. Tremblay has published more than 370 scientific papers and book chapters in the areas of childhood obesity, physical activity measurement, exercise physiology, sedentary physiology and health surveillance. His h-index is 58 and his published research has been cited >15,000 times according to Scopus. He has delivered over 700 scholarly conference presentations, including more than 150 invited and keynote addresses, in 20 different countries. Dr. Tremblay received an honorary doctorate from Nipissing University, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Lawson Foundation 60th Anniversary Award, the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Honour Award, and Victor Marchessault Advocacy Award from the Canadian Pediatric Society for his leadership contributions to healthy active living in Canada. Dr. Tremblay’s most productive work has resulted from his 30-year marriage to his wife Helen, yielding four wonderful children.