Darci Lang
Darci is very proud to call Regina, Saskatchewan home. She is a full-time speaker, national best-selling author and a blogger. She has won The Saskatchewan Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award and an Achieving Business Excellence Award. Darci has also been a finalist in the Canadian Women Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and seven other nationally recognized business excellence awards.
She also walks the fine line of balancing home, family and work. Using her magnifying glass, she sees a way to Focus on the 90%s in her world, and she inspires others to do the same. Adopting her positive attitude can change lives! She is wife to crazy Saskatchewan Rough Rider fan Darren and mom to 14 year old Jayda and 12 year old John. Darci is truly someone who “Walks the Talk”.
Dr. Gabor Maté
Gabor Maté is a medical doctor recently retired from active practice. He was a family physician for two decades and for seven years he served as Medical Coordinator of the Palliative Care Unit at Vancouver Hospital. For twelve years he worked in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with patients challenged by hard core addiction, mental illness, HIV and related conditions. For two years he was the on-site physician at Vancouver’s unique Supervised Injection Site, North America’s only such facility. He is internationally known for his work on the mind/body unity in health and illness, on attention deficit disorder and other childhood developmental issues, and his breakthrough analysis of addiction as a psychophysiological response to childhood trauma and emotional loss.
He is the author of four best-selling books published in twenty languages on five continents, including When The Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress and the award winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction. Gabor is the recipient of an Outstanding Alumnus Award from Simon Fraser University and an Honorary Degree of Law from the University of Northern British Columbia, among other awards. He frequently addresses professional and lay audiences in North America and internationally on issues related to childhood development and parenting, physical and mental health and wellness, and addiction. He is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Criminology, Simon Fraser University. His next book, Toxic Culture: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a World of Materialism will be published in 2016.
Tamara Taggart
As a veteran broadcaster, a third generation Vancouverite and busy working mother, Tamara comes to the CTV anchor chair with a lot of experience, passion and a deep understanding of what matters to Metro Vancouver residents. In the field, Tamara reports on a range of important issues, from women with HIV to rare diseases affecting children.
Tamara’s commitment to our community goes beyond her work on the air. She’s proud to be the Chair of the BC Women’s Hospital “Hope Starts Here” campaign, helping to raise $17 million dollars for a new Newborn Intensive Care Unit at BC Women’s Hospital. Tamara chaired the 2014 Inspiration Gala for the BC Cancer Foundation which raised $5 million dollars for the POG Program, and this year she is committed to raising $3 million dollars for Immunotherapy Clinical Trials. Tamara also sits on the boards at The Kettle Friendship Society, the Pacific Parkland Foundation and The Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada. Tamara is a big supporter of the Developmental Disabilities Association and the BC Centre for Ability. Tamara is a founding board member of the Rare Disease Foundation.
Tamara recently gave a TEDx talk called Two Conversations that Changed My Life. She compared the conversation she had with doctors when she was told her son had Down syndrome to the conversation with doctors when they told her she had cancer. Tamara is a strong advocate for her son and others with special needs, believing we are more the same than we are different.
Tamara lives in Vancouver with her husband David, a music producer and lead guitarist with 54-40. Together they are happily raising their three children Beckett, Zoë and Poppy.