Georgette Reed

During her athletic career, Georgette was a 17 time national athletics champion in the throwing events and represented Canada in the Olympic Games, World Athletics Championships, World Bobsleigh Championships, Pan American Games, Commonwealth Games and other international events.

With 46 years of experience in competitive sport, fitness and health; Georgette now puts all of the knowledge and expertise to good use as the Health and Wellness Coordinator for Edmonton Fire Rescue Services. She also serves as a Mental Health First Aid and Psychological First Aid instructor for the City of Edmonton and a DND R2MR (first responder) Master Trainer. During her keynote, Georgette will engage you with her thoughts on the concept of "Balance vs Flow" and how recovery is important to becoming a resilient leader.

Anna Everett

Nearly 20 years of emergency services experience as Deputy Fire Chief, Training Officer, Lieutenant, volunteer firefighter, Advanced care paramedic, coach and mentor.

Jeremy Parkin

Jeremy Parkin joins the National Indigenous Fire Safety Council (NIFSC) project as the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Liaison Officer. Jeremy is a member of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and he comes to the project with more than 20 years of experience in First Nations fire services and a strong background in leadership developed through fire department operations and management. Jeremy has worked with leadership and fire chiefs’ organizations at both the provincial and federal levels. His role with the TAC is to facilitate as the group coordinates program development and delivery as well as address emerging regional and national technical issues.

Vince Mackenzie

Chief Vince MacKenzie is Fire chief (full-time) of composite/volunteer fire department in Grand Falls-Windsor NL. He is a long serving board and National Advisory Council member of CAFC, and a past president of NL Association of Fire Services. He is a lifelong firefighter, presently in his 37th year of firefighting. His passion has been in advocacy for the successful advancement of the fire service since early in his career.

Kathryn Sinden

Dr. Kathryn E. Sinden RKin, PhD is an Associate Professor (School of Kinesiology) and Adjunct Professor (Department of Health Sciences) at Lakehead University; she is an Associate Scientist of EPID@Work Research Institute (Lakehead University) and an Affiliate Scientist with the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (Laurentian University). She has clinical and research expertise in ergonomics and disability management. Dr. Sinden uses principles of integrated knowledge translation to conduct her research which ensures outcomes are relevant to the partners who enable her work. Her research conducted in partnership with Thunder Bay Fire Rescue was recently recognized by Lakehead University with a Community Engaged Research Award.

Larry Iverson

Dr. Larry Iverson is a Psychologist, Trainer, Author and Leadership Coach. He has personally coached and trained over 1,000,000 people, including professional athletes, corporations, online businesses, fire services, IMT's, local to national government agencies and universities. Larry provided Mental Toughness Training for 147 Olympic level athletes. He is the developer of, and trains, the L-480 Strategic Incident Management Team Leadership program for NAFRI, IAFC, NWCG & FEMA. Since 2008 Dr. Iverson has taught over 10,000 military, fire, public safety and all hazard team members. He created two trauma techniques now being widely used for work with PTSD. He produced and hosted a television program for PBS Television, titled “The Strategies for Success”.

Dave Waterhouse

Mr. Dave Waterhouse is currently acting Division Chief at the Strategic Planning and Informational Resources Division at the Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal. He is the co-author of numerous studies on the economic and social benefit of Fire Department’s operational activities and Fire Prevention programs. His research also led him to develop an analytical model for the economic impact of Fire Department’s interventions on highways. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from HEC Montréal Business School and an MBA from Sherbrooke University Business School.

Scott Ramey

Scott Ramey is Division Chief of Medical Programs, Research, and Quality Improvement with Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency Service. Formerly a Critical Care Flight Paramedic with British Columbia Emergency Health Services and Ontario’s ORNGE Medical Transport; as well as Deputy Chief of Professional Standards and Quality with land Paramedic Services. Scott holds a BHSc in Paramedicine. He is a Master of Science student with Queens University department of graduate studies in Quality & Process Improvement, Human Factors, Risk & Safety.

Kris Kennett

Kris Kennett is a New Zealand based station officer, career and volunteer Firefighter for Fire and Emergency NZ. He sits on the national board for the NZ Firefighters Welfare Society. His passion for helping people has led him to study psychology with the long term vision of helping to advance the global mental health agenda for first responders.

Avril Mcdonald

Avril McDonald is the best-selling award-winning author of the Feel Brave series of books which are little stories about big feelings for children (currently translated into seven different languages). Her books are endorsed by clinical psychologists who cite them as being perfectly pitched for children and based on sound psychological research.