Hope Beanlands is a senior public health practitioner and a registered nurse with extensive experience in population health, public health, and health policy. She has in-depth knowledge of the disparity in health status of Canadians and has experienced first hand the challenges of providing equitable health services for marginalized populations. She is keenly aware that health inequities in Canada are socially produced, are systematic in their distribution across the population and are unfair. Hope has worked on health system reform projects in China, Russia, Cuba, Grenada and Canada and is currently the Scientific Director of the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health.

Francois Benoit

Sonya H. Corkum is vice president, knowledge exchange and communications at the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion (OAHPP). She is responsible for developing an agency wide strategy to ensure access to best available evidence in a relevant and timely manner. Sonya is also responsible for communications, external relations and professional development at OAHPP.

Sonya has more than 20 years of experience of creating programs that promote the use of research-based information to enhance health decision making. Prior to OAHPP, she worked at World Health Organization, creating networks to influence the use of research evidence in low- and middle-income countries.

Lydia Drasic currently holds the position of Director, Provincial Primary Health Care and Population Health Strategic Planning with the Provincial Health Services Authority in BC, which has a key focus on addressing chronic disease prevention issues through surveillance and knowledge synthesis translation and exchange initiatives. Her responsibilities include developing and supporting collaborative efforts between the Ministry of Health, regional health authorities and other inter-sectoral partners to affect positive policy and practice changes.

Dr. Ian Graham is Vice-President of the Knowledge Translation Portfolio at Canadian Institutes of Health Research. At CIHR, he is responsible for knowledge translation, partnerships and citizen engagement, communication and public outreach, and evaluation and analysis. Dr Graham is on leave from his position as Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, University of Ottawa and Senior Social Scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology Program of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He holds cross-appointments in the Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology & Community Medicine and is an adjunct associate professor in the School of Nursing at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. Dr. Graham obtained a B.A. in sociology from McGill University, an M.A. in sociology from the University of Victoria, and a Ph.D. in medical sociology from McGill University. Dr. Graham's research has largely focused on knowledge translation (the process of research use) and conducting applied research on strategies to increase implementation of research findings and evidence-based practice. He has also advanced KT science though the developed two planned action models, the Ottawa Model of Research Use and more recently the Knowledge to Action Model. Specific research projects have related to the adaptation, implementation, and quality appraisal of clinical practice guidelines, as well as the uptake of guidelines and decision support tools by practitioners. He is co-editor of Knowledge Translation in Health Care published by Wiley-Blackwell (2009).

Stéfane Gravelle is a frontline Environmental Public Health professional employed with the provincial Department of Health & Healthy Living. He is board certified by the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPHI) and holds a B.A.Sc. from Ryerson University in Environmental Health. Stéfane works in Brandon, Manitoba as an acting Regional Manager for the western and northern portions of the province. He is also the immediate Past-President of the Manitoba Branch of CIPHI.

Margo Greenwood is an assistant professor in the University of Northern British Columbia's Education Program. Prior to this appointment she was Chair of the First Nations Studies Program and a faculty member of the Social Work Program. She is the Director of the Centre of Excellence for Children and Adolescents with Special Needs, the UNBC Task Force on Substance Abuse, a Health Canada funded institute committed to increasing knowledge and understanding about children, including Aboriginal children, in rural communities. Most recently, she was appointed Academic Leader of the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health situated at University of Northern BC in Prince George, BC.

Geoffrey Gurd is currently Senior Policy Analyst, Family Policy Division, Social Policy Directorate, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. His work over the last seven years with Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada has involved multiple aspects of knowledge funding, transfer, exchange and uptake. He was an Affiliate Scientist with the Institute of Population Health, and an Adjunct faculty member in the Department of Communication at the University of Ottawa.

Sarah Hayward

Elizabeth Hydesmith

Tom Kosatsky

Dr. Réjean Landry is Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 1999. He is the holder of a Chair on Knowledge Transfer and Innovation funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation and the Canadian Institute of Health Research. Dr Landry is professor at the Department of Management of the Faculty of Business at Laval University in Quebec City where he teaches on knowledge transfer and knowledge management. He has published extensively on public policies, innovation and knowledge transfer. His most recent works on knowledge transfer and innovation have been published in Journal of Technology Transfer, Research Policy, Public Administration Review, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Technovation, and Science Communication. His research team edits a weekly electronic newsletter: E. Watch on Innovation in Health Services, which is disseminated to 6000 people, including researchers and managers and professionals in health services in Canada and abroad.

Tracy Lovett is a public health nurse and international board certified lactation consultant currently employed by Capital District Health Authority, Public Health Services, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Tracey is completing her thesis in the Master of Nursing program at Dalhousie University in Halifax. She was the project coordinator for the Canadian Community Health Nursing Standards of Practice workshops in Halifax and she is currently the Nova Scotia representative on the Canadian Community Health Nurses Association Board of Directors.

Ann McKibbon

Mr. McKim has a Masters of Science degree from the Faculty of Medicine with a specialization in Biological Psychiatry. He has worked as a researcher within the Neurochemical Research Unit at the University of Alberta, as an Administrator in Continuing Care Centres operated by the Capital Care Group, as a planner for Capital Health working with Mental Health, Geriatrics and Rehabilitation Services, as an evaluator for the Northeast Community Health Centre before settling in his present position. Mr. McKim is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Public Health, University of Alberta.

As part of his present role, Mr. McKim works closely with University of Alberta colleagues on research projects related to understanding marginalized populations. He is directly involved in a number of projects providing comprehensive Evaluation Services for programs defined by the Alberta Health Services executive committee, the Board and the other portfolios across the province to do both formative and summative evaluations. He also provides support for external evaluations in the areas above. For the past seven years he has been investigating how to better provide support to persons who want to reduce their tobacco use. He is presently a co-investigator on a 5 node national study to investigate vaccine in the event of a pandemic. This grant is supported by CIHR and PHAC. The Alberta node is investigating rapid distribution of H1N1 vaccine to the population in urban, rural, remote and vulnerable groups.

David Mowat is the Medical Officer of Health for the Region of Peel. Prior to joining The Region of Peel in February of this year, Dr. Mowat was one of three Deputy Chief Public Health Officers at the Public Health Agency of Canada. He had particular responsibilities for strengthening public health practice and for the Agency's activities in regional offices across Canada. Dr. Mowat has been the Director General, Office of Public Health Practice with responsibilities for surveillance systems, knowledge translation, the development of the public health workforce, and public health information policy, privacy and law.

David McQueen is a Senior Biomedical Research Scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Since 1998 he has been the Associate Director for Global Health Promotion in the Office of the Director at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP). Prior to that he was Director of the Division of Adult and Community Health at NCCDPHP and Acting Director of the Office of Surveillance and Analysis at (NCCDPHP), as well as Chief of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

Prior to joining CDC he was Professor and Founding Director of the Research Unit in Health and Behavioural Change at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland (1983-1992), and prior to that Associate Professor of Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore. His Doctoral training was in behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University.

He has an extensive record of presentations and publications in health promotion, chronic disease prevention and evaluation in public health. In recent years he has taken a leadership role in the development of behavioral risk factor surveillance systems globally and in the assessment of evaluation and effectiveness in health promotion. Currently he is president of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE).

Andrew Papadopoulos is an Associate Professor and the Co-coordinator of the Master of Public Health Program at the University of Guelph. He joined the Department of Population Medicine in July 2008. Previously, he was an Associate Professor and the Director of the School of Occupational and Public Health at Ryerson University for four years.

His professional experience includes being the Executive Director of the Association of Local Public Health Agencies, the organization that represents the 36 Boards of Health in Ontario, for six years and working for the Etobicoke Health Department for nine years prior to that.

Since October 2004 Laurie Parton has been in the position of Manager, Public Health with the Yellowknife Health & Social Services Authority, Yellowknife, NWT. The position is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the public health unit providing services to a population of approximately 20,000 people.

A graduate of the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Nursing in 1980, Laurie spent two years working in a hospital setting and then made the transition to public health. She worked as a public health nurse for 16 years interspersed with a two-year secondment as a program and policy officer in health promotion and eighteen months as a nurse educator/mentor.

Kerry Robinson is manager of Knowledge Development and Exchange with the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control at the Public Health Agency of Canada. Prior to joining PHAC, Kerry completed her PhD in mixed methods research at McMaster University. She has worked both as a researcher in the area of public health capacity and dissemination, as well as a regional health promotion specialist in chronic disease prevention.

Dr. Jocelyne Sauvé is a medical specialist in community health and holds a Masters degree in Epidemiology. Since 1985, she has held different positions in the field of community health. Notably, she was Medical Advisor for Workplace and Environmental Health at the Community Health Department of the Valleyfield Hospital and became the Interim Director of the Department. She served as Co-ordinator for the Organisation of Services for the Regional Health and Social Services Board (RRSSS) of the Laurentides region. From 1996 to 2003, she was Director of Public Health for the RRSSS Laurentides, and, since December 1, 2003, she has occupied the same post with the Public Health Department of the Montérégie. Before directing her career towards public health, Dr. Sauvé worked as a general practitioner and emergency care physician in an outlying region.

Amanda Sowden is Deputy Director at the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, United Kingdom. She joined the Centre in 1993 and since that time much of her work has focused on the use of evidence synthesis to evaluate the effects of public health interventions and on models of behaviour change such as Stages of Change. Amanda has contributed to method development in evidence synthesis, most recently through the production of guidance on narrative synthesis with colleagues from Lancaster, Glasgow, City and Exeter Universities. She is a member of Department of Health Policy Research Programme Public Health Research Consortium and until recently served on The Campbell Collaboration Steering Group.

Colleen Van Berkel is currently the Manager of Applied Research and Evaluation and the Director of the PHRED (Public Health Research Education and Development Program) with the City of Hamilton Public Health Services. She also has a cross appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University.

Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Nursing Science (BNSc) degree from Queen’s University and Master of Health Science (MHSc) degree from McMaster University.

Eileen Woodford is Director of Public Health Services for Guysborough Antigonish Strait Authority and Cape Breton District Health Authority and has held this position for the past ten years. She has been heavily involved in a number of projects directed toward strengthening public health practice such as such as Skills Enhancement for Public Health and the pilot project that informed its development. Eileen is keenly interested in strengthening infrastructure for public health practice and is a member of the Population Health Partnership For Practice Education and Research in GASHA and CBDHA that is based on a teaching health unit model. Eileen holds a BScN form St FX, a MSc from Northeastern University, a diploma in evidence based planning and has partially completed requirements for a PhD in applied epidemiology.