2007 Keynote Speakers

Philip Groff, PhD, SmartRisk, Toronto, ON Canada
Thursday, February 15 ~ Pre-Conference Workshop 1: Prevention
The Future of Injury Prevention - 8:30 to 10am
Injury Prevention Panel Discussion - 3:30 to 5pm

Phil Groff, Director of Research & Evaluation at Smartrisk, is responsible for the expansion of research capacity both internally and externally in injury prevention. He has a PhD in psychology. He has been a course instructor at the University of Toronto, psychology department, a researcher at the Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit and a researcher at the Canadian Policy Research Network.

Louis Hugo Francescutti, MD, PhD, MPH, DABPM, FRCPC, FACPM, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB Canada
Thursday, February 15 ~ Pre-Conference Workshop 1: Prevention
Injury Prevention and Helmet Use - 10:30 to 12 noon
Injury Prevention Panel Discussion - 3:30 to 5pm

Dr. Louis Francescutti is a native Montrealer who went west, fell in love with the open space and clear blue skies of Alberta and never left. For many Albertans, Dr. Louis Francescutti has become synonymous with public health and safety. He received his combined MD / PhD from the University of Alberta in 1987 and, while training as a general surgery resident, became fascinated with the subject of trauma. He went on to complete further studies in injury while doing a Masters of Public Health and a preventive medicine residency at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine. In 1995 he returned to Edmonton to become an emergency and preventive medicine physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. In that role, he continued to witness first hand the devastating impact of preventable injuries and made it his mission to continue to promote injury prevention. Over the past two and a half decades, Dr. Francescutti spearheaded a number of public safety awareness initiatives and campaigns, including the development of an award winning multimedia injury prevention program for teens called HEROES. He has also developed an innovative emergency medical response computer program that lets emergency responders better treat and track injuries at the scene. Dr. Francescutti is one of the founders and the current director of the highly respected Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research (ACICR) at the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. He has chaired numerous committees and task forces that deal with public health and injury prevention. He is also a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Alberta and a frequent national health columnist for television and radio. He has given over a thousand presentations world wide on the topic of injuries.

David Brooks, MD, Performance Athletics Sports Medicine Clinic, Summerland, BC Canada
Thursday, February 15 ~ Pre-Conference Workshop 1: Prevention
Concussion & Sport - 1:30 to 2pm
Injury Prevention Panel Discussion - 3:30 to 5pm
Dr. David Brooks, from the Performance Athletics Sports Medicine Clinic in Summerland BC, presentation is on Concussion & Sport. Dr. Brooks is the recent co-author with Dr. Brian Hunt of the paper "Current Concepts in Concussion Diagnosis & Management in Sports: A Clinical Review ". Dr. Brooks is the team doctor for several hockey teams and he acts as the primary physician, both sports and family practice problems to the Okanagan Hockey Academy players who come from worldwide to study and play with the Academy. In 1991 Dr. Brooks joined the American College of Sports Medicine and 1999 he became a member of the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine Ice Hockey Injuries committee specializing in concussions. He began work on his Master's degree in Sports Medicine in 1999 and successfully completed his Graduate Certificate in Sports Medicine in 2001 as well as being awarded the CASM Research Award along with the NHL Team Physicians Research Award in 2004 to allow him to continue his study of young hockey players who suffer concussions. Dr. Brooks was one of the first sports clinicians in Canada to start using computerized neuropsychological testing for assessment of concussed athletes.

Shelina Babul, MD, Sports Injury Specialist, Department of Pediatrics, University of BC, Vancouver, BC Canada
Thursday, February 15 ~ Pre-Conference Workshop 1: Prevention
Protect You Melon Jeopardy - 2 to 3pm
Injury Prevention Panel Discussion - 3:30 to 5pm
Dr. Shelina Babul is involved in various sport & recreational research programs & injury prevention strategies and initiatives. Some initiatives include the development of a comprehensive informative sports injury prevention toolkit available on CD Rom to injury prevention stakeholders, a study examining the efficacy of head guards in preventing concussions among youth soccer players, education vs. legislation for helmet use, knowledge and awareness among skateboarders in various municipalities of Vancouver and surrounding area and a Cochrane meta-analysis examining the effectiveness of treating soft tissue injuries with hyperbaric oxygen.

Ian Pike, MD, Director, BCIRPU, Vancouver, BC Canada
Thursday, February 15 ~ Pre-Conference Workshop 1: Prevention
Protect You Melon Jeopardy - 2 to 3pm
Injury Prevention Panel Discussion - 3:30 to 5pm
Dr. Pike served 5 years as the Regional Director of the Canadian Red Cross Society in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, previous to this, he spent 13 years at the University of Regina as the Director of the Dr. Paul Schwann Centre, an applied health and research centre, and 5 years as the Director of Employee Health and Safety services at the Healthcare Benefit Trust. His academic training is in kinesiology and health promotion, with particular emphasis on the workplace. He has some 20 years experience in health and wellness promotion, providing consultation, facilitation and research service to organizations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. In 1997, his department was presented with an Award of Excellence by the Association of Worksite Health Promotion for its work in developing an industry-wide workplace health promotion and injury-prevention program in the health care sector in British Columbia.

Richard Kinar, Lobbyist, Vancouver, BC
Thursday, February 15 ~ Pre-Conference Workshop 1: Prevention
Injury Prevention Panel Discussion - 3:30 to 5pm
Richard Kinar , a father from Vancouver, BC son was saved by a helmet when he fell off his bicycle. As an advocate on behalf of the Canadian Standards Association, Mr. Kinard strives to prevent brain injury. by lobbying the government for the past 4 years for funding under the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) for sport helmet legislation for skiing and snowboarding under "Hazardous Products Legislation" and will join our invited speakers on an injury prevention panel at the end of the day.

Al Condeluci, PhD, United Cerebral Palsy/CLASS of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Thursday, February 15 ~ 8am to 5pm ~ Pre-Conference Workshop 2: Human Relations - The Key to a More Enriched Life
Friday, February 16 ~ 9 to 10am ~ Opening Keynote: Pathways To Community

Al Condeluci has been an advocate and catalyst for building community capacities and understanding culture since 1970. Born and raised in the steel town of McKees Rocks, PA, still making his home there, Al received his Bachelors Degree in Psychology from Youngstown State University, his Masters in Social Work and Ph.D. in Education from the University of Pittsburgh. He has worked as an attendant, caseworker, advocate, planner, program director and now, CEO of his organization, UCP/CLASS of Pittsburgh, since 1973. UCP/CLASS has created a family of corporations and is dedicated to its mission - "working towards a community where each belongs." UCP/CLASS, under Al's leadership, has grown to become the 3rd largest disability specific agency in Southwestern PA with a budget of $24 million and a staff and payroll complement of 550. Along with his work at UCP/CLASS, Al is associated with the University of Pittsburgh's School of Social Work and School of Health and Rehabilitation Science and Robert Morris University Graduate School of Business. In these academic roles Al teaches, supervises students, and serves as advisor and consultant.
Since 1975 Al has emerged as a national leader and consultant on human services and community issues. He speaks annually to national and international audiences reaching some 15,000 people each year. His books, INTERDEPENDENCE (1991,1995,CRC Press), BEYOND DIFFERENCE (1996, CRC Press), THE ESSENCE OF INTERDEPENDENCE (1999, Siegle Agency) and CULTURAL SHIFTING (2002, TRN Press) have won praises and awards for their thoughtful approach to culture and community and are now used at many colleges, universities and in-service settings. His most recent books are ADVOCACY FOR CHANGE: A MANUAL FOR ACTION (2004, ANCOR Foundation Press) and TOGETHER IS BETTER (2004, UCP Press).
Along with his professional activities, Al is involved in a variety of civic volunteer roles. He is on the board of the United Way of SWPA, member of the Southwest PA Partnership for Aging Board of Directors and the immediate past chairman of the PA Statewide TBI Advisory Board. Al has lived his entire life on the family homestead of "Condeluci Hill." Settled in 1917 by his grandfather, Antonio and honed by his father, mother, uncles and aunts, "Condeluci Hill" is currently home to 15 families and was featured in LIFE MAGAZINE (Aug, 1996). Al still lives on the "hill" with his wife Liz, children Dante, Gianna and Santino and some 45 other members of the Condeluci family.

Angelle M. Sander, Ph.D, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
Thursday, February 15 - 3:30 to 5pm ~ Pre-Conference Workshop 2: Human Relations - The Key to a More Enriched Life
Friday February 16th - 10:30 to 12 noon ~ A5 - Managing Problems With Thinking And Behaviour In The Home: Strategies For Caregivers

Dr. Sander, is Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine and is the Residency Research Director for the Department. She is Associate Director of TIRR's Brain Injury Research Center. She is also the Neuropsychologist for the inpatient rehabilitation unit at Quentin Mease Community Hospital, in the Harris County Hospital District. She was awarded a Mary E. Switzer Rehabilitation Research Fellowship from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and has been Principal Investigator on grants from NIDRR and the National Academy of Neuropsychology. In addition to the RRTC, she is currently Principal Investigator on an NIH/NCMRR pilot study investigating predictors of health care utilization in minority stroke patients. Research interests include efficacy of rehabilitation interventions, family adjustment to TBI, environmental factors impacting outcome, and impact of injury on persons from diverse backgrounds.

Peter Eames, MD, Bristol, England
Friday, February 16 - 8:30 am ~ Welcome: From Little Acorns Mighty Oaks Do Grow

Dr Eames trained in Medicine at Cambridge and the London Hospital and in Neuropsychiatry in the Royal Air Force. After a spell of five years in psychiatry in Bermuda, in 1977 he joined the consultant staff at St Andrew's Hospital in Northampton, England, where with colleagues he started the Kemsley Unit, specialised for the treatment and rehabilitation of individuals with traumatic brain injury and severe behaviour disorders. He was consultant in charge there until 1985, during which time he also ran a Head Injury Clinic in the local District Hospital. He then moved to the Burden Hospital and Institute in Bristol, the only fully neuropsychiatric hospital in Britain. There he was involved in the treatment and management of the full range of neuropsychiatric disorders, but developed a particular interest in specific developmental disorders as well as pursuing the problem of the rehabilitation of people with traumatic and other acquired brain injuries. From 1985, he was responsible for developing a private brain injury rehabilitation service, Grafton Manor in Northamptonshire; later in 2000 he was also in at the beginning of another similar unit, Beechwood House in Gwent, Wales. In 2004 he retired from active clinical work, but has continued with a gradually dwindling number of medico-legal cases.

Roberta DePompei, PhD, CCC-SP/A - School of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, The University of Akron - Akron,OH
Friday February 16th - 10:30 am to 2:30p ~ Keynote Concurrent: Learning after TBI: Challenges and Solutions for Student

Roberta DePompei, Ph.D. is a Professor and School Director at the School of Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Akron. Her specialty is the impact of brain injury upon speech, language, communication, and learning. She was awarded the prestigious Sheldon Berrol, M.D. Clinical Service award by BIAA in July, 2002. She also received the Robert L. Moody Prize for Distinguished Initiatives in Brain Injury Research and Rehabilitation in March, 2004.
Dr. DePompei directs a 1.5 million research grant on assistive technology for individuals with cognitive challenges and has directed 6 other state and national grants in TBI. She has published 20 chapters in books, 75 articles, and is the co-author of a book entitled Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: Proactive Approaches to Assessment and Intervention (2nd ed published 2003). Dr. DePompei's latest achievement in June of this year was when she Received Fellow of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA).

Dave Irwin, Edmonton, AB Canada
Saturday February 17 - 9 to 10 am ~ Opening Plenary: The Long Road Back

Dave Irwin of the Dave Irwin Foundation for Brain Injury (DIFFBI) talks about his remarkable survival and on-going recovery from a severe brain injury. He attributes his survival to an indomitable spirit, will to live, and will to compete.

The Crazy Canucks were a brash group of Canadian skiers who went to Europe to race against the best down hillers in the world Dave Irwin was born on July 12, 1954 in Thunder Bay, Ontario learning to ski at 16 months of age and competing in his first ski race at the age of six years. Dave made ski history in December, 1975, when he ended the one and a half year reign of Austria's Franz Klammer by winning the World Cup Downhill at Schladming, Austria. Dave's 1.61 second win remains the largest margin of victory by a Canadian in a World Cup Downhill event.
The Dave Irwin Foundation for Brain Injury was created Dave Irwin and family in March, 2002. The DIFFBI concept was initiated following Dave Irwin's remarkable survival and on-going recovery from acquired brain injury (ABI) suffered at Sunshine Village in Banff, Alberta in March, 2001. The Dave Irwin Foundation for Brain Injury is a testament to survival against all odds. It is a Foundation which has been created for the benefit of brain injury survivors and their families; for funding of academic research and innovative outreach programs and services which increase accessibility to persons in recovery; and for supporting educational programs to raise public awareness of acquired brain injury.
Today, Dave is Chairman of the Dave Irwin Foundation for Brain Injury, and President of Mountain Image Distributors Ltd., a company specializing in sales of corporate and custom imprinted promotional products. Dave has two children Caitlin and Dean, and lives in Canmore, Alberta with his fiancé Lynne Harrison.

Bonnie Sherr Klein, MA, Filmmaker, Author, Disability Rights Activist
Saturday February 17 - 12 noon to 1:30pm ~ Lunch Followed by A Preview of Bonnie Sherr Klein's Film "Shameless"

Bonnie Sherr Klein was born in Philadelphia attending the Akiba Hebrew Academy, a Jewish day school where she was introduced to the social justice concept of Tikkun Olam, 'healing of the world'. This ideology teaches a sense of responsibility to make the world a more tolerant, peaceful and compassionate place.
Bonnie's film, Not a Love Story went on to become one of the most popular and commercially successful films the National Film Board of Canada ever made and many people, especially women, report that the film changed their lives. Bonnie Klein post secondary education has an extensive list of film credits and these can be seen on Library and Archives Canada website in addition to her numerous honours and recognitions. Klein's film , SHAMELESS: The ART of Disability released in 2006, is a National Film Board of Canada production about disability and art. This film marks Klein's return to a career interrupted twenty years ago in 1987 by a catastrophic stroke. Bonnie will be present during this preview of her film to discuss her condition and address questions.
It invites people behind the scenes with her and several other artists as they represent themselves in their various creations, contrasted with stereotypical images in popular culture. The film is a light-hearted challenge to the notion of disability, including the perception of disability as tragedy. The hope is that by giving viewers the chance to hang out with the artists (the context of SHAMELESS: The ART of Disability) they will dispel the myth of disability as tragedy, and replace it with something much more complex and interesting, including laughter.

The Extreme Kindness Crew, Victoria, BC Canada
Saturday February 17 - 2:45-4pm ~ Closing Plenary: The Long Road Back

In an effort to counteract grief and fear in the wake of 9/11, Val, Chris Erik and Brad - four 28-year old Canadian "goodlums" - embarked upon a three-month non-profit marathon known as The Extreme Kindness Tour. Their adventures in altruism meant spending nights on the street with the homeless, staffing soup kitchens, breaking horses, roofing houses, swabbing decks, delivering flowers, singing songs, visiting hospitals, and staging "kindness protests" as they hugged their ways into the hearts of thousands. In the process, the Kindness Crew made headlines from CNN and BBC to ABC' "Good Morning America" and wrote the Canadian best-seller, "Call to Arms." The Crew has inspired and mobilized individuals, families, Fortune 500 companies, and entire metropolitan centers to commit random acts of kindness and community service. Today they continue to inspire countries, classes and corporations to raise funds and volunteers for charities and to embrace social responsibility. Their next mission: to criss-cross America and Canada building the first-ever "Kindness Stores." www.extremekindness.com

View the 2005 Keynote Speakers