Jessica (Lamb) Spence, Senior Patient Engagement Consultant, Strategic Clinical Networks
Jessica (Lamb) Spence is one of the Senior Patient Engagement Consultants for all of the Strategic Clinical Networks. Jessica also co-leads the Amplify co-design team which is piloting an innovative patient experience tool at the point of care. Her areas of interest are leadership, community care, and using technology to engage patients and families.
Marlies van Dijk, Provincial Quality Improvement Lead, QI Innovation
Marlies van Dijk is the lead for the Design Lab in AHS. The lab supports groups to use design thinking to tackle complex problems. In early 2017, Marlies’ team became involved to bring action and engagement to the Patient First strategy. She is excited to share with you how they used social movement and campaigns to engage people to take action in person-centred care.
Marlies van Dijk, Provincial Quality Improvement Lead, QI Innovation
Marlies is the lead for the Design Lab in AHS. The lab supports groups to use design thinking to tackle complex problems. In early 2017, Marlies’ team became involved to bring action and engagement to the Patient First strategy. She is excited to share with you how they used social movement and campaigns to engage people to take action in person-centred care.
Dana Dalgarno, Senior Quality Assurance Strategist, Emergency Medical Services
Dana is a second generation Calgarian! She started in 1997 as a primary care paramedic in Medicine Hat, then onto an advanced care paramedic with the City of Calgary and AHS. She’s now kicking it as an office paramedic aka Quality Assurance Strategist with community paramedics in the EMS Mobile Integrated Healthcare division. She loves helping our front line staff operationalize their ideas and developing more ways to bring care to our patients (rather than our patients to care).
About Aria Gaudet
Aria is a 19-year-old student and patient advisor for AHS. She's passionate about connecting with people and having conversations that get us out of the routine of everyday life and into inspired action.
About Jennifer Symon
Jennifer Symon, BSCN RN, has worked in acute care and rehab for over the last 15 years most of that time spent as a Clinical Nurse Educator. Jennifer has a passion for patient-and-family-centred care and quality improvement.
Marlies van Dijk is the lead for the Design Lab in AHS. The lab supports groups to use design thinking to tackle complex problems. In early 2017, her team became involved to bring action and engagement to the Patient First strategy. She is excited to share how they used social movement and campaigns to engage people to take action in person-centred care.
Maya Pajevic is a self-described thrill seeker, risk taker and 100 per cent rebel. She is also a long-term patient, living with type-1 diabetes and other health issues more than 15 years. Maya is a patient advisor for Alberta Health Services, previously sitting on the Child and Youth Advisory Council(CAYAC) in Calgary as well as sitting as one of the youngest members on the Provincial Family Advisory Council (PFG). Maya is now a Design Lab Intern, within the Design Lab, in Quality and Healthcare Improvement. She is also a full-time student at Mount Royal University hoping to become a front-line staff member or part of the administrative team.
Marilyn Wacko, RN, MN, is the Senior Consultant in the Patient and Provider Experience Office at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. With a Masters in Nursing and a thesis on Patient Complaints and Commendations, she works with staff, physicians, patients and families at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, to change culture and improve the experience for patients/families and providers.
Carmen Lee and Emma Vogt are pharmacy assistants at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
Dr. Curt Johnston is the Facility Medical Director of the Royal Alexandra Hospital and an Associate Zone Medical Director for the Edmonton Zone responsible for the Royal Alexandra Hospital and Sturgeon Community Hospital.
In addition to his administrative roles he continues to practice Intensive Care Medicine in the Royal Alex ICU. He is also a Clinical Professor in Nephrology and Critical Care with the University of Alberta. His passion at work is to improve the Patient and Provider Experience and to experience a culture change amongst clinicians he works with. He loves to talk and read about leadership and to see leaders see success in the teams they lead.
Norma Wood is the Senior Program Officer for Workplace Health and Safety and the lead for the AHS Prevention of Workplace Violence Program.
Erica Olson is program coordinator for PAWS as well as Delray’s first handler. The paramedic and Critical Incident Support Management (CISM) peer support team member has additional training in trauma focused animal assisted intervention, certified professional life coaching and psychology.
David O’Toole is the President and CEO of the Canadian Institute for Healthcare Information. He leads CIHI in identifying the health information priorities for Canada’s healthcare systems, in collaboration with federal, provincial and territorial governments. This includes providing these jurisdictions with integrated health information that contributes to the improvement of population health outcomes and health system performance.
Dr. Kerry Novak is a gastroenterologist and Medical Lead for Quality Assurance.
Dr. Eddy Lang is the clinical department head for AHS Emergency Medicine and the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.
Terri Fortunaso is Seniors Health Director for Continuing Care, Palliative Care and Geriatric Assessment and Rehab, in AHS South Zone.
Michael Smeland is the Lead for the Provincial Ergonomics and Safe Client Handling Team with Workplace Health and Safety’s Provincial Services Team.
Sean Chilton is the Chief Zone Officer for AHS South Zone. He is also the lead of a provincial AHS workplace violence committee, which includes representatives of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, Health Sciences Association of Alberta and United Nurses of Alberta.
Laura Calhoun is provincial medical director for Addiction and Mental Health in Alberta Health Services and believes mental health care should be just as easy to access as physical health care. Dr. Calhoun values of inclusivity, integrity and humour. Outside of work she enjoys baseball, golf and learning.
Dr. Nicholas Mitchell is the Senior Medical Director with the Alberta Health Services Addiction and Mental Health Strategic Clinical Network and practices at the University Of Alberta Department Of Psychiatry.
Trained chef Andy Jones is the Managing Director for AJ Catering Consultants, and Past National Chair of the United Kingdom Hospital Caterers Association. He has supported the design and delivery of nutritionally balanced menus for patients in the U.K. for more than 30 years. His passion for the health of patients is well-documented, as shown by being named the U.K.’s Caterer and Hotelkeeper Association’s Public Sector Caterer of the Year in 2012. Andy chaired the Hospital Caterers Association from 2013 to 2015, and has been key in the U.K.’s Nutritional and Hydration Weeks. He also sits on the on the government-led Hospital Food Panel.
Dr. Clarence Wong is a Gastroenterologist and the Provincial Medical Lead for the Alberta Colorectal Cancer Screening Program with Alberta Health Services. He is also an Associate Professor of Medicine with the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Alberta.
Brenda Lambert graduated from Red Deer College in 2004 with a Pharmacy Technician diploma. She was hired by AHS in June 2004 to work in the pharmacy at Rockyview General Hospital. In 2013, she was one of the first two technicians trained to do clinical support work at RGH. In her role as a clinical pharmacy technician, Brenda works in both the emergency department and inpatient units where she gathers information from several sources to put together an accurate Best Possible Medication History and Medication Reconciliation.
Tiffany Woo is a clinical pharmacist currently working out of the Emergency department at the Rockyview General Hospital. Her experience includes working in Internal Medicine, the Home Parenteral Therapy Program and the Anticoagulation Clinic. She also has experience at the Alberta Children's Hospital & in community pharmacy. She graduated from the University of Alberta with her BScPharm in 2007 and obtained her Advanced Prescribing Authority in 2014. She enjoys hiking in the mountains with her husband & golden retriever.
Brenda Lambert graduated from Red Deer College in 2004 with a Pharmacy Technician diploma. She was hired by AHS in June 2004 to work in the pharmacy at Rockyview General Hospital. In 2013, she was one of the first two technicians trained to do clinical support work at RGH. In her role as a clinical pharmacy technician, Brenda works in both the emergency department and inpatient units where she gathers information from several sources to put together an accurate Best Possible Medication History and Medication Reconciliation.
Dr. Brenner is a research scientist in the Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Departments of Oncology and Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine of the University of Calgary. The primary aim of Dr. Brenner’s research is to examine the impact of lifestyle (specifically physical activity and obesity) and inflammation on cancer risk and survival. He is also leading several projects to quantify the burden of cancer due to lifestyle and environmental factors at the population level provincially in Alberta as well as at the national level. Prior to his arrival in Calgary, Dr. Brenner completed a PhD in epidemiology at the University of Toronto and a postdoctoral fellowship at the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization in Lyon France.
Dr. Eddy Lang is the academic and clinical department head for AHS Emergency Medicine and the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He is also principal investigator in a provincewide study that aims to improve the appropriateness of CT imaging in Alberta's emergency departments.
Dr. Jim Silvius is a geriatrician at the Rockyview Hospital in Calgary, and Medical Director, Seniors Health, Community Seniors Addictions & Mental Health where he has had responsibility for the provincial approach to Palliative and End of Life Care.
Cheryl Houtekamer has been working with children, youth, families and communities for the past 28 years. Since 1989, Cheryl has fulfilled a variety of treatment and prevention roles, including outpatient counsellor, day program supervisor and tobacco reduction counsellor. Cheryl is currently the supervisor of the Community Health Promotion Services team in the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services. Cheryl has two daughters and recently completed a Master’s degree in public health.
Helen Bevan is Chief of Service Transformation at the National Health Services (NHS) Institute for Innovation and Improvement in England. In her nearly 25 years with in health care Helen led and supported initiatives that have created improvements for millions of patients. She provides guidance and training on transformational change to health care systems across the world, and helped create Change Day, a worldwide movement that calls on individuals to make a pledge to improve their own health or the health care system.
Dr. Silvius is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine, University of Calgary, and Medical Director, Seniors Health at Alberta Health Services and Medical Director, Pharmacy Services at Alberta Health Services. He maintains a clinical practice in geriatrics at Rockyview General Hospital. Dr. Silvius has been a member of the Alberta Health and Wellness Expert Committee on Drug Evaluation and Therapeutics from 2004 through to 2015, and is the current Vice-Chair of CADTH’s Canadian Drug Expert Committee (CDEC).
Dr. Stephen Tsekrekos is the Medical Director of AHS Workplace Health and Safety.
