Our speakers
Ryan Walter: Leading Energy, Leading Change
Ryan Walter played more than 1,000 games over 15 seasons in the National Hockey League. Drafted second overall by the Washington Capitals, Ryan was named the youngest NHL captain in his second of 4 seasons, played 9 seasons and won a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens, and returned to his home town to play his last 2 seasons for the Vancouver Canucks. He was named Team Canada Captain in the World Junior Tournament, was selected to play in the NHL All-Star game and for Team Canada in 3 World Championships, became a Vice-President of the National Hockey League Players Association, and was honoured as NHL Man of the Year. Ryan has been inducted into the BC Hockey Hall of Fame, the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame, named to the 30 all-time Washington Capitals’ Dream team, the top 50 all-time BCHL players, the top 125 WHL players of all time, and the top 100 Montreal Canadiens in 100 years.
Ryan has a Master of Arts Degree in Leadership/Business. He is the author of 5 books and an expert contributor to both online and print magazines, newspapers, radio, and television. Ryan serves as a Director of Partners International Canada, and is a member of the Seton Hall University Stillman School of Business Leadership Advisory Council, and the recipient of the TEC Canada 2015 Speaker of the Year Award.
Ryan won a Gold Medal as Head Coach of Canada's National Women's Hockey Team, was Assistant Coach of the Vancouver Canucks, co-founder and president of two start-up companies, a TV and radio hockey analyst, a hockey adviser and actor for both television and movies, the creator of the board and electronic game Trade Deadline Hockey, and the President of a professional hockey team. Ryan continues to inspire players, teams, businesses, and organizations across North America and beyond, to become their very best.
Phil Eastwood: Everyday Leadership in the Workplace!
Phil Eastwood, MA CSP, is one of Canada’s premier human resource training facilitators specializing in respectful workplace behaviour, workplace violence prevention and leadership. Phil's career in policing focused on working with people in crisis, and he learned the power that professional and respectful communication can have in people's lives. Having worked for 8 years in London’s Metropolitan Police, Phil emigrated to Canada and spent 27 years with the New Westminster Police Department.
Phil’s training and consulting company, Fiore Group Training Inc., based in North Vancouver, is focused on ''Creating Incredibly Better Workplaces'' by showing leaders, managers, supervisors and employees that by fine-tuning how people show up with each other, remarkable changes are possible! Fiore Group Training has been helping businesses experience this change for over twenty-three years.
Sara Wegwitz: Reimagining Our Workplace in a Post Pandemic World
Sara Wegwitz is a Resiliency Educator, Health and Wellbeing Training Facilitator, and Workplace Team Coach. She specializes in transforming workplace wellbeing through “bite-sized” training and coaching programs.
Sara brings over 24 years of experience and education in the fields of critical care, health sciences, program development, facilitation, leadership, and high- performance team coaching. Since 2011, her company has been offering reputable programs that are tailored to meet the specific needs of organizations and groups. These dynamic programs consistently deliver results. Some of these results include a 40% reduction in sick and overtime costs; a consistent 3:1 ROI on health and wellness programming; gold medals at athletic World Championships; and transforming workplace teams into high performance teams.
She has a demonstrated and proven track record working with first responders (police and fire), branches of the federal, provincial, and municipal government, athletes and athletic teams, corporations, and non-profit organizations.
Karla Dolinsky: Introduction to Psychological First Aid & Why it’s Important For Us All
Karla Dolinsky is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who works in Private Practice in Victoria with clients living with Complex Trauma, Critical Incident Trauma, Loss & Grief, Relationship Challenges, and Life Transitions. Karla is a Trainer with the Complex Trauma Institute in York, UK, training other Psychotherapists some of the nuances of working with clients who have experienced trauma in some form in their lives. She offered training to Organizations including local Firehalls, to support individuals and groups through psycho-education and very practical skills that we all can put into practice to live healthier, supported lives. Karla has developed and offered training in Psychological First Aid, using the model developed by the UN, to Response Teams and Organizations in Canada and Internationally.
Jill Parker M.Ed, RCC, RSW: Connect to Protect
Jill’s experience working as an Abbotsford Police officer for 19 years, and her work as a crisis clinician in the hospital setting and as a private practice counsellor and social worker, has given her insight into the effects and consequences of trauma, attachment and challenging life circumstances. Through these experiences she has been inspired by the amazing human potential for resiliency and healing. Jill is a mother of 3 with her partner of 25 years.
After retiring from policing in 2016 she moved to Victoria BC with her family where she works full time counselling first responders. Her combined education, work and life experiences contributed to her desire and dedication in supporting first responder mental wellness.
Isabel Ruediger: Responding to Traumatic Incidents in the Workplace
Isabel Ruediger works with individual adults, youth and adolescents in areas of anxiety, depression, OCD and trauma. Her background in the first responder community
has provided me with insight into mental health issues that may present as a result of exposure to traumatic event exposure, organizational stress and challenges of
work to home transitions. If you are seeking a goal oriented approach to balance the challenges that Isabel has mentioned, she can provide a collaborative and attuned space to achieve a better quality of life.
Isabel works with evidence based cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and Acceptance Commitment (ACT) modalities as well as Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) to
target clients struggling with OCD.
Julie-Anne Richards: The Usual Suspects—Dealing with Difficult Personalities
Julie-Anne Richards is a registered clinical counsellor, private practitioner, business coach and speaker who specializes in supporting individual clients, couples, professionals and workplace teams navigating highly challenging interpersonal dynamics at home and in the workplace. Her areas of specialization include: the use of CBT and mindfulness for the effective treatment of anxiety (childhood, teen and adult), employing a growth-oriented approach to life transitions, relationship-building couple's counselling, parent coaching towards positive parenting through challenging periods, career counselling for fulfilment and fit, and overall life "by design" coaching. Special areas of expertise include working with first responders, healthcare professionals and educators.
Matt Johnston: The Impact of Organizational Trauma: How to Support Employee Mental Wellness
Matt Johnston is a full-time professional firefighter and Registered Clinical Counsellor. He is the co-founder of the Occupational Awareness Training Program – an educational initiative that bridges the critical gap between healthcare providers and public safety personnel. Matt’s unique outlook on workplace wellbeing is formulated from a unique combination of providing clinical support services to vulnerable workers while also participating within a stoic service culture where he has attended nearly 4,000 emergency calls in the past decade.
Matt is President of First Responder Health Services and is the National Director of Occupational Awareness Training at Wounded Warriors Canada.