Daphne Gilbert, B.A., LL.B., LL.M.

Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa

Professor Daphne Gilbert is part of the legal team behind recent court challenges to expand access to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in British Columbia and Ontario. Her research interests lie primarily in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with a particular emphasis on equality rights, reproductive rights, MAiD and sexual/gender-based violence. She has recently written on the impact of conscience protections on access to contraception, abortion and MAiD in Canada. She joined the Faculty at University of Ottawa after obtaining an LLM from Yale University as a Fulbright and SSHRC scholar. She is Vice Chair of the Boards of both Dying with Dignity Canada and Fòs Feminista Canada. She can be reached at dgilbert@uottawa.ca.

Lissa Kuzych, OT Reg (Ont)

Occupational Therapist

Lissa received an Honors BA from Western University in 1990, and a Bachelor of Health Sciences in Occupational Therapy from McMaster University in 1992.

For the last 20 years, Lissa has focused on her role as an Occupational Therapist in MINT Memory Clinics as a homecare therapist, having completed over 7000 home care visits.

Lissa supports student Occupational Therapists in her role as an Adjunct Clinical Professor at McMaster and has trained and educated MINT Memory Clinic teams across many provinces in Canada.

Lissa is involved in many projects aimed at increasing access to care and designing tools to facilitate management of memory loss. Such initiatives include the development of a Virtual Home assessment tool.

She has dedicated herself to supporting people in the community in achieving their safest, most independent, and fulfilled lives. 

Ronald C. Petersen, M.D., PH.D.

Dr. Ronald C. Petersen received a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and graduated from Mayo Medical School in 1980. He completed an internship in Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center and returned to the Mayo Clinic to complete a residency in Neurology that was followed by a fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at Harvard University Medical School/Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Petersen was named the Cora Kanow Professor of Alzheimer’s Disease Research in 2000 and Mayo Clinic Distinguished Investigator in 2011. He is currently the Director of the Mayo Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging and has authored over 1000 peer-reviewed articles on memory disorders, aging, and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Petersen has received the 2004 MetLife Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and the 2005 Potamkin Prize for Research in Picks, Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders of the American Academy of Neurology. In 2012 he received the Khachaturian Award and the Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013 from the Alzheimer’s Association. In 2011 he was appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to serve as the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Research, Care and Services for the National Alzheimer’s Disease Plan. He has been a member of the World Dementia Council.

Dallas Seitz, MD PhD

Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and O'Brien Institute for Public Health, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Co-Chair, Canadian Coalition for Seniors Mental Health

Dr. Seitz is a Professor of Psychiatry and Community Health Sciences, in the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. He is the Scientific Director of the Provincial Addiction and Mental Health program at Alberta Health Services, Co-Chair of the Canadian Coalition for Seniors’ Mental Health and immediate past president of Canadian Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry. His research examines health service and knowledge translation in geriatric mental health. Dr. Seitz is actively involved in the development health system strategies, guidelines and policies related to seniors and mental health at both the provincial and national level.

Andrew Sommerlad, MBBS PhD

Associate Professor and Consultant Psychiatrist, Division of Psychiatry, University College London UK

Andrew Sommerlad is an Associate Professor at Division of Psychiatry, University College London and a Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist, supported by a Wellcome Trust fellowship. He is a member of the Lancet Standing Commission for Dementia Prevention, Intervention and Care which has produced key evidence on the potential for prevention of dementia through modification of lifestyle factors and summarised evidence on effective interventions and care for those who have dementia. This evidence has been incorporated into national guidelines, and cited as one of the key breakthroughs in dementia research by Alzheimer’s Research UK. His research also aims to understand the nature, causes and consequences of social functioning impairment in people with dementia and approaches to improve social functioning for people with the earliest stages of dementia, to those with severe dementia in care homes. He will present evidence from the 2024 Lancet Commission report on Dementia Prevention, Intervention and Care.

Henrik Zetterberg, MD, PhD

Professor of Neurochemistry

University of Gothenburg

Henrik Zetterberg is a Professor of Neurochemistry at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and University College London, UK, and a Clinical Chemist at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is Head of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry at the University of Gothenburg, leads the UK DRI Fluid Biomarker Laboratory at UCL, and is a Key Member of the Hong Kong Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and a Visiting Professor in the UW Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin. His main research focus and clinical interest are fluid biomarkers for brain diseases, neurodegenerative diseases in particular.