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Lisa completed her occupational therapy degree in 1995. She has worked in a variety of clinical roles including child and family mental health, school-based therapy, children’s rehabilitation, and private practice. She has mentored over 50 occupational therapy students through their clinical and community development placements, recognized with a Queen’s Preceptor Award, and served as a Fieldwork Coordinator at Queen’s University. Lisa continues to contribute to the advancement of the profession as the Community Development Director for Garnet Families, a national network focused on the families of public safety personnel and those who study, serve, and support them.

Laurie graduated from Queen’s with her physiotherapy degree in 1980. After working in the public and private sectors, she went back to university. She completed her master’s degree in physical therapy at the University of Alberta in 1987 with a specialty in sports medicine. Laurie then began the next stage of her career as the head therapist of the Simon Fraser University varsity athletics program. As well as covering 12 varsity sports (clinic work and team coverage, home and away), Laurie also coordinated a large student trainer program for SFU kinesiology students. When SFU joined the NCAA in 2009, Laurie also took on the role of senior woman’s administrator for the athletics department.

Laurie had the opportunity to travel and work with several national teams, including women’s basketball and the U23 men’s wrestling team. She became the head therapist for the national and Olympic women’s softball team from 2002 through 2017. Laurie was a member of the Canadian Olympic medical teams in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. She also had the privilege of being a member of the Canadian medical teams at five Pan American Games, the World Student Games, and several softball world championships and world cups. Laurie was also a doping control officer with CCES (Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport) from 1990 through 2011, conducting drug testing and anti-doping education for amateur athletes in Canada. She volunteered for the 2010 Winter Olympics as a doping control officer. Laurie retired from SFU in 2015 and from the national softball team in 2017. She now enjoys watching sports from the sidelines!

Associate Professor Michelle Villeneuve (PhD, MSc, BSc) is Deputy Director at the University of Sydney impact Centre for Disability Research and Policy. She leads the Collaborating4Inclusion research program that advanced the Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) framework and process tool and nurtured its uptake into policy and practice across Australia with rapid uptake increasing globally. Michelle is recognised for her research that brings together health, community, disability, and emergency services sectors to establish cross-sector policy and practice on person-centred and capability-focused approaches to inclusive emergency planning. Her research informs both conceptual and practical dimensions of interprofessional collaboration and resource utilisation. She brings to this research over 20 years of experience working in regions of conflict and natural hazard disaster to develop community-led programs and services and re-build opportunities for people with disability. Her partnership research and contributions to Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DIDRR) in Australia have impacted policy and practice to advance disability inclusive emergency management. Her co-produced research outputs have been recognised through 17 awards, including the 2023 National Resilient Australia Award for the P-CEP Certificate course. A/Prof Villeneuve’s contributions to transformational change in global health outcomes were recognised with the 2020 Canadian Women in Global Health Award. 

Michelle has over 20 years of experience working in regions of conflict and natural hazard disaster to develop community-led services and re-build opportunities for people with disability, including those acquired by human conflict and natural hazard disasters. Examples include: the War Victims Rehabilitation Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1996 – 1999); Re-design of community-based social welfare services in post-tsunami Sri Lanka (2006- 2010). Michelle was a chief investigator on the first DFAT funded disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction research and development project (2013-2014) in Indonesia focused on the role and capacity of Disabled People’s Organisations as policy advocates for DIDRR. Michelle has been technical advisor on community-based inclusive development for the WHO (2015 – 2019) and consultant to UNESCAP on DIDRR (2023 – 2024).