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Guest Speakers
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Michael Parkinson
Drug Strategies Specialist
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Michael Parkinson brings experience and some expertise in multi-sectoral human systems engagement, design, and policy planning to advance cost-effective solutions that improve health and safety for both individuals and communities. Michael was most recently employed at the renowned Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council until it was defunded in 2022, where he advanced issues of (upstream) prevention, community safety initiatives, and a plethora of life-saving drug strategies, programs, laws and policies, at national, provincial, and municipal levels.
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Kathy Moreland
RN, MScN, MOM
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Kathy Moreland is a recently retired registered nurse and professor of nursing. While her background is in cancer care, her passion for harm reduction and the current drug crisis is personal. Kathy lost her 18 year old son Austin to fentanyl poisoning in June of 2020 here in Waterloo Region. She is an active member of Moms Stop the Harm (MSTH), a group of family members fighting for changes in drug policy and an active advocate for harm reduction and education of politicians and healthcare workers with the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO).
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Dr. Geoff Bardwell
Assistant Professor, School of Public Health Sciences at University of Waterloo
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Dr. Geoff Bardwell, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at University of Waterloo and a Research Scientist at the BC Centre on Substance Use. He is a qualitative and community-based researcher who focuses on unregulated drug use and related drug policies and public health interventions, primarily in small urban, rural, remote, and Indigenous communities. His research has informed policy and programmatic changes at organizational, municipal, and provincial levels. Prior completing his PhD, Dr. Bardwell worked a variety of direct service roles with people who use drugs including street outreach and housing stability positions. You can read more about him here.
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Sara Escobar
Outreach Worker and co-founder of Peregrine Outreach Waterloo Region
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Sara Escobar has been in Social Justice Work for 25 years and is currently a member of the Waterloo Region Drug Action Team. As co-founder of Peregrine Outreach Waterloo Region (a network of care for the street-involved population and workers that support them), she has also worked for numerous local agencies such as OneROOF, The Working Centre, House of Friendship, The Cambridge Food Bank and most recently at Porch Light Counselling. Through many years of supporting members of our community, she has witnessed how current decision-making practices and policies, when implemented without input from those with lived experience, cause harm to everyone in the community, not just those who use drugs.
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Char Lee
Peer Outreach Worker and Community Advocate
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Char previously used substances and has herself experienced overdosing. She has also experienced the traumas of watching many of her friends die from poisoned substances.
Char now uses her own experiences to help others by actively engaging in the local community as both a peer outreach worker and companion to many at risk citizens who use drugs. Char Lee received the Kindred Spirit Award in 2022 for her local efforts. She is a member of many committees and groups including Kitchener's Lived Expertise Working Group (LEWG), the People's Action Group (PAG), where she was previously the group's co-chair, the Unsheltered Campaign (UC) and Awareness of Low Income Voices (ALIVe). Char continues to use her personal insights, education and experiences to advocate locally in our Waterloo Region community. |
