Join us for our 2026 Innovation Partnership Summit, a cross-sector gathering of leaders, innovators, and practitioners committed to advancing social innovation and systems change.
This Summit brings together leaders, innovators, practitioners, researchers, and community partners working across health and continuing care, social and community services, academia, industry, non-profits, and government. Designed for those who lead, research, deliver services, and influence policy, the Summit is for people shaping systems and committed to improving outcomes across health, care, and community settings—by connecting ideas and turning insight into action.
For those shaping the future of care, community, and systems.
This Summit is designed for leaders, innovators, practitioners, researchers, and community partners who are reimagining how health, care, and social systems work—together. If you influence decisions, challenge the status quo, or turn ideas into impact, you belong here.
Sandra Stabel
Grey Cube Innovations
Sandra Stabel is the Founder and CEO of Grey Cube Innovations, a boutique consultancy focused on health innovation, strategy, and implementation. With extensive experience in health policy, system partnerships, and technology-enabled care, Sandra has worked across government, non-profit, and startup sectors to advance solutions that improve health equity and access. Most recently, she co-founded Intellicube Health Studio Inc., further expanding her work at the intersection of innovation and care. She supports initiatives that responsibly integrate emerging technologies and innovative solutions to strengthen care delivery, support clinicians, and enhance patient experience.
James Stauch
Navigating the Rupture: Reimagining Systems for Impact
James Stauch is a social innovation and systems change educator and sense-maker based in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. He serves as Complex Systems Strategist with ATCO Ventures and Co-chair of the Banff Systems Summit. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Skoll Centre, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and (starting in March, 2026) an Executive in Residence with Innovation North at the Ivey School of Business, Western University. James was the founding Executive Director of the Institute for Community Prosperity at Mount Royal University, where he developed social innovation, leadership, systems-focused, and futures-oriented learning programs for undergraduate students and the broader community. James has also been a foundation executive and philanthropy consultant, which included designing and managing Arctic and Northern programming with the Gordon Foundation. His most recent publication is The 55 Minutes: An Atlas to Navigate Problems, Reveal Systems, and Ask Beautiful Questions in a Radically Shifting World (2025).
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s landmark speech in Davos earlier this year challenged leaders to “build a more resilient and just alternative” to the dying status quo. While framed in the context of geopolitics and global trade, the call to rethink systems resonates across sectors - from healthcare and social services to policy, academia, and industry.
Join social innovation and systems sense-maker, educator, and author James Stauch as he explores how moments of disruption create opportunities for transformation. Drawing on insights from social innovation and systems change, he will challenge the audience to rethink how partnerships, collaboration, and bold ideas can move beyond conversation and toward measurable impact in our communities and beyond.
John Vardalos
Scaling Social Innovation: Turning Ideas into Organizational Capability
John Vardalos is the Founder and CEO of J5, a consulting firm that is focused on helping large public serving institutions rediscover their purpose and scale positive social change. Since founding J5 in 2013, he has worked with healthcare systems, governments, non-profits, and mission driven corporations that carry significant responsibility and untapped potential.
John believes the most effective way to create lasting impact is by working with institutions that already serve thousands, and often millions, of people. Their scale gives them influence, but their complexity naturally distances them from the people they exist to serve. He works alongside leaders and frontline teams to restore clarity and focus on the moments that matter to both people receiving services and those responsible for delivering them, using a design-led approach aimed at realigning strategy, culture, and experience around human needs, behaviours and rapidly changing expectations.
He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for his contributions to social innovation and received a Global Service Design Award in Helsinki for leading an internationally recognized social housing transformation grounded in lived experience. He is also the co founder of the United Way of Calgary Social Impact Lab, advancing collaborative approaches to complex social challenges.
A frequent speaker and advisor, John encourages organizations to treat innovation as a capability not an activity so institutions deliver the kindness they were created to provide, at the scale the need to create meaningful impact.
In today’s rapidly changing landscape, innovation can no longer be someone else’s responsibility. For organizations working across healthcare, social services, and community systems, innovation must become part of everyone’s role - from leadership to frontline teams.
In this closing keynote, John Vardalos, founder of J5 Design, will explore how organizations can strengthen their capacity to support social innovation and move promising ideas into practice. The session will examine how innovation can be advanced in ways that maintain stability in the environments people depend on, while still pursuing meaningful and lasting impact.
Attendees will leave with practical insights into building organizational conditions that help good ideas move from concept to implementation and increase the reach and effectiveness of innovation efforts.
Fireside Chat: From Silos to Solutions: Innovating Aging Together
Patty Wickson
Moderator
A Certified Health Executive and former Executive Director at Alberta Health Services, Patty brings deep experience leading healthcare innovation across Canada’s largest health authority. She has advanced patient-centred care, digital health, and evidence-based system transformation through strong partnerships and emerging technologies, and we’re thrilled to have her leadership guiding our innovation and research work.
John Brown
John Brown, PhD is Professor of Architecture and Dean of the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at the University of Calgary. He is a registered architect and a founding partner of Garden Loft, a start-up delivering prefabricated senior’s housing units and community-centred digital technology solutions to Canada’s aging population. Garden Loft’s full-stack approach to senior’s housing was recognized with the 2023 City of Calgary Accessibility Award. Most recently the company has collaborated with the Brenda Strafford Foundation to apply the Garden Loft philosophy to congregate care projects, particularly in rural and remote locations. To date, Garden Loft has delivered nine backyard homes in Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa and is currently constructing a 10-unit independent living village in southern Alberta that will open in 2027. Garden Loft is also working with four communities on projects ranging in size from 13-60 homes.
Brown is a recognized authority on age-in-community design, residential architecture, and entrepreneurial design thinking. He is the recipient of a Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Award of Excellence for Innovation and a Residential Architect Design Leadership Award. Brown completed a PhD in age-in-community design from RMIT in 2016. This work evolved into a collaboration with researchers at UCalgary’s Cumming School of Medicine that led to the Age-in-Place Laneway House Research Project which received a Mayor’s Urban Design Award in Housing Innovation. Brown commercialized this research out of the University to launch Garden Loft with partners Carina van Olm and Matthew North.
Lynn Leslie
Lynn is Director of Partner Success at NanoTess, working with continuing care organizations across Canada to strengthen skin and wound care outcomes. With a doctorate in education, she designs practical, engaging learning experiences that help clinicians translate knowledge into practice with confidence. She focuses on strengthening teams through people-centred, collaborative approaches that drive sustainable, measurable impact.
Carson Sander
Carson Sander is the CEO and co-founder of PhantomOmics, an emerging health technology company focused on transforming how individuals detect, prevent, and manage injury and illness through non-invasive, AI-driven systems. With a background spanning both entrepreneurship and performance training, Carson also owns and operates a successful athletics facility, giving him a unique, ground-level perspective on human performance, rehabilitation, and longevity. His work sits at the intersection of health, technology, and real-world application, where he is leading the development of multispectral scanning solutions designed to bring early detection and proactive care into homes, clinics, and high-performance environments. Carson is passionate about redefining healthcare from reactive to preventative, and is actively building partnerships across medical, fitness, and infrastructure sectors to bring PhantomOmics’ vision to life.
Trent Marx
Trent Marx is Founder, Chairman and CEO of MyEngene Inc., a pharmacogenomics technology company focused on preventing adverse drug reactions through AI-powered medication safety. MyEngene's PGxIQ platform provides real-time pharmacovigilance for community pharmacists and continuing care facilities, addressing the polypharmacy risks facing Alberta's aging population, where 92% of continuing care residents are on five or more concurrent medications. With seven patents filed and clinical validation underway, MyEngene is working with Alberta's healthcare community to close the medication safety gaps that exist between prescribers, pharmacists, and the seniors they serve. Prior to MyEngene, Trent has spent 35 years building technology platforms across healthcare, energy, and enterprise software.
Trish Josephs
Trish Josephs is a senior executive and innovation strategist with decades of experience growing companies, assessing and introducing innovation, and helping to transform industries most recently in healthcare, construction and energy. Currently she is assisting the founder of the Statesman group of companies in bringing to life Canada’s first preventative health campus in Calgary anchored by a large multi-disciplinary health center focused on patient centred, team based primary, surgical and senior supportive care. In addition to Statesman, Trish is the revenue and growth advisor to one of Calgary’s fastest growing digital transformation companies - METI.
Outside of her consulting work, Trish sits as a board member on the growth and Innovation subcommittee for Covenant Health, is a long time advisor with Intergen and a volunteer with the Chuckwagon and Relay committee at the Calgary Stampede.
Moderated by Patty Wickson (CLIQ), this fireside chat brings together innovators who are transforming the way we approach aging and continuing care. Attendees will hear about real-world solutions that break down traditional silos, foster collaboration, and leverage technology to create more connected, person-centred care.
Through engaging discussion, this session will explore the challenges and opportunities of innovation in the sector, highlighting how partnerships and creative approaches can improve quality of life for older adults while supporting care teams.
Advancing Resilience: Applying Brain Science in Policy and Practice
Nancy Mannix
Nancy Mannix is the Chair and Patron of the Palix Foundation, a private foundation whose philanthropy aims to improve the health and wellness outcomes of children and families. The Foundation, through the Alberta Family Wellness Initiative, focuses on aligning science, policy, and practice in areas of brain development and its implications for child development, mental health, addiction, and other disease and disorders, generating changes at an individual, organizational and systems level. Nancy's work with the Palix Foundation has garnered a number of prestigious awards in the mental health sector. Throughout her career in the charitable sector, Nancy has been involved with several organizations, and recently contributed to understanding the impact of COVID-19 on children and youth as a member of the Child and Youth Well-being Review panel.
In the 1-hour introduction to the Brain Story and Resilience Scale Framework, the main metaphors of the Brain Story, including the Resilience Scale, will be described as a vehicle for mobilizing knowledge about the importance of brain development and early experiences on lifelong health outcomes.
We will outline examples from Alberta of policy and practice changes incorporating the Brain Story and Resilience Scale Framework, as well as how the application of a common language and knowledge base can be used to build resilience and improve outcomes for children, families, and communities.
Supporting Implementation in Continuing Care: Readiness and Reality
Kelly Baskerville
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Kelly Baskerville is a healthcare leader, researcher, and educator with 25 years of experience in Alberta’s healthcare system. She is the Executive Director for the Institute of Continuing Care Education and Research (ICCER). Kelly also holds positions in research at the University of Calgary, Mount Royal University, and BetterLTC in Saskatchewan. She holds a Master of Nursing with specialization in Aging, certification as a Gerontological Nurse with the Canadian Nurses Association, and Certified Professional in Age Friendly Healthcare with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
Patty Wickson
A Certified Health Executive and former Executive Director at Alberta Health Services, Patty brings deep experience leading healthcare innovation across Canada’s largest health authority. She has advanced patient-centred care, digital health, and evidence-based system transformation through strong partnerships and emerging technologies, and we’re thrilled to have her leadership guiding our innovation and research work.
Join Kelly Baskerville (ICCER) and Patty Wickson (CLIQ) for an interactive breakout session, where attendees explore The Guide for Innovators, a practical guide designed to support the uptake of innovation in real-world care environments. Through discussion and hands-on activities, attendees will examine the realities, challenges, and opportunities of implementing new solutions, while sharing insights that can help shape future innovation strategies in the sector.
Stronger Together: A Collaborative Approach to Community Safety
Kathleen Kelly
With nearly ten years of experience in data strategy and impact measurement, Kathleen helps non-profit organizations leverage data to enhance service delivery and deepen their impact. Her work focuses on building data literacy, strengthening evaluation practices, and fostering a culture of evidence-informed innovation. Kathleen holds a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Calgary and is currently pursuing a Master of Digital Transformation and Innovation at the University of Ottawa.
Gillian Weaver-Dunlop
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Gillian (Jill) holds a Master of Social Work with Clinical Specialization from the University of Calgary. She has worked for FearIsNotLove for 23 years in various roles including: shelter counsellor, a therapist in the agency’s therapeutic programs, manager of Research and Evaluation, Director of Client Services, and Acting Executive Director. She has also worked as a Research Associate with RESOLVE Alberta, and has contributed towards the writing of publications and conference presentations on family violence. In her spare time, Jill enjoys spending time with her family – with her husband, three adult children and their partners, two grandchildren, and their dog. She has also been very involved with supporting and sponsoring refugees on a volunteer basis.
Join Gillian Weaver-Dunlop (FearIsNotLove) and Kathleen Kelly (YW Calgary) for an inside look at the Calgary Joint Shelter Report, a collaborative initiative that has expanded from three to 11 domestic violence shelters across Calgary and area over the past three years. The presentation will highlight why this report was created: to shine a light on the challenges facing survivors in Calgary, and the collective actions shelters are taking to respond. We will share key 2025 findings, high-level trends and central messages emerging across agencies working together to support individuals and families seeking safety.
The presentation also offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the report comes together and how it is used across the sector as a tool for shared advocacy and relationship-building. Attendees will leave with practical insights on applying this collaborative model in their own work.
Global Lessons in Equity Focused Innovation
Kevin Melanson
Moderator
Kevin is a global health and development leader who is passionate about ensuring every person, especially those living in disadvantaged situations, has an equal opportunity to live a healthy and fulfilling life. In his role as the Vice President, International Health and Social Impact, Kevin leads BSF's International Healthcare, Community Supports, and ESG planning.
Kevin holds Master’s degrees in Global Challenges, and in Athletic Training (Health Sciences), and a professional certificate in Public Management for Development. Kevin has also completed training in impact evaluation, humanitarian response, and coaching.
Leveraging over 16 years of experience spanning healthcare, education, and non-profit management, Kevin has successfully led a variety of programs to deliver high quality outcomes in low resource settings. This includes living in Haiti for seven years where he provided medical care in rural and urban communities, led internationally funded programs, and directed BSF's specialty hospital, Institut Brenda Strafford.
Kevin is also the Volunteer President of the Calgary Branch of the United Nations Association of Canada, a member of Social Value Canada/International, and an associate member of the Haiti Association of Calgary. A native English speaker, Kevin also speaks Haitian Creole, Spanish, and some French.
Thomas Oldreive
Biomedical Engineering Student & MSc. Student Researcher, University of Calgary
Thomas Oldreive is a Master's student at the University of Calgary studying Biomedical Engineering and Medical Image Analysis. His research aims to uncover underlying connections between vascular disease and late-life cognitive decline, including both fluid and imaging biomarkers. He also is part of the Clinical Trials Team at the Calgary Stroke Program, helping to run stroke-related clinical trials in Calgary and around the world. Furthermore, Thomas is engaged in supporting global health innovation, previously leading a team developing smoke-free cooking stoves in Guatemala, and currently participating in the Brenda Strafford Foundation’s Biomedical Engineering Knowledge Exchange, which works to solve challenges in the foundation’s network of international health centres.
Zara Obaa
Litigation Lawyer
Zara Obaa - Zara is a Calgary based litigation lawyer whose work is grounded in access to justice, trauma informed advocacy, and culturally responsive system navigation. Originally trained in Nigeria, she brings lived experience from low resource and international settings, where she worked closely with youth and community groups to create alternatives to the get rich quick culture affecting many young people. She also hosted Everyday People, a radio program that amplified the stories of ordinary Nigerians doing extraordinary things — using narrative as a low cost, high impact tool for mindset change and youth empowerment. Zara's early exposure to community driven innovation — from informal dispute resolution and social safety networks to women led organizing and adaptive service delivery — continues to shape her approach in Canada. Zara works within legal systems to ensure processes reflect people’s lived realities, and she remains deeply engaged in mentorship, and immigrant professional support. She brings a cross cultural, equity focused perspective rooted in lived experience and a commitment to community driven change.
Karen Joe
Global Wash Advisor, Centre for Affordable Water & Sanitation Technology
Karen is a Global WASH Advisor for the Asia region at the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST), supporting capacity strengthening, training, and knowledge-sharing to improve access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services. She brings over a decade of global experience in public health and WASH across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Her work focuses on strengthening local systems and promoting inclusive, community-centered programming. Karen has collaborated with NGOs, government stakeholders, and local organizations to design practical, scalable solutions, and is passionate about empowering local actors and ensuring equitable, sustainable WASH services.
Join Kevin Melanson (Moderator), Thomas Oldreive, Zara Obaa, and Karen Joe in exploring what innovation looks like in low-resource and low-/middle-income countries, highlighting real examples from other countries. Panelists will discuss successes, challenges, and special considerations, with practical takeaways for innovators working in high-resource settings like Calgary.
The Dr. Barrie Strafford Centre for Learning, Innovation, and Quality (CLIQ) is a centre at The Brenda Strafford Foundation (BSF) that brings together various roles dedicated to innovation, organizational learning, quality improvement, and research to further BSF’s mission: “to be an innovative force in optimizing well-being and enriching lives.”
Through sponsorship, you can help foster dialogue, strengthen partnerships, and advance promising ideas that improve CLIQ and The Brenda Strafford Foundation's work in innovation, research, and care.
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Networking Reception Sponsor
Community Sponsor
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