Mark van Bakel is the Information Management Manager at the City of Victoria, bringing over two decades of experience to his role. Having successfully transitioned from a spatial data background (Geographic Information Systems) into IT management, Mark now focuses on key areas of information management within municipal government. His current responsibilities encompass Enterprise Content Management, Records and Archives Management, and Website Governance. Additionally, Mark is actively engaged in optimizing data-driven processes and supporting evidence-based decision-making, while exploring ways to leverage emerging AI capabilities.
Joaquin is the Senior Urban Designer within the City of Victoria’s Planning and Development Department. Joaquin’s role is multi- disciplinary, working across City Departments on a range of urban design initiatives, including integrated neighbourhood and site scale master planning and design, integrated land use and transportation planning, housing policy and design, public realm and streetscape design, and place making. Before joining the City of Victoria in 2016, Joaquin was a Principal and co-founder at Modus Planning, Design and Engagement.
Lisa Lapointe is recently retired after a 30 year career with the BC Public Service, where she served most recently as BC's chief coroner from 2011 to early 2024. She is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award for her dedication and expertise to public service, and led the Coroners Service to receive the inaugural Premier's Award for Evidence-Based Design in 2018 for its analysis and timely reporting of data on the province's illicit drug overdose deaths. Under her leadership, the Coroners Service was the first provincial agency to sign a Declaration of Commitment to Cultural Safety and Humility with the province's First Nations Health Authority. She has served as chair of the Forum of Chief Coroners and Chief Medical Examiners of Canada, and the BCIT Forensic Sciences Program Advisory Committee. She is passionate about the importance of evidence and evaluation in the development of public policy and legislation, and particularly in the province's response to the Drug Toxicity Public Health Emergency. She is a spouse, mother, and grandmother, an avid reader, and loves cycling, walking and hiking on the rural paths near her home in Central Saanich.
Tricia brings over 20 years of Executive and senior-leadership experience in community, employment, and vocational rehabilitation services across Canada. She is driven by a passion to build strong inclusive communities, and her experience includes developing collaborative and strategic partnerships, capacity development, and achievement in delivering innovation and results. She was drawn to Beacon Community Services because of the organization’s far reaching, positive reputation and vast scope of services, and instantly connected with its mission, vision, and values.
Prior to coming to Beacon in 2021 she led the Canadian Veterans Vocational Rehabilitation Services program on behalf of March of Dimes Canada and WCG Services. She has appeared as an expert witness before the Canadian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs on the delivery of front-line health and well-being services for Canadian Veterans and her recommendations were included in their report "Improving Services to Improve Quality of Life for Veterans and Their Families". She is the Past President of the Vocational Rehabilitation Association of Canada which is the Centre of Excellence providing education and research to this field across the country.
Tricia has an MBA in Executive Management from Royal Roads University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Economics from the University of Victoria. She is a Certified Vocational Rehabilitation Professional (CVRP), a Registered Rehabilitation Professional (RRP) and is a member of the Vocational Rehabilitation Association of Canada and the College of Vocational Professionals.
Kim Pate was appointed to the Senate of Canada on November 10, 2016. First and foremost, the mother of Michael and Madison, she is also a nationally renowned advocate who has spent the last 45+ years working in and around the legal and penal systems of Canada, with and on behalf of some of the most marginalized, victimized, criminalized and institutionalized — particularly imprisoned youth, men and women.
Senator Pate graduated from Dalhousie Law School in 1984 with honours in the Clinical Law Programme. She was the Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) from January 1992 until her appointment to the Senate in November 2016. She has developed and taught Prison Law, Human Rights and Social Justice and Defending Battered Women on Trial courses at the Faculties of Law at the University of Ottawa, Dalhousie University and the University of Saskatchewan. She also occupied the Sallows Chair in Human Rights at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law in 2014 and 2015.
Kim Pate is widely credited as the driving force behind the Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston, headed by Justice Louise Arbour. During the Inquiry, she supported women as they aired their experiences and was a critical resource and witness in the Inquiry itself.
Senator Pate is a member of the Order of Canada, a recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, the Canadian Bar Association’s Bertha Wilson Touchstone Award, and six honourary doctorates (Law Society of Upper Canada, University of Ottawa, Carleton University, St. Thomas University, Wilfred Laurier University, and Nipissing University).
Dr. Jiaying Zhao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, a faculty affiliate with the Center for Effective Global Action at UC Berkeley, and an invited researcher at J-PAL at MIT. Dr. Zhao is a Killam Research Prize recipient and UBC Sauder Distinguished Scholar. She uses psychological principles to design behavioral solutions to address financial and environmental sustainability challenges. Specifically, she examines the cognitive consequences of poverty and designs cash transfer interventions to alleviate the psychological burdens in low-income individuals. Moreover, she develops behavioral interventions to encourage climate action, recycling, and biodiversity conservation.
Cole J. Kennedy is a Doctoral student of Clinical Neuropsychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Victoria. He is a Student Senator, a member of the CORTEX lab, a Student Affiliate of the Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health, and is the Graduate Student Research Lead for the BC Consensus on Brain Injury, Mental Health and Addiction. Inspired by his clinical experiences supporting survivors of brain injury, Cole’s research aims to better the lives of those struggling with concurrent brain injury, psychiatric disorders, and substance use/addictions through a variety of community-engaged and patient-oriented approaches.
Janelle is a Registered Professional Counsellor and Master Practitioner in Clinical Counselling with over 34 years of dedicated service in the brain injury community.
In honor of her husband, Constable Gerald Breese, who sustained a brain injury while on duty in 1990 and passed away five months later, Janelle and her family founded the CGB Centre for Traumatic Life Losses.
The Centre's mission is to provide personalized, practical support to individuals, and impactful initiatives like the Heads Together Think Tank and the BC Consensus on Brain Injury, Mental Health and Addictions.
Janelle is currently working with MP Alistair MacGregor to advance Private Member’s Bill C-277, calling on the federal government to establish a National Strategy on Brain Injury Act.
Eva is a faculty member of the Criminal Justice Program at Camosun College in Victoria, BC. Eva has spent over 25 years working, studying and teaching in the field of justice. She is a passionate educator, intersectional feminist researcher and avid cyclist.
While studying Criminology and Psychology at Simon Fraser University, Eva began volunteering at the Burnaby Correctional Center for Women. This experience sparked Eva’s curiosity about gender in the justice system.
During her time at Simon Fraser University, Eva provided research to the Attorney General’s office on policy topics such as male victims of domestic violence, and intimate partner violence in LGBTQ+ relationships. In 2004, Eva completed her Masters Degree in Criminology at Simon Fraser University with a thesis focused on the elevated needs of offenders with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
Eva has worked as a community parole officer in Vancouver specializing in relapse prevention therapy with sexual offenders.
In 2008, Eva began teaching at Camosun College. She served as the Chair of the Criminal Justice Program from 2014 to 2017. Eva’s areas of research and teaching interests include criminological theory, mental health and trauma, corrections and correctional practice, gender in the justice system and the role of women working in the justice system.
Eva has served as the Chair of the Human Resources Committee on the Greater Victoria Police Victim Services Board as well as the Co-Vice President of the John Howard Society Board of Directors.
Eva completed her PhD in 2023 at the University of Victoria in the Education Psychology and Leadership Studies Department. Her dissertation is titled, Women, Leadership and Policing: Negotiating and Navigating Gendered Experiences.
Dr. Ash Heaslip, MD, CCFP, MPH, dISAM, PhD (c) works as a family doctor and addiction medicine specialist in Victoria, BC. She serves as the Executive Medical Director of Addiction Medicine and Substance Use at Island Health, working to strengthen the substance use system of care across Vancouver Island.
Dr. Heaslip holds positions as Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Medicine in Victoria, as well as an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Island Medical Program at the University of Victoria.
She completed her Doctor of Medicine degree from McMaster University, followed by a Family Medicine Residency Program at the University of British Columbia. Prior to her medical training, Dr. Heaslip pursued a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Toronto.