BILSF Workshop: Exploring How to Address Inconsistent Views about the Importance of IDEA in Canada’s Life Sciences Sector

Exploring How to Address Inconsistent Views about the Importance of IDEA in Canada’s Life Sciences Sector 

Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023, 12:00pm – 3:00pm EDT 

Virtual Workshop 

Inspired by the outputs of the inaugural BILSF workshop in late 2021, Life Sciences Ontario (LSO) and Shift Health are hosting their 2nd virtual workshop through Building an Inclusive life Sciences Future—a community-led initiative established to bring the life sciences community together to define a vision and an action plan for inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) in Canada’s life sciences ecosystem.

This workshop will convene diverse stakeholders from across the sector to share knowledge, tools, and approaches that can be deployed to support Canadian life sciences organizations—especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)—with making greater progress toward IDEA.

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to:

• Hear from senior leaders of large and small life sciences organizations about the benefits of prioritizing IDEA, including opportunities to attract diverse talent to strengthen Canada's innovation potential.
• Learn how public and private funders/investors consider IDEA when making and monitoring investment decisions.
• Participate in interactive activities (e.g. polling, speaker Q&As) to support the early stages of developing an action plan that will be used to guide sector stakeholders in supporting SMEs in advancing IDEA.

Speakers include:  

• Andrea Palmer, CEO & Co-founder, Awake Labs
• Bowen Tang, Engagement Manager, Cochlear Canada ; President, International Federation of Hard of Hearing Young People
• Dahabo Ahmed-Omer, Executive Director, BlackNorth Initiative
• Dozie Amuzie, Head, JLABS Canada
• Elizabeth Douville, President & CEO, IRICoR; Chair, Genome Canada
• Jackie Ottmann, President, First Nations University of Canada
• Karine Grand’Maison, Vice-President, Access and Government Relations, Pfizer Canada
• Reg Joseph, CEO, Health Cities
• Ryan Wiley, President, Shift Health
• Sarah Jacklin, Regional Counsel, Stryker Canada
• Shafiq Vallani, Partner & Investment Director, TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good
• Wendy Cukier, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy, Toronto Metropolitan University; Founder, The Diversity Institute

…and more to be announced! 

The workshop will take place on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023 from 12:00pm-3:00pm EDT. If you're interested in attending, please register for the event by clicking the button below:

Or email Brian Craig at brian@lifesciencesontario.ca. 
We will be in touch with registrants with further details closer to the event date.
Thank you and we hope that you will be able to join in this important dialogue.