Lisa is the current Chair of ICD's Board of Directors, an unstoppable diabetes advocate and mom to Anna, diagnosed at age 4 with type one diabetes.

“Some of you with T1D may have had the experience of being let down by a system. This may have driven me a little crazy and I ended up creating awareness tools and personally visiting local schools, day-cares, and child drop-in centres to bring awareness of T1D. I chatted with parents, teachers, and childcare workers to educate them on Type One, including the onset. I personally visited 1500 people in Toronto during the month of November, 2016!

It was even more fun to supercharge that initiative with a team of inspirational speakers, all of whom have T1D. This resulted in me becoming the chair of the Kids in School Action Planning Committee, which led to system-wide policy change. Policy change never sounds fun… but when it means your child’s safety is considered in daily operations, it allows you to enjoy all the fun things again!”

Chris Jarvis is a former Canadian Olympic rower who has been living with type 1 diabetes for more than 25 years. He was a member of the National Canadian Olympic Rowing team from 2002-2009 and raced in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens Greece as well as the 2007 Pan Am Games where he won a gold medal.

Throughout Chris' athletic career, he noticed that there was limited understanding and support for those living with type 1 diabetes. Therefore, he founded I Challenge Diabetes with the mission to reduce the mental, emotional and physical burdens that result from type 1 diabetes. As the Executive Director, Chris has grown I Challenge Diabetes from a grassroots movement into a national organization that creates a community for people affected by the disease and provides education, support and mentorship programs to empower individuals to take accountability for their own health. Since 2015, I Challenge Diabetes has run over 750 programs in more than 125 cities across Canada providing more than 64,000 mentorship and training opportunities!

Laura is a Nurse Practitioner and Psychotherapist with over 15 years of experience in health care. Laura completed both undergraduate and graduate level degrees, in addition to a Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner certification at Ryerson University in Toronto. She has additional training through University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) and The Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

In addition to neurosciences, the major focus of Laura's work has been chronic illness management with a keen interest in the mind-body connection. Living with a chronic illness for the past 25 years has also provided Laura with the unique first-hand experience individuals and families face.