On February 8 and 9, 2023, over 400 professionals working in tobacco control and vaping gathered to learn, debate and share progress and ideas that could help us reach the goal of 5% tobacco use prevalence by 2035. On the second day of the conference, over 250 delegates attended a workshop where they gathered in small groups to share their ideas on how to ‘get to 5% by 2035’. This webinar aims to inspire those working in the sector, as well as decision makers, by providing an overview of the themes and highlight examples of solutions that delegate came up with to reach the 5 by 2035 goal.
Speakers:
John Atkinson
John joined OPHA in March 2022 as the Executive Director. John has a Master of Social Work degree and has led health promotion program and policy initiatives in a number of settings including university health services, public health, community health, and two health non-profits prior to joining OPHA. John has also led a number of community development, health promotion and child development initiatives overseas. Beginning his career as a smoking cessation counsellor in 1998 and a health educator at Region of Waterloo Public Health, John has been a leader and strong advocate within the public and community health sectors for nearly 25 years. In 2006, John was presented with the provincial Smoke-free Champion Award and a nominee for the Heather Crowe award in 2015 for his work in tobacco control. As a result of John’s extensive work regarding youth health, John was awarded the Order of Niagara. Before joining OPHA, John worked at the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) for 10 years, where he served as the Vice-President of Cancer Prevention leading all prevention initiatives across a number of areas including tobacco control, healthy eating, physical activity, alcohol, and ultraviolet radiation. He also developed strategic partnerships and strategies aimed to reduce health inequities and increase access to supportive environments and services among diverse communities. John is a committed advocate and leader within the public, community and health promotion sectors and is excited to work in collaboration with the public and community health communities to strengthen and grow their impact.
Sarah Pedder
Sarah has over eight years of experience in non-profit community-based programs, stakeholder engagement, capacity building, and advocacy primarily in mental health promotion. During her past tenure at the Canadian Mental Health Association Halton Region Branch, Sarah collaborated with internal and external stakeholders to provide evidence-informed interventions to support behaviour change and health. She most recently worked as a Crisis Intervention Worker to promote mental health, crisis intervention and suicide prevention in collaboration with Halton Regional Police. In past roles, Sarah has also initiated, developed, and implemented a quality improvement project that focused on health equity at the point of service, by improving sociodemographic data collection rates for 11 programs through the development and delivery of capacity building workshops for clinicians. Having also served as Chair of the Ontario Public health Association Health Equity Workgroup, Sarah has championed the implementation of health equity lens at a provincial level. As an experienced facilitator, Sarah has presented, developed, and implemented professional development workshops and trainings to promote skill development in participants and increase knowledge on mental health. In Sarah’s academic background, she brings a Master of Public Health from Brock University, a Geriatric Certificate, a Bachelor of Arts, and a Bachelor of Public Health with a minor in Economics.
This webinar will be recorded and sent to all registrants. The webinar registration and event will only be available in English. We apologize for any inconvenience.
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