Zachary Spicer

Zachary Spicer is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at York University in Toronto, Canada. At York University he is also serves as the Head of New College, as a fellow at McLaughlin College and a Faculty Affiliate with both the CITY Institute and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies. Beyond York, he is a member of the Digital Mobilities Lab, an Associate at the University of Toronto’s Innovation Policy Lab, a member of the Laboratory on Local Elections, a member of the study team for the Electronic Elections Project and an affiliate member of the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy at Wilfrid Laurier University.

He previously served as the Director of Research and Outreach with the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and as a Senior Policy Advisor to Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. He began his career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Brock University and completed post-doctoral fellowship at the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance at the University of Toronto. He received his PhD from the Department of Political Science at The University of Western Ontario.

Simone Harrington

Healthcare

Simone has dedicated her career to driving transformative changes in healthcare. Her unique blend of skills in strategy, project management, and policy change positions her as a driving force behind health system transformation, aiming to create a healthier future for communities and regions.

Simone is a critical member of the team that developed, designed and then implemented the largest voluntary hospital merger in Canada at Trillium Health Partners (THP) – a world-leading, full system of care in Mississauga and West Toronto serving over 1.7 million patients annually. She has progressed through several critical leadership roles including THP’s first Director of Strategy & Project Management, then Associate VP of People, Strategy & Volunteers. Currently, Simone is VP at the Institute for Better Health (IBH), a national leader in health services research and THP Solutions, which will drive innovation and create new revenue streams for THP to drive sustainability in health care and lead THP as an Edge partner within the $30M Federal innovation network CAN Health Network. In her role at the IBH, she has been instrumental in bridging research and innovation ambitions with sound business strategies from HR to Finance to Project Management to build success. This culminated last year with THP’s recognition for the first time as one of Canada’s Top 40 Research hospitals.

In 2022, Simone was honoured as one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women by The Women’s Executive Network and in 2023, as a Distinguished Alumni by the Faculty of Science at the University. She also serves as a board member at Sheridan College, in the role of Vice-Chair since 2023.

Simone holds a Bachelor of Science & Business from the University of Waterloo’s Coop Program and an MBA from The Schulich School of Business at York University.

Christine Shea

Tina Smith

Derek Dow

Derek is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and registered Professional Engineer (P.Eng.).

He is currently Technical Director-DCC/DND and Senior Electrical Engineer at Englobe in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and a Schulich ExecEd instructor. He has led teams of over 100 engineering professionals in a variety of different industries. Prior to joining Englobe, Derek was employed as an engineering manager and program/project manager in a variety of industries, including marine engineering, physical security infrastructure, oil & gas and buildings, infrastructure and energy. He also holds a Master of Business Administration (2017) and completed the MCPM program in 2008. Derek has been a project management instructor for over 10 years, having delivered courses for PMI – Nova Scotia Chapter and Dalhousie University. In his personal time, Derek enjoys golfing, curling and playing squash.