Meet our Board of Directors

Our talented Board of Directors is composed of visionaries with experience from a wide range of personal and professional backgrounds.

Board Chair

Julia Hanigsberg

LLB, BCL, LLM

Julia Hanigsberg is President and CEO of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation hospital focused on improving the lives of children with disabilities. Fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, Holland Bloorview is home to the Bloorview Research Institute, the Teaching and Learning Institute and is a leader in client and family-centered care. Julia is a three-time Women’s Executive Network Most Powerful Women Top 100 honouree.

Past Board Chair

Judith Hall

BA, MSc, MD, OC, FRSC, FCAHS, and DSc honoris causa Board Chair

Judith Hall is a professor at the University of British Columbia and Investigator Emerita with BC Children’s Hospital. She is a pediatrician and clinical geneticist who has used the unusual patient to study gene action, natural history, and the recognition of non-traditional mechanisms of genetic disease. Judy has held many leadership roles, including Presidency of the American Society of Human Genetics and the American Pediatrics Society. She has served on numerous national and international committees and boards and has received many honours for her scientific contributions and lifetime achievements.

Board Member

Alice Aiken

BSc, BScPT, MSc, PhD, CD

Alice Aiken is the Vice President – Research & Innovation at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. She is an active researcher focused on health systems transformation and evidence-informed policy-making. Dr. Aiken is currently the Vice Chair of the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Chair of the board of Research Nova Scotia.

Board Member

Kevin Bly

Kevin Bly is President and Founder of JIT Industrial Supply and Distribution. His doctoral research focused on the importance of team sports as a foundation for healthy adolescent development. Kevin has been involved with amateur and professional baseball for over four decades in scouting and coaching, and he currently facilitates the National Coaching Certification Program for Sport Canada. Kevin has a long history of philanthropy and volunteerism with many charitable organizations.

Board Member

Manon Choinière

BSc, MA, PhD

Manon Choinière is a senior pain researcher at the Centre de Recherche du Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montreal and a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Montreal. She is one of the founding members of the Quebec Pain Research Network within which she leads the Patient-Oriented Research Platform. She is also a co-PI on the SPOR-Canadian Pain Network and co-chair of their Registry Working Group.

Board Member

Julie Drury

BSc (HON)

Julie Drury is passionate about the patient/family/professional partnership and experience in health. As a patient/family advisor, she consults regularly with organizations across the Canadian healthcare system. She facilitates and provides the patient and family perspective in healthcare policy, design and decision making. As the mother of a child who was diagnosed with a rare form of mitochondrial disease, Julie has experience in system navigation, complex care, care coordination, palliative care and patient safety. Julie is an experienced senior federal health policy advisor.

Board Member

Justina Marianayagam

BHSc, MD

Justina Marianayagam is Pediatrics Resident Physician at BC Children’s Hospital and has lived experience with chronic pain. Justina was appointed by Health Canada to the Canadian Pain Task Force to help address chronic pain for all Canadians. She liaises with Northern communities to improve rural/remote engagement. She mentors young patients and launched the first pediatric patient-to-patient chronic pain support group in Canada. Internationally, she is representing the patient voice as a Consultant for the World Health Organization to develop the new Guideline to the Management of Pediatric Chronic Pain.

Board Member

Bonnie Stevens

RN, PhD

Dr. Bonnie Stevens is the ChildKind Certification Committee Chairwoman. She recently retired as a Professor at the Lawrence S Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Toronto. Dr. Stevens is the inaugural Signy Hildur Eaton Chair in Paediatric Nursing Research, Associate Chief of Nursing Research and Senior Scientist in the Research Institute at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). Dr. Stevens is the Director of the University of Toronto Centre for Pain and the Co-Director of the Pain Centre at SickKids. The focus of her research is on pain in preterm infants, measurement, and knowledge translation. Dr Stevens has over 300 publications and presentations and is a Co-Editor of the recently released 2013 Oxford University Press Textbook in Pediatric Pain.

Board Member

April Stroink

RHU, EPC, PFP

April Stroink is a money coach and financial advisor who specializes in helping people create and enjoy financial wellbeing in their businesses and personal lives. She’s the creator of the Money Fix, a suite of programs to increase financial literacy for millennials, families and entrepreneurs. A certified Profit First Professional, April has hands-on experience increasing the profits for multiple businesses (including her own) through a proven, globally recognized system that makes businesses more profitable. April volunteers on several community boards, hosts a YouTube Channel with her daughter talking to teens about money, and helps out with her family’s 3^rd generation blueberry farm.

Board Member

Jaris Swidrovich

BSP, PharmD, PhD(c)

Jaris Swidrovich is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, and Indigenous Engagement Lead in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. He is a Two Spirit Saulteaux First Nations and Ukrainian man and pharmacist from Yellow Quill First Nation. Swidrovich is the first and only self-identified Indigenous faculty member in pharmacy in Canada. He is actively involved with decolonization, Indigenization, and reconciliation locally and nationally with a variety of different groups and organizations. He is a founding board member of Pain Ontario, a National Advisory Committee member with Pain Canada, and was a member of Health Canada’s Canadian Pain Task Force and Health Canada’s Safer Supply of Pharmaceutical Alternatives to Street Drugs Expert Advisory Group.

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Meet our Board of Directors

Julia Hanigsberg

Judith Hall

Alice Aiken

Kevin Bly

Manon Choinière

Julie Drury

Justina Marianayagam

Bonnie Stevens

April Stroink

Jaris Swidrovich

Our community is expanding and our impact is growing!

#ItDoesntHaveToHurt