Renee Saurette, MA CCC, Psychosocial Oncology Clinician (she/her/elle)

Renée has been working as a Counsellor and Art Therapist since 2015. She is trained through a through a trauma informed and attachment-based lens. In her role as Psychosocial Oncology Clinician at CancerCare Manitoba Renée supports patients and family members with managing anxiety, emotional regulation, coping with the unknown, grieving (loss of self, planned future, etc.), and adapting to new roles and realities. She works primarily with patients and families who have a gynecological cancer, and French-speaking patients. Renée also facilitates the Expressive Arts and Caregiver Support Groups at CancerCare Manitoba.

Karen Dobbin

Karen Dobbin has been a physiotherapist for over 30 years, graduating with a Bachelor of Medical Rehabilitation in Physiotherapy and a Master’s of Science at the University of Manitoba with her graduate thesis research focusing on cancer rehabilitation. She is a Certified Lymphedema Therapist, certified acupuncture provider, myofascial release therapist, cancer exercise practitioner, and an advanced cancer rehabilitation professional providing comprehensive cancer rehabilitation. Currently, Karen is working part-time at CancerCare Manitoba with funding provided by the CancerCare Manitoba Foundation. Her personal diagnosis of breast cancer in 2009 and the following treatments provided her with a first-hand experience with cancer and she now passionately provides cancer rehabilitation and lymphedema management to improve the lives of those diagnosed with cancer.

Melissa McMahon

Melissa McMahon was born and raised in Montreal Quebec and knew from a very young age that she was interested in two things; playing school and pretending she was performing surgery on a teddy bear. Growing up she became interested in all things medical, her appreciation for film and television allowed her to enjoy medical dramas such as ER. However, nursing would become her second career after working in food and hospitality for over a decade.  Eventually becoming a nurse and later on, a nursing instructor. Working mainly in internal medicine and orthopedics and plastic surgery Melissa’s nearly ten years of experience was not enough to spare her from a stage 3 ovarian cancer diagnosis in June of 2023. Making the vow to herself, that if she survived, she would make great efforts in her lifetime for meaningful improvement for ovarian cancer statistics. This led her here today where; with honor and pride she has joined Ovarian Cancer Canada in the quest for the cure.

Christa Slatnik

Christa Slatnik is a Nurse Practitioner with over 24 years’ experience working with gyne-oncology patients. As the only Gyne-Oncology Nurse Practitioner in Manitoba, Christa has the ability to offer a standardized compassionate approach to all gyne-oncology patients throughout the province as they are transitioning in different parts of their cancer journey, helping women transitioning to new diagnosis, treatment, maintenance therapy, surveillance, and palliative care. Christa also plays a role on the national level as Director of Nursing on GOC’s Board of Directors, is the Co-Chair for GOC’s National Nursing Committee, and is the CANO representative for the National BRCA Collaborative. Christa has also volunteered for the past 23 years as Co-Chair for Ovarian Cancer Canada’s Walk of Hope, and was a member of OCC’s National Prevention Taskforce. As a daughter who lost her mom to ovarian cancer, and now a Previvor herself, Christa is dedicated to increasing awareness and access to ovarian cancer prevention, early detection, and optimal treatment regimens to ensure all women affected by this disease live longer, better lives!

Holly Williams

Holly Williams is a stage 2 high grade serous ovarian cancer survivor and thriver. After surgery and 6 rounds of chemotherapy, she is currently NED and has completely changed her nutrition, exercise and stress levels. She is back to work part-time in an administrative position at the local hospital and continues to advocate for better diagnostic tools and physician education to improve survival rates. In her spare time, she enjoys walks with her dogs, gardening and baking, and is currently authoring a cookbook.

Maureen Parkinson

Maureen Parkinson is the co-lead and content lead for www.cancerandwork.ca. She has worked for 30 years at the BC Cancer as the provincial vocational rehabilitation counsellor where she helped individuals with returning, remaining and finding work after cancer.  As well she is an instructor for the Cancer and Worker Support for Pacific Coast University.  She created the Cancer and Returning to Work: A Practical Guide for Cancer Patients and developed and taught return to work and job search seminars for cancer survivors. Previously, she has worked as a rehabilitation hospital vocational rehabilitation counsellor, a vocational rehabilitation consultant for a private consulting agency; and as an instructor/facilitator teaching job search and career exploration for Service Canada funded programs. She has a Masters in Counselling Psychology, is a Canadian Certified Rehabilitation Counsellor and completed the Certified Return to Work Coordinator Program through the National Institute for Disability Management and Research.

Dr. William Foulkes

Dr. William Foulkes is a Distinguished James McGill Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Oncology and Human Genetics. He co-authored over 700 peer-reviewed manuscripts and received multiple awards. He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the Royal College of Physicians, London, and the Royal Society of Canada. He recently received the Prix Wilder-Penfield of Quebec (2020) and the Dr. Chew Wei Memorial Prize in Cancer Research from the University of British Columbia (2022). He is Chair of Human Genetics at McGill and Director of Medical Genetics at both the Montreal Jewish General Hospital and the McGill University Health Centre. Over three decades of research, he made unique contributions and discoveries in cancer genetics. He conducted studies that defined how to treat BRCA1-related cancers clinically, and his research team discovered and characterized several cancer predisposition founder mutations in Montreal populations. His research team is also known for its extensive work on genetic variations and phenotypes linked to DICER1 tumour predisposition syndrome and for the discovery that SMARCA4 is the causative factor in Small Cell Carcinoma of the Ovary, Hypercalcemic type.

Dr. Yvonne Bombard

Dr. Yvonne Bombard is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Genomics Health Services at the University of Toronto. She directs the Genomics Health Services Research Program at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto. Her work evaluates the outcomes of genomic technologies on patients and healthcare systems, develops digital tools for genomic medicine, and engages patients in health technology assessment. Dr. Bombard is actively involved in international policy advisory committees and serves on the boards of the American Society of Human Genetics and CIHR Institute of Genetics. She has received numerous awards, including a CIHR Foundation grant, ‘Rising Star’ and Presidential awards from CADTH, CIHR, UofT and the Canadian Cancer Society for her impactful research and policy contributions, for which she has been inducted into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars.

Dr. Nirit Rozenberg (Previvor)

Nirit Rozenberg is a comprehensive family physician in Toronto, as well as a BRCA carrier. Given her lived experience of losing her mother to hereditary ovarian cancer, Nirit is passionate about raising awareness of hereditary cancer risk. Prior to pursuing her career in medicine, she worked as a research student at the Ovarian Cancer Research Centre (OvCaRe), where she co-authored work on ovarian cancer prevention, including on the subject of opportunistic salpingectomy as a risk-reducing strategy among women at average lifetime risk.She currently volunteers on the Ovarian Cancer Canada’s Prevention Task Force, where she brings her personal and professional lens to help with advancements in ovarian cancer prevention such as helping create educational resources for primary care providers across Canada. Like many others with this genetic risk, she has had to navigate difficult decisions about cancer prevention and her own health. Living with BRCA and working in the medical profession has given her a unique perspective on what it means to balance medical advice, personal values, and family considerations. She believes that open conversations and shared stories can empower people to make informed choices and feel less alone in their journey.

Alexandria Tadman

Alexandria Tadman is the Government Relations and Advocacy Lead at Ovarian Cancer Canada, where she has been driving advocacy efforts since 2022. With a strong foundation in the not-for-profit sector both in Canada and internationally and a joint Master’s degree, Alexandria brings a wealth of experience in health policy and system change. Prior to joining OCC, she spent five years with the Ontario Provincial Government, including as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Health. Passionate about improving healthcare through collaboration, she works closely with patient advocates to advance meaningful change.

Dr. Helen MacKay

Dr. Helen MacKay is a Medical Oncologist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is Head of the Division of Medical Oncology and Malignant Hematology at the Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Senior Scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. Dr. MacKay’s clinical practice and research focus is on gynecological cancers. Her research involves collaborating with translational and basic scientists in the development and validation of novel therapeutic strategies. She is the former President of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology of Canada (GOC) and currently leads the GOC Research Unit. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (USA). She co-chairs the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI), USA, Ovarian Cancer Task Force. Dr. Mackay was also appointed to the NCTN Core Correlative Sciences Committee of the NCI (USA) in June 2022. She is the past chair of the Ovarian Group and sits on the executive of the Gyne committee of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) and represents CCTG at the Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup. She is a past chair of both the Gynecologic Cancer Education and Scientific Committees for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). With specific reference to uterine cancers, she is a member of the TRANSPORTEC group, and sits on the Corpus Committee of NRG, and was the co-chair of the NCI Endometrial Cancer Clinical Trials Planning Committee. 

Dr. Laura Hopkins

Laura Hopkins is a Professor in the Department of Oncology and a Gynecologic Oncologist with the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency.  Laura completed her Fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Toronto in 2002 and worked in Ottawa until 2019.  She moved to Saskatoon in 2019 and established an academic program for patients with gynecologic cancer.  The path to an academic focus began with the creation of Saskatchewan’s first tumor bank in 2021, which allowed Saskatchewan to become a member of the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope Cancer Network. The first clinical trial in gynecologic oncology was activated in 2021, and we launched our robotic surgery program in 2022.  Laura leads the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency’s first investigator-initiated clinical pragmatic trial which explores patient’s preferences for precision medicine in ovarian cancer. This trial was activated in 2023 and leverages the cooperation of patients, oncologists, pathologists and basic scientists in order to improve patient quality of life and promote informed patient decision making. Preliminary results of this trial have been used to justify a new precision standard of care for patients with ovarian cancer in Saskatchewan and additional provinces are now following with the same approval.

Shannon Kadar

Shannon Kadar is the Co-Lead of Ovarian Cancer Canada’s Patient Partners in Research Program.  Shannon was diagnosed with high grade serous ovarian cancer in 2019 at the age of 40, and learned she also carried a BRCA1 mutation. Throughout treatment and recurrences, being a passionate patient advocate has remained Shannon’s top priority.

Karen Bemister

Karen Bemister was diagnosed with endometrioid ovarian cancer stage 3C in November of 2019 after seeking out medical opinions for her “bloating”.  Karen joined Ovarian Cancer Canada’s Patient Partners in Research team in January 2021 after hearing about the program at the National Symposium.  Karen was so excited by the prospect of becoming involved in the research and advocacy, she emailed Dr. Alicia Tone during the presentation.  Since then, she has been an active member of the team, collaborating on grant reviews, research projects and speaking and education engagements.  Karen says, “we have lost too many of our Teal Sisters already, I Will Not Rest until we are able to prevent new cases and change the outcomes of newly diagnosed people born with ovaries.”

Nancy Mortifee

Nancy was 67 when she received her first diagnosis, stage 2 High Grade Serous Carcinoma. After a full hysterectomy and aggressive chemotherapy regime, she went on to live some of the best years of her life; welcoming three beautiful grandchildren, travelling extensively with her husband Peter and engaging in the most exciting and meaningful work of her career. When Nancy discovered her cancer had returned in 2024, she actively embraced both conventional and integrative cancer care. She then retired from her role as Dean of Inner Work Programs for the Wellbeing Project  (wellbeing-project.org) and today continues her private Mindfulness and Intimacy counselling practice in Vancouver and online.  Nancy finds connecting with cancer patients particularly rewarding and throughly enjoys volunteering as a peer to peer supporter for Ovarian Cancer Canada and Wellspring Cancer Support. She is also very active with Inspire Health Supportive Cancer Care in B.C.

Liz Rykert

Liz Rykert worked as a social worker engaged in prevention and community development and then as an entrepreneur and strategist working in technology and large system transformation until she retired in 2018. In 2019 she was diagnosed with high grade serous ovarian cancer stage 3B while on a trip to Paris. Her passions include family and supporting a large network of friends, the arts, the natural world, travel and cycling.

Tiffany Morin

Tiffany Morin (she/her) lives in Calgary/Mohkinstis, Alberta and has been living with a rare sub-type of ovarian cancer for over seven years. Tiffany is a proud Metis and Cree woman, with family roots in Treaty 6 Territory. She is a member of the Patient Partners in Research team through Ovarian Cancer Canada, is an active volunteer with the Calgary Lady Ball committee, and a proud team captain of Triple T – Tiff’s Teal Team for the annual Walk of Hope (raising close to $30,000 in the past four years). Tiffany was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 38 years old, just as she was going into graduate studies at the University of Calgary. Her education got put on hold for a year so she could undergo surgical treatment for her cancer. The next year she started school and got rolling with her master’s degree. Just as she was getting ready to wrap up her thesis, Tiffany’s cancer returned and she had to put school on hold again for another surgery and chemotherapy treatment. She didn’t let that stop her from following her dreams and she returned to school, completed her MSc degree and started a new career as a university instructor at the University of Lethbridge. Tiffany continues to have active ovarian cancer and has yet to find a successful treatment (other than surgeries) to one day hopefully be NED. But until that happens, she will fight for new and better treatments, as well as more positive outcomes for those diagnosed with this disease.