Dr. Mariana Brussoni is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada. She is an investigator with the British Columbia Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the British Columbia Injury Research & Prevention Unit. Mariana is a board member of the Child & Nature Alliance of Canada. Mariana completed her PhD in developmental psychologist at UBC in 2000. She joined the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit in 2001 as Associate Director. In 2004, Mariana went on to post-doctoral training at Birkbeck College (University of London), and the University of the West of England. In 2007, she returned to the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit and a faculty position at UBC. After years spent examining child injury statistics and researching injury prevention, Mariana became concerned that well-meaning attempts to keep children safe were putting excessive limitations on children’s play despite the fact that serious injuries are rare. Her current research seeks to restore balance. Foci include parenting attitudes related to risk and safety; developmental importance of children’s risky play; design of children’s communities and play spaces; and policy to support children’s outdoor play. She has published her research extensively and has been widely featured in international media. Mariana spends her free time supporting her two children’s outdoor play so that she can take pictures for her presentations.

Heather is the new General Manager of Community and Protective Services with the City of Fort Saskatchewan. Prior to that she was with the City of Calgary where she was instrumental in brining the 2017 International Play Association Conference to that city and co-created the Mobile Adventure Playground and the Play Charter with amazing Parks and Recreation staff in Calgary. Heather is currently the President of the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association and a proud founding member of Outdoor Play Canada. She is an avid supporter of anything play for children and youth and believes strongly in the power of partnerships and collaborations.

Dr. Raktim Mitra is an Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning and co-Director of TransForm Research Laboratory at Ryerson University. He completed his PhD in Urban Planning in 2011 from the University of Toronto, and is currently affiliated with the Department of Geography and Programs in Environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) as an Associate Professor (status only). Raktim’s teaching and research explores the intersection between the neighbourhood environment, mobility behaviour and wellbeing. His current research programs and publications focus more specifically on walking, cycling and playing in urban neighbourhoods. Raktim is the co-editor of a recently published book titled Transport and Children’s Wellbeing, which summarizes 10+ years of his research on this topic. In recent years, he has collaborated with school boards and community-based organizations in delivering and evaluating play-based programming at schools and within Toronto’s neighbourhoods. Raktim is also leading a major multi-institutional collaboration called StudentMoveTO – a partnership between 10 universities and colleges in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area- that focuses on transportation behaviour, mobility challenges and wellbeing of post-secondary students. 

In 2008, Marlene Power founded Carp Ridge Forest Preschool, Canada’s first full time outdoor, nature-based Forest Preschool, and in 2012 created Forest School Canada, a national initiative to promote nature-based education through Forest School professional learning. In 2014 she founded the Ottawa Forest and Nature School, which is situated on 900 acres of unceded Algonquin Territory. In 2014 she was appointed as Executive Director for the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada (CNAC). Over the last four years she has led CNAC through a purpose-driven capacity-building process, and today she leads a national team of 35 employees from coast to coast to coast. To date CNAC has worked with over 1,500 educators nationally and in Ottawa, and there are now over 400 Forest and Nature School programs who spend an average of 250 hours outside a year. We have reached 19,410 children, and anticipate that by 2021 there will be a total of 54,410 children in muddy boots outside across Canada! Marlene is an avid outdoors-person, social activist, environmentalist, and an advocate of children’s right to play in the outdoors. She attributes her resilience, creativity, love of nature, and environmental values to the freedom she was given to roam during her childhood, and the relationships she made while there. She learned so much by growing up connected to the beauty and nature around her in outport Newfoundland. She currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario, and spends many days exploring the city streets and woods with her two children, Hazel and Emry.

Professor Mark Tremblay has a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Sports Administration and a Bachelor of Physical and Health Education degree from Laurentian University. His graduate training was from the University of Toronto where he obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Department of Community Health with a specialty in Exercise Science. Dr. Tremblay is the Director of Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research (HALO) at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute and Professor of Pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, President of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance, Founder of the Sedentary Behaviour Research Network, Chair of Outdoor Play Canada, and Adjunct/Visiting Professor at five other universities on four continents. Dr. Tremblay has published more than 450 scientific papers and book chapters in the areas of childhood obesity, physical activity measurement, exercise physiology, sedentary physiology, outdoor play and health surveillance. His h-index is >70 and his published research has been cited >20,000 times according to Scopus. He has delivered over 800 scholarly conference presentations, including more than 150 invited and keynote addresses, in 21 different countries. Dr. Tremblay received an honorary doctorate from Nipissing University, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Lawson Foundation 60th Anniversary Award, the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Honour Award, the Victor Marchessault Advocacy Award from the Canadian Pediatric Society, and the Vic Neufeld Mentorship Award in Global Health Research from the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research for his leadership contributions to healthy active living in Canada and around the world. Dr. Tremblay’s most productive work has resulted from his 31-year marriage to his wife Helen, yielding four wonderful children.

Frank Welsh is the Director of Policy for the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) where he is responsible for developing policy alternatives and supporting advocacy on public health issues. Prior to joining CPHA, Frank held managerial and Director-level positions with the Federal government, and worked in science-based regulatory and policy development, business and strategic planning, emergency preparedness and response, and management of science-based organizations. He began his career as a research scientist. Frank holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Manitoba, Masters and Doctoral degrees from Cornell University, and a Diploma in Business Administration from the University of Ottawa.