Dr Jean M Clinton MD FRCP(C)
Associate Professor, McMaster University
Child psychiatrist; associate member Offord Centre for Child Studies. Her interests lie in understanding how experiences and relationships affect brain development and self regulation, and the role of parents and community. She leads Hamilton’s Best Start Primary Care Engagement Strategy for the enhanced 18-month-well-baby visit.

Peter Dinsdale
Executive Director of the National Association of Friendship Centres
Peter Dinsdale is an Anishnawbe and member of the Curve Lake First Nation in Ontario. In 1996 he obtained a Bachelor of Arts - Political Science and Native Studies and received a Master of Arts - Interdisciplinary Humanities in 1997 from Laurentian University.  He is currently Executive Director of the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC). 

Paul Johnson
Executive Director, Wesley Urban Ministries
Paul Johnson is the Executive Director of Wesley Urban Ministries – an outreach ministry of the United Church of Canada providing services and supports to individuals and families of all ages who are trapped in cycles of poverty.  Paul is also a member of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction and served as its founding Director. Paul is also the Chair of Hamilton’s Best Start Network, Chair of Hamilton’s Human Services Planning Initiative and a member of the Jobs Prosperity Collaborative.

Sandra Laclé
Director, Health Promotion Division, Sudbury & District Health Unit
Sandra Laclé has a keen interest in “levelling-up” child and family health. In 2008, she received a Team Fellowship from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation EXTRA program to assist with this work. Sandra has worked in the public health field for more than 25 years and holds a Master of Science in Nursing.

Jacquie Maund
Family Service Toronto, Coordinator of Ontario Campaign 2000
As part of a national non-partisan coalition of 120 partners, Campaign 2000 works to end child and family poverty in Canada. Jacquie is the co-author of numerous Campaign 2000 reports, including the Ontario Report Card on Child Poverty, National Report Card on Child Poverty, and A Poverty Reduction Strategy for Ontario. As a public advocate on anti poverty issues she meets frequently with politicians from all parties, and is a media spokesperson for Ontario Campaign 2000.

Laurel Rothman
Director of Social Reform at Family Service Toronto. 
In that role, Laurel also serves as the National Coordinator of Campaign 2000, a non-partisan national coalition of more than 120 organizations committed to securing the implementation of the 1989 federal all-party resolution “to seek to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000.”

Uzma Shakir
Atkinson Economic Justice Fellow, Atkinson Charitable Foundation
Uzma Shakir is a community-based researcher, advocate, activist. She is the past Executive Director of Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) and the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO). She has worked as a teacher, journalist and researcher. Her work focuses on issues of race, erosion of civil liberties & critical multiculturalism. Her experience includes advocating; organizing and facilitating; writing; and speaking on diverse issues facing racialized communities. She has worked on issues of racialization of poverty; violence against immigrant and racialized women; youth engagement; parenting; civic engagement; hate crimes; racial profiling; access to professions and trades; precarious and contingent work; legal education; building innovative & unique coalitions with diverse ethno-racial communities; and production/documentation of alternative practice and knowledge.

Adjunct Professor, Department of Geography and Programme in Planning, University of Toronto

• Recipient of the Atkinson Economic Justice Fellowship 2007
• Recipient of the Jane Jacob’s Award 2003
• Past President, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI)
• Steering Committee member Colour of Poverty Campaign
• Editorial Board Member, Non-Profit Quarterly, Boston, Mass.

Stacey Bowen
Stacey Bowen is a single mother of two teenage daughters. She has been clean and sober for 3 years and is an active member in a 12 step program. As an active member Stacey sponsors women and speaks at recovery houses and woman detox centres. Stacey is also an active member of Voices from the Street, a speakers bureau of people who have experienced mental health issues and addictions. In addition, Stacey is a first year student at George Brown College in the Assaulted Woman and Youth Advocate Counsellor program. She is an active and tireless advocate for poverty reduction and changes to the social system.

Rene Adams
Maytree Foundation Leader for Change and single mother of 2, René Adams is a community organizer and educator who uses her own experience to bring awareness to the struggles of marginalized people in Ontario. René is a Community Advocate with The Stop Community Food Centre and has lobbied for systemic change in income security and affordable housing at the municipal and provincial levels of government.

Grace Good
Grace Good is a single mother of a three year old son and very active as a community volunteer. She is currently volunteering at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/ Multicultural Women against Rape, 1900 Sheppard Ave. West a Community for Young Mothers, and Born to Rise, a youth based mentorship program. As a recovering addict Grace has abstained for 2 and half years. She has completed a one year up-grading program called Redirection Through Education that helps people who suffer from both mental health and addictions. Grace is currently attending Frontier College to obtain her G.E.D. and has applied to the Social Service Worker Program, Assaulted Women and Children Counsellor Program and Child and Youth Program. Her goal is to obtain a post secondary education and help other women who face similar situations.