2026 Conference Speakers

Dean England

Dean graduated from the University of Alberta Faculty of Pharmacy in 1991. While working at several different positions around the country he developed an interest in pain management and palliative care. He started working at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in 2002 and joined the Complex Pain and Symptom Management Team in 2003. Over the ensuing years he focused on expanding the role of the pharmacist in the clinic; creating a phone follow up service for monitoring and managing pain and symptom medications. A significant portion of his time is focused on constipation management which is why he has occasionally been referred to as the Bowel Whisperer.

Ted Braun

Ted Braun served as the founding Medical Director for the Calgary Regional Palliative and Hospice Care Service from 1996-2003. Subsequently, he held a variety of leadership positions in the healthcare system until he retired from management in 2021. Ted started his career in community and hospital-based Family Medicine with special interests caring for marginalized populations

and people living with HIV/AIDs. He retired in March 2025 after 30 years practicing Palliative Medicine. He is an Adjunct Professor, Departments of Family Medicine and Oncology, Cummings School of Medicine.

Michael Kearney

Michael has over 40 years of experience in palliative care and has worked with two pioneers in the field, Dame Cicely Saunders and Professor Balfour Mount. Since 2005, he has been with the Palliative Care Consultation Service at Cottage Hospital and Visiting Nurse and Hospice in Santa Barbara, California. He was the lead author of an article about burnout and resilience published in JAMA in 2009, titled “Self-care of physicians working at the end-of-life.” He has authored four books: Mortally Wounded: Stories of Soul Pain, Death, and Healing; the recently republished third edition of A Place of Healing: Working with Nature and Soul at the End of Life; The Nest in the Stream: Lessons from Nature on Being with Pain; and Becoming Forest: A Story of Deep Belonging, a fable about a young Irish woman who finds an antidote for her climate despair in the wisdom of trees. In 2025, he released a booklet titled My Redwood Teacher: Five Lessons on Deep Resilience, drawing on insights from the natural world to provide practical steps not just to survive but to thrive in adversity. He is the founder and director of the Becoming Forest Project, which offers deep resilience training to individuals and groups. Michael, along with his wife, psychologist, author, and meditation teacher Radhule Weininger, teaches and writes together, and they share six adult children.

Visit: www.michaelkearneymd.com.

Chris Stephens

 Christopher R. Stephens, MN, FNP-C, GS-C, is a Nurse Practitioner with Alberta Health Services whose practice spans urgent care, geriatrics, emergency medicine, trauma, and palliative care. Since February 2025, he has served as a Most Responsible Provider at Airdrie Urgent Care, a 24/7, 12-bed centre, managing patients across the full spectrum of acuity—from resuscitation to non-urgent primary care concerns. He also works with the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program in community settings across Calgary and Central zones as both an assessor and provider and has been involved in MAiD eligibility assessments since 2016. He is faculty for the Canadian MAiD Curriculum through the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers and holds Gerontological Specialist (GS-C) certification through the Gerontological Nursing Certification Commission. A graduate of Athabasca University’s Master of Nursing (Nurse Practitioner – Family/All Ages) program, he has worked in health care since 2001 in roles including Protection Services, EMS, Unit Clerk, Registered Nurse, Clinical Nursing Instructor, and Nurse Practitioner. His clinical and academic interests include end-of-life care, frailty, and cognitive impairment.

Laura Silver

Laura Silver was born in Ontario and worked as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and as a Senior Project Manager for the University Health Network and Cancer Care Ontario, before moving to Alberta in 2016 to work in health systems project management at Alberta Health Services. In Ontario, some of the policies Laura contributed to included Interprofessional Education for Health Professionals, the Diabetes Strategy, the Home-Based Primary Care Strategy, and the Seniors Strategy with Dr. Samir Sinha. Laura also co-led the development of quality metrics for colonoscopy in the Province of Ontario, with Dr. David Morgan. Laura often emceed Palliative Care Conferences and participated in the development of the UHN palliative care strategy. After moving to Alberta, Laura managed the implementation of the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program (EDHI) followed by a Senior Project Manager role for the development of an electronic referral system for the province.  

In her professional journey she was often frustrated by the impersonal nature of large-scale healthcare policy projects. The lack of visible impact on individuals who needed the most support left me seeking more meaningful work. This frustration, coupled with her belief in the importance of compassionate care at end-of-life, motivated her to become a death doula. Laura believes in the power of bringing dignity, solace and beauty – and often a sense of humour - to our end-of-life journeys. 

Leonie Herx

Dr. Leonie Herx is Clinical Professor of Palliative Medicine, University of Calgary and a consultant physician in adult and pediatric palliative medicine. Leonie is Co-Principal Investigator for Pallium Canada’s Canadian Atlas of Palliative Care, Senior Scientific Director of the Covenant Palliative Institute, Section Chief and Director of Pediatric Palliative Medicine and the Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care program, AHS-Calgary Zone and Chair of the Royal College Specialty Committee in Palliative Medicine.

James Norris

Over the last 14 years James has developed and explored the use of technology to help improve end of life communication, planning and care.

In 2015 he launched the Digital Legacy Association (not for profit) at Hospice UK’s annual conference to support professionals and the general public in areas relating to digital assets planning and digital legacy. The Digital Legacy Association argues that ‘planning for death digitally should form a holistic approach to advance care planning’.

James launched the free to use MyWishes platform in 2020. It takes both a public health approach and a digital first approach to advance care planning. It educates and empowers society whilst documenting their future health and wider wishes. Its content, structure and design has been developed to help introduce care planning to society at an early stage and normalise this behaviour by incorporating it alongside other better known tasks (will writing, funeral planning, bucket lists etc).

MyWishes has been ‘hyperlocalised’ to help support different regions’ unique, health and care ecosystems.

James consults various governmental and non-governmental organisations across the globe in areas relating to death and the internet. He provides thought leadership in areas relating to death, bereavement, technology and the internet on TV, online, print and in scientific journals. Appearances and publications range from the BBC and CNN to the New Scientist and Vice magazine.

Further details about James’ work can be found at https://www.jamesnorris.me/about/

Kiara Mikita

Kiara Mikita, PhD (she/her), is the Sexual Violence Educator for CSM at the U of C, and for AHS Medical Affairs (Calgary Zone), and an Independent Educator and Consultant.