Our dynamic opening keynote speaker, Nancy Mannix, is the Chair and Patron of the Palix Foundation, a private foundation whose philanthropy aims to improve the health and wellness outcomes of children and families. The Foundation, through the Alberta Family Wellness Initiative, focuses on aligning science, policy, and practice in areas of brain development and its implications for child development, mental health, addiction, and other disease and disorders, generating changes at an individual, organizational and systems level. Nancy Mannix is a speaker not to be missed, both in her Pre-Forum Institute on Thursday, November 6th, and in her conference opening keynote speech.
Justice Rod Jerke is a leader in advocating for family justice system reform through court/community collaborations in Alberta, Canada. He has been a Justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta since March 2011. In addition to his sitting duties with the Court, since September 2018 he has been the Court’s Co-Convenor with the Law Society of Alberta of the Reforming the Family Justice System initiative which is re-imagining the family justice system to improve outcomes for children and families. Justice Jerke has served as a Co-Chair of the Court’s Access to Justice Steering Committee and continues to be an ad hoc member of the Court’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Access Steering Committee. Prior to his appointment, Justice Jerke was an active member of the Law Society of Alberta. He served as President of the Law Society from 2010-2011 and was also the President of Pro Bono Law Alberta. In his luncheon Keynote address, he will discuss the first year as an Alberta justice pilot project in Grande Prairie, Alberta, to divert parenting matters from the court system into community services. Justice Jerke is a leader in justice system innovation, and his luncheon Keynote on November 7th should not be missed.
Our closing keynote speaker, Adam Kahane, is an internationally renowned author of “Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree With, or Like, or Trust”. He brings to the conference his unique insights gained over decades guiding organizations and over 50 nations around the globe to develop collaborative problem-solving processes. He writes: "Unconventional, stretch collaboration abandons the assumption of control. It gives up unrealistic fantasies of harmony, certainty, and compliance, and embraces messy realities of discord, trial and error, and cocreation. Stretch collaboration enables us to get things done even in complex situations with people we don’t agree with or like or trust." Adam's experience resonates with the challenging times in which we live.
