NSHEN Conference

Cara is a Registered Nurse with just under 20 years of experience in healthcare, including more than a decade in acute care. Her early work as a bedside nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit sparked a deep and enduring interest in ethics, which has continued through her roles in community care and harm reduction. During the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple redeployments across care settings further highlighted the ethical challenges embedded in everyday healthcare practice and motivated her to pursue formal education in bioethics.

Cara holds a Master’s degree in Bioethics from the University of Toronto, Dalla Lana, School of Public Health is currently the Provincial Ethics Lead with Shared Health, where she supports ethics consultation, education, and system-level ethics work across Manitoba. Her areas of interest include moral distress, harm reduction, healthcare safety and security, and the ethical implications of system design and decision-making.

Dolly is the Senior Bioethicist, Manager of Bioethics & Spiritual Care and the Manager of the Youth Engagement Strategy at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and the Interim Vice Chair of the Bloorview Research Institute’s Research Ethics Board. Dolly is a nationally and internationally sought after leader in Lived Experience roles and has been leading Youth Engagement Strategy at Holland Bloorview since its inception in 2012. Dolly has extensive experience training and supporting youth and young adults in advocacy and partnering in the areas of service & care delivery, teaching & education of healthcare providers, clients & families, as well as research and policy.

Lynette Reid PhD is a philosopher in the Department of Bioethics, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie, whose research and educational practice centres on health justice. In 2013, she prepared a report for the Alberta Health Preferential Access Inquiry (the Vertes Report). She has played a role in two rounds of curriculum renewal for Dal’s MD program, most recently with the “Case Diversification Project”, leading a working group that reviewed and revised 200 pre-clerkship tutorial cases with an anti-oppressive lens.

Marika Warren is an assistant professor with the Department of Bioethics at Dalhousie University and a health care ethicist for the Nova Scotia Health Ethics Network (NSHEN). Her role with NSHEN involves building ethics capacity in Nova Scotia by providing ethics support such as education, consultation, and assistance with policy development. Marika also participates in ethics research and collaborations as a member of the Ethics Collaborations Team.

Dr. Samuel Stevens MBBS (Hons) B App Sc (Ex & Sp Sc) M Bioethics FRACP is a medical oncologist from Sydney, Australia and current Common Sense Oncology Fellow in Cancer Policy at Queen’s University. His work focuses on understanding the lived experience of cancer care and translating these insights into patient-centred health system changes. Sam is currently completing a PhD at the University of Sydney examining stakeholder perspectives on the “time toxicity” of cancer treatment and how this may shape treatment decisions for people with advanced cancer. His broader interests include health system design, value in oncology, and the ethical tensions that arise when innovation and patient-centred imperatives intersect. In his clinical practice, he cares for patients with breast and gastrointestinal cancers.