Our Speakers
Maggie Callanan, RN
Maggie Callanan’s nursing career includes 15 years in critical care and many years as a hospice home care and inpatient nurse. She co-authored the immensely popular book, Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs and Communications of the Dying. Now available in twelve languages, it received “The American Journal of Nursing” Book of the Year Award in 1993. Final Journeys: A Practical Guide to Care and Comfort at the End of Life—her second book, now in two languages—is the “prequel” to Final Gifts.
In 1995, Maggie was named the Hospice Clinician of the Year and received the prestigious National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s Heart of Hospice Award. She was the founder and primary writer for the American Journal of Nursing’s “Dealing with Death” column. Maggie is the founder and director of the National Hospice, Palliative and Home Care Speakers Bureau and speaks nationally and internationally on topics of death, dying, and maintaining professional and personal boundaries.
Simon Colgan is a palliative physician with AHS working in Calgary's North East and is the medical lead with Calgary's Allied Mobile Palliative Program or "CAMPP". This is a program he has been consulting, collaborating and advocating with since its inception, now expanding and exploring the model alongside others across the country and elsewhere.
Simon Colgan, MD, CCFP (PC)
Rachael Edwards, RN
Rachael Edwards is a street nurse and leader with Calgary's Urban Project Society or CUPS. She has evolved the role of palliative nurse navigator for people living in shelters, on the streets and vulnerably housed - building collaborations across sectors and settings, understanding what is needed, and providing direct care and navigation. She manages this leadership, advocacy and caseload work alongside other roles in harm reduction and the care of people with complex social and health care needs in Calgary.
Rabbi Rick Kline, MJS, LLB, MBA, BCC
Rabbi Rick Kline was ordained at Hebrew College, Newton MA, May 2015 with a Masters in Jewish Studies and a Certificate in Pastoral Care. He was trained as a chaplain both at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Hebrew Senior Life, Boston MA from 2013 to 2016 working, inter alia, on the Oncology and Palliative Care units. He became a Provisional Board Certified Chaplain with the American Professional Chaplains in 2016 and is now fully certified. Rabbi Kline has written and teaches an 8 week course entitled, “Preparing for End of Life Care, A Course Based on Ancient Jewish Sources,” which utilizes small group study, meditation, discussions, didactic sessions and journaling, where participants explore a range of issues related to the end of life. He is currently engaged as a full time chaplain at Bethany Care Society, Calgary, working with severe dementia and long term care residents and their families.
Earlier in his life, Rabbi Kline was a lawyer for ten years and then became the President, CEO and Director of Mercury Energy Corporation (oil and gas), and Mercury Electric Corporation (power generation). He initiated and led the Independent Power Producers Society of Alberta (IPPSA) which established a competitive electric market place in Alberta. Rabbi Kline is a certified yoga and meditation instructor, teaching for the past 10 years.
Serena Lewis, RSW
Serena Lewis is a registered social worker, facilitator/workplace educator, as well as a strong advocate for hospice palliative care in Nova Scotia.
Serena has worked with diverse populations impacted by end of life such as children and youth in the public education system, community and mental health institutions, long term care, group homes, hospital and home-based deaths. She has worked with various First Nations communities, and within the federal corrections system with incarcerated women. She is passionate about hospice palliative care and believes that all Canadians and their families deserve an exceptional dying experience.
She has spoken at national conferences, throughout the Maritimes to provincial audiences, and community agencies on issues related to dying, death and grief. As a workplace instructor, she has developed education to support administrators, managers and frontline staff in improving end of life care within a variety of provincial agencies, helping to shape and redefine processes and policies. Her program development for people impacted by loss has been considered innovative and creative.
Serena has also counselled many families and individuals through the process of dying, is considered a strong advocate for issues related to the social, emotional, financial and spiritual impacts of dying. She is interested in research and the social justice and ethical concerns of dying. Her commitment to improved practice continues to evolve.
Dr. Shane Sinclair is an Associate Professor and Cancer Care Research Professor with the University of Calgary, Faculty of Nursing. His research focuses on psychosocial and spiritual issues within oncology and palliative care, including his nationally funded program of research on compassion. Dr. Sinclair is a former Canadian Institutes of Health Research Postdoctoral Fellow (University of Manitoba), former President of the Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology, a top 40 under 40 awardee, and a recipient of the International Psychosocial Oncology Society New Investigator Award a CIHR Institute of Cancer Research New Investigator Award. His award-winning research is directly informed by his clinical experience as a spiritual care provider within oncology and palliative care within Alberta Health Services.
Shane Sinclair, PhD
Robert Tanguay, BSc (Hons), MD, FRCPC, CISAM, CCSAM
Dr. Tanguay completed his B.Sc. (Hons.) in Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge and he attended medical school at the University of Calgary where he continued on to complete his residency in Psychiatry. Dr. Tanguay completed fellowships in Addictions Medicine with the Department of Psychiatry, certified with the International Society for Addiction’s Medicine (ISAM), and Pain Medicine with the Department of Anesthesia. He is currently the Medical Lead of the Transitional Pain Program at Caleo Health and he has helped initiate the first publicly funded Opioid Taper Program for Chronic Non-Cancer Pain at the Opioid Dependency Program in Calgary. He is an authority in opioid prescribing, the effects of opioids on functioning, opioid tapering in chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP), opioid addiction, and medical marijuana. Dr. Tanguay has been invited to be a keynote, plenary, and panel speaker at national and international conferences, as well as for local events, and is a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Calgary, Cumming School of Medicine, for the Department of Psychiatry.
Beve Stevenson, RN, BN, PNG
Beve Stevenson is a veteran emergency room nurse whose career has taken her to the Caribbean, the Arctic, the U.S, a variety of ER’s, comedy clubs and speaking engagements. This Humorist and Stand Up Comic attributes her present sanity – and survival - to her inexhaustible, slightly bizarre, and often dark sense of ha-ha. She understands what it’s like to work far too many shifts dealing with death, dying and terrible coffee. An expert on ‘Finding the Funny’, she has entertained and educated myriad audiences on the importance and power of humour as a coping tool to deal with the intense emotions, conflict and change inherent in today’s high-stress world. A published writer, keynote speaker and stand-up comic, Bev continues to practice as an RN in Calgary while pecking away at her first novel of fiction coming to a bookstore near you.