Board
The SAC Board of Directors includes (2020-2021):
- the Chair (Executive Committee);
- the 1st Vice-Chair (Executive Committee);
- the 2nd Vice-Chair (Executive Committee);
- S-LP and audiology Directors;
- a Director-University;
- a Director-Communication Health Assistant; and
- a Director-Student.
To contact the Chair, click here.
To contact Board members, click here.
To contact the Director-Student, click here.
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Jennifer O'DonnellChairM.Sc., S-LP(C), CCC-SLP |
Jennifer Cameron-Turley1st Vice-ChairM.Sc., S-LP(C), Reg. SK |
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Speech-Language Pathologist and Clinical Coordinator, Vitalité Health Network Jennifer O’Donnell received her Master's of Science in human communication disorders from Dalhousie University in 2005. She has published her thesis work in the Journal of Fluency Disorders. Since graduation, she has worked as an S-LP, primarily with preschoolers, at the Chaleur Regional Hospital in Bathurst. She is a member and coordinator of the Pediatric Developmental Team. She also coordinates clinical services for her department. She is a certified member of SAC, a past Chair of SAC's Board of Directors, a past President of the New Brunswick Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists and a former board director of the Canadian Alliance of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Regulators. Her professional interests include administration, early intervention, as well as interprofessional assessment and treatment.
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Senior Speech-Language Pathologist, Saskatchewan Health Authority Jennifer Cameron-Turley received her M.Sc. in speech-language pathology at the University of British Columbia in 2002. Since that time, she has worked in a variety of settings, largely focused in the adult acute-care setting with a specialization in dysphagia management and head and neck oncology. Beginning her career on the west coast, she moved to Saskatchewan in 2007 and has been working as a senior speech-language pathologist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon since 2012. Jennifer has been active in governance activities throughout her career. She served as President of her provincial regulatory body, SASLPA, in 2011-2012. She has been an active member — and acted as chair — of several committees at both the provincial and national level with the following organizations: SAC, SASLPA, CAASPR, Pan-Can, NIRO, and CISG. Jennifer enjoys mentoring students and is a clinical instructor affiliated with several Canadian universities.
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Shari Linde2nd Vice-ChairR.SLP, S-LP(C) |
Andrea BullDirectorM.Sc., RAUD, RHIP, Aud(C) |
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Director of Advantage Speech-Language Pathology in Richmond, BC, Shari received her M.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario and has been working as a speech-language pathologist since 1994. She specializes in the communication difficulties of adults and children who have neurological damage, developmental delays or disorders, psychiatric conditions, or autism. She also has extensive experience addressing swallowing impairments. Shari has worked in a large variety of settings, including private clinics, hospitals, schools, preschools, public health, private homes, and the University of British Columbia. She enjoys doing medical-legal evaluations, and will frequently travel within British Columbia and Alberta. Shari has completed advanced training in Oral Myofunctional Disorders. Shari is Hanen Certified for "More Than Words", "It Takes Two to Talk", and "TalkAbility." She is on the Registry of Autism Service Providers in BC, with designations as a speech-language pathologist and behaviour consultant. Shari is the Director of Advantage Speech-Language Pathology in Richmond, BC, which has a large team of SLPs, assistants and volunteers. Advantage SLP was awarded Small Business of the Year with the Richmond Chamber of Commerce in 2019. Shari is recognized as a Clinical Assistant Professor with UBC and is committed to taking students regularly for clinical placements. Shari provides speech-language pathology services in English and French. |
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Alberta Health Services, Loredana Cuglietta has an undergraduate degree from the University of Alberta from the faculty of Education. She received her Master’s in Health Science from the department of Speech Language Pathology at the University of Toronto. Loredana Cuglietta is currently employed at Stollery Children’s Hospital. This hospital is a full service children’s hospital for complex pediatric care and research. The hospital serves a geographical area of over 500,000 km. Over 40 per cent of the children treated at the Stollery are from outside the Edmonton area; the hospital services patients coming from northern British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut, Yukon and Northwest Territories. Loredana Cuglietta works in the Cleft Lip and Palate Clinic where she provides care for infants to adolescents up to the age of 18 years old. She works in both pediatric feeding and swallowing, and speech and resonance. During infancy care is focused on helping babies feed and swallow well in order to grow and thrive. As these infants mature, the focus in care shifts to communication and ensuring the velopharyngeal post is working well for speech production. |
Director of Therapeutic Services, Darin Quinn received his MSc. in speech-language pathology at Western University in 1997. His career began in Barrie, Ontario where he worked in both hospital and private practice sectors, focusing on adult neurogenic communication disorders, dysphagia, and voice. While there, he also taught several related courses in the Communicative Disorders Assistant program at nearby Georgian College. In 2005, an opportunity to lead the adult neuro rehab team at the Stan Cassidy Centre for Rehabilitation brought him back to his home city of Fredericton. In 2012, he became manager of hospital Audiology and SLP departments in the Fredericton and Upper River Valley Areas and soon after added the role of Regional Lead for Audiology, where among other things, he worked closely with hospital audiologists from around the province to advocate for review and enhancement of NB’s Newborn and Infant Hearing Screening Program. He served as President of New Brunswick’s dual association/regulator, NBASLPA, between 2015-2018 and continues to stay active with its work. Darin is currently the Director of Therapeutic Services for the Fredericton and URV Areas of Horizon Health Network, overseeing nine therapeutic disciplines, including Audiology and SLP. |
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Manager, Audiology Hearing and Speech Nova Scotia Christine graduated from Dalhousie University’s School of Human Communication Disorders in 1982. She currently works as Manager of audiology services for Hearing and Speech Nova Scotia. Christine’s clinical experience is in the area of pediatrics working in diagnostics at the IWK Children’s Hospital site before assuming management of the newborn hearing screening program. As department Manager, Christine continues to promote early identification and family focused intervention. Christine is an adjunct professor at Dalhousie University, teaching pediatric audiology for over 20 years. Volunteer experience includes previous participation as NS rep on the CASLPA board, president of the NS association, contributions to SAC position papers and current membership on the Canadian Infant Hearing Task Force.
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Merrill Tanner
Director
MBA, M.Mus., PhD, R.SLP, S-LP(C)
Speech Language Pathologist II, Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital
Edmonton, Alberta
Merrill Tanner currently works at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital with adult outpatients who have vocal and neurological communication issues, in the Stroke Assessment Clinic and in the collaborative Voice Clinic at the University of Alberta Hospital. Merrill also leads a vocal strengthening group for people with Parkinson’s disease, performs with a classical guitarist and is soprano section leader at McDougall United Church. In her doctoral studies, she developed a vocal strengthening program for Parkinson’s disease that evolved into a community program and vocal strengthening groups at the Glenrose for all related voice disorders. She has written a chapter on “Parkinson’s Disease and Singing” in Volume 3: Singing and Well Being, to be published in 2019 by Routledge as a part of the Advanced Interdisciplinary Research on Singing book series. In addition to supervising speech-language pathology student practicums, she has taught university courses in speech-language pathology, business and music. Her previous SAC experience includes membership from 2012-13 in the Canadian Alliance of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Regulators (CAASPR) to help develop the foreign graduate assessment tool.
Sharon Walker
Director
EdD, MSLP, R.SLP, S-LP(C)
Susan J. Wagner
Director-University
BSc (SPA), MSc (CD), Reg. CASLPO, S-LP(C)
Manager, Speech-Language Pathology Nova Scotia Speech and Hearing Centres
Calgary, Alberta
Sharon Walker graduated from the University of Alberta with her Master’s in speech-language pathology in 2001. She completed her Doctor of Education at the University of Calgary in 2016, focusing her dissertation on the changing role of the S-LP in education settings. Sharon currently works at Hearing and Speech Nova Scotia managing a team working with both pediatric and adult populations. For most of her career, Sharon has worked with children, in all areas of communication and has held leadership roles promoting inclusive, collaborative and integrated services.
Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario
Susan is an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto (UT) where she is also Coordinator of Clinical Education. Susan has recently completed a five-year term as the Coordinator of Graduate Studies where she provided leadership and program development in admissions and academic issues; in addition to that she gives in clinical education and interprofessional education. She received the inaugural Mentorship Award from the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists. Susan is co-chairing the development of the new Canadian Assessment of Clinical Competence tool for clinical placements in speech-language pathology and audiology that is being created by the Canadian Academic Coordinators of Clinical Education.
Susan was the inaugural Faculty Lead – Curriculum at the Centre for Interprofessional Education (IPE) at UT where she and her colleagues led the development and implementation of the requisite IPE curriculum for 11 health science programs that began in 2009. This involved creating and integrating IPE core competencies, learning activities and the points for interprofessional education system (PIPEs), as well as assessment, evaluation and faculty leadership components. Susan has been an investigator on a variety of research projects, such as the development of an interprofessional objective structured clinical examination (iOSCE), and has published in IPE, including a new model of assessment. The Susan J. Wagner Student Leadership Award in Interprofessional Education was created in her honour and she received the Inaugural Award of Merit for Outstanding Leadership in Advancing Interprofessional Education through the Centre for IPE. Susan has a keen interest in continuing professional and faculty development and leads workshops on clinical education, IPE and dealing with conflict nationally and internationally.
Susan received a B.Sc. in Speech Pathology and Audiology from the University of Alberta and a M.Sc. in Communicative Disorders the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Gillian Purdy
Director-Communication Health Assistant
BA, CDA
Keara Boyce
Director-Student
M.Sc. Candidate
Communicative Disorders Assistant, First Words Preschool Speech and Language Program
Ottawa, Ontario
Gillian Purdy completed her BA at the University of Ottawa with a double concentration in French Language and Literature and Public Policy. After a number of years working in sales and administrative positions, she decided to pursue a career in communication disorders. After completing a number of university level courses in psychology and linguistics, she completed her Communicative Disorders Assistant certificate at St. Lawrence College.
Gillian currently works as a communication disorders assistant (CDA) for the First Words program, which is a preschool speech and language program in Ottawa. As a CDA, she provides intervention to clients and their families with a variety of speech and language disorders, including motor speech, social/pragmatic delays, receptive and expressive language delays and articulation/phonological disorders.
M.Sc. candidate in Human Communication Disorders (Speech-Language Pathology), Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Keara Boyce completed her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Ottawa. During her undergraduate degree, she worked as a research assistant and lab coordinator for the Center for Child Language Research. She also completed her fourth-year thesis on the effects of audiovisual integration in speech perception. Keara is currently a first year M.Sc. candidate in Human Communication Disorders at Dalhousie University where she also works as a research assistant for the Child Language Lab. Her current research focuses on the effects of iconic gestures on word learning for children with Development Language Disorder. Keara’s other areas of interest include rehabilitation of geriatric populations (e.g. dementia, aphasia), medical assistance in dying and service delivery for marginalized communities including Indigenous populations and African Nova Scotians.