KEYNOTE
SPEAKERS
"The courage to act: Hope as fundamental to clinical engagement and institutional organization in psychosocial oncology" Guy Maytal, MD Dr. Guy Maytal is Forge Health’s Chief of Integrated Care and Psychiatric Services. In this role, he is leading Forge Health’s initiatives to provide the highest quality care to clients with coexisting medical conditions, and to enhance the interface of Forge Health’s mental health & substance use services with medical specialties – including primary care medicine, oncology, and others. Most recently, Dr. Maytal served as Chief of Integrated Care and Psychiatric Oncology at New York-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medicine (2018-2023), where he provided clinical leadership in the development and growth of clinical services, provided expert consultation and clinical care for patients across a broad spectrum of diagnoses, and taught students and peers across multiple medical specialties. Previously, Dr. Maytal spent 11 years on the faculty of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School, where he served in several leadership positions, including Medical Director of Psychiatry Ambulatory Services. Dr. Maytal graduated with high honors from Harvard College and attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University. He completed residency in adult psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital / McLean Hospital, and Fellowship in Psycho-oncology and Psychosomatic Medicine at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Maytal has written widely in his areas of clinical expertise, and has authored and co-authored peer-reviewed papers, review articles, and book chapters in various areas of psychosomatic medicine. Furthermore, Dr. Maytal is a dedicated and passionate teacher who is committed to training early-career clinicians as well as to the ongoing education of practicing clinicians. Dr. Maytal continues to serve as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and as a Distinguished Fellow of the APA since 2018. |
Leslie Horton Leslie has her own history with Psychosocial Oncology after a battle with cancer in 2021. It was while healing from a radical hysterectomy that Leslie’s doctor put her in touch with the Psychosocial Oncology program at Tom Baker Cancer Centre. The support she received and continues to receive from the Program has been instrumental in her ongoing recovery. Leslie Horton delivers comprehensive traffic coverage and community events weekdays on Global News Morning and Global News at Noon. A graduate of the University of B.C., she also graduated from Broadcast Journalism program, her broadcast career has taken her to Terrace, B.C.; Red Deer, Alberta; Regina, Saskatchewan; and back to Red Deer before moving to Calgary in 1995. Leslie can be found supporting events around the community and reporting live around our city. The visionary behind Global Calgary’s hugely successful Morning/Month of Giving initiative, which raises money to bring Christmas cheer to Calgarians who need it, she also volunteers her time for many charities and organizations each year. |
Angela Pharris Ph.D., MSW Dr. Pharris is an Assistant Professor in the Anne & Henry Zarrow School of Social Work at the University of Oklahoma, Director of the Center for Child Welfare Training and Senior Research Fellow at the Hope Research Center. Her research is focused on the application and implementation of hope-centered and trauma-informed practices that impact human service programs. Angela’s current research is in child welfare and human service organizations and the application of the Hope Centered and Trauma-Informed framework. This research informed the development of the “Hope Centered and Trauma Informed” training program. Hope is a psychological strength, buffer to stress, adversity, and burnout, and a hopeful mindset that improves organizational and individual outcomes. |
INVITED
SYMPOSIUM
"Exercise Oncology as Supportive Care to Build Hope"
This symposium will present evidence for exercise as supportive cancer care for individuals living with and beyond cancer. The symposium will highlight exercise oncology programs within the Exercise for Cancer to Enhance Living Well (EXCEL) study that supports underserved rural/remote individuals, as well as highlighting programs to meet unique regional needs. Specifically, representation from teams leading work in Eastern Canada, Quebec, and Alberta will be included. Dr. Melanie Keats (Dalhousie University) will present on ACCESS and integration into clinical care, Dr. Isabelle Doré (Université de Montréal) will present on the translation and delivery of French exercise oncology training and programming, and Dr. Nicole Culos-Reed (University of Calgary) will present on implementation of tailored exercise oncology programming across the cancer care journey. In addition, a patient partner will share how exercise oncology resource access lends hope to their cancer journey.
Nicole Culos-Reed, PhD
Dr. Culos-Reed is a Professor of Health and Exercise Psychology in the Faculty of Kinesiology; Adjunct Professor in the Department of Oncology in the Cumming School of Medicine; and Director of the Health and Wellness Lab and Thrive Centre. She holds a Research Associate appointment with the Department of Psychosocial Resources at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Cancer Care, Alberta Health Services.
Dr. Culos-Reed’s research takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding and improving the quality of life of individuals living with and beyond cancer, developing, delivering, and evaluating physical activity programs to address the physical and psychological challenges experienced throughout treatment and into survivorship. This research includes national and international collaborations, working with populations from pediatric to adult populations including those with advanced cancer, and most recently includes a Canadian Institute of Health Research-Canadian Cancer Society (CIHR-CCS) Cancer Survivorship Team Grant (2020-26), with additional support from Alberta Cancer Foundation (ACF), to bring her team’s exercise oncology program to underserved rural and remote populations across Canada.
Dr. Culos-Reed is the co-founder of Thrive Health, an online educational company building capacity in health and fitness professionals to deliver safe and effective exercise oncology resources. As a health behaviour change researcher, Dr. Culos-Reed is passionate about building capacity within cancer care to safely and effectively support individuals with cancer to live well and move more.
Isabelle Doré, PhD
Prof Isabelle Doré, Ph. D. is an epidemiologist with a fellowship in kinesiology (U of Toronto). She is an assistant professor at the School of Kinesiology and Physical Activity Sciences and in the School of Public Health of the Université de Montréal and researcher at the CHUM research centre. Isabelle’s research program focuses on physical activity as a strategy to promote mental health and aims to understand the underpinning social mechanisms that could explain the benefits of physical activity on various mental health indicators. She is conducting research aiming at developing and accessing implementability and efficacy of innovative programs such as multimodal group-based prehabilitation to foster both physical and mental health of cancer patients and caregivers.
Melanie Keats, PhD
Dr. Melanie Keats is a Professor in the School of Health and Human Performance, Division of Kinesiology. She holds a research appointment with the Division of Medical Oncology with Nova Scotia Health, Co-Chairs the Physical Activity and Cancer Care Standards Working Group with the Nova Scotia Cancer Care Program and is a Senior Research Scientist with the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute. Her research program explores how physical activity may help survivors cope and recover from treatment, reduce co-morbid disease, reduce risk of cancer recurrence, and improve survivorship and outcomes for those confronted with a non-curative diagnosis. Dr. Keats’ research takes an interdisciplinary approach to better understanding the role of exercise in improving the quality of life of cancer survivors. This includes working with experts in the fields of behavioral medicine, exercise science, exercise oncology, medical and psychosocial oncology, chronic disease management, knowledge translation, immunology, population health, clinical trials and implementation science.