Council on Workplace Health and Wellness

This session is lead by Kris Parsons, Director of Health, Safety, Security and Environment, Marine atlantic Inc.

Emergencies test organizational culture and leadership making it critical to integrate employee wellbeing throughout the response and recovery to incidents. In this session, Kris Parsons will share the effective, and surprising, strategies, and partnerships that supported Marine Atlantic’s employees during the responses to both a severe flooding emergency followed by Hurricane Fiona in 2022. Kris will discuss short and long-term employee impacts workplaces should prepare for, best practices to support employees, and key supports needed to help impacted employees return to work and recover over the long term.

Shady Hafez (he/him) is both Algonquin Anishinabe and Syrian and is a proud member of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg. Presently, Shady is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Politics and Governance at Toronto Metropolitan University in the Department of Politics and Public Administration. Prior to assuming this role, Shady was the Policy and Research Manager at the National Association of Friendship Centres, where he oversaw policy and research advocacy for urban Indigenous communities.

Shady is also a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto, situated within the Department of Sociology. Adding to his academic pursuits, Shady also holds the position of a Research Associate at the Yellowhead Institute – a preeminent Indigenous policy think tank headquartered at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Shady’s insights and expertise concerning Indigenous policy matters, along with his adept grasp of challenges and viable solutions, have garnered attention from a diverse spectrum of organizations and institutions. Among those who have sought his input are distinguished entities such as the Broadbent Institute, The Circle on Philanthropy, the Assembly of First Nations, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and Stanford University.