Speakers

Wendy Austin is a Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at University of Alberta, and holds a Canada Research Chair in Relational Ethics in Health Care. She is a member of the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre and has an associate appointment with Alberta Hospital Edmonton. Dr. Austin obtained her PhD, MEd (Counselling), BScN, and her Public Health Nursing diploma from the University of Alberta, and she is a graduate of the Royal Alexandra Hospital School of Nursing.
Barbara Farlow’s daughter Annie was born with Trisomy 13, a genetic condition that typically causes developmental disabilities and physical deformities. Unfortunately, she died on her 80th day in acute respiratory distress, leaving Barbara to question the nature and quality of care she had received. Barbara has since become a lay advocate for family-centered health care and public education about medical ethics, speaking about patients’ rights, genetic discrimination, and care for society’s most vulnerable. She sits on the Communications and Information Advisory Committee of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and is a member of Canadian Patients for Patient Safety.
Daniel Garros is an attending physician (pediatric intensivist) at the Stollery Children's Hospital, Edmonton and Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta. He coordinates the PICU’s mortality/morbidity committee, as well as the Stollery's Bereavement Committee, and represents his hospital on the Capital Health Quality and Safety Council. He has published on end-of-life decision-making in PICU and on the dying of children in hospitals. His research interests include end-of-life care, bereavement, medical ethics, moral distress and quality of health care delivery. Together with Wendy Austin he has been funded by CHIR to study moral distress amongst PICU professionals. Dr Garros is originally from Brazil, and he subsequently trained at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
John Lantos is Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, Co-Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, and Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. He was a member of President Clinton’s Health Care Reform Task Force, the Illinois Governor’s Task Force on AIDS in Health Care Workers, and the American Heart Association Task Force on Ethical Issues in Neonatal Resuscitation. Dr. Lantos’ current research focuses on ethical issues associated with innovative therapies in pediatrics.
Dawn Oosterhoff’s career combines over ten years of nursing experience with a legal education, policy work in health law, and a four-year post-graduate fellowship in law and ethics exploring end-of-life decision-making. Most of Dawn’s nursing experience involved perinatal nursing, particularly high-risk obstetrics and neonatology in quaternary settings. Dawn has written or contributed to numerous guides, articles, and book chapters in health law, policy, and ethics. Her research interests have recently focused on moral distress and emotional burnout, particularly within the context of the larger issue of turnover in health human resources. Dawn is the Senior Advisor to the President and to the CEO of the Ontario Medical Association. She lives in Toronto where she enjoys the advantages of city living.
Ruth Purtilo is Bioethicist in Residence at Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics and Director of the Ethics Initiative and Professor of Ethics at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health. She is a fellow of the Hastings Center, and past President of the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. Dr. Purtilo’s research explores ethical practices and policies related to disability and rehabilitation, conditions promoting social justice for marginalized groups, and moral courage. She considers herself a “translational” ethicist whose passion is to help integrate foundational ethics concepts and reasoning into everyday lives.
Cynda Hylton Rushton is Associate Professor of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, and Clinical Nurse Specialist in Ethics and Program Director of the Harriet Lane Compassionate Care Program at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Her clinical and research interests include ethical issues in clinical practice, particularly end of life decision making and pediatrics, ethics education and consultation, and on the unique ethical issues that arise in nursing practice.